II Corinthians 8: 1-24; 9: 1-15
These two chapters discuss and lay out the whole doctrine (what we believe) about the whole idea of giving. The foundation under the principle of giving, the reason why we would want to give, the procedure for how we proceed to give, and the rewards we can expect as a result of our generosity.
This is all explained in these 39 verses.
This is a lot of ground to cover, so I will break it up into its components over several days.
Today we will look at the Principle of giving: 8:1-6.
Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia,
Giving is a gift of grace from God to us. He is gracious to us, and enables us to also be gracious with one another, by sharing our material possessions with each other.
The churches in Macedonia have realized this and he wants to tell them about it.
that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.
These churches were experiencing persecution at this time, and consequently did not have a lot of material possessions. But their affliction did not impede their joy and their poverty did not diminish their generosity.
For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord,
Out of their own volition, they wanted to give as much as they could, even beyond what would reasonably be expected. Even more than would be considered reasonable.
begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints,
They considered it a privilege to be included in the offering to be given to fellow believers that they had never even met personally.
and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.
When we first give ourselves to the Lord, we will also make ourselves available to God's people; and this went far beyond what Paul expected of them.
So we urged Titus that as he had previously made a beginning, so he would also complete in you this gracious work as well.
Titus had previously begun to organize a collection from Corinth for the Christians at Jerusalem, and he wanted him to be able to finish it, to complete the whole amount they had already declared that they would contribute.
The principle of the foundation of our generosity is that God is generous with us. When we love God, we will also love who He loves, His people. So when we hear that some of God's people are in need, and we have the means to help them, then it is our responsibility to voluntarily contribute generously to meeting their needs.
This really should go without saying. If you are a parent of children, and your child needs a pair of shoes, do you need someone else to force you to buy them a pair of shoes? No, you love your own child, and will automatically make sure that they will get the shoes they need; or whatever else your children need. It's your responsibility, and you want your children to have everything they need. And even some of what they want, if you determine it will not harm them.
God is no different. We are His children, and He wants us to notice when our spiritual brothers and sisters have unmet needs. We are His hands and feet, and I have noticed that a lot of His blessings, especially the material ones, have human fingerprints on them.
It is our responsibility as family members to love one another enough to be generous in our support of one another, even when we have not personally met the recipients of our gifts.
The foundation under everything God does is Love. God is Love, and we who belong to Him, love Him back, and also love those He loves, our spiritual brothers and sisters. This is why we want to contribute to collections to meet the needs of missionaries, for instance. Why our churches organize special collections for specific missions or missionaries.
And why we also help communities with disaster relief. The most help these communities receive is from Christian churches and Christian organizations.
This is a good witness to the World, that when Christians first give themselves to the Lord, they also give themselves and their skills and abilities and their funding to people who have suffered some natural disaster, whether they are Christians or not. God loves all people, and is not willing that any would perish, and this a good witness on His behalf that almost always results in someone recognizing how much God loves them, too, and coming to Him for Salvation.
O my Father, thank You for the example of the Macedonian churches who loved You so much that, even under persecution and extreme poverty they still wanted to help their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem.
How much more do we have, without the constraints of powerful forces trying to prevent us. Father, impress upon us the generosity that they displayed to also participate in growing Your Kingdom.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will proclaim that Jesus Christ is our Lord God Almighty, to the glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever, Amen.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
