Sermon Tone Analysis

2 Corinthians 8:16-24

Distributing Our Gifts

 

I thank God, who put into the heart of Titus the same concern I have for you.

For Titus not only welcomed our appeal, but he is coming to you with much enthusiasm and on his own initiative.

And we are sending along with him the brother who is praised by all the churches for his service to the gospel.

What is more, he was chosen by the churches to accompany us as we carry the offering, which we administer in order to honour the Lord himself and to show our eagerness to help.

We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift.

For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men.

In addition, we are sending with them our brother who has often proved to us in many ways that he is zealous, and now even more so because of his great confidence in you.

As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker among you; as for our brothers, they are representatives of the churches and an honour to Christ.

Therefore show these men the proof of your love and the reason for our pride in you, so that the churches can see it.

| S |

ome years ago in Vancouver, the spiritual leader of the Cabalarian Society, a numerology cult located in that city, was arraigned before the courts for sexual misconduct and misappropriation of cult funds.

The case was the subject of radio talk shows for months.

The newspapers dispatched reporters to dig into multiplied allegations of misconduct, including financial mismanagement and fraud.

Reporters charged that members of the cult claimed losses greater than sixteen million dollars over a period of years as result of misuse of donated funds.

The charges of financial deceit and deception are not so different from those pressed against Christian spiritual leaders a couple of decades back, including such former religious luminaries as Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart.

You may recall that when charges were first pressed against Mr. Bakker and later against Mr. Swaggart, supporters amazingly denied that either was capable of financial mismanagement.

A frequent theme heard then, and a theme heard among members of the aforesaid Cabalarian Society, was that moneys are given by donors and that is the end of donor responsibility.

Can it be true that when we have given funds to a cause we bear no further responsible?

Have we no responsibility to review the work of those organisations to whom we make donations?

As Christians, do we bear any responsibility to insure financial integrity of charities to which we contribute?

What responsibilities does God impose on those churches receiving contributions?

If money represents the labours of those possessing it—money being a medium of exchange obtained through labour—it has an intimate attachment to those possessing it.

Therefore, do we not bear responsibility for the ultimate employment, for the administration of our donated funds?

The questions are not so remote as we might imagine; they are central to wise giving.

Christians are to be generous, and they are to support those institutions which contribute to their spiritual welfare and to the advance of God’s Kingdom.

However, not every religious society bears the blessing of God.

There are too many religious societies which superficially appear to be Christian and are yet false.

Paul warned about such people when he cautioned the elders of Ephesus: I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.

Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them [*Acts 20:29-30*].

Administrators of Church Funds must Have Clear Concern for the Local Congregation.

I thank God, who put into the heart of Titus the same concern I have for you.

For Titus not only welcomed our appeal, but he is coming to you with much enthusiasm and on his own initiative.

And we are sending along with him the brother who is praised by all the churches for his service to the gospel.

When we select and appoint those to administer the funds donated to the church, we must give primary consideration to their spiritual qualifications.

I insist on sound financial principles by administrators.

I am equally convinced that we require skilled men and women trained in administering the books so that an accurate and honest report is always available to the people of God.

Nevertheless, the first criterion for individuals chosen by the congregation to perform this service is that they must be trustworthy, having the good of the Body uppermost in their minds.

Paul was concerned for the health of all the churches, and especially was he concerned for those churches he had visited and among whom he had invested service, prayer and tears.

Therefore, demonstrating his concern, he dispatched Titus, whom he trusted as a father would trust a beloved son, together with certain unnamed brothers who were known to all the churches.

Most importantly for our focus at this moment, these unnamed brothers were known to the Corinthian church and trusted by them as those concerned for the welfare of the congregation.

Who were these unnamed brothers?

We cannot say with certainty, but that has not stopped theologians and scholars from speculating.

Probably as good a guess as any is that Luke was one of these men.

Whoever the men may have been, they were well known to Corinthians.

Their names may be included among a list of travellers with the Apostle provided in *Acts 20:4*.

There, we read of Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia, and of course, Luke.

Whoever the brothers may have been, they were well known to the Corinthians and to other Macedonian and Achaian churches.

On the basis of *2 Corinthians 8:22*, we may speculate that they were noted for their evangelistic zeal: we are sending with them our brother who has often proved to us in many ways that he is zealous, and now even more so because of his great confidence in you.

Here is a note of considerable importance.

The brothers chosen by the churches to administer the funds were likely evangelists.

We are quick to appoint zealous soul-winners to evangelism committees or other such committees which we associate with outreach and mission; but perhaps we should insure that each person appointed to a finance committee—or to any church position itself—has an evangelistic heart.

Those administering the funds of the church ought to be zealous for the spread of the Gospel and for winning the lost to the Faith.

Failure to invest our funds in winning the lost is an offence against divine love.

The church which fails to direct its moneys into evangelism and missionary enterprise is a church which has forgotten its purpose; and appointment of evangelists to the official boards of that church would go far toward rectifying the stupefying malaise which dulls the spiritual senses.

As a corollary to this matter of appointment of those with evangelistic hearts to official positions within the congregation, note that it is only those with a heart for evangelism who are capable of serving to please the Lord.

Only those who desire the salvation of the lost can be said to be concerned for the welfare and the continued vitality of the local congregation.

For to neglect the salvation of the lost is to condemn the church to a hopeless future marked by an absence of fresh life and plagued with steady decrease—and ultimately facing death.

Administrators of Church Funds must Seek the Lord’s Honour in Every Action.

What is more, he was chosen by the churches to accompany us as we carry the offering, which we administer in order to honour the Lord himself.

I have no doubt that those concerned for the welfare of the local congregation will also wish to honour the Lord Christ.

As a guiding principle to any congregation, and especially to our own congregation, determine that every service, that every ministry, that every act performed by the congregation or by individual members, must have the Lord’s honour central to the planning and implementation.

Paul boldly states that the administration of funds received is designed to honour, literally *to glorify*, the Lord Himself.

I seriously doubt that anyone present today would dispute the thought that we ought to honour the Lord.

However, I am equally confident that we hold differing ideas of how we may best honour the Lord.

Ultimately, as a people of the Book, we must determine how to honour the Lord, not through listening to the most strident voices among us nor through a democratic procedure, but through appeal to His revealed will in the Book.

As we continue our study of this letter, we will discover that we honour the Lord as we openly administer donated funds, through adopting an attitude welcoming accountability, and through insuring an environment which encourages generosity.

Each of these actions must have the will of Christ central to both planning and implementation, and Christ’s glory shall be ensured as we witness souls saved and lives transformed through our ministry.

I am concerned by a tendency among our churches to appoint individuals charged with administration of church funds who seem to know the cost of everything but know the value of nothing.

I am concerned, not by legitimate questions which challenge the congregation to weigh the most effective and the most efficient distribution of funds, but I am concerned for that view which sees only the bottom line on the finance sheet.

Such a view exchanges the eternal for the temporal.

That view exchanges true wealth for earthly trinkets and ephemeral baubles.

That view devalues Christ through attempting to place a price on the priceless message of life and salvation of souls.

The ultimate appeal for the Christian is whether Christ is glorified, whether souls are confronted with the love of Christ, whether lives are transformed by the grace of God.

In the salvation of souls and in the building up of the Body of Christ our Lord is glorified.

Administration of Church Funds Must Always be Open Before God and Man.

We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift.

For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men.

From earliest days as a minister of the Gospel I have insisted on biblical principle that the business of the church ought to be open before all mankind.

A full accounting of receipts and of the distribution of the gifts received ought to be rendered to the congregation on a regular basis.

The surest guard against error in administration of funds is to provide regular reports to the people giving the gifts.

The surest means to engender suspicion and questions over administration of funds is through concealment.

The human mind naturally wonders about what is done in the dark.

Since we are children of the light, let us insure that our work and that the administration of gifts received is always performed in the light.

This is in keeping with the Word of God.

In *John 3:19-21* we discover: Light has come into the world…  [W]hoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.

Let this word serve to guide our actions.

In *Ephesians 5:8*, we have received the admonition: Live as children of the light.

While the context clearly demands that we make every effort to foster the fruit of the light within the church (goodness, righteousness and truth), it involves as well every effort to nurture unity and to dispel doubt.

That instruction reminding us that the fruit of the light consists in … truth is applicable to the instruction given the Corinthians in the text, and is consequently given to all saints.

Let me review the dangers associated with secret administration of received goods, refreshing your memory concerning the wisdom of openness in administration of donated goods.

The great danger of secret disbursement of received funds, besides denying that we live in the light, lies in the fact that those donating the funds lose any sense of ownership.

Those giving gifts receive a message that they are untrustworthy, that they are not capable of making decisions concerning distributing donated funds.

The membership of the assembly is reduced to a mere source of moneys and is thus devalued and treated with disdain.

Donors themselves become disconnected and ultimately begin to respond solely to emotional appeals instead of applying reason and forethought to giving.

Secrecy in administration of church funds insures that the people degenerate into giving by rote—a pernicious expression of legalism.

At the last, generosity is stifled and compassion is silenced and the church grows cold and uncaring.

In contrast to this attitude of secrecy, an attitude of openness values individuals as gifted members of the Body of Christ and admits the dignity of the individual within that Body.

Openness seeks participation in the planning of and in disbursement of funds, thus advancing compassion and responsiveness to genuine needs among the membership of the church.