2 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse
1. For as touching the ministering
to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you. For I
know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you
to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago, and your
zeal hath provoked very many. Yet have I sent the brethren,
lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf, that,
as I said, ye may be ready. Lest happily, if they of Macedonia
come with me and find you unprepared, we, that we say not ye, should
be ashamed in this same confident boasting. Therefore I thought
it necessary to exhort the brethren that they would go before unto
you and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof ye had noticed
before that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty and
not as of covetousness. But this I say, he which soweth
sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully
shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth
in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity,
for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace
abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all
things, may abound to every good work. As it is written, he hath
dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness
remaineth forever. Now he that ministereth seed
to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your
seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness, being
enriched in everything to all bountifulness, which causeth
through us thanksgiving to God. For the administration of this
service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant
also by many thanksgivings unto God, whilst by the experiment
of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection
unto the gospel of Christ and for your liberal distribution
unto them and unto all men. and by their prayer for you,
which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. So our chapter today, and I'm
just going to take the whole of the chapter, the whole of
chapter nine in one portion this day, if I may. Our chapter continues
the apostles' encouragement of the Corinthians to remember the
care and kindness towards their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem
at a time of sparsity and famine and need in Jerusalem. And these saints in Jerusalem
had a want of the basic necessities at a time when the believers
in Corinth had plenty. So he continues to stress how
the great motivation of this care and kindness to one another
is not a duty or a legal obligation, but principally an expression
of our personal gratitude towards God for all his goodness to us. And the apostle speaks of the
zeal of the men and women of Achaia. And he is saying to them
that it is this zeal, this passion, that has so endeared them to
him and to others. They had a passion for the Lord. They had a passion for the gospel.
And they had a passion, a zeal for the well-being of their brothers
and sisters. And this, it typified, it expressed,
it manifested. that they had a love for the
Lord and a love for the gospel. Ultimately, their heartfelt love,
out of which the needs of their fellow believers would be met. And the apostles' knowledge of
the zeal of the Corinthians, their zeal for Christ and his
gospel, was the ground of Paul's confidence as to their generosity
and their largesse. and he tells the Corinthians
that while he is sending these three brethren, remember we spoke
about them last week, Titus and two others, we don't know the
others' names, we speculated it might have been Luke, it may
even have been Mark, but we don't know, but he was sending these
three brethren so that there would be a preparation made and
so that there would be a propriety and not just a rushing around
at the last moment to try and pull something together. But
he had spoken much about the generosity of the Corinthians
and their generosity had been an encouragement to others to
emulate and to copy. So that he's speaking about this
Christian love, this Christian zeal for the gospel, and he is
showing that it flows not from a sense of compulsion, but an
enthusiasm and a dedication for the gospel, for the people for
whom Christ died, and most importantly, for the Lord himself. And the
apostle uses a very apt example when he speaks about their commitment
to the cause and to the well-being of the Lord's work. And what
he's saying is basically that you cannot out-give the Lord. In verse six, he's speaking about
their commitment. He's speaking about their commitment
to the cause and the well-being of the Lord's work. And he's
saying, you'll never out-give the Lord, and the Lord will never
be indebted to you. So verse six, he says, this I
say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. He which soweth bountifully shall
reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth
in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or out of necessity
or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. so that our
bounty, our generosity for the cause of the gospel, for the
work of Christ, for the needs of our fellow brothers and sisters
in the Lord, it should flow spontaneously from a heart of gratitude and
thanksgiving, from an awareness that we have opportunity to give
and that we are in a position to help that we've been enabled
by God's grace to supply and to bear one another's burdens. And this, it all has to do with
knowledge and providence. If the Lord shows us a need,
if the Lord shows us a need, It's for a purpose. He has shown
us that need for a purpose. And if the Lord gives us the
wherewithal to meet and to satisfy that need, then it's not an obligation
and a duty, it's a blessing from the Lord. As if we might say,
the Lord has graciously chosen me to fulfil this work. The Lord
has kindly enabled me to help in this cause. And what the apostle
is saying here is that if you begrudge helping, don't help. Don't. If you resent giving,
don't give. Just keep it for yourself. That's
fine. If you only give because you
think you've got to give, or because someone lays an obligation
on you, don't bother. Only give as you see it to be
a privilege to do so, and a means of enlarging the blessedness
all around. Paul says, give cheerily or don't
give at all. And the picture of sowing seed
is very suitable. The farmer knows that he's got
to sow seed in order to reap seed. But Paul's example here
isn't a mercenary example in the same way as we sometimes
talk about the health and wealth preachers who say, well, if you
give a little, you'll gain a lot. Paul's not saying it from that
point of view. He's not teaching us give to
get. It's not what he's saying at
all. A believer's giving is a blessing to the receiver, to the recipient,
but also to the giver. And that's what Paul is stressing
here. And it's a way for us to thank
the Lord and to worship him. It's a means by which we are
able to glorify God. Now, it is true that the Lord's
grace will abound where generosity exists. And that's what Paul
goes on to say in verse eight here. He says that where generosity
exists, the Lord will resupply. But that resupply is not an end. It's not what we're aiming at.
But the resupply is a means whereby the Lord's people can further
give and there will be a greater usefulness in the family and
in the kingdom of God. So that generosity is an attitude
of heart instilled by grace in the believer. As a believer distributes
to the needs of those around him, the Lord will bestow more
for the kindness and make all grace abound to that individual. And that's what it says in verse
8. a more expansive and a more widespread
and liberal generosity on our part. The gift from Corinth would
supply not only the need of the poor believers in Jerusalem,
but it would draw forth from them, the poor believers in Jerusalem,
it would draw forth from them gratitude to God. and Paul stresses
this also. These are all arguments that
the apostle is giving, positive arguments for liberality in these
matters, because here is more praise to God. When a gift is
given, Gratitude goes to God. Praise goes to God. And so there
will be additional worship of God made by the poor believers
in Jerusalem because of God's provision to them by means of
the saints in Corinth. So that the praise for God increases
time after time by the Corinthians' generosity. so that the Corinthians'
generosity is a way of layering praise and worship to God. The brethren in Jerusalem would
glorify God because that would show that there was an evident
testimony of the, excuse me, the power of the gospel amongst
them as is seen in their generosity. and it would show them to be
subject to the gospel of Christ. So it proves the validity of
the testimony of these saints in Corinth because it is a fruit
of the gospel in their lives. And then finally, at the end
of the chapter, the apostle brings all of these arguments and all
of our motivation back to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he shows that for all the
other benefits that are to be had in this mutual support and
this fellowship together and this praise and the prayers to
God on one another's behalf, for the enlarging and the intensifying
of the worship of God and to help and show kindness to one
another. In the end it all comes down
to the fact that a believer has a proper perspective. in the
blessedness that we personally have in Christ and the grace
which God has given to us in Christ. So Paul ends this portion
by saying, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. When we're thinking about giving,
Our thought is rather, thanks be to God for his unspeakable
gift. God's example to us in giving
his highest, his richest, his most precious gift imaginable. He gave his own son, he gave
his most prized possession, he gave the darling of his heart,
in whom all his pleasure rests. And he gave Christ freely for
the need of his people. He gave Christ to alleviate our
poverty, the poverty that was due to sin. He gave Christ to
preserve our lives, to redeem our souls, and to bring us to
glory. And whatever we have or do not
have of this world's goods, of this world's privileges and this
world's blessings, if we have God's gift of grace in Christ,
we have a gift so valuable, its worth is above expression. It's beyond description. It is
everlastingly praiseworthy. and it will fill our eternal
days with reasons for thanksgiving and grounds for gratitude. It's
an unspeakable gift. The Lord once asked a question.
He said, what shall a man, what shall it profit a man if he shall
gain the whole world and lose his own soul? And the answer,
of course, is nothing. The wealthy of this world may,
like a rich man, dine sumptuously every day, but life is short
and eternity is long, and no amount of earthly wealth can
buy a man's soul. It is the sin-cleansing blood
of Jesus Christ, rightly called precious, that alone can wash
away our sin and give us peace with God. It is the justifying
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ that is all the righteousness
that we will ever need and it comes only by the free gift of
God's grace. If we have Christ, we have everything. If we have God's unspeakable
gift, we have more than the kings of the earth or the merchants
upon many waters. If we have Christ, all else is
merely a means to say thank you to the Lord. and an opportunity
to witness to our debt to the gospel. It's merely an occasion
to do good to the body of Christ and to share with one another
in the bountiful provision of God's mercy to us. Paul wrote
to the Corinthians in his first letter, Who maketh thee to differ
from another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? Everything
we have can be traced back to God's goodness and to the free
sovereign grace of divine mercy in Christ. That is God's unspeakable
gift to us. We are heirs and joint heirs
with Christ of all things. As we have freely received, let
us freely give. Let us give cheerfully. Let us
give liberally, as the Lord informs, enables, and lays it upon our
hearts to do so. And let us know, give as we will,
we will never outgive our God. Amen.