What would happen if the church you attended asked everyone to give their complete paycheck as their offering? Then your church would each week distributed all of the money for all of its members’ needs.
What solutions would this bring? I can definitely see how I, personally, would be affected in my attitude. If I chose to do this I wouldn’t spend money on frivolous stuff like ice cream or movies. I would enjoy “things” less and spend more time with people. I would take a greater interest in people and help them when I could because I think I would have more time on my hands )since I wouldn’t be eating ice cream and watching movies).
What problems would this bring? Well, I could see that power behind the money distribution would be quite tricky. Each request would need to be legit and proof would be needed for expenses so deceptive schemes would be unmasked. I would hope people would be more humble but I know that even the best of us would seek to be exceptions to the rules. This would contribute to the temptation of the works of the flesh listed in Galatians 5, and I mean all of them.
Well, if you think this is just a dream, consider that this is exactly what they did in Acts 4:32-37. But that isn’t the passage I want you to look at. Instead,
READ 2 CORINTHIANS 9:8-15.
Paul tells the Corinthian believers that God is able to make all grace abound to them. To be able to give up all the hard-earned money you worked your fingers to the bone for to a group of people you are only getting to know--you are going to need abounding grace! You are going to need abounding faith in God, in others, and yourself too! And you and I would need grace with others. This kind of grace can only come from God.
Grace in such instances means not just unmerited favor, but unentitled assistance. Our flesh wants people to be qualified. God doesn’t. When God gives grace there is a certain result: you and I will have all sufficiency, or contentment in all things. And this is not just so we can sit on our hands to bask in God’s goodness and favor. Paul says the purpose for God’s abounding grace to the Corinthians is so they would abound in every good work.
- What do you think is the difference between multiply and supply in verse 10?
The process (v11) goes something like this: an enriched you + a generous you to others = a thanked God!
Part of what it means for God to be glorified is that God is “seen for who He is.” How is God “glorified” and “seen for who he is” by his people giving and being generous? Look at verse 13. God is seen for Who He is because of your submission that comes from your profession (that is your mouth not occupation). If we really believe God will supply, we need to be giving things away generously … a lot of things!
What does the saying, “put your money where your mouth is” mean? I think it means, “your submission that comes from your confession.” Look back through this passage. Who is God to Paul? Let me try to describe Him: v8 God is able, He is all-powerful, God is all gracious, He bounds to the rescue to supply just in time, He sufficiently supplies, He is the Contentment Giver, He has your best in mind because He is The Best for you, He wants to bless you to be a blessing, He wants to reveal himself to others through you! His giving changes you! v9 His distribution center is never closed, works overtime, and gives away freely regardless of your class or circumstances. He is God. v10 He is the Great Supplier, never the liar, and the hybrid of his seed no one can match! This Supplier God is the Multiplier God, and the math in his books cannot be figured out by human minds, it blows your mind! Your checkbook can’t harness His power. His seed germinates with glory inside and praises outside! v11 The DNA of his seed is set for enrichment in every way, and is a contagion to those who eat it. You can’t out give God but it makes you want to try while saying “Thank you, God! Thank you God!” while you do, and this thanksgiving v12 is itself a contagion causing others to join in the ranting and raving of this crazy-giving God! v13 This is God’s Gospel gone viral = His generosity in Christ! God gave His Son, the SuperSeed and the firstborn fruit of us all! v14 Nothing compares to the surpassing grace of God upon us!
There is nothing like our God! Never has been and never will be!
God is at the center of this passage! You have been praying for God’s supply → God gives abounding grace generously to YOU → you thank God! → others have needs and are praying for God to supply → you give generously to them → they give thanks to God!
This is where an American mindset is in competition with a Christian mindset. Supplying other people’s needs is not American. In fact it is socialist. Giving generously results in God being seen for who He is! But it is American for us to put our names on things, like University buildings, fellowship halls, pews and such.
But here is the kicker: Instead of this being a stress to the Corinthians Paul puts the stress on God! We do not give in order to get, but because we have already received. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. The teaching of Jesus: "Give, and it will be given to you; With the measure you use, it will be measured to you" (Lk 6:38). We get as good as we give! This principle is also repeated in Galatians 6:7, "A man reaps what he sows.”
When you give God’s blessing away they just keep blessing! They bless you because you give, they bless others because you give, they bless the Church because you give, and they bless God because you give.
You can’t out give God!
When what is God-given is given away it is the gift that keeps on giving! That’s what abounding grace does! It has a Tigger tail that just keeps bouncing and abounding! The verb "to abound" (perisseuo) is found six times in this chapter and grace (charis) is appears ten times in all. There are spiritual benefits AND material blessings from this abounding grace!
All we possess is by reason of God's goodwill toward us, not because of personal merit; we possess it by reason of God's power also. God is able because He is all powerful! God's abounding grace knows no boundaries; He replenishes resources spent in Christian service while multiplying them to the point that at all times and in all things we have all that we need (v8). Autarkeia ("all that is needed") means for Christians to be self-supporting, but not be a self-sufficient American which produces indifference to others and their circumstances. Instead God’s supply produces contentment—contentment with little. And the less one wants, the greater the means for relieving the needs of others.
This is counter-cultural Christianity at its best! This is not American. We need reminded of this!
The get-get-get and buy-buy-buy is a Satanic attitude of consumer discontentment that attacks the trust and confidence in God to provide for our basic needs. If we are secure in his love and know that he undertakes to watch over our lives, then all anxiety for the future will be gone. While Paul aims to be free of his circumstances, he does not aim to be free of people. The Christian’s resources are replenished so that we, in turn, can abound in every good work (v8). Americans hoard; Christians give freely. Don’t confuse the two!
Paul dares Christians to be generous toward those in need! The widow, the alien, or the orphan have needs met by those with surplus income. Generous hands come from generous hearts; OpenHEARTedness from openHANDedness. Paul pursued God-dependency rather than self-sufficiency, also very un-American. The more we give, the more we will get from God. And the more we get, the more we are expected to give. John Bunyan wrote, "A man there was and they called him mad; the more he gave, the more he had." Of course Bunyan was writing of the Christian. To the world such a principle of giving is nonsense. But to Paul it is a reality of the Christian life.
- The idea that God can and does multiply the generous giver's material resources is not well received today.
- Paul does not say that wealth or surplus income is a sign of God's blessing. Nor is it giving per se that is applauded. A lifestyle of generosity is what Paul commends. For those who give cheerfully and willingly, the promise is that God will provide all that they need to continue doing good.
- Giving is a viable ministry. For the Christian in community, work is both a public duty and a religious service.
- Hysterema ("needs") denotes a shortage or deficiency of basic necessities--this amounts to food, clothing and shelter (2 Cor 11:27). So the help offered through the Corinthians' contribution is by way of necessity, not luxury.
- The church at large recognizes collection for what it is: God's grace at work in the lives of the contributors.
- While the immediate aim of the collection is to relieve want, the ultimate goal is to bring honor to God—the Enabler and Provider of all that we possess. Jehovah Jireh!
- "for the obedience of your confession" could be better translated "the obedience that comes from your Christian profession" or "your obedience to your profession." The Gospel carries the burden of living up to what we profess. To not do this is to break the 3rd command and take the Lord’s name with us in vain. Put your mouth where your God is!
- Paul's point is that to be vital and living, profession of faith must issue in works. The Corinthians' willing contribution to the Jerusalem collection shows that they possess a faith that accepts the claims of the gospel and obeys its dictates as well. You profess to believe? Show it! Faith AND works!
- Generosity of the heart, not the pocketbook, is what counts. The recipients will praise God not merely for a gift of money but also for the fellowship in Christ that the gift expresses. Koinonia ("sharing"), found four times in 2 Corinthians, refers to that which is held in common. In the New Testament it comes to denote the close union and caring concern of the members of Christ's body, the Church It is a union that is forged by the Spirit (13:14) that finds concrete expression in the contributions of the Gentile churches to meet the physical needs of their fellow believers in Judea.
New Insights I Learned
For the most part, the recipients were conservative Jewish Christians who still regarded the Gentiles with a certain amount of fear and suspicion. For them the collection proves the Gentiles' profession of faith (v. 13). In this case the collection serves as the test by which the Gentiles' faith is shown to be genuine. How?
The offering will impact the Church! The prayers for the Gentile Corinthians will be offered by the Jews, and a closer relationship between the Jewish recipients and the Gentile donors will be forged (v. 14). It is not enough to feel grateful for what others do for us. Heartfelt gratitude issues in prayer on the person's behalf. Prayer, in turn, has a way of bringing us into a closer relationship with those for whom we intercede. As the recipients pray, Paul says that their hearts will go out to the contributing churches (v. 14). As the Jewish recipients pray for their Gentile patrons, their hearts will be warmed toward them, and they will long to see and have a closer relationship with them.
An “indescribable” gift denotes something that is beyond human description--God's indescribable gift with Jesus Christ. We can give without loving, but we cannot love without giving. God so loved us that he gave the ultimate gift, whose cost can never be matched: the gift of his only Son.
Give. But what kind of a giver will you be?