II Corinthians
8:7-15
7 Now as you excel
in everything-- in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in
our love for you-- so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking. 8
I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love
against the earnestness of others. 9 For you know the generous act
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became
poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. 10 And in this
matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not
only to do something but even to desire to do something-- 11 now
finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it
according to your means. 12 For if the eagerness is there, the gift
is acceptable according to what one has-- not according to what one does not
have. 13 I do not mean that there should be relief for others and
pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between 14
your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your
need, in order that there may be a fair balance. 15 As it is
written, "The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had
little did not have too little."
II Corinthians
8:7-15 finds Paul encouraging the church at Corinth to fulfill a pledge they
had previously made concerning a collection for the church in Jerusalem. It
raises the question of our financial generosity. In doing so, the text is
consistent with other troubling parts of the Bible. I say troubling because
most of us can hold onto our bank accounts quite well as soon as someone talks
about generosity.
“God loves a cheerful giver” (II Corinthians 9:7).
“In
all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the
weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more
blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35).
Here are a few texts from Proverbs
about generosity:
Proverbs 3:9-10: Honor
the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce;
then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with
wine.
Proverbs 11: 24-26:
Some give freely, yet grow all the richer; others withhold what is due, and
only suffer want. A generous person will be enriched, and one who gives water
will get water. The people curse those who hold back grain, but a blessing is
on the head of those who sell it.
Proverbs 13:7: Some
pretend to be rich, yet have nothing; others pretend to be poor, yet have great
wealth.
Proverbs 14:20-21: The
poor are disliked even by their neighbors, but the rich have many friends.
Those who despise their neighbors are sinners, but happy are those who are kind
to the poor.
Proverbs 19:17:
Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and will be repaid in full.
Proverbs 22:9: Those
who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor.
Proverbs 25:21: If
your enemies are hungry, give them bread to eat; and if they are thirsty, give
them water to drink; for you will heap coals of fire on their heads, and the
Lord will reward you.
Proverbs 28:27:
Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing, but one who turns a blind eye will
get many a curse.
And from Ecclesiastes 11:1: Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find
it after many days. (KJV)
7 Now as you excel in everything-- in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in
utmost eagerness, and in our love for you-- so we want you to excel also in
this generous undertaking. Paul’s confidence that the Corinthians will come
through is because he sees in them evidence of these spiritual gifts. Paul
referred to the gifts in I Corinthians 12-13. Yes, they excel in their faith.
Here, he refers to wonder-working faith that some Christians have, rather than
the faith in Christ that all Christians have. They excel in speech, such as
tongues and prophecy (I Corinthians 12:10. 28). They excel in knowledge in the
sense of spiritual insight.[1] They excel in eagerness. They excel in the
love Paul has for them. Therefore, he wants them to excel in generosity. 8 I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your
love, the theme of I Corinthians 13, against the earnestness (II Corinthians 7:11) of others. He did not need to command the Macedonians to
give nor will he order the Corinthians to do so. The “love” here is that which
lays claim on us for other Christians. Just as Paul said in I Corinthians 13,
love trumps all the other spiritual gifts mentioned in I Corinthians 12, Paul
encourages the Corinthians to finish the offering for Jerusalem as evidence of
the highest spiritual gift of love. 9 For you know the generous act of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor,
so that by his poverty you might become rich. Paul is basing
his statement on Christological affirmations like Philippians 2:6-11, where
Christ did not hold on to equality with God, but humbled himself and became a
servant. If the argument from spiritual gifts does not work, Paul then
reminds them that the earnestness of others resulted from the generosity of
Christ. The point is not to emulate what Christ did, but “Do what is
appropriate to your status as those who have been enriched by the grace of
Christ.” He reminds them of their debt of service in Christ. 10 Again, in this
matter, I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year to
not only do something but also even
to desire to do something-- 11 now finish doing it, so that your
eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means. 12
For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one
has-- not according to what one does not have. Paul now offers
counsel around the theme of goodwill. 13 I do
not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is
a question of a fair balances between 14 your present abundance and
their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there
may be a fair balance. 15 As written in
Exodus 16:18, "The one who had much
did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too
little." Paul cites part of Israel’s exodus story as a guideline for
their behavior. Just as God provided manna for the Israelites in their
wilderness wanderings, so God has provided for the Corinthians. In the exodus
narrative, those with excess could not store it away. All the unused manna
rotted. Instead, people had what they needed. Paul is not encouraging the
Corinthians to give so much that they go hungry. He is urging them to give as
an earnest sign of their faith in this gospel and as a sincere symbol of their
partnership — their koinonia — with the Jerusalem church. So, his
words in 9:13: “Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your
obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of
your sharing (koinonia) with
them and with all others.” Paul now introduces a new theme of equality. Purely
monetarily speaking, the one with much should give to those who have nothing.
Yet, this concern for equality echoes back to his explicit statement in Romans
15 of the Gentiles’ spiritual debt and resonates with his use of koinonia to
describe this collection (Romans 15:26; II Corinthians 8:4; 9:13). This
collection is representative of a partnership in Christ. Because the churches
he is now dealing with are part of the Gentile world, it is Paul’s job — while
not insisting that they convert to Judaism before becoming Christians —
nevertheless to introduce them to an Israelite style of social ethic. Paul
cites Scripture as the model for the community in which all are economically
equal. The Old Testament evidence is generally not so clear. Wealth can be sign
of faithfulness. Yet, wealth is also for the purpose of generosity to the poor.
There should be no poor in the people of God because all should realize that
wealth belongs to God and one of the responsibilities is to share it among all
God’s people (Deuteronomy 8 and 15). Even the land on which the Israelites
lived was not their own land, really. It belonged to God (Joshua 12-21). In
this way all Israelites had an economic safety net in a wide variety of laws
that required that they look out for each other as an extended kin group, and
that they acknowledge that their wealth was not their own, but God’s. Just as
the Corinthians shared today with the Jerusalemites, Paul argued, these
Christian brothers and sisters might one day save them in their own hour of
need. Beyond the mere sharing of economic resources, however, was the issue of
membership in the Christian community. If the Gentiles were to be a true part
of the Christian community, they had to be encouraged to hold onto community
ties to the original Jewish Christian community. The Israelite tribes who asked
Moses for permission to settle in Transjordan had first to promise that they
would help the other tribes take and defend the land of Canaan before they
could return and possess their chosen territory (Numbers 32). In a similar way,
the Gentile Christians had to demonstrate to the Christians in Jerusalem that
they would be true covenant partners with them. The Gentile churches would not
abandon them to poverty or destruction, but come to their aid when needed.
John Wesley
confronted the complications that attend Christians’ work in the world. He
noted that religion produces both hard work and simplicity of material
circumstances. Such Christian virtue or character will produce some wealth. For
some, it will produce much wealth. Yet, riches have the tendency to increase
our pride, anger, and love of the things this world can provide. People will
often maintain the outward form of religion. Yet, the inward and spiritual
dynamic of religion will vanish. The way out of this dilemma is for Christians
to encourage each other to gain all they can, save all they can, and give all they
can. Such generosity of heart and life will enable one to grow in grace.[2]
Wesley raises the
importance of developing Christian character. Developing character involves an
inner confrontation. Character is a set of dispositions, desires, and habits
that one slowly engraves into our lives as we struggle against our weaknesses.
We become disciplined, considerate, loving, and generous, through a thousand
small acts of self-control, sharing, service, friendship, and refined
enjoyment. As we make disciplined, caring choices, we slowly engrave certain
tendencies into our minds and hearts.[3]
I suspect that a
spirit of generosity is an important spirit to cultivate. Of course, our first
obligation is toward spouse and family. If we are generous to those outside of
that circle, and make those within that circle suffer, we have abandoned our
first moral obligation. Yet, most of us can learn greater generosity toward
others.
Generosity implies
openness to the people and circumstances around us. Our plans, goals, and ambitions
can wrap up our energies. We can create a self-enclosed circle, in which the
needs of others come to mean quite little to the way we lead our lives. We can
become greedy with our time, talent, and treasure. Let us suppose that we know
of someone in need. Suppose further that we have information that could help
them. If we keep that knowledge to ourselves, we are being greedy with our
knowledge. Having a generous spirit is more than money. It is about cultivating
a generous character.
Generosity is the
virtue of giving. We can give only what we possess and only on condition of not
having our possessions own us. Generosity elevates us toward others, and toward
ourselves as beings freed from the pettiness that is the self.
Money has the
merit of being quantifiable. Most of us give less than one percent. Although
generosity is not just financial, why would our hearts be more open than our
wallets? We value generosity precisely because we lack it, our selfishness wins
out, and it is conspicuous by its absence.
Paul is
encouraging the community, and therefore you and me who read, to increase in
generosity in spirit and life.
[1] (2 Corinthians: A New Translation with Introduction
and Commentary. The Anchor Bible 32A [New York: Doubleday, 1984], 415-16).
“their faith (pistis) is not faith in Christ, shared by every Christian without
exception or distinction. Here it is rather the wonder-working faith with which
some but not all Christians are understood to be gifted. Similarly, speech
(logos) here does not refer specifically to preaching God’s “word”… but to such
religious discourse as speaking in tongues and prophecy (1 Corinthians 12:10,
28) .... Nor should this knowledge be identified as the saving knowledge to
which Paul has referred in 2:14 and 4:6. In this passage it is more probably a
reference to the kind of special spiritual insight on which the Corinthians had
been so keen.”
[2] I do not see how it is possible in the nature of
things for any revival of true religion to continue long. For religion must
necessarily produce both industry and frugality, and these cannot but produce
riches.
But as riches increase, so will pride, anger, and love of
the world in all its branches. . . . So although the form of religion remains,
the spirit is swiftly vanishing away. Is there no way to prevent this continued
decay of true religion? We ought not prevent people from being diligent and
frugal; we must exhort all Christians to gain all they can, that is, in effect,
to grow rich. . . . If those who gain all they can and save all they can will
also give all they can, then the more they gain the more they will grow in
grace and the more treasure they will lay up in heaven. (John Wesley, Quoted in
The Christian Century, October 15, 1997.)
[3] Character is built in the course of your inner
confrontation. Character is a set of dispositions, desires, and habits that are
slowly engraved during the struggle against your own weakness. You become more
disciplined, considerate, and loving through a thousan d small acts of
self-control, sharing, service, friendship, and refined enjoyment. If you make
disciplined, caring choices, your are slowly engraving certain tendencies into
your mind. – David Brooks, The Road to
Character, (2015) p. 263.
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