Slices
Prepare
Ask God to show you how to share what you have in order to help others.
Bible passage
9 There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the Lord’s people. 2 For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. 3 But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be. 4 For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we – not to say anything about you – would be ashamed of having been so confident. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.
Generosity encouraged
6 Remember this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:
‘They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures for ever.’
10 Now 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. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others 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. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Explore
In his hometown of Leeds, Robert Arthington (1823–1900) was known as the ‘Miser of Headingley’. He had inherited a fortune but lived frugally. Unknown to his neighbours, he was using his wealth to transform thousands of lives by funding mission stations, clinics, ships and many other projects to spread the good news of Jesus.*
Although we may not have a fortune at our disposal, we all have the opportunity not only to meet the needs of others, but to enable them to give thanks to God (v 12). Have you experienced the blessing of being able to help others (Proverbs 22:9)?
Summing up his plea for funds on behalf of the impoverished Christians in Jerusalem, Paul reminds the Corinthians that they are privileged to work with a generous God. As God supplies our needs, we can help meet the needs of others. The principle of sowing generously and reaping generously has been misused in ‘prosperity gospel’ teaching, but in verses 10 and 11 the emphasis is on receiving so as to be able to give more. What can you share with others in response to God’s generosity to you?
*Brian Stanley, The History of the Baptist Missionary Society, 1792–1992, T&T Clark, 1992
Respond
‘O teach me, Lord, to walk this road, / The road of simple living; / To be content with what I own / And generous in giving … / … I’d rather lose all the things of earth / To gain the things of heaven.’**
**From ‘Simple Living’, Stuart Townend, Keith and Kristyn Getty, Thankyou Music, 2011
Deeper Bible study
Take stock today of the ways in which you have been blessed. Do not take any of it for granted. Give thanks to God for everything.
We hear from some quarters about the so-called ‘health and wealth’ gospel – the idea that if we trust in God then good health and overflowing wealth are as good as guaranteed. For some it is an enticing doctrine, yet it seems to bear no relation to the ‘man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief’1 we recognise in Jesus, nor indeed to Paul’s own sufferings. Then again, it is not as though God wants us to be sick and to live in poverty! This passage has much to say about the generosity of God towards us and God’s ability ‘to bless you abundantly, so that … you will abound in every good work’ (v 8). There is indeed a promise here that those who freely take the risk of giving all to God and imitating God’s generosity will have no cause to fear that they will go without (v 6).
What is at stake is the difference between a promise and a technique. Once we have turned faith into a technique by which we manipulate God, to gain a particular advantage, we have certainly gone astray. That is a pagan, not Christian, way of relating to God, an attempt to magic out of God what we believe to be in our own self-interest. This is not what Paul speaks of here. He is concerned with the God of promise who can be trusted to provide for those who freely trust him. God gives generously so that we may live generously (v 11). In view here are the poor (v 12), not already wealthy organisations or individuals.
It is true that we reap what we sow. What we give out determines what we receive back. Sowing is a specific and intentional action, a task that we deliberately set about. Let’s always turn in that direction.
‘To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life.’2
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: 1 Chronicles 28,29; Psalms 70,71
Pray for Scripture Union
Pray for Local Mission Partner The Youth Net in Staffordshire as they help Year 6 pupils prepare to move to secondary school learning from Jesus’ example of being a good friend, and as they run Year 7 Survival Skills workshops.
