1 Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;
2 How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.
3 For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves;
4 Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
5 And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.
6 Insomuch that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also.
7 Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.
8 I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.
9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
10 And herein I give my advice: for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago.
11 Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have.
Introduction
The apostle Paul tells us this when he writes in the book of 2 Corinthians 9:7: “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” The word purposeth means in the Greek “to chose beforehand.” And it is saying to us that our giving is not to be haphazard—it is to be something that we carefully think about and pray over. And we know exactly what we intend to do.
So the word of God teaches us that we should make some kind of commitment concerning our Christian stewardship. And all that we have been doing in the last three weeks has been building up to this one time of decision.
We have talked about Christian stewardship already and we have heard a number of testimonies. And at the close of sermon I am going to ask you to decide in advance what you intend to do concerning Christian stewardship this next year. It is my hope and prayer that many of you who have not yet made that decision will decide you will begin to tithe. And some of you will decide to continue to tithe and some of you will decide to go beyond that and whatever you decide is between you and the Lord but it is my purpose to encourage you to some definite, concrete decision concerning Christian stewardship right here today.
The context of this encouraging people to decide in advance is an offering that Paul has collected for the poor Christians in Jerusalem. They were struggling under adversity and economic hardship and as he traveled around to the Gentile churches he was encouraging them to give an offering to help meet needs of these poor Christians in Jerusalem. He had already mentioned this offering to the church at Corinth and they had responded favorably to his appeal. So he had said in 1 Corinthians 16:2, “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” He said you do it on the first day of the week because that is when Christians met together. They didn’t meet on the Jewish Sabbath; they met on the day of resurrection, the first day of the week. He said, “Lay by him in store” meaning, “lay it aside, collect it and put aside,” and you do that giving as God has prospered you. He didn’t expect everybody to give the same amount. He expected them to give as God had blessed and as God had prospered. The more he had prospered a person, the more that person ought to give. And he says you do this so that there will be no gatherings when I come. We won’t have to take the collection when I get there. It will already be collected, it will already be available, and I can take it and distribute it to the poor Christians in Jerusalem.
Though they had had some good intentions, the church at Corinth had not followed through on those good intentions. Good feelings need to be followed by good actions. In fact if feelings remain feelings and they never push you forth into concrete action, then there is something sad and lacking in the experience. And it is the whole teaching of the Bible that desires ought to turn into holy impulses that ought to issue forth into the right kinds of actions. So the church in Corinth had felt inclined to do something in the way of offering for the poor in Jerusalem but had not followed through with their good intentions. And so their noble feelings had remained nothing more than that—just feelings. So Paul writes in 2 Corinthians to spur them on, to motivate them to do what they had intended to do more than a year before.
Nothing quite inspires us to good endeavors like a good example. And so he starts this passage in 2 Corinthians 8 with a good example of the giving of the church in Macedonia. He holds them up as a sterling example as to the way all Christians ought to give.
There are three things that characterize the giving of the churches in Macedonia. And we are told about that giving in the first six verses of 2 Corinthians 8.
The first thing that characterized their giving is sacrifice. They gave sacrificially. In fact Paul tells us in verse 2 that they gave out of deep poverty. Those words deep poverty literally means in the Greek “down to the bottom poverty.” Or as we would say in East Texas, they were scraping the bottom of the barrel.
In Macedonia they were having a hard time economically. But they didn’t let that stop them from giving. They scraped the bottom of the barrel and from those scrapings they gave generously. They gave abundantly of what they had. They didn’t give just as their neighbors gave. They didn’t give that which they did not want or need for themselves. They didn’t give just that which was convenient to give, they gave more than they could really afford to give. They give sacrificially and that’s always the way God’s people ought to give.
And the Macedonians stand as a noble example to you and me to give sacrificially. Not only was their giving characterized by sacrifice, it was characterized by spontaneity. They gave spontaneously. Paul said we didn’t have to beg them to give. And we didn’t have to pressure them to give. In fact they came to us asking for the opportunity to give. You know the only thing necessary to God’s people ought to be to point out a need. And then we ought not to have to beg the people of God to give or to pressure the people of God to give. If they know there is a need, they ought to want to get to meeting that need. That’s the way these Macedonians gave.
They gave sacrificially, they gave spontaneously. And then they gave spiritually. Paul says they gave not as we had expected, they first gave themselves to the Lord. And all true giving ought to stem from the giving of ourselves to the Lord. Friend, whatever else you do in Christian stewardship, give yourself to Jesus Christ first. You can give your money and never give yourself. But you cannot give yourself without giving of your resources to God. So my appeal is, first give yourself to the Lord. And then begin to grow in the grace of giving. And Paul as he challenges the church at Corinth and as he challenges you and me in the matter of stewardship says, “I want to call your attention to the way the churches in Macedonia gave. They gave sacrificially, they gave spontaneously, they gave spiritually, and they gave out of their poverty. They asked us for the privilege of giving and they started by laying their life on the altar to God.” That’s the way we ought to give.
Having cited this noble example, he then tries to motivate the church at Corinth about what it ought to do in stewardship. As he attempts to motivate, he uses three things to motivate them. If you are taking notes on the sermon, these are the three things that you will want to take down.
First of all, Christian giving is essential for the completion of Christian character. He points out that these people in Corinth have a lot of gifts and a lot of abilities and a lot of Christian virtues. But he says there is one thing missing from your Christian character. You will never be as complete, as whole, as well- rounded as you ought to be as a Christian until you add that one thing that is lacking and that is a generous giving spirit.
So the first motivating character in giving is that we might develop a complete Christian character and become whole and mature and everything that God wants us to be. I hope that is your desire. I hope you don’t stop short in your Christian experience. That you will go on to become everything that God wants you to be. Let me tell you, you can’t ever become everything God wants you to be unless you learn to give generously and joyfully.
Then there is a second motivating factor. That is that we might prove the genuineness of our love. It’s easy to say we love God. We can sing, “Oh, how I love Jesus.” It is easy for us to talk about loving the word and to sing about rescue the perishing, but somewhere along the way our religion needs to be more than words. There needs to be some concreteness to it. And Paul said your gift proves. It is a tangible evidence of the sincerity of your love.
And the third motivating factor is the example of Jesus Christ. And he points us to the fact that Jesus Christ was rich in heaven, sharing heaven with God and all of its blessings and glory, and he gave up those riches and became poor so that we through his poverty might be made rich and have the sterling example of our Savior to teach us and to motivate us to give generously and liberally.
Three things ought to motivate you to give. Not because people beg you to give. Not because you feel pressured to give. Not because you are afraid God will zap you if you don’t give.
1. You ought to give, first of all, because you want your Christian character to be complete.
You want to grow to be Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.” He had pointed out that the church in Corinth had a lot of virtues. A lot of wonderful characteristics. But he says you are deficient in one area. Your Christian character lacks completeness. He says you have faith with whole-hearted trust in God. And you have utterance, which means the ability to express faith. To communicate what you believe convincingly. He said, you have knowledge, you understand the deep truths of God. And he says you have zeal. You have enthusiasm in the work of God. You can put your whole heart into it and you have a love for God and a love for me. But he said there is still something lacking in your Christian experience—your character is not as complete as it ought to be. So I encourage you to abound in these other things that you abound in this grace also.
What a tragic thing it is to be lopsided in your Christian experience. To grow in grace and in knowledge and in your ability to communicate and in your faith and in your love, but not to grow in your liberality. And until you grow to be generous and joyful in your giving, you will not be the whole Christian you ought to be.
You know it is tragic to see a person grow in one area and not grow in another. Some of you remember reading about Babe Didrikson Zaharias, perhaps the greatest woman athlete ever to live in America. In 1932 she won gold medals in the Olympics in the hurdles and in the javelin throw. She was not only a great track star, but she was an All-American twice as a basketball player. She was an outstanding swimmer. She didn’t play golf until she was grown. But in 10 short years after she took up golf, she won 17 major tournaments. In 1953 they discovered that Babe had cancer. So she had surgery and immediately upon dismal after surgery and treatment she left the hospital and went to Florida and played in the Tampa Bay Classic Golf Tournament.
She wasn’t running away. Shortly before she died she was interviewed by the man who was later to write the biography of her life. So, they talked about a lot of things—childhood and her sport’s activities, her relationships in life and eventually they got around to talking about religion. She said, “When I was just a child I learned some prayers. And though you wouldn’t call me a churchgoing Christian, all of my life I have continued to say those prayers I learned as a child.” Now that may sound sweet to you but there is something tragic in it to me. Here is a woman who has developed athletic skills to the height. She had become a gold medal winner in the Olympics. She had become a champion golfer. She had developed her athletic ability as high as a person could possibly go and she was still saying the prayers of a little child. Can you imagine that athletic genius kneeling by her bed at night saying, “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the lord my soul to keep”?
It would be tragic for a person to grow physically and intellectually and economically and socially and never to grow and mature spiritually. And Paul is concerned about every believer stopping short in his Christian experience and not becoming all that God wants him to be. And that’s why he says, “Brethren, grow in the grace of giving,” because if you do not, you will never complete your Christian character.
When we completed this sanctuary I wrote to a lot of our people and appealed to all of you to have a part in a special offering so that we could have this enlargement program paid for the day we moved into it. And I received along with the check this letter from one of our members, “The grace of our Lord is ever present in permitting his loved ones to give of their time and their resources. It is this outpouring of grace and love by our Savior that gives me the privilege of giving through this church. Nothing has helped my journey for Christian maturity more than stewardship in giving.”
Nothing has helped my journey toward Christian maturity like stewardship in giving. And I’m persuaded that there is a point beyond which you cannot grow spiritually if you do not learn how to give. That’s why I have said before and I shall say it again: the church can get along without your money, but I’m not sure you can get along without giving it because you stifle your spiritual growth at that point if you do not learn to give joyfully and generously. Paul says, “Brethren, there is a lot of good in you. But there is something lacking—grow in this grace also.”
That is a good motivating factor—to become complete in Jesus Christ.
2. You must give to prove your love.
There is a second reason, which is to prove your love. “I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.”
That word sincerity is a Greek word that literally means “without wax.” It comes from the idea of the pottery makers sometimes the process of making a bowl or a vase would crack it. They had invested some time and energy in that cracked vessel and they didn’t want to throw it away, and so they would take hot wax that had been colored and they would put into the crack to disguise the flaw in the vessel.
If you weren’t careful when you bought a vase or a pot down at the marketplace, you would get one that was cracked. So the careful shopper would take the vase and would hold it to the sun and let the sunlight shine through so that if there was a crack in it, if it had been covered over with wax, you could detect the flaw in it. But if it had no cracks and no wax in those cracks, it was called sincere or genuine or flawless. And Paul says, “Brethren, I want you to give so that you can prove that your love has no cracks in it. So that you can prove that your Christian experience is genuine and not a bunch of wax. Prove the sincerity of your love.”
You know that love is the distinguishing mark of a Christian. You can add to and take away a lot of things in the Christian life but Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.”
John said, “Brethren, let us love not in word only but in deed and in truth.” It’s easy to love in word. It’s easy to say, “I love you.” It’s easy to sing, “We love the Lord.” But he said, “Look, let it go beyond words. I want you to love in deed and in truth. I want there to be something tangible about your love. I want to see a concreteness about your love.” And he says one of the ways that you make your love tangible is by your giving.
You know the way you give shows how much you love God, how much you love other people, and how much you love yourself. The way you spend your money. If you were to make a checkbook checkup, it would indicate very vividly how much you love the Lord, how much you love other people, and how much you love yourself. Don’t come around here with that nonsense about loving God and loving other people when you have money to give and you spend it all on yourself and you do not invest a portion in the kingdom of God, for that is a concrete, tangible evidence that what you say is real. You ought to give to prove your words are true.
3. You must follow the example of Jesus Christ.
The last reason, the greatest reason, is the example of our Savior. Paul calls our attention to the Lord Jesus that though he was rich for our sake he became poor that we through his poverty might be rich. The Lord Jesus existed in heaven before his incarnation, before he came to the earth as a man. And he had all of the riches of God. The riches of glory, the riches of heaven were his. And he gave all of that up to be born in the manger and to walk the dusty road of Israel and eventually to be crucified on the cross.
And he went through all of that giving up, self-giving, sacrifice so that we who are poor, we who have no hope of salvation, no way to be right with God might be rich. Rich in forgiveness, rich in eternal life, rich in fellowship, rich in blessings. He gave all that he had so that we who had nothing might have everything.
Jesus, who is our Savior, is also an example. And if he did that, and we are his, we ought to be givers like he was. And the greatest motivating factor for giving is the gift of Jesus Christ when he gave himself for us. Give so your character can be completed. Give so that your love will be more than words but give primarily because you are a follower of the one who gave up heaven and gave up his life for you.
New we cannot expect Christian virtue unless there is Christian experience. And you must come to Jesus as Lord and Savior and experience his forgiveness and his cleansing and his eternal life before we can ever expect you to manifest the Christian virtue of liberality and generosity in the fullest sense of the word, so you come to Christ first as Savior and Lord and then you begin to follow him as example.
When all has been said and done, then there comes a time when you must do it. And the apostle Paul closes out this part of the teaching by saying to the Christian brethren in verse 11 “Now, therefore perform the doing of it.” There comes a time when we need to stop talking and we need to get down to business. When we have thought about it and we have prayed about it and we have waited and we have studied the scriptures, there comes a time when those feelings need to be transferred into commitment, into action, into doing something.
That time has come for many of you. I know that many of you have weighed this decision a long time ago, made your commitment, but some of you have had the feelings, the desires, and the longings, but you have never gone beyond that. I am going to ask you here, now, to make that kind of concrete commitment to the Lord.