2 Cor. 8:8-15 Love & Generosity

Love & Generosity

2 Corinthians 8:8-15

Why are true Christ followers generous? Why are true Christ followers more loving?

Changed heart…results in changed action. The Impetus to give and to love(the two are inseparable) find their source in the gospel of Christ. (Guthrie 404)

Main Idea: Generosity flows from genuine love based on understanding and experiencing the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The main idea is the main point...the point of the text.

Generosity flows from genuine love based on understanding and experiencing the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.

If you are giving because you are told to, you will stop as soon as you sense you are not being told to or you think that you can get away with not giving.

The Bible does not teach generosity simply as sense of duty...generosity flows from genuine love

The Bible does not teach that feeling generous is generosity either... but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.

The real test of the genuineness of any inward affection is not so much the character of the feeling as it reveals itself in our consciousness, as the course of action to which it leads. Many persons, if they judged themselves by their feelings, would regard themselves as truly compassionate; but a judgment founded on their acts would lead to the opposite conclusion. (Hodge 575)

How then should we practice generosity?

Grace giving comes from a heart changed by the grace of God resulting in love that is genuine.

9 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 by his poverty might become rich.

Speaking to the reality of every true Christ follower.

you know-understand(knowledge) and experience(translate into your daily life)

grace of our Lord Jesus Christ undeserved and unearned favor and love bestowed on his people..

that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor,

Paradox: Did Jesus ever cease to be rich? Did he ever cease to be God?

Yet...The nail prints remain in the hands of the risen Lord. (Seifrid 330)

so that you by his poverty might become rich

2 Cor 5:21 great exchange Christ took our poverty and gave us his riches.

By means of his poverty, Christ communicates his riches to the Corinthians. It is not by Christ’s riches that the Corinthians are made rich, but by his poverty, in which those riches are hidden. Paul’s language is shocking, especially for the Corinthians, who had a taste for finer things, especially when it came to apostles. Their upward striving has been countered by the condescension of Christ. Their twisted values are undone by his grace. (Seifrid 331) We must never forget that it is only through his poverty that we may become rich. There was a price to be paid for the blessings we enjoy in Christ. Included in the price was the cost of the incarnation of the pre-existent Son into a fallen world, but great though that was, it was just the beginning. There was also the cost of rejection, ridicule, persecution, betrayal and suffering, all culminating in the agony of Gethsemane and the cross. These things together made up the full price of our salvation (cf. Rom. 3:22b–26; 1 Cor. 5:7; 6:19–20; 15:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13–14; 1 Pet. 1:18–20). (Kruse 204)

Does rich mean money and wealth? No! However, the grace of Christ is an absolute gift. (Seifrid 331)

Why is verse 9 in the text?

1. Source and foundation of love.

2. Example of genuine love.

Mark 10:45 ESV

45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Christ has saved us by his grace and called us by his grace to follow Him. We are called to serve and give our lives for the sake of the gospel.

Following Christ on the path of discipleship turns out to be following a path of extravagant, grace-filled giving. To say it from another perspective, if we are going to (embrace generosity), we(must) first embrace the gospel and its implications. (Guthrie 406)

Have I embraced the gospel? (not gospel so that you can be generous)

So What?

Is genuine love moving us from generous intentions to generous action?

10 And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it.

1 Corinthians 16:1–4 ESV

1 Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. 3 And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. 4 If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me.

...the Corinthians’ good intentions had failed to produce further results over the past year. (Kruse 205)

Paul knows that words expressing love come cheaply and can be faked; genuine love will show up in the checkbook. (Garland 376)

11 So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. 12 For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.

move from readiness in desiring to completing it out of what you have moving from generous intentions to generous action.

What was holding them back? Any number of dynamics can cause a stall in moving from the first to the second--laziness, excuses, procrastination, (spending resources elsewhere) confusion over how to proceed--but not acting on what one knows to be right constitutes a spiritual problem. In this regard we are called to (be) “doers of the Word” (James 1:22). (Guthrie 408)

May have been that the culture around them was influencing them. Corinthians were into being well know, large benefactors. So, the logic may be that since they did not have a lot they would give nothing.

Paul instructs them to give “according to what a person has”

The flesh is always ingenious in devising excuses, and some plead that they have families it would be unkind to neglect, and some use the fact that they cannot give much as an excuse for giving nothing…. Paul takes away all excuses of this kind by telling them that each of them should contribute according to his ability and he adds, as his reason, that God looks not at the amount but at the heart. (Guthrie 411-412)

In the end, true love never leaves us content just to talk; it has to be expressed in practical ways (cf. Luke 19:1–10; 1 John 3:16–18). (Kruse 205)

1 John 3:16–18 ESV

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Illus: Encourage you for your continued generosity to those in need…helping your brothers and sisters in the congregation and helping those who are struggling in the community.

Though this passage is primarily about giving to those in need, I want to make you aware of another area of generosity that relates to this principle, giving that supports the work and mission of the church.

July one of the largest giving months for July in history. However, August was the lowest giving month since the beginning of the pandemic, significantly so. I trust that you will respond accordingly.

Is genuine love resulting in shared concern and shared generosity among us?

13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14 your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness.

Acts 2:42–47 ESV

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

The two texts are not to be construed to mean a form of socialism where all money is pooled together with equal distribution. Notice need and abundance(v. 14). The “fairness” is the sharing of those in abundance with those in need or better said those who are well supplied with those are coming up short. Note, he anticipates that the roles could be reversed. “...there must be such an equality that nobody starves and nobody hordes his abundance at another’s expense.’ (Kruse 208)

Illus: Chorti crop failure and the dire situation of the people several years ago. Parkwood gave more than enough to feed the Chorti in the area surrounding Copan Ruinas.

Illus: Supply for those in current difficulty, supply is readily available and I am confident more will be shared as any among us has need.

Further thought....Illus: Prepared to assist sister churches in need.

Are we trusting in God’s supply for today and for the future?

15 As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”

Exodus 16:16–18 ESV

16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.’ ” 17 And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. 18 But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat.

Paul’s appeal to the Exodus text drives home his message that God is the One who is the source of all human giving and receiving. (Seifrid 338) God remains the final Giver, who out of his own goodness creates givers who know and share in his goodness. (Seifrid 333) Indeed, only because of this absolute Giver can there be any true giving at all. (Seifrid 338)

1 Chronicles 29:14 ESV

14 “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.

Illus: Growth in generosity...exponential Sunday 2006

Stories of generosity still to be written…because of the work gospel in our lives and for the sake of the gospel. Generosity flows from genuine love based on understanding and experiencing the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Prayer for offering from genuine love resulting in generosity.

Insert: Elder and Lobby.

Tailgate—information tent to help you find your group. No agenda…just eating and being together with your GG and seeing others at the same time. Let’s be safe and wise.

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