To earn money is easy compared to spending it well. …I suppose we all find the money goes quite fast enough, but after all it was made to circulate, and there’s no use in hoarding it. It is bad to see our money become a runaway servant and leave us, but it would be worse to have it stop with us and become our master.[i]
Jesus certainly challenged us that Money needs to be a servant and not our master.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.[ii]
One of the reason many people don’t give or don’t give much is that they believe that giving will diminish them, but the reality is that giving enlarges and enriches our lives. People give for a variety of reasons. Some give to be admired or honored. Some give grudgingly out of obligation or guilt. However, what prompts those who delight in giving is a heart filled with love and concern for others in need, but the highest and greatest motivation for giving must come from our relationship with God. Giving reflects what is happening in our hearts. The greater the love of God that fills our hearts, the greater our capacity to give to God by giving for the both the eternal and physical wellbeing of others. What ultimately inspires the greatest acts of giving is the ultimate giving of oneself. As we shall see, God’s gift of love is a ‘sacrificial gift.’ It is the giving of what is most precious; that is, the giving of the Son of God through death releasing us from death and bringing us into eternal life, which is union with God.
What we are about to discover is that giving is not done out of obligation or an expression of gratitude, but rather it is an act of faith in God, who first gave to us, and will continue to give to us.
Paul is now concluding his remarks about the collection that he has been speaking about to the Corinthians over a few chapters. In these closing remarks about giving, we discover three elements regarding the nature of cheerful giving and how it affects both givers and receivers of our generosity. When I speak of cheerful giving, it is a deep desire to express love and concern for others.
THE FIRST ELEMENT REGARDING CHEERFUL GIVING IS IT REVEALS THE UNITY OF THE FAITH BEING DEMONSTRATED
This was not just about meeting the needs of the poor, but the needs of the poor believers that transcended racial lines. It speaks of having a love for others, because of Christ’s love being revealed within our lives. Paul was concerned about showing the reality of the gospel that came to the Gentiles by their generosity to the Jewish believers in Jerusalem who were struggling financially in a time of famine. This expression of love and solidarity would help them to realize God’s grace in the lives of these Gentile believers in Greece. It was also about doing something unheard of in the cultures of that day, giving to those they did not know.
He was only able to spur on ‘most of them.’ The reason is that charity for strangers was something foreign to the prevailing cultural mores in Paul’s day. Money was to be earned for oneself and to be enjoyed by oneself and one’s household. Something so unprecedented as collecting money to send to people they did not know and who were not of the same race could not expect to receive everyone’s ardent support.[iii]
It is amazing how this attitude still prevails today in many people’s lives. To give to total strangers requires a love for Someone greater, which is our love for God. When we express love for those whom we don’t know, we are manifesting God’s love, as John reminds us in his gospel, that “God so loved the world”. Here Paul is challenging them to love fellow believers.
- Paul’s appeal.
There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the Lord’s people. For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be. For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to say anything about you—would be ashamed of having been so confident.[iv]
Paul is writing to remind them of their previous commitment to this situation and their desire to help financially. Paul utilized their eagerness and willingness to give and shared this need when he was among the churches in Macedonia as a means to motivate and inspire others by their example.
Now he is sending three brothers ahead to make sure that the offering has been already collected so that when he arrives with delegates from the Macedonian churches to receive what they had set aside, it would not be an embarrassment to them, nor to Paul who had boasted about their concerns and willingness to give.
- Giving should not come as a result of coercion.
So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.[v]
The fact that Paul was not among the three brothers would mean that Paul was not exerting pressure on them in their determination as to what to give.
While Paul is looking for a bountiful contribution from the Corinthians, he stresses that it must be a voluntary gift, not one made simply because he is applying pressure. They must do as they have made up their minds, not reluctantly or under compulsion. Their giving must be in accordance with what they have determined individually in their own hearts. If they give while feeling under compulsion (from Paul), then their contributions will be made reluctantly and the whole purpose of the project (to express the concern of the Gentile churches for the needy Jewish churches in Judea) will be negated.[vi]
The nature of giving is such that it should come from what God places in our hearts. We should not give out of coercion, but from a compassionate and concerned heart. Yet, from this text, we can see that what we initially thought about what to give and the actual practice can often be different. We are stirred by God to do something, but when we don’t act upon it, we can later renege in our hearts from following through. May we not determine to give but also to follow through. Generosity is a critical component in becoming the person God designed us to be.
THE SECOND ELEMENT REGARDING CHEERFUL GIVING IS IT IS AN EXPRESSION OF OUR FAITH IN GOD’S FUTURE PROVISIONS
Giving suggests that we believe that God will provide what we need for our future. Giving then is an act of faith. Paul uses agricultural imagery to make this idea clear. You can only reap what you have sowed. What are we then to expect from God if we sow generously? If we are farmers, we expect to see a large harvest as a result. We do know that if we sow sparingly, we cannot anticipate significant results. However, when we sow generously, we anticipate a generous result.
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.[vii]
Here we have an appeal to be generous in giving. Colin Kruse explains the need to sow generously and the rewards that follow.
The word resources translates sporon (lit. ‘seed’). Thus Paul says to his readers that the God who provides seed for the sower will also multiply their ‘seed’ and increase their harvest. In this context the meaning seems to be that God will multiply the material resources of the Corinthians, and as they use them to meet the needs of the Judean Christians he will increase the effect of that righteous deed. The Corinthians by making a monetary gift will sow the ‘seed’, God will increase the effect of that righteous deed so that it produces a rich harvest of unity, love and thanksgiving (cf. vv. 12–14).[viii]
The reaping here is not in order to receive more for us but rather have confidence that God will entrust more resources to us to continue blessing the lives of others. In other words, we will not be diminished as we give, but rather enriching the lives of others, because we believe God will continue to meet our needs. The effect of this kind of generosity creates unity, expresses love, and causes thanksgiving to be directed to God.
How seriously do we take to heart that a person reaps what they have sown? Is this a warning or an encouragement, or both?[ix]
In other words, can God trust us with resources? What do we do with what God has given to us? How are we using the gifts God gives us?
Paul’s goal was not to attain an inner detachment from material things through some sort of stoic self-mastery, but a recognition that God is the giver of all things. Perhaps nothing today is more radical than to assert that God, not our own ‘Self,’ is responsible for all that we are and have. Our resources originate from him as a blessing, not from us as an expression of what we deserve. This insight is as profoundly life-changing as it is simple. That God as the giver of everything is the foundation of our giving to others. The key to generosity is not caring less about what we have in the world, but caring more about God’s purposes in granting to us his gifts.[x]
- Paul supports this idea of being a righteous manager of God’s goods in giving to others.
As it is written: ‘They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.’[xi]
Paul is expressing this characteristics of righteousness as found in Psalm 112:9: “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever; their horn will be lifted high in honor.”
When we give to the poor it brings both honor to God and to the giver. God is praised and the giver is blessed. For as Jesus reminds us, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Why? Because God has entrusted us with the resources to be able to give, and it provides the opportunity for people to be blessed through us and bring thanksgiving to God.
- Ultimately this behavior of giving brings thanksgiving to God.
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.[xii]
The needs of the Jewish Christians in Judea will be met, and they will offer thanksgiving to God, recognizing the Gentile Christians’ obedience to the gospel and the surpassing grace of God at work in them, and so will long for them and pray for them. In short, the outcome will be the enhancement of the unity of the church (vv. 11–14).[xiii]
THE THIRD ELEMENT REGARDING CHEERFUL GIVING REVEALS THE SOURCE OF OUR MOTIVATION TO BE GENEROUS GIVERS
When we consider generosity, it should point us back to the One who gives us what we have. We can never out give God. God is our greatest example of being a generous giver. Jesus challenges us to be generous and give and see how God replenishes our lives.
‘Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’[xiv]
And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift![xv]
- It will motivate God’s people to pray for those who share this grace of giving to them.
One of the great dangers that we are living in today is self-reliance or self-sufficiency. We live as though it all depends upon us, but that is a deception which is only exposed when life stops working the way we think it ought to. We struggle and then are brought to our knees, learning again that we not only need to trust God, but we also need the prayers of the saints. This is often seen in our attitude and, in due course, our actions towards finances. Our view is culturally conditioned. Scott Hafemann explains how historically our view moved away from the biblical worldview.
With the dawn of the ‘modern world,’ the predominantly religious worldview in which Paul lived gave way to a pervasive naturalism that rendered humanity merely a product of its own abilities to manage and cope with its environment. Humanity was separated from its Creator and put in competition with itself. And, if anything, the current move toward a postmodern emphasis on humanity’s cultural embeddedness has only served to heighten this sense of separation from a God who is outside of us and from those who do not share our particular social location.
[This just means that we tend to live independently of both God and are becoming more indifferent to others.]
As a result, the prevailing assumption of Paul’s day that all people have received gifts from a deity and are part of a larger community has been replaced by the conviction that we control what we possess because we have earned it ‘on our own.’ At the most, we may admit that the circumstances of our birth and the opportunities afforded by our race or social location may have played a role in acquiring the status and material benefits we enjoy. But even then, we are quick to attribute our wealth to our own hard work, either as the expression of our own will or as the embodiment of our cultural values. When all is said and done, we are convinced that we possess more than others because we work harder. God may provide the ‘raw material,’ but it is up to us to make the most of the opportunities he brings our way.
Thus, the Enlightenment emphasis on independence and isolation from God and others, whether expressed in the modern view of the self-determining individual or in the postmodern emphasis on our cultural captivity, has led to a self-understanding in which contemporary men and women view their ‘hard-earned’ resources as their own possessions to do with as they please. Add to this the suffocating materialism of our age and Paul’s worldview and words in this passage go through our culture, and our churches, like an electric shock. Indeed, nowhere is the myth of having ‘pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps’ more powerful than in our attitudes toward the acquisition and disposition of our personal resources. Any basic commonality that Paul could assume with the culture of his day has evaporated.[xvi]
What Scott is saying is that we see the money we acquire as ours and not as a gift from God. We have lost sight of God and live life independent from God and unaccountable to anyone. We just do what we want with what God has graced us with. However, the biblical picture shatters this understanding. We are all debtors to God’s grace in our lives and are responsible for what God has given us. To answer Cain’s question when confronted with the murder of his brother, we are all our brother’s keeper. We all have a responsibility for others in our world.
- Faith rather than gratitude is what should motivate our actions.
Though we rejoice in the indescribable gift, speaking of Jesus Christ and His redemptive work, this is not the motivation for giving.
In chapter 9 the motivation for giving is as radically God-centered as its foundation. Far from being our contribution back to God or our way of showing God the depth of our gratitude, giving to others is a response to what God has already done for us in the past and a demonstration of our continuing confidence in what he has promised to do for us in the future.[xvii]
We give to others, therefore, as an expression of our trust in God to meet our needs today. We should not give simply out of our surplus from the past, nor should we give in the hope of getting more in the future. Rather, not worrying about tomorrow and trusting God to sustain us through the trouble of today (Matt. 6:34), we are free to share our daily bread with others. Indeed, Paul calls us to give freely and generously, supremely because of our riches in God himself, past, present, and future, quite apart from our current economic status (remember the Macedonians), and without any thought of future financial recompense (Paul never promises a financial reward for giving).[xviii]
John Piper in his book Future Grace explains why we do not give from gratitude, though gratitude is a virtue, rather we give from a faith stance.
Gratitude is a beautiful thing. There is no Christianity without it. It is at the heart of worship.… But when it comes to spelling out the spiritual dynamics of how practical Christian obedience happens [like giving money], the Bible does not say that it comes from the backward gaze of gratitude, but that it comes from the forward gaze of faith.
Gratitude is itself a virtue produced by grace, not the source of other Christian virtues. God and God alone is the source of all Christian emotion and activity.
Viewed in this way, our willingness to give becomes a reflection not of our feelings toward God, but of what God is doing for us now and promises to do for us in the days to come. Giving, in order to honor God, must be an act of dependence on God. As believers, our confidence in God for the future makes it possible for us to give to others in the present (cf. again 9:8).[xix]
So, why do cheerful givers get the most out of life? They do not live in the bondage of anxiety or slavery where money controls their lives. The focus is on God as provider and the person able to give would see themselves as solely God’s conduit of grace in others’ lives. Money becomes a servant and not a master.
https://pixabay.com/photos/people-child-slums-india-kid-3277563
[i][i][i] Charles Spurgeon, Old-Fashioned Wisdom from John Ploughman, Christian History Magazine, Money II, Vol. VII, Number 3, Issue 19, 1988, 25.
[ii] Matthew 6:19-21, 24, The New International Version of the Bible, Zondervan, 2011.
[iii] David Garland, 2 Corinthians, The New American Commentary, Vol. 29, (Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 402.
[iv] 2 Corinthians 9:1-4.
[v] 2 Corinthians 9:5.
[vi] Colin Kruse, 2 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary, TNTC, Vol. 8, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1987), 160.
[vii] 2 Corinthians 9:6-8.
[viii] Colin Kruse, 2 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary, 162.
[ix] Anthony Thiselton, 2 Corinthians: A Short Exegetical and Pastoral Commentary, (Cascade Books, 2019), 107.
[x] Scott Hafemann, 2 Corinthians, (Zondervan Publishing House, 2000), 376-77.
[xi] 2 Corinthians 9:9.
[xii] 2 Corinthians 9:10-13.
[xiii] Colin Kruse, 2 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary, 160.
[xiv] Luke 6:38.
[xv] 2 Corinthians 9:14-15.
[xvi] Scott Hafemann, 2 Corinthians, (Zondervan Publishing House, 2000), 374-75.
[xvii] Ibid, 377.
[xviii] Ibid, 384.
[xix] John Piper, Future Grace, 31-49, as quoted by Scott Hafemann, 2 Corinthians, 386.
