Revolutionary Generosity.

See Charts.

Alarming figures: 1991 US News and World Report: 65-74 yrs old gave 4.4% of their income;18-24 yrs old gave 1.2% of it. (1992:3.1; 0.6 respectiv.)

2003 Barna: Average giving to religious centers 2.2% of gross income. Born Again who tithed 7%; Catholics 1%; Non Born Again 2%. Most likely to give: Evangelicals 14% African-Americans 7% Pentecostals 7%

Non Profit Source reported this figures for 2020:

8/10 people who give to churches have zero credit debt.

Tithers make up only 10-25 percent of a normal congregation.

Only 5% tithe, and 80% of Americans only give 2% of their income. Christians are giving at 2.5% of income; during the Great Depression it was 3.3%.

Only 3-5% of Americans who give to their local church do so through regular tithing.

The average giving by adults who attend US Protestant churches is about $17 a week.

37% of regular church attendees and Evangelicals don’t give money to church.

What a contrast with the believers of the Primitive Church, especially with the Macedonians.

Read 2 Cor 8:1-15

Here Paul is giving testimony to the Corinthians about the generosity of the Macedonians. People who practiced a Revolutionary Generosity.

It is sacrificial giving.

1-5a

They gave despite their circumstances.

Three churches existed in the Macedonian area: Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea.

These people were not living in the best circumstances; they were suffering tribulation:

1 Thessalonians 1:6 NASB95

You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit,

Philippians 1:29 NASB95

For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,

They were not wealthy! On the contrary, they lived in “deep poverty” (2 Cor 8:2): that word describes a beggar who has nothing and has not hope of getting anything.

But they gave with liberality (simplicity, sincerity, purity, not self-seeking), abundantly. 2

It was not a forced generosity.

3 “of their own accord”. Authairetoi: of their own initiative. There was no pressure; they gave because they wanted to give.

They sought the opportunity to give.

2 cor 8 4

2 Corinthians 8:4 NASB95

begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints,

Why? Because they considered it a privilege, not a burden. How do you consider it?

They gave abundantly.

They gave more than what they “could”. 3

“Beyond their ability”.

“I can’t give”, is the common excuse of many. “I am too poor”.

“He who gives what he would as readily throw away, gives without generosity; for the essence of generosity is in self-sacrifice.” - Sir Henry Taylor, quoted in New Beginnings

Apparently, Paul was reluctant to ask from them because he knew their poverty. But they demanded the privilege of participating in giving. “They begged us”. They gave with enthusiasm.

Usually beggars beg to receive, here beggars beg to give!

Their giving surprised even Paul and his team:

2 Corinthians 8:5 NASB95

and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.

It is a giving motivated by love.

5b-8

First of all, their love for God.

They were generous givers, despite their poverty (ptoxeia: mendicity), because they had given themselves to the Lord.

It was a total surrender! They understood that everything they had, even their life, belonged to the Lord. 5b

When we give ourselves to God, we will not have a problem surrendering our possessions to Him, and giving ourselves to others.

“It’s not what you do with the million if fortune should ere be your lot, but what are you doing at present with the dollar and quarter you got.”

They demonstrated their love for God by living in accordance to God’s will.

Their spirituality was shown through love that gives.

The exhortation to the Corinthians is to abound in generosity. In other words, it was not enough to have their gifts and abilities; they had to learn to give.

2 Corinthians 8:7 NASB95

But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also.

Illust. The Miser

Our emphasis on spiritual things does not excuse us from the practical things.

Generous giving is the proof of the sincerity of our love to God and others.

2 Corinthians 8:8 NASB95

I am not speaking this as a command, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also.

Philippians 4:15 NASB95

You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone;

It is giving as Jesus gave.

9-12

Giving is the essence of grace!

Jesus came to this world to give God’s grace to sinners…

Whatever good we may have, we have it because God’s grace…

If we have experienced God’s grace, we should never use our circumstances as an excuse for not giving.

He gave His life for other’s welfare.

Through their giving, the Macedonians were imitating Christ!

Christ became poor for our sake, to enrich us.

2 Corinthians 8:9 NASB95

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

1 John 3:16 NASB95

We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Some people say, “I do not want to become poor to make others rich!” But Christ did exactly that! He didn’t think in His comfort but in ours.“

It is for our advantage to give having the desire to do.

2 Corinthians 8:10 NASB95

I give my opinion in this matter, for this is to your advantage, who were the first to begin a year ago not only to do this, but also to desire to do it.

Because God sees beyond the amount; He sees the willingness of the person.

2 Corinthians 8:11–12 NASB95

But now finish doing it also, so that just as there was the readiness to desire it, so there may be also the completion of it by your ability. For if the readiness is present, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.

προθῡμία, readiness, willingness, eagerness, zeal,