July 1, 2018

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2 Corinthians 8:1-9, 13 ,14

I invite you to open your folder, or your Bible, and look at these verses from 2 Corinthians. Today we will try to look at them in order as we think about what God would have us learn from them. We pray:

As you might have guessed already, these verses are about an offering. As we look at things that Paul wrote in Romans, and 1 Corinthians, and at what Luke tells us in Acts, Paul was encouraging the churches that had been established through his preaching about Jesus in Asia, Macedonia and Greece, to take up a benevolence offering for their fellow believers in Jerusalem who were in need of financial help.

The believers in Corinth jumped at the chance to help and were among the first to begin to agree to participate in the offering. But then, problems arose in the congregation. People began to argue with each other, even threatening to take each other to court. They were failing to practice church discipline with a member who was openly breaking the sixth commandment. They had questions about doctrine and practice regarding spiritual gifts, the Lord’s Supper, and the Resurrection of the Dead. Gathering the offering was put on the back burner while these matters were settled. But, by God’s grace, through letters from Paul and with the personal guidance of Titus, those matters were settled. Now Paul is writing them to encourage them to take the offering for the saints in Jerusalem off the back burner and finish what they had started.

The first thing he does to encourage them is to hold up for them what God was doing among the churches in Macedonia, namely Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea. Verses 2-4 In a severe test of trouble, their overflowing joy and their deep poverty overflowed into an abundance of their generosity. I testify that of their own free will they gave according to their ability, and even beyond their ability, pleading with us with an urgent request for the gracious privilege of joining in this service to the saints.

It’s was obvious to Paul that the participation of the Macedonian churches was a work of God, a loving response to the grace that they had received from God. Paul had taught them that they were born dead in sin. He had taught them that they were headed for eternal punishment and that there was nothing they could do about it. But he also taught them that God, in mercy, sent his only son to pay for their sins. God, in mercy, brought them into contact with Paul so that they could hear the good news about what God had done for them in Jesus. They experienced the grace of God as the Holy Spirit worked through the Gospel to create faith in their hearts and made them spiritually alive in Jesus.

They, like us, came to know and believe what God in grace had done for them. And God’s grace was not without effect. Humanly speaking, they had good reason, at least in Paul’s eyes, not to participate in this offering. They themselves seemed to be in need as Paul describes their situation as deep poverty caused by severe testing or tribulation. But they did something that is impossible without faith, without a heart that is overflowing with the joy of salvation, that realizes our true treasures are those Jesus has waiting for us in heaven. Despite their own desperate situation they begged, they urgently pleaded with Paul to participate in this offering. How often does anyone beg to be allowed to give an offering!

They also showed that they had learned what God teaches about giving. They gave of their own free will, not out of a sense of obligation, but because they were moved by God’s love for them to show love to others. And they gave according to their ability, and even beyond their ability. They gave in proportion to what God had given them. And they realized they weren’t really giving to a project, or we might say a budget, or a school. Verse 5, in keeping with God’s will they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us.

As Jesus held up the example of the widow’s mite, and Moses tells us about having to tell Israel to stop brining offerings because they already had more than enough, Paul holds up the example of the Macedonians to show what happens when we recognize the grace of God to us in Jesus, and when we are focused on the riches he has won for us.  What happens is overflowing, rich generosity.

Martin Luther once said that the last thing to be converted is the pocketbook. It’s easy to say you trust the Lord, but when the rubber hits the road and you are determined to follow what God asks and give to him first before you do anything else with your money, and you don’t know how you will pay all your bills if you do that, it’s not easy to show your trust by giving anyway and trusting that he will provide. But this is one area where God says we can put him to the test. He tells us through the prophet Malachi, Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Don’t think, “If I have something left over I’ll give it to the Lord. Put me first and trust me to provide.”  Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. (Mal. 3:10 NIV) Take some time this week to read all of Malachi 3.

Paul encourages the Corinthians in verse 7, don’t let the pocketbook remain unconverted. Just as you overflow in every way—in faith, in word, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us—see that you also overflow in this gracious gift.

Paul has used the example of the Macedonian churches, but he doesn’t want the Corinthians to have the wrong motivation. It’s not a contest of who can give the most. It’s not that Paul is telling them they have to give. The only proper motivation for anything we do, including giving, is Jesus. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich. Just think about what Jesus has done for you! He left the riches and glory of heaven where everything in the universe was his. He set it all aside. He did it, not in order to gain anything for himself, but to gain something for you and for me. He came to earth knowing that he would live in poverty, claiming only the clothes on his back as his own. He came to earth knowing that those he wanted to help would reject him and crucify him. But he came anyway. He came because the only way to rescue you from the eternal punishment you deserve was to take that punishment on himself. The thing that sustained him through his poverty and suffering was the fact that through it you would become rich. Because of his suffering and death in your place you would be able to enjoy the unlimited riches and glory of heaven with him for all eternity.

Jesus’ selfless act of coming to earth, living and dying in our place, even though it didn’t benefit him, moves us to think selflessly. It moves us to consider the riches of heaven that Jesus won for us to be far more important than anything we might accumulate here on earth.  It moves us, as it did the Macedonia Christians, to consider the needs of others and not just our own.

It is this gospel motivated selflessness that Paul is speaking about in verses 13-14. Certainly, our goal is not that others take it easy while you are burdened, but that there may be equality. At the present time, your abundance will provide what they lack, in order that their abundance will also provide what you lack—in this way there will be equality.  Brothers and sisters in Christ strive to live in selfless love. They look for opportunities to supply each other’s needs. The saints in Jerusalem and Antioch supported Paul in his missionary journeys. As a result, the good news about Jesus had reached Macedonia and Corinth. They had received great spiritual blessings because of this. Now their brothers and sisters in the faith had physical need and those in Macedonia and Corinth had the opportunity to share what they had with them.

As I thought about these verses I couldn’t help thinking about the way that most of our schools work. They are supported by people who are former students and appreciate the spiritual blessings they received by hearing and studying God’s word each day. They are supported by parents and grandparents, and by people who don’t have children or whose children didn’t attend them. The purpose is not so that parents with children in the school can take it easy while others are burdened. The goal is to make tuition affordable, and to look forward to the time when those who were helped will be moved to use what they have to provide for those who helped them, maybe financially in the future, maybe by using their talents in a congregation, maybe by serving, or cleaning, or helping with VBS or Sunday School  or other programs, maybe by continuing their education and going into full time ministry and returning, as many have, to work and teach in the very school they went to. What a blessing it is when, in selfless Christian love, one person’s abundance provides what others lack, in order that their abundance will also provide what they lack.

We always need to be on guard against the temptation to only support the things that we think benefit us. The selflessness that Jesus showed us in doing all that was necessary to save us motivates us to serve each other in selfless love and ask not, “how will this benefit me? But how will this benefit others and bring glory to God?” When we all strive to serve each other in selfless love, then there will be equality. Then we will be meeting each other’s needs, and bring glory to God.

What a blessing to be able to see the way that Paul, by inspiration, encouraged the Corinthians to participate in an offering! Through him the Holy Spirit points us to God’s grace to us in Jesus as the motivation for all that we do, including giving. Through him the Holy Spirit reminds us to always give to the Lord first, and to trust him to provide what we need. Through him the Holy Spirit reminds us to consider each other’s needs in selfless, Christlike love, knowing that God provides everyone with different gifts so that they can be used to supply each other’s needs, and bring glory to God.

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