2 Corinthians 8--Encouragement to Give Generously

2 Corinthians 8
English Standard Version

Encouragement to Give Generously​
8 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints-- 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. 6 Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. 7 But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.

8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. 10 And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. 11 So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. 12 For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. 13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14 your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 15 As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”

Commendation of Titus
16 But thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you. 17 For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest he is going to you of his own accord. 18 With him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel. 19 And not only that, but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us, for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our good will. 20 We take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us, 21 for we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord's sight but also in the sight of man. 22 And with them we are sending our brother whom we have often tested and found earnest in many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you. 23 As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for your benefit. And as for our brothers, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ. 24 So give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you to these men.

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This chapter and the next have a main theme of giving.  That's not a topic that we often like to talk about in churches because we fear that it might link is with those of the "Word of Faith," "New Apostolic Reformation" and "Prosperity Gospel" movements where we see the televangelists misuse Bible passages such as the Parable of the Sower to claim things like "Sow a dollar; reap $1,000."  That's bogus by the way as Jesus interprets the Parable of the Sower for his disciples and it has nothing to do with money, other than perhaps what is said in Matthew 13:22, "22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful."  So it does not appear that putting money at the center of your gospel message to say things like "God wants you to be healthy and wealthy" is a false gospel that we should all avoid.

So then why should Paul spend so much time here talking about money?  Well, our generosity and cheerfulness and faithfulness in our giving is a good barometer of how we view God and money.  We start off with a reminder of how generous God has been and all the riches and blessings He has poured out on us and that we have been given access to in Christ.  So, then God asks that we as His people use those resources that He has made us managers of to accomplish His kingdom purposes here and now.  See the parables that Jesus told involving stewardship whether it was the parable of the talents, or the minas or the parable of the vineyard.  The people whose heart was right used their money in an appropriate way, but those who had wicked hearts used their money in a way to rebel against God and to break His Law and refused to give Him any of the honor that He was due.

Paul points out a specific need in the body of Christ, that is that there are saints in Jerusalem who are suffering and Paul desires for the Gentile churches to take up an offering that he and his companions (some of whom were circumcised and others who were uncircumcised) would carry to the apostles in Jerusalem so that he could give them a report about how things were going, show them some of the most encouraging work that God was doing in disciples like Timothy and Titus, and show that even the poorest of the Gentile believers in Macedonia saw the Jewish believers as their brothers and sisters in Christ and knew it was their responsibility to contribute in a generous way to the needs that they heard about, even though the Jews that lived in Jerusalem were far from them (this is in no way what would be considered "local missions" and is definitely and "international missions" offering).

Paul seems to say some of these things possibly to shame the Corinthians who were quite wealthy in comparison to the Macedonians, yet they appear to have only begun to start collecting their portion of the contribution to this offering that is soon to be taken up and carried back to Jerusalem, and seemingly needed to be instructed to give both generously and cheerfully..  Even if the Macedonians did not have much to offer, it shows much about their heart and that God is in control and not money (even though they had every reason to not want to give the little they had because the might need it) and they trusted God both to use what they gave to take care of the needs they had heard of and to trust the Lord to provide for them in their time of need if it came to that.  In fact, the highest praise that Paul seems to sing of them is that they gave of themselves first.

It seems that this special project was spearheaded by Titus and that Paul entrusted him to finish what he had started and that Paul wanted him to be a part of the team to carry the offering to Jerusalem because the Gentile believers knew him and trusted him.  If he was there to see how the money they gave was being used there was no risk of fraud or abuse.  We all know that is a concern people have when giving to churches and parachurch ministries.  Will they dip their hand into the offering to make themselves rich or will they actually use the offering for the designated purposes?  There's a reason that people have an air of distrust when it comes to mixing money and religion, and those issues aren't new to our time--in fact we see it in the book of Acts and talked about all throughout Paul's epistles.  Therefore, it was important for Paul to choose people of integrity that the people trusted to be administrators and to carry their gifts and to represent them to the apostles and the believers in Jerusalem.

In fact, giving of these men to go to be administrators of this gift and to be a part of the work that Paul was doing is a part of the offering too.  Paul speaks highly of Titus as he has already spoken highly of others like Timothy and Epaphroditus in the past.  It is essential to Paul's ministry that he be partnered with locals, often times local pastors of the churches of these regions, who would relay messages back and forth to the people, would go in advance of Paul to prepare the way as Paul was older and slower and needed more time to travel, and people who knew the area and who had a good reputation in the area so that when Paul came in someone could speak for him that he was a true apostle, a person of integrity, and someone they could trust.  We see all the apostles having help from others, though we sometimes fancy them as forging out on their own many times.  That's just not the way that gospel-centered ministry works.

Back to the main point of today's text though.  This is not a passage teaching about tithing--this is clearly something that was giving above and beyond their tithe.  In fact this is a special offering that some churches might call a "love offering" or a "benevolent offering" or something they might give out of their "benevolence fund."  While there is much debate among the churches today about if God still requires us to give 10%, or some other amount that may be higher based off of all the gifts and tithes and offerings that were required in the Old Testament, or possibly that there is no such requirement anymore in the New Covenant, we'll see in all the places that giving is discussed in any form in the New Testament that it comes with instructions to give your heart to God first as that is the most important offering, to give in proportion to your faith, to give out of obedience and to give cheerfully, and to give generously.  We do have some indications that God may withhold wealth from those who horde their money and refuse to give generously so that their faith in their material possessions will be shown to be fruitless, and that God can bless those abundantly who are cheerful givers so that they can be even more generous with what has been entrusted to them.  In this case, God has given much in material wealth to the Corinthian churches and Paul is encouraging them to be grateful, generous and cheerful in their ability to give and help with the needs of their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem and points to those in Macedonia who had every right to say, "We're the ones in need of an offering to take care of us," yet they gave of themselves and of the little they had--much like the widow's mite that Jesus mentioned when He was teaching in the Temple.

We'll see more about the collection for the saints in Jerusalem and being a cheerful giver as we plan to study chapter 9 next time.