A Cheerful Giver

Bountiful Reaping

English Standard Version Chapter 9

9 Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, 2 for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year. And your zeal has stirred up most of them.

Paul uses a word in these first two verses (superfluous) and in using this word he is actually telling the people that he is doing this redundantly, in other words the question is not necessary because he knows them. I will use these opening verses to acknowledge this about you. For we know that God has blessed us abundantly.

3 But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be. 4 Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—for being so confident. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 2 Co 9:3–5.

Paul knows how important it is for the ministry of the kingdom that the Christians support the ministry. It seems that everything costs. As we become the hands and feet of Christ who gave all to us, we must remember that He has called us to partner with Him in ministry to all the world.

What about the Macedonians, how do they fit into this story? Paul had been bragging about the Corinthians readiness to give. It seems that Paul is encouraging each other to give abundantly. How could we encourage each other to give abundantly?

English Standard Version Chapter 9

The Cheerful Giver

Perhaps some of us could share stories about how God has blessed us in our giving. 6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 2 Co 9:6. I would encourage each of you to think about how God is blessing you. We are definitely in a time of great need. We want to meet the needs of disaffiliation but we also want to focus on more than just our needs. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 9 As it is written,

“He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;

his righteousness endures forever.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 2 Co 9:7–9.

The scriptures inform us that God supplies the seed to the sower. We are the sower. As we participate in the Kingdom God supplies our needs.

English Standard Version Chapter 9

10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. 12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. 13 By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, 14 while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. 15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

In tithing, God asks us to test him. This is the only time in the Bible that He asks us to test Him. We must give from our abundance and see what God does for us. This passage from Malachi 3 is actually concerning robbing from God. I want to read the full passage to you.

Robbing God

6 “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ 8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts. 12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mal 3:6–12.