Preparing the Gift, 1-15
9:1 For it is not necessary for me to write you about this service to the saints, 9:2 because I know your eagerness to help. I keep boasting to the Macedonians about this eagerness of yours, that Achaia has been ready to give since last year, and your zeal to participate has stirred up most of them. 9:3 But I am sending these brothers so that our boasting about you may not be empty in this case, so that you may be ready just as I kept telling them. 9:4 For if any of the Macedonians should come with me and find that you are not ready to give, we would be humiliated (not to mention you) by this confidence we had in you. 9:5 Therefore I thought it necessary to urge these brothers to go to you in advance and to arrange ahead of time the generous contribution you had promised, so this may be ready as a generous gift and not as something you feel forced to do. 9:6 My point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously. 9:7 Each one of you should give just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver. 9:8 And God is able to make all grace overflow to you so that because you have enough of everything in every way at all times, you will overflow in every good work. 9:9 Just as it is written, “He has scattered widely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness remains forever.” 9:10 Now God who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your supply of seed and will cause the harvest of your righteousness to grow. 9:11 You will be enriched in every way so that you may be generous on every occasion, which is producing through us thanksgiving to God, 9:12 because the service of this ministry is not only providing for the needs of the saints but is also overflowing with many thanks to God. 9:13 Through the evidence of this service they will glorify God because of your obedience to your confession in the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your sharing with them and with everyone. 9:14 And in their prayers on your behalf they long for you because of the extraordinary grace God has shown to you. 9:15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
v6 Whoever sows generously will also reap generously – Cf. Lk 6:38.
v7
‘An ambitious young man promised to give $4.00 per week when he began to work. He advanced in income and soon he was giving $500.00 per week and he told his pastor it was too expensive. His pastor replied that he was to pray and ask God to lower his salary back down to $40.00 per week.’
‘Support the church with your money. You can’t take it with you, but you can send it on ahead.’
‘It is easy to lose interest in the church if you have never made an investment in it.’
‘As the Lord loveth a cheerful giver, so likewise a cheerful thanksgiver.’ (John Boys)
Not reluctantly or under compulsion – cf. 1 Pet 5:2. C.S. Lewis says: ‘A perfect man would never act from a sense of duty; he’d always want the right thing more than the wrong one. Duty is only a substitute for love (of God and other people) like a crutch which is a substitute for a leg. Most of us need the crutch at times; but of course it is idiotic to use the crutch when our own legs (our own loves, tastes, habits, etc) can do the journey on their own.’
God loves a cheerful giver – Cf. Num 29:39, where it is apparent that these extra OT offerings were an expression of abundant thanksgiving.
(Acts 20:35) In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
(Rom 12:8) …if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously…
The cheerful giver
- gives the first, not the last. In OT times, when the people of God contributed a portion of the harvest back to the work of God, they gave the ‘first fruits’. That’s a good pattern for us.
- gives the best, not the worst. We read in the Gospels of a woman who came to Jesus and covered him with expensive perfume. The disciples complained about the waste, but Jesus said, “No: she has done a beautiful thing for me.” She offered something rare and costly, our of love.
- gives himself, not just his money. God has showered us with many wonderful gifts. But he has given himself, in the form of his Son, Jesus Christ. The Father freely gave his Son, Jn 3:16. The Son freely gave himself, Gal 1:4. Can we, who have received so much, offer anything less than our very selves in his service and to his glory? ‘Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.’
v13 Your generosity in sharing – or, ‘your generous contribution’; lit. ‘your generous fellowship’.
v15 His indescribable gift – Cf. 2 Cor 8:9. This is the gift of his Son. ‘Some commentators have thought that the grace of liberality bestowed upon the Christians referred to in Chapters 8 and 9, but the language is adequate only to that gift in which all God’s other gifts are summed up and crowned.’ (F.F. Bruce, Answers to Questions, p103)
- God’s unspeakable gift, 2 Cor 9:15.
- The believer’s unspeakable joy, 1 Pet 1:8.
- Heaven’s unspeakable words, 2 Cor 12:4.
From The Book of 750 Bible and Gospel Studies, 1909, George W. Noble