Sowing Generously
6Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9As it is written:
"He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever." 10Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Dig Deeper
Down on the lakefront of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, just across the street from Bradford Beach, sits a fairly steep hill. I’m sure that my players passed that hill many times in their lives, but never thought about it too much until they found out about three weeks before practice began one season that they would be running that hill every single day for the next three weeks. This was just part of a whole new system of increased conditioning and stricter rules for the team that year. Some viewed the conditioning and the hill running to be harsh and found the rules to be unnecessarily restrictive. In fact, several guys quit the team before we even got to practice. The more I tried to encourage them to finish what they had begun, the more those guys saw the new regimen as a bunch of oppressive measures. In their defense, if one was looking at things from an individual point of view, it would certainly seem that way. What those players could not understand, however, is that it wasn’t that these were just a set of expectations and rules, they were part of the demonstration that this was a new kind of team than we had ever had before at our school. If the players didn’t completely change their mindset, they simply would not understand what was going on.
To this point, Paul has been trying to explain to the Corinthians his reasons for the great collection he is taking, and why he wants them to complete it. In this passage, he ticks off a number of quotes from the Old Testament. If they continue to see things in the old way or from their own individual point of view, then they will seem like a string of quotations trying to get them to act a certain way that Paul wants them to act. That is not the case, though. What they really need to do in order to understand what Paul has been trying to do and say all along is to realize that he expects them to be part of a whole new reality, the restored people of God. The people of God are not just different from the people of the world in degree but in kind and category. This become easier for us to see in this section if we realize that when Paul, or most any New Testament writer, quotes from the Old Testament, they are not just throwing out a quick quote to back up the point they are trying to get across. They are, in fact, invoking the entire passage and line of thought from which the quote comes. If we keep this in mind, we will see more clearly what Paul is trying to tell his brothers and sisters in Corinth.
The first passage that Paul quotes from is from Proverbs 22:8 (from a verse which appeared in the Greek translation that Paul used, but was, for some unknown reason, dropped from the Hebrew texts, and thus, does not appear in English translations), which says that ‘God loves a cheerful giver’. It comes as a part of chapter that is all about riches and poverty. Chapter 22 begins, "a good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed (or grace) is better than silver or gold. This is exactly what Paul has been trying to tell the Corinthians. They need to learn about the value of grace and esteem in the eyes of God rather than clinging to the gold and silver of the world. In the Proverbs, we find a complete and complex picture of the God-fearing person who is generous with money. Paul wants them to learn that way of life because of who they now are as the people of God. Notice that he wants them to give cheerfully as a way of life, but Paul doesn’t say "don’t give if you don’t feel like it". That’s what a lot of people would, perhaps, like it to say, but Paul’s point is that if you don’t give cheerfully, then you haven’t yet understood the Kingdom way of living and you need to change your entire attitude and worldview.
The second passage that he quotes from Psalm 112:9, which speaks of the one who scatters generous blessings to the poor. The Psalm says that the one who does this has a righteousness that endures forever. When righteousness refers to God, it speaks of Him being faithful to the promises that He has made to His people. When I refers to His people, it usually refers to the behavior through which we demonstrate gratitude for God’s faithfulness. Psalm 112 is all about those who fear the Lord and how that comes out in their life in overwhelming generosity and mercy. Once again Paul is inviting the Corinthians to embrace a whole new identity rather than just throwing out a few snappy lines. Just as a young man who joins the army must embrace a whole new life, a whole new way of thinking and being, so must the Christian.
The final passage from which Paul quotes is Isaiah 55:10. Isaiah 55 is an incredible description and invitation to come and be a part of God’s new creation that will be coming soon. The new creation of Isaiah 55 will come about as a result of the suffering (vv. 3-5), death (v. 9), and resurrection (vv. 11-12) of God’s servant, and the covenental renewal of chapter 54. Isaiah 55:10 says that just as the rain comes down from heaven and waters the earth, giving seed to the sower, "so is my word that goes out from my mouth" (v. 11). This is exactly the point that Paul has been making throughout this letter. God’s new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) is based on His new covenant (ch. 3) which was accomplished by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and can now be seen at work through the preaching and ministry of the gospel.
If they would only look up and realize that they are the people of God, living precisely in God’s new creation, then the life of generosity to which Paul is calling them, will come quite naturally. It’s the same for us. There are aspects of the Christian life that seem so foreign and difficult, yet if we would simply understand who we are and where we stand in the history of the great drama of God’s people, the things that now seem so unnatural would become the most natural things in the world.
Devotional Thought
Paul’s point here is that grace, gratitude, mercy, and generosity are not side orders of the main meal of the Christian life, they are the centerpiece. To what degree is your life characterized by these things? In what ways are they still a struggle?
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