“The Face of Generosity”

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:9-15

You will remember that last week we considered the Corinthians failure to live up to their commitment to help the brothers and sisters in Jerusalem in their hour of need. Other churches had been more than generous in their giving, but Corinth had not, and Paul was calling them on it. Paul offered the church a challenge, that they might “excel in this grace of giving” (2 Cor. 8:5-7).
And this challenge is for us, too. To excel in grace, in whatever form it may take, is the task of every Christian. To excel in grace is be like Christ and to be completely unlike the people of the world. To excel in grace means that we finally understand, and have put into practice, those things that Jesus was trying to teach us.

Today, we continue with the apostle’s explanation as to why we should be that generous.

Read 2 Corinthians 8:9

Christ was the wealthiest being who had ever existed – he was the glory of heaven. Can you even imagine what that means? To be Almighty God – to be all powerful, all knowing, all present, all loving, all giving, all living? To be eternal in nature and in being? To be exalted by the heavenly host, who celebrated his glory constantly? The richest man on earth can’t even come close to having that kind of wealth and power.

And yet, he gave it all up. For his sake? Absolutely Not! It was completely and lovingly done for ours. He surrendered every ounce of his glory and power and prestige in order to be born on earth in a human way, as a flesh and blood mortal. Think about that one for a moment! The unlimited God accepted the bounds that you and I live under – we have to take a breath of air every few moments or we die, we have to eat food to gain energy or we die, we have a finite number of years to live and then we die, if we want to be in a place that we can’t walk to, we have to use a mechanical device to take us there, and we haven’t even begun to talk about the absence of total honor and praise in our lives. Jesus gave up the rich existence of heaven for the likes of this one. The word “poor” had nothing to do with his lack of financial resources – he gave up the glory and honor of heaven to become a mortal man.

And why would the Almighty God even conceive of such a plan? He did it so we might have the opportunity to know the riches – the glory – of his home. He took our poverty – our pain, our limitations, our struggles, our death upon himself so that we might experience true and infinite wealth.

That is what this verse is telling us – that Jesus gave up everything he had in order to become the poorest, so that in his poverty, we might gain the riches of eternal life. That is the epitome of perfect generosity!

Read 2 Corinthians 8:10-12

But we aren’t living in the wealth of heaven yet, are we? We’re still in the poverty of earth! So what do we do until the prosperity of eternity becomes ours? Do we sit around commiserating with each other over the struggles and limitations of this life that seem to multiply every day? In the 6th chapter of this book (2 Corinthians 6:10), Paul describes a life that is guided by the Holy Spirit - “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”
It would seem that we are to live as though we already have the riches of heaven at our disposal! And why not? It has never been about what we deserve or what we have earned or what we have created by our own means in this place – it’s about leaning on the grace and glory of Jesus Christ, it’s about “having nothing and yet possessing everything”!
In verse 10, Paul tells us that it isn’t about giving, and it isn’t about how much we give, it is simply about our great desire and drive to give. And in verse 12, he says that if we are willing to give, then our gifts are acceptable when they are given out of the resources we have, as long as our hearts and minds don’t see our resources as being limiting! In other words, we are to give out of the wealth that comes from God, and not out of the poverty that comes from this world.

The author William McClelland writes:
.. the Bible stands there as stubborn as a rock, and every time we open it to read, we stub our toe on its assumption that all the resources of our lives come from God: the strength of our hands, the cleverness of our minds, the health we enjoy and the possessions with which we have been blessed. God has loaned them to us in trust. We are stewards of these gifts of grace, and we are to use them whenever and however the Spirit indicates.
-William Robert McClelland, Worldly Spirituality: Biblical Reflections on Money, Politics, and Sex (St. Louis, Missouri: CBP Press, 1990), 40.

When we allow Jesus Christ into our lives, we surrender all that we have to him, and allow the Spirit to increase and guide us in our generosity toward others.

Read 2 Corinthians 8:13-15

The term “equality” has taken on a rather tarnished image during the past 3 years – many have expressed opposition to our government’s stand that equality means that resources must be reallocated from the wealthy to those who are poor – it is one sided. But scripture, at least in this passage, would have us believe that equality is about giving whatever you may have to someone else who is in need of it – a two way approach. It is about helping each other, regardless of your social or economic or religious status.

I’ve never been a big fan of Peterson’s “The Message”, but I like the way it words this passage. It says:
“The heart regulates the hands. This isn’t so others can take it easy while you sweat it out. No, you’re shoulder to shoulder with them all the way, your surplus matching their deficit, their surplus matching your deficit. In the end you come out even.”

“You’re shoulder to shoulder, … all the way”.
It’s about the rallying cry of the three Musketeers was “One for all and all for one.”
It’s about sharing your excess with those who are in need, and vice versa.
1 Corinthians 13:5 tells us that love doesn’t keep score. It isn’t about making everything even – it’s about giving what is needed to whoever is in need! You may have heard the expression “Pay it forward.” Ben Franklin received a request from a friend for some financial support, and he sent his response in a letter to his friend Benjamin Webb on April 25, 1784:
“I do not pretend to give such a sum; I only lend it to you. When you .. meet with another honest man in similar distress, you must pay me by lending the sum to him, enjoining him to discharge the debt by a like operation, when he shall be able and shall meet with another opportunity. I hope it may thus go thro’ many hands, before it meets with a knave that will stop its progress. This is a trick of mine for doing a good deal of good with a little money.”

This is the face of generosity – a loan that never ends and is never fully repaid. And if, as 1 Corinthians 13 tells us, we fail to keep count of the repayments, all the better. Shoulder to shoulder, all the way.
Both the apostle Paul and the philosopher Ben Franklin were talking about financial resources, but it doesn’t have to be so limited. One person may have money, another may have a skill or tool, and still another time. Give whatever you may have to the greater good – “Do a good deal of good with [very] little”. And when the entire church claims this concept and theme, we will then begin to truly live as the Body of Christ.

“Excelling in the grace of giving” is what Paul wanted the church in Corinth to do, just as the churches in Macedonia were doing. Give out of your wealth, just as Christ gave for us.