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Text: 2 Corinthians 8:1-15 Review… ~ “Kingdom of God”… shorthand for what life would be like if God were King; if God’s desires/passions were the order of the day! Therefore, our systems/structures (ways of being together) must be the best possible reflection of God’s dreams; God’s passions. ~ Jesus spoke often about wealth/finances and viewed money as a serious ‘rival’ for our affection and attention. He knew that what captured our attention would soon capture our hearts! His intention was that our relationship with him would properly shape our affections and order our lives. Matthew 10:8 “Freely you have received, freely give”. ● At the risk of being ‘less than profound’, here are a couple of observations: ~ God is a ‘giver’. In giving, the emphasis is not on the gift, but on the generosity of the giver! ● Since God is a ‘giver’, it’s our response of generosity which separates us from all the others ‘takers’! Interestingly, in the Greek, ‘gratitude’ and ‘grace’ share the same root word; they are inseparable. ~ Giving is a response to having received. Our ability to ‘freely give’ will be contingent upon our understanding that we have ‘freely received’ (‘freely’- literally “undeservedly”). 1 Chronicles 29:14 “Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.” Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it…” ~ I’m no longer compelled to see things in terms of ‘profit/loss’, but ‘receiving/giving’. “…we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.” (8:1) Paul is painting a pix of generosity and using the church in Macedonia as an example. ● Background on Macedonian (southeastern Europe; northern Greece) churches: Paul is accepting/encouraging donations to assist the believers in Judea who were experiencing a time of economic crisis, not only due crop failure and famine, but to persecution (Roman as well as exclusion from Jews). It is likely that businesses would have been boycotted in much the same way that many have experienced in a Muslim or Hindu country declaring their allegiance to Jesus). In practice, what was being developed here was a sense of ‘global consciousness’; that people, though distanced geographically, believed themselves connected to and somehow responsible for the well-being of others. ● In addressing the people in Corinth, Paul could have used any number of methods to evoke a response, but he knew that there was only one legitimate motivation for their giving… “grace”. ►The very act of giving itself can be directly traced to a God who exemplifies extravagant love. ● Paul indicates that something else is going on here; something out of the ordinary is happening. This is not just another ‘philanthropic expression’. God’s movement ‘toward’ them and ‘in’ them (grace) is moving them ‘toward’ others. Forbes.com “…the real power, drive and momentum in modern philanthropy is coming from people in their 40s and 50s who generated a great deal of wealth at an early age and have decided to leverage that wealth in philanthropy. By our conservative estimate, these activist philanthropists will be pouring between $1.9 trillion and $2.6 trillion into philanthropy over the 20 years that began a decade ago… The top 60 donors gave a median $60 million each…” ● In such expressions of charity, we actually ‘catch a glimpse’ of the goodness of the Creator resident in all of his creation (we most often discuss how corrupt the image is and how to fix it, versus recognizing the goodness and calling people to live out their created-design). “Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity” (8:2). Now, there’s (2) concepts/conditions that one would never expect to find used to describe the same situation. Finish the equation… 2 + 2 = ___ (did anyone come up with 3?; no, because it’s not in keeping with an accepted standard of measure) Finish this ‘life-equation’… extreme adversity + extreme poverty = _____ (did anyone come up with ‘overflowing joy and rich generosity’?) ● Realistically, no one would expect individuals in the throes of severe trial and extreme poverty to exhibit neither overflowing joy nor rich generosity! ►Generosity is an extreme response to extreme circumstances! Admittedly, generosity is not our ‘default mode’! Our initial response to financial adversity is to ‘get lean; tighten up’ the budget. Charity is usually the first budget item to be eliminated. If anyone had an excuse not to be generous, it would be these people; we would automatically not expect them to respond in such a way. It’s what makes their giving noteworthy. “…they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability”. (8:3) (Gr) ‘contrary to ability’. It meant that their response was disproportionate to their condition. Since God had done something so big in their hearts, there came this desire to express it through their generosity. “…they gave themselves, first, to God, and then to us in keeping with God’s will.” (8:5) At the heart of freely receiving and freely giving is ‘devotion’; that ‘singleness of heart’ that allows us to ‘excel’ because somehow to deny self is to discover, in part, what it means to be fully human. ● In the Bible (as in life), we find (2) types/expressions of giving: 1) logical 2) illogical Logical giving… Unless one is totally devoid of conscience, it’s the kind of giving that speaks to the most back of human needs- seeing a need and helping to eliminate it (albeit temporarily). 1 John 3:17-18 “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and truth”. Characteristics: - comes from the head (seems within reason) - contributes ‘some’ (so there’s no fear of not having enough for yourself) - often resents having given (especially if the one receiving is not as grateful as we would have expected) Illogical giving… Characteristics: - comes from the heart (compelling)- the result of something more than a good appeal. - offers ‘all’ (without fear of lack of provision) - most often regrets that it didn’t have ‘more to give’ ● It’s giving that’s motivated by the pure joy of grateful expression; it’s a giving that ignores methodology and calculations. ● It’s the kind of giving that always caused Jesus to, ‘Hey, check this out’. Mark 12:41-44 “Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But, a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins (smallest currency in circulation) worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, ‘I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others (literally, ‘than everyone else combined). They gave out of their wealth (literally, ‘money they didn’t need’); but she, out of her poverty, put in everything- all she had to live on (literally, ‘shake out a bag and make sure it’s empty’). ● This kind of giving may seem ‘haphazard’ or ‘undisciplined’, but it is motivated by excessive love for God. It’s giving that says, “I just wish I could do more!” ►People who truly own nothing can afford to give everything.
►When you are willing to give ‘all’, it doesn’t
matter how much ‘all’ is! |
