2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse
1 through to verse 15. The Apostle Paul is writing to
the Corinthians and he says, moreover brethren, we do you
to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia. How that in a great trial of
affliction and abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded
unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power I bear record,
yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves. praying us with much entreaty
that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship
of the ministering to the saints. And this they did, not as we
hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us
by the will of God, insomuch that we desired Titus, that as
he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace
also. Therefore, as ye abound in everything,
in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence,
and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also. I speak not by commandment, but
by occasion for the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity
of your love. For ye know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. And herein I give my advice,
for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only
to do, but also to be forward a year ago. Now therefore perform
the doing of it, that as there was a readiness to will, so there
may be a performance also out of that which ye have. For if
there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that
a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. For I mean
not that other men be eased, and ye burdened, but by an equality,
that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want,
that their abundance also may be a supply for your want, that
there may be equality. As it is written, he that hath
gathered much hath nothing over, and he that had gathered little
had no lack. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Just a few thoughts on this little
passage. The apostle Paul in writing to
the Corinthians here is beginning a new section, as it were, in
his letter to these brothers and sisters. And it seems as
if he's kind of, well not kind of, he's arranged his thoughts
in this letter so that he got this matter which was potentially
difficult, dealt with and out of the way before he begins to
speak about this issue that we read about together in chapter
eight. He kept this subject until he
dealt with the matter of the trouble caused by his earlier
letter and those things that he had then spoken about in chapters
one to seven and we spent sometime going through these chapters
in recent weeks. But he wants now to speak to
them about their giving, and particularly, it seems, about
a gift that they had promised a year before for the needs at
the church in Jerusalem. And as yet, that gift had not
been forthcoming. And it's not that the Apostle
is being critical of the church at Corinth, I don't think, nor
indeed demanding of them. He's not. But he's gently reminding
them that there is a, a care for the Lord's people
that is looked for in the mutual love and sharing that believers
have together. He is endeavouring to encourage
their generosity by indeed referring and informing them and praising
the kindnesses that others have demonstrated who are indeed not
even as well blessed with all the benefits that the Corinthians
possess. So that in this opening verse
here, there's an old English word used that really is now
quite archaic. We don't use it at all really
in this sense anymore. The word is wit. And it's one
of these sort of little amusing phrases in scripture sometimes,
when you read this opening verse of 2 Corinthians chapter 8, where
it says, I do you to wit. And you sort of think to yourself,
well, what enough does that mean? But the word wit or wist as it
sometimes is written in scripture as well or indeed what, W-O-T,
it means to know and we still have a little bit of a vestige
of that word in the word that we have a witness. and a witness
tells about the things that they know. You're not a witness unless
you know what it is that you saw or heard. And that's the
same word. And Paul is saying here to the
Corinthians that he would like them to know about the situation
that pertained in the churches of Macedonia. That's the churches,
probably he's referring to there, is the church at Philippi, the
Philippians, and the church at Thessalonica, the Thessalonians. And how, by God's grace, these
churches that were themselves not wealthy churches that were
under pressure and under adversity, had nevertheless proved to be
generous beyond their ability. And the Apostle applies this
to God's grace. He says in verse 1, it's the
grace of God that was bestowed on the churches of Macedonia
that enabled them and allowed them to act in this way. So that's
worth just clocking, just noting as we move through these verses,
that even the wherewithal to be generous in Christian matters,
in believers' care and love for one another, is itself a grace
from God. It's God's goodness to us. that
we have a care for one another. So the apostles here talking
about this and he says explicitly in verse eight that he's not
writing to command anything about this giving, this care for one
another. But he also goes on to say in
verse 10 that he advises because it is profitable and it is expedient
for the Lord's people to have a care and a generosity one for
another. So there is a history here, there
is a sort of narrative going on as Paul writes to the Corinthians
and he speaks about the churches in Macedonia and he makes reference
to the things that have gone on in the past and Titus' involvement
in the year ago, the willingness to help the churches in Jerusalem
and yet it not being forthcoming. But there's also some general
principles, I think, that are interesting to note in the things
that he has said. And beyond the sort of facts
and the history, I just want to touch upon a few of these
principles and then that will be us done this evening. I kind
of had a little bit of a smile to myself as I was thinking about
this in preparation because having spoken about the poor widow at
the treasury in the temple on Sunday, here we are again talking
about the Lord's people's giving and their care for one another
and what it is to give to the Lord. Well, that wasn't by design,
that's just the way that the chapters fall, at least not by
my design. If it was by the Lord's design,
then I bow to his greater wisdom. One of the things that we can
see in these chapters or in these verses is something that is,
I think, again, another one of these lovely phrases in scripture. I'll tell you when I find these
lovely phrases, these phrases that I enjoy. And if you want
to tell me when you find some lovely phrases, then feel free
to contact me and tell me. But in verse four, he speaks
of the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And I think that's
really delightful. The fellowship of the ministering
to the saints. A minister is just a servant.
So that's the fellowship, the union that we have together in
serving the Lord's people. When we're converted, when we're
brought into a knowledge of salvation, when we see the Lord for who
He is and we see ourselves for what we are and we understand
something of the grace of God and we find that desire going
out to the Lord for the salvation that He has, that's a spiritual
work. but it's a spiritual work that
has practical experience and application in our lives. And
we find ourselves with a desire to dedicate ourselves to the
Lord, because we see that he has dedicated himself to us. And that concept, that idea of
the bride and the bridegroom, which we mention a lot because
I do think it's a very potent picture, I think is designed
to show us just the way in which there is this yearning after
one another as as a couple of young lovers would yearn after
one another, so the Lord and the Lord's people, certainly
in that first flush of love and conversion experience, the Lord's
people have this desire after Him. And we want to give to the
Lord. Now, we know that does not simply
mean that we give our souls, We want to give ourselves. We understand that all that we
have spiritually is of the Lord's goodness. But we also understand
that that is true bodily as well and circumstantially and providentially
and that our life in this world is at the direction and the care
and the behest and the providence of God. So that health and wealth
and ability and circumstances all come from the Lord. And that
we only have what the Lord has loaned to us. All we have is
indeed the Lord's and it is to be used for Him. It's to be given,
it's to be dedicated to the service of our God. And yet, we also
know that we can't actually give the Lord anything. I mean, the
Lord doesn't need anything that I've got. He doesn't need me
to give him anything. So there's actually nothing that
I can do for the Lord because there's nothing that he needs.
So that the only way, the only means that we have of giving
to the Lord is sharing in this fellowship of the ministering
to the saints. It's as we care for each other
that we care for the Lord. Our care for one another is this
ministry, this service to one another in the body of Christ. It is the caring for the Lord's
people, it's in doing that that we demonstrate our dedication
to the Lord. And the Lord tells us that even
a cup of water given to one in need does not go unnoticed. And we're told in Matthew 25
that in the judgment it will be said, inasmuch as ye have
done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have
done it unto me. And if we could but see the Lord
Jesus Christ in our brethren, in our brothers and sisters,
our love for the Lord, our charitable desires for the Lord would be
manifested in care and concern for one another. And our sensibilities,
our sensitivities would be more attuned to each other's needs,
more sensitive to each other, more willing to help, to comfort,
to support, because we can see Christ in our brothers and sisters. Another thing that the Apostle
draws our attention to here in these verses is in verse nine,
where he speaks about the Corinthians' indebtedness to Christ and, by
implication, ours as well. There never was greater in all
the history of the world, there never was greater goodness, more
liberality, more care or concern or greater love than that showed
by the Lord Jesus Christ for his people, his body, his church,
his bride. and our eternal glory, and all
the things that I hath not seen nor ear heard, all those things
that are laid up for us in heaven, is the free gift of divine grace. And our riches, untold and immeasurable
as they are, come because our Lord Jesus Christ and Saviour
impoverished Himself for our sakes and for our well-being. And that's not said by the Apostle
Paul in any way, I'm using an emotive term here, but it'll
let me move quickly through. It's not said in any way to blackmail
or shame these Corinthians, or indeed us. But it puts in context
the fact that their giving and their thinking will never outweigh
their thinking about each other, will never outweigh the indebtedness
that we have to the Lord for the things that he has given
us. Let us not ever underestimate the humiliation of the Lord.
The hymn writer speaks about him being rich beyond all telling. and yet he humbled himself. He
constrained himself in our flesh. He had nowhere to lay his head.
He was a laborer who worked by the sweat of his own brow until
he was 30 years of age. He was a wanderer in this world. And there are many events, many
incidences, many incidents in the Lord's experience in his ministry that
revolve around him being hungry or tired or thirsty, all of which
speak to us of this humanity and the humiliation of the Lord
and yet all of it was so that we might be rich and rich we
are. Not only in spiritual gifts,
our justification, our sanctification, our reconciliation, our glorification,
all the great blessings of salvation which have flowed to us because
of God's goodness and grace are matched in many ways. by practical
examples of God's goodness in the material blessings that we
enjoy day by day. The last point is this. In verse 15 Paul uses an analogy
of the manna in the wilderness and that's where the reference
is from where he speaks of the gathering and those who gathered
much had nothing over and those that gathered little had no lack.
He's talking about the time of the wanderings of the children
of Israel in the wilderness when the Lord supplied manna for them
every morning for their food. And it's an appropriate and illustrative
analogy that he gives us here. It speaks about daily blessings.
You know, you don't worry too much about riches and legacies
and matters of inheritance when you've only got enough food to
see you through the day. The Lord teaches us that our
prayer should be, give us this day our daily bread. And I know,
I'm speaking to myself here, I'm not trying to lay things
on you that I'm not taking on board myself. Give us this day
our daily bread. I don't know that I've ever had
to worry about my daily bread in the whole of my life. And
yet that was Israel's lot. God's provision to them was seen
day by day for 40 years. He cared for them every day for
40 years until they entered into the Promised Land. Every day
there was sufficient for the day. There's a lesson there for
us. No matter how much was collected,
when everyone had gathered And everyone came to measure what
they had. The person that had gathered
more didn't have anything over. And the person that had gathered
less didn't lack anything. And there's a lesson there too.
A lesson about storing up for ourselves more than we need.
Like the rich man who pulled down his barns in order to build
bigger. The Lord said of him, Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee, and whose shall
these things be? Let's be careful about what preoccupies
our energies, remembering that the Lord giveth and the Lord
taketh away. And the manna didn't last. It
couldn't be kept beyond its time, with the exception of the Sabbath
day for other lessons to be learned. If it was kept any longer than
the day in which it was given, the Sabbath accepted, it stank
and it contained worms. Now I don't know whether that's
directly applicable to inherited wealth or not, but very often
the lives of those who have no need to work for their living,
no need to work for their daily bread, resembles the manna that
has gone off. Whatever our daily lives contain,
from the rich man in his castle to the poor man at his gate,
real peace, real contentment and joy is not found in the amount
of our possessions. It is found only in Christ. Christ is the manna, he is the
living bread. And that manna in the days of
Israel served the poorest and the richest equally amongst the
children of Israel. It served the smartest and the
dumbest, the oldest and the youngest. And none of us have any more
or any less than what Christ gives to us. And we should take
every opportunity to return thanks to the Lord. And we return thanks
to the Lord by caring for the needs of one another, for looking
after the well-being of our brothers and our sisters, practically,
spiritually, personally, as the Lord gives us opportunity and
burden to do so. May he teach us some lessons
from Paul's writings to the Corinthians. Amen.