October 20, 2024
Cheerful Giving
- Introduction: Corinthia is the entire Southern province of Greece. The city of Corinth was the capitol city in the central eastern area toward the Aegean Sea. In Paul’s time it was separated from the rest of Greece by an isthmus. In the first century it was a long ocean voyage for a ship to travel from the Mediterranean around the southern coast to the Aegean Sea in east. Slaves were used to literally drag ships across the isthmus. BTW that isthmus is now a canal.
Corinth was clearly an important city both strategically and economically. There may have been a small middle class of merchants, but there were two primary classes: the very wealthy, and slaves. As we know most Christians at this time were slaves, and the very poor.
- (Vs. 1-5) At this time there was a famine in Palestine. Paul was collecting resources for relief of the Church in Palestine. A. From the context we can see the Corinthians had promised a large gift for the famine relief. If you are familiar with I Corinthians, you know, this congregation had its ups and downs. Being a port city, it had any vice you can possibly imagine. The church had serious moral lapes, which Paul addressed in I Corinthians 5. Yet now we see they are offering a truly sacrificial gift.
- So Paul is sending an advance group to collect or supervise this offering. Why would he feel the need to do that?
Remember, these were slaves and the very poor. They couldn’t just write a check or take money out of savings. C. Generally they only had what their masters gave them. Maybe an extra tunic, but probably only their daily rations. In order to have anything to give they would have had to sell a portion of their rations, perhaps over several weeks. Can you imagine skipping a meal, or perhaps many meals to give. So Paul is rightly amazed at the sacrifice this meant for the church. D. So if the gift wasn’t ready you can see how awkward that would be. Paul would’ve had to stay while the gift was being gathered. And of course he would have been preaching and teaching, which would have put a lot of pressure on the Church, and he goes on to say he doesn’t want them to give under pressure.
III. (Vs. 6-9) Sowing and reaping is a major theme throughout scripture, and is a common theme among all religions. This applies to all areas of life, not just giving. If you want others to be kind to you, then sow kindness. If you need love and care in your life, sow love and caring for others. Negative Gal 6:7-8
- Paul goes on to say that we need to be thoughtful and deliberate in our giving. Of course we need to take care of our families and pay our bills.
- Obviously our finances have a major impact on how we live day to day. Occasionally it is good for us to take a step back and evaluate our lifestyle. Do we need to change anything. We know that life has its seasons and phases, is it time to make any transitions.
- Likewise giving is not to be done under pressure. God is more concerned about our motives than the amount. You may have heard “evangelists,” use our various passages, (some listed in
the supplemental passages) give “until it hurts,” and God will richly bless you financially. This is referred to as the “faith and prosperity gospel.” What they are really saying is “give me your money and God will make you rich.” As with most false teachings even heresy is they have enough truth to draw you in, to be deceptive. But then the truth gets expaneded out of proportion, twisted and distorted until it’s a lie. It’s true that God wants us to be generous financially, and in all areas of our lives. Its true God will always take care of us financially, regardless of what we give Philp. 4:10. But essentially this teaching implies that we can manipulate God through our “generosity.” If that’s true our relationship with God becomes “business or transactional relationship” with God, a works relationship. Yet the Gospel is about God’s grace and mercy. Let me be clear, at least in my opinion, theologically this is a serious misapplication of scripture, what we would call serious error, if not outright heresy.
- There was a great Bible teacher in the 20th century named Chuck Smith. Chuck founded Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, CA., which is known as the birthplace of contemporary Christian music. You may be aware that Calvary Chapels have cropped up all over the country and all over the world.
- Chuck was by no means a flashy evangelist, he took strong issue with the many “tele-evangelists,” that used high pressure fund raising tactics. Chuck simply taught the scriptures. He started a Genesis and worked his way through Revelation, and then started again. He only talked about giving when the particular passage he was on talked about giving. He often said in that regard, “if you aren’t giving because you want to be a co-worker with Christ, don’t give, God doesn’t need your
money.” His broader point was that we forget that God IS GOD! God will do God’s work and will, with or without us, (Isa 55:11). God doesn’t “need,” us, but in God’s grace we are invited to serve along side, to fulfill the Divine purposes.
- In verse 9 where Paul says God loves a cheerful giver, is somewhat understated in the English translation. The Greek word is hlerion, which is the English root of hilarious! God loves it when we give hilariously or joyfully. This reminds me of the two Greatest Commandments. Give out of Love, congregation, & mission. God is more concerned about heart and soul, than bank account.
G. Vs 10-15 We see that giving is part and parcel of our Christian life. Paul is talking specifically about the Corinthian’s sacrifice and generosity, but it also applies today to both our personal and congregational generosity. Vs 15 needs no explanation, Thanks be to God for God’s indescribable gift! Amen.