2 Corinthians 9--The Cheerful Giver

2 Corinthians 9
English Standard Version

The Collection for Christians in Jerusalem
9 Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, 2 for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year. And your zeal has stirred up most of them. 3 But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be. 4 Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—for being so confident. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.

The Cheerful Giver
6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 9 As it is written,

“He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;
    his righteousness endures forever.”

​10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. 12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. 13 By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, 14 while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. 15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

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This passage today ties in directly with our passage last time from 2 Corinthians 8.  Paul is now giving instructions to the church in Corinth regarding the taking up of the special offering for their Jewish brothers in Jerusalem who are in need--the offering that he is going to let Titus administrate since ti seemed to be Titus's idea to start off with and he had already begun the work in the Gentile churches in the region.

Parts of this region have met their fundraising goals long before some of the other churches started to give, and this is a group of Christians that Paul pointed to in order to show others what generous giving was all about.  So then why the passage in chapter 8 that might seem to indicate that Paul needed to give them instructions on this?  Perhaps Paul was simply encouraging them that they were doing the right thing, or perhaps they grew weary of doing good and had stopped collecting once they had reached their goal, or maybe they had new Christians among them who didn't understand and needed to be taught these essentials.  Whatever the reason, Paul makes it clear that he's proud of them for the good work they have done (this is one of the problems with reading passages in isolation and not seeing the book as an entire letter--we might get the wrong idea of what Paul was up to if we would read chapter 8 in isolation).

Paul desires that they not be humiliated since he has held them up in high esteem.  He's said how they have been ready for so long, yet what if the administrators come to collect the offering and it had not been gathered, counted and prepared?  Would this not be an embarrassment to Paul and the Corinthians as the ones who told to emulate them where ready and may have been part of the team coming to help escort the offering back to Jerusalem, that is the Macedonian church?  Paul thought it good then to give them a heads-up and give them time to be ready and to put out one final call for anyone who wanted to make a last-minute contribution so that no one would be left out and everything could be collected and counted in n a timely manner.

Now for some of the verses that we hear so often that are abused by the prosperity gospel and Word of Faith movement.  We see the imagery here of sowing and reaping once again and Paul says that whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly, but whoever sows bountifully will reap bountifully.  This is fact of life--you reap what you sow.  It seems that the harvest that Paul is talking about here though is not more money.  He already seemed to hint that some of these Christians contributing to this offering already understood what it meant to be in need, and that one day it might be their turn to be on the receiving end of such an offering.  Paul here seems to be talking about the rejoicing that comes from the news that comes when hearing what God is doing with the money that was given.  Only if people contributed generously and cheerfully will they rejoice correctly in the news of what is God is doing, and, yes, God can do more with the money than we would imagine, and still take care of us in our time of need as well  Paul quotes a verse here to remind the Corinthians that taking care of the poor is part of God's work that they get the opportunity to participate in--that's the blessing of the "harvest" that Paul is talking about.  There is no idea of "Sow $1, reap $1,000" here.

Paul says that if they are faithful and cheerful givers that the God who owns all the resources will make sure to make them stewards of enough to take care of their own needs and for them to make the contributions that He has put in their hearts.  There should never be doubt about this--give as you are lead to, but not out of compulsion when it comes to freewill offerings such as this (again, this passage has nothing to do with tithing).  Paul talks about this being a good work for them and something that will add to their harvest of righteousness, but we know all the righteousness that we have really comes from the righteousness of Christ as we let Him live in and through us, so it's correct to say having this mindset within us is part of having the mind of Christ, and that in participating in what He would be doing that we are showing off His righteousness to the world as He lives in and through us.

Paul then says that the purpose of the gift doesn't stop with the receipt of the collected funds, but that both the giver and the receiver will pour out thanksgiving to God and this is another good work that comes out of obedient, faithful, generous and cheerful giving.  The giver is blessed and thanks God for the opportunity to participate in His work, and the receiver thanks God for hearing his prayer, knowing His every need and moving other brothers and sisters to provide for those needs--probably to people that they have never seen or heard from.  This is part of us being part of one family--and we are all brothers and sister, there are no "distant relatives."  We are all of equal standing and status before God, and what wouldn't you do to take care of your own brother or sister (for those of you who have been blessed to have siblings)?  It is a blessing both to give and to receive as God blesses the gift, and the giver, and the one who receives the gift.

This then strengthens the bond between believers as the ones who received begin to want to learn more about those who gave and how the gospel is at work in their lives and their church.  They want to know what their needs are and how they can help pray for the work of the Lord that is happening in that area of the world, and so it is that something as simply as a love offering between churches like this leads to the unification and reconciliation between Jewish and Gentile believers where we originally saw conflict and division.  There is now a network of prayer and support for each other and a bond that is stronger than being blood brothers, for those of us that are in Christ should have "everything in common" with the others who are saved, even if they live on the other side of the world--many of us can't say that about our own families where we may have flesh and blood brothers and sisters who we don't feel very connected to because we have nothing in common with them when it comes to the most important things about our new nature and identity (though it is wonderful when you have the blessing of having members of your physical family who are also members of the family of God).

Paul ends with a verse that I think is to take us back to Jesus when he says "Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!"  I don't think this has anything to do with the money being collected and has everything to do with Jesus being given for each and every one of us so that we might be saved.  We would all still be citizens of the kingdom of darkness, lost, and in slavery to sin if it were not for the obedient, faithful, loving, generous, and cheerful giving that we see in Christ's death on the cross that "for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross...."  (See Hebrews 12:1-2)