2 Corinthians 8:8-15
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."
Then Jump to 9:6-8
2 Corinthians 9:6-8 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.
We have spent the last few weeks on Sunday mornings going through these texts. Money is a really touchy issue in our lives. It has a way of dividing people and creating animosity between even the greatest of friends. No one likes to talk about money. I think even Paul recognizes this, that is why in his discussion of the collection of money for the saints in Jerusalem you do not see the word collection or money mentioned even once. In fact collection or money does not even get mentioned once in all of 2 Corinthians. Rather Paul uses the terms Grace and Ministry to talk about giving. For some reason money pushes buttons within us that we may not have even known we had. But when we read the gospels we find that Jesus’ ministry was almost dominated by teachings on the topic of money. Often times we don’t like to have our religious lives or teachings cross paths with our pockets. It is kind of like a comic I saw once. A man was being baptized, but while the preacher was holding him under he had one hand raised high above the water and in it was his wallet. No matter how uncomfortable it is, or what kind of aversion we have to it, what we do with our money reflects ever so greatly on the health of our relationship with Christ. God has called to be generous, sacrificing people.
God designed the church in a beautiful way, a way in which we encourage and build up one another, a way of interdependency. God has poured out his grace upon us, as Paul talked about earlier in 2 Corinthians. He poured it upon us not so that we could possess it or even be comforted by it, but so that we might pour it out on someone else so that they might possess and be comforted by it. God pours out his grace and blessings upon us so that we can pour it out on another and then they can pour it out on another and on and on. The church was created in such a way that if we are not dependent upon one another and in fellowship with each other we cannot experience the full blessing and grace of God. We are designed to hold one another up while being held up by someone else. In fact this beautiful circle that is the church has created a new definition and purpose for money.
Money is something material, something passing. In the grand scheme of things it is worthless and accomplishes nothing. But the beauty of this is that in the Kingdom of Heaven there is this sort of currency exchange system. When we use our money, something fleeting, to be generous and to pour out grace upon others it becomes something eternal. We can transform something transient into something that will never fade away. In the kingdom of Heaven, which by the way we are a part of right here and now, we do not go to work and earn money for the purpose of living or providing, but we work so that we might give. The only reason we seek more money is so that we can give more. Having all you need suddenly doesn’t mean having enough for food on the table, but it means having enough for every good work. But God doesn’t simply sustain us through our giving and the giving of others but rather He multiplies it. The church is multiplied and grown according to the generosity of its people. It is just as Paul says, “Whoever gives sparingly, will reap sparingly.” We may not have all the money we want, but we have all the money we need to be abundant in our giving to others. When Paul says when I am weak, then I am truly strong, this applies even to money. When we become so generous that we place ourselves into a place of weakness, we become truly strong.
God has given us this seed to plant. But this seed is absolutely useless unless it is planted. All it does is take up space and corrupt hearts when it is horded. As we talked about this morning, no farmer ever considers sowing seed to be a loss because that is the purpose of the seed in the first place. We have been given seed for the purpose of sowing it. It is not a loss to sow it but rather a multiplication of the blessing and grace we experience through God and the church. On top of that the seed does not belong to us. It is God’s and he has given it to us. Again as we talked about this morning, it would be like the Post Office claiming ownership of a package put into their care for delivery. It does not belong to them, but to the sender and it is in their hands simply for the purpose of delivery. The money and blessing we have received are not meant to be held onto but are for the purpose of delivering them to those in need. Turn with me to 1 Timothy 6:6-10.
1 Timothy 6:6-10 Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
We need to learn to be content with enough, and perhaps we need to redefine what it means to have enough. Having enough, being content, does not simply mean reducing our craving for material goods and independence. It means reducing what we want for ourselves for the purpose of having enough to share with others and create interdependence with them. We seek contentment so that we might share. Contentment doesn’t simply mean not wanting more, but it actually means reducing what we have for the purpose of generosity. We reduce what we have so that we can further pour out the grace of God upon others. Martin Luther said, “I have had many things in my hands that I have lost; the things that I have placed in the hands of God I still possess.” I don’t think any of us could argue with the concept that money corrupts, but for some reason we find ourselves thinking that money does not corrupt us. Don’t think that Paul was telling Timothy to simply teach contentment, but he was telling Timothy himself to learn contentment. He was telling Timothy that money would even corrupt him. And the amount doesn’t matter, whether it is a million dollars or $10 it still has the power to corrupt. But we have been given power over this. We know that our God takes things meant for evil and uses them for good. Through our generosity God has given us the ability to do the same. When we are generous and live to give we find that we are in fact taking something meant for evil and we are creating something eternal and good through it. Think about what Jesus said in regards to sin. If your eye causes you to sin what should you do with it? You should gauge it out. You should get rid of the thing that will condemn you. For it is better to lose a member of the body then to have the whole body thrown into hell. We are not ignorant. We know that money corrupts and that it is a temptation to every single one of us. We know that it has caused many to wander away from the faith. We know that it is the eye that causes us to sin. So shouldn’t that mean that we should seek to cast it off and be rid of the very thing that could drag us away from our faith?
As Paul tells the Corinthians, our generosity is the mark of proof that our love is genuine. It shows that we in fact trust in the Father to provide and our confession of faith is true. When we find ourselves hording the seed and gathering more for ourselves, when we choose excess over enough, what proof does that proclaim in regards to our lives? Does it express mistrust and doubt that God is in fact faithful to provide and all sufficient? Does it reveal a lack of faith? On top of that if we communicate to the world that we have a generous and loving Father and that we are his children and ambassadors all while our wallets are stowed away in hiding and we are living in the vast comfort of all that our money has done for us, what are we communicating. If we proclaim the power of the gospel and refuse contentment and generosity, then we silence its message and we speak hypocrisy. It is like a doctor smoking cigarettes, I have never understood that. The gospel is about an all sufficient God who provides for us with over abundant generosity and grace. If we show a self reliant greed and stinginess, then we communicate that we don’t actually believe God will provide. There is no power in our gospel. That is what faith without generosity is. We all possess the ability to give, we all have something to sacrifice and we all need to step up and ask ourselves honestly if we are living in contentment with simply enough or if we have excess that needs trimming.
Who are we, what will we be known as? When you die and pass on will you be remembered as a good businessman or as a generous person, as successful or as giving, as wealthy or as sacrificial? What is our defining characteristic? Are we defined by the gospel we proclaim or by our worldly accomplishments? We have been called to be generous giving people. We should be defined and recognized by such generosity. But more than that, it is not our act of generosity in the first place. The seed belonged to God, we are simply the vessel, the delivery boy or girl. It is not about our parting with what belongs to us, but our parting with what we have been sent to deliver. Can you imagine the absurdity of a waitress eating off your plate on the way to deliver it? That is the same feeling you should get when you imagine your faith not being defined by your generosity. As Paul said, “whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will reap bountifully.”
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