“You can’t out-give God.” The first time I heard that expression was from a deacon at a church where I was serving as a youth minister in Gilmer, Texas. What it means is that, no matter how much you give away, God will always give back more to you. I wasn’t sold on that idea when I first heard it. I thought it sounded too much like the health-and-wealth gospel, the modern teaching that says Christians are guaranteed good health and abundant material prosperity as long as they claim these blessings by faith. I’m sure many of us instinctively recoil against that teaching, or against anything that remotely sounds like it. However, we must be careful not to allow the pendulum to swing too far in the other direction, or else we may miss biblical teaching. Specifically, I think we run the risk of robbing ourselves of one major biblical motivation for giving as outlined in this passage, namely, that you can’t out-give God.
We need to hear Paul’s teaching here because our natural propensity is to think that financial security is something we build up by holding on to as much as we can. Consequently, we see every act of giving as draining the supply of our security, which leads to minimal giving, merely out of a sense of obligation. I give because I’m commanded to, and I had better obey to keep bad things from happening. But that’s about it. This is a legalistic approach to giving that is devoid of gospel motivation.
Paul’s teaching, on the other hand, tells us to enlarge our horizons and recognize, first, that personal financial security should not be our greatest concern. Rather, the chief end of our lives should be to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Perhaps many of us know that truth intellectually, but it has yet to work its way into the practice of open-handed giving. But Paul also tells us, second, that, far from draining our supply of personal financial security, giving is an act of faith that the sovereign God will not fail to supply our needs and multiply blessings to us as we give. Our security is not in how much we can save for our future; it is in God!
The church at Corinth had a rocky relationship with Paul. Sometime after he had written the letter of 1 Corinthians, in which he had called upon the church to participate in a collection he was taking up from the Gentile churches to relieve the suffering of saints in Jerusalem (who had experienced persecution and famine), the Corinthians began to turn against Paul under the influence of false teachers. This led to a halt on their participation in Paul’s collection. So Paul made an emergency, confrontational visit, and later sent a severe letter to them calling on them to repent (that letter has not survived). Now he is writing 2 Corinthians, having heard a report from Titus (the bearer of the severe letter) that the Corinthians have indeed repented, and so now he sees that it is time to resume their work on the collection. So for two chapters he has been giving instructions, first appealing to the example of the Macedonians, who gave by their own initiative and even beyond their means, then by clarifying some possible misunderstandings, then by commending Titus and two unnamed brothers who are coming to Corinth to oversee the collection, then by telling them to be ready with it when Paul himself arrives to collect it. Now, in the final section, Paul gives more general theological reflections on why they should give generously.
As we meditate on Paul’s instructions, let us keep in mind what I believe God has been calling on us to do in response to these two chapters of 2 Corinthians: abound in the grace of gospel-driven generosity. Throughout the previous three sermons, I have given you multiple reasons for doing so. Now I will give you, from Paul’s teaching, two final reasons, both focused on the results of gospel-driven generosity.
First,
N.T. Wright uses the illustration of putting an umbrella into a cardboard tube to explain how this passage works. If you try to stuff the umbrella in with the handle first, you will probably run into difficulty. The tips of the struts will get caught on the edge of the tube, and while you may eventually be able to force it in, you will likely damage the umbrella or the tube in the process. But turn the umbrella around, top first, and the process is completely natural. The same applies to people. Paul could have attempted to compel the Corinthians into giving, in spite of their sinful nature, and perhaps he could have wrung some begrudging contribution out of them, doing a good deal of damage in the process. But instead, he has presented to them a new way of thinking about themselves and about giving, showing that generosity is a natural act for those who have been made new by the gospel. Here he shows that giving generously is one of the means God has appointed for us to receive his blessings, blessings that he is eager to bestow on us.
With a generalized proverb, Paul says in verse 6 that the way you sow (a metaphor for giving) determines the way you reap (a metaphor for receiving blessings): “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” In other words, giving operates by the same agricultural principle we see at work in the natural world.
Paul then turns his focus slightly in verse 7, where he speaks of the motivation of one’s heart in giving: “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” The connection between verses 6-7 is that bountiful giving will be cheerful giving, and this is God’s aim. One who gives cheerfully, eager to be a channel of God’s blessing to others, is one who is delighting deeply in the grace of God. Gospel-driven generosity is always cheerful generosity, the kind of generosity that pleases God by making much of him. When Paul writes that God loves a cheerful giver, he is alluding to Proverbs 22:8 in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which contrasts the man who sows wickedness with “a cheerful and liberal man” whom God blesses.
By saying that God will bless those who cheerfully sow abundantly in their giving, does Paul mean that God will give spiritual blessings or material blessings? The answer is yes. Notice specifically the language of verse 8: “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” Paul does not use guarded language, as if to say, “Of course, you realize I am only speaking spiritually here, for I would not want you to assume that material blessings are necessarily part of this equation.” Paul’s language is all-inclusive, which means the blessings we receive when we sow abundantly are too.
I can testify to this reality from personal experience, not because I have done anything extraordinary with respect to giving, but because God has been faithful to my family. We did not live on a budget for about the first nine years of our marriage. Then in early 2010, my mother lent us a CD series of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. We listened through several of them together, and it sold us on the idea of living on a budget. And so we made one, and we realized that the one source of income I had at that time was not enough to cover our monthly expenses. We were quickly running out of money, and it wasn’t clear how we were going to make ends meet long-term. But we decided, no matter what, that we would prioritize giving. And every budget since that day that we have made has, first thing in the expense column, designated money to give to the church and to other ministries. It wasn’t long after we made our first budget that other sources of income opened up to us. I was able to teach online classes for Liberty University. We started the internship here at the church. Union University got in touch with me and got me into a yearly rotation for its Master of Christian Studies classes. A friend of mine from seminary contacted me to let me know he had started an editing business, and he wanted me to help him edit seminary dissertations. And just in the last few months, Southern Seminary Online reached out to me to ask me to teach classes for them. We are not only making ends meet now, but we have also been able to accumulate savings and plan for retirement years. I know many of you have similar stories, because I have heard them. God is faithful to his Word. When you sit down to write out a check for the offering, can you honestly pray, “Lord, let me reap according to the way I have sown” with the full confidence that blessings will come to you? Have you come to understand yet that you can’t out-give God?
But what is the reason for which God gives us more blessings when we sow abundantly? Notice again verse 8: “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” God abounds to us in grace so that we in turn may abound in good works. God supplies greater blessings—including material blessings—so that we in turn may bless others more. Just as in the parable of the talents: those who prove themselves faithful with a little will be entrusted with more, so that they can accomplish more for their master. If you are experiencing the blessings of God’s grace because you have been faithful to give in the past, know that the reason he is giving you more is to empower you in turn to give even more.
If we sow abundantly, God will bless us, causing our good works to abound, not only in the sense that they are multiplied, but in the sense that they endure. In verse 9 Paul quotes Psalm 112:9 to make this point: “As it is written, ‘He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.’” This psalm is about the man who fears the Lord. One of the indications that he is a man who fears the Lord is that he gives freely to the poor. As a result, declares the psalm, his righteousness endures forever, meaning it endures beyond the final judgment as a righteousness that is pleasing to the Lord. On the Day of Judgment, our only hope for justification before God is the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ counted to us by virtue of our union with him. We will have no righteousness of our own to plead. And yet, we should not assume that our works of righteousness therefore do not matter into eternity. Our own righteousness, which is God’s work in us by grace and is never perfect in this life, is nevertheless offered to God as the evidence of our faith and as the basis for rewards we will receive in the age to come. The master in the parable of the talents says, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” God is truly pleased with works of love that we perform by faith, and on the last day these will adorn us when we are vindicated as those who are Christ’s people forever.
Paul makes the same point again in verse 10, this time with an allusion to Isaiah 55:10: “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.” Paul says here that God is Lord of both sowing and reaping. He provides the seed that is sown, and he provides the bread that is produced when that seed grows up for the harvest. As Lord of both aspects, he will not only supply us with seed for sowing as we give, he will multiply it as well! He will make sure we never run out of seed to sow, and the result will be that, if we continue sowing, God will bring forth the harvest of our righteousness on the last day. In other words, as we sow bountifully in gospel-driven generosity, we are storing up treasure in heaven, a harvest of righteousness that will be our possession forever, far longer than the 80 or so years that we depend on earthly treasure to sustain us.
Is Paul giving us a prosperity gospel here? No. This is not the health-and-wealth message you hear on TV or read about from a number of popular Christian authors. There is a major difference between Paul’s teaching and the prosperity gospel that really makes all the difference: for prosperity preachers, the motivation for giving is to enrich yourself with treasures of this age. For Paul, the motivation for giving is to increase your giving capacity. God blesses those who give, specifically for the purpose of enabling them to give more and thereby store up a treasure of righteousness that will endure forever. Do you desire the Lord’s blessings? I know we all do. Do you desire his blessings so that you in turn may bless others more? May our hearts be shaped by the gospel to make this our desire.
That is the first result of gospel-driven generosity in this passage. The second is this:
I read a couple of years ago that the favorite holiday of the famous (and now deceased) atheist author, Christopher Hitchens, was Thanksgiving. I found it ironic and illustrative of how cliché the term “thanksgiving” has become in our culture, to the point that even atheists attach sentimental value to it. But according to the Bible, thanksgiving is what results when the creature is properly oriented to the Creator. Lack of gratitude, then, is an expression of idolatrous rebellion. This is exactly what Paul says in Romans 1:21-23, speaking of idolatrous men: “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they become futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” Ingratitude is the mark of idolatry, but thanksgiving is the heartbeat of a person made new by grace, for it ascribes all glory to God.
Paul transitions to this theme in verse 11, where he writes, “You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way,” repeating his earlier point about increased seed for increased sowing, but he goes on to say, “which through us [Paul as the middle man between Corinth and Jerusalem] will produce thanksgiving to God.” The end result of increased generosity on the part of the Corinthians will be that greater thanks will be given to God by those who benefit from the Corinthians’ generosity.
Paul explains in verse 12: “For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.” In other words, giving to meet the needs of others is not merely of practical value. It doesn’t just lead to bills being paid and people getting fed and clothed. It is itself an act of worship (that’s what Paul means by “the ministry of this service”) that leads to more worship, the “overflowing of many thanksgivings to God.”
For example, we should all be giving thanks to God after the members’ meeting we had two weeks ago. Looking at our budget for the third quarter of this year, we have by far surpassed budgeted expectations. When we give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, missionaries around the world are blessed, and they in turn give thanks to God for his kindness in providing for their needs as they labor to serve him. When you decide to make a gift to our storehouse fund to bless another family in the church whom you know has a particular financial need, that family will give thanks to God for the grace that is at work through you. Generosity is an act of worship that leads to more worship.
So Paul turns his attention to the Jerusalem believers in verses 13-14: “By their approval of this service [or, by the proven character of this service], they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.” Paul pictures the Jerusalem believers as receiving this generous contribution from the Gentile churches and, in response, first glorifying God, and then longing for and praying for their Gentile brothers and sisters whose faces they had never seen and whose names they did not know. The Gentiles will share with the Jews their material blessings, and the Jews in turn will share spiritual blessings through their prayers for Gentiles, giving visible demonstration of the unity of one new man in Christ.
It is significant, however, that Paul says at the end of verse 13, “your contribution for them and for all others.” Paul does not envision the Jerusalem collection as being the only time the Corinthians should give money. No, they are to make ongoing contributions “for all others,” that is, as part of a worldwide household of faith with strong connections between churches. Personally, it is difficult for me to get excited about giving to people I have never met and will likely never see. I can get excited about supporting a church planter from our own church, but am I really expected to love nameless, faceless believers from all nations? According to Paul’s teaching here, I am. The power of the gospel is the power to produce that kind of love in us. We must beware of the danger of becoming narrowly focused on our own congregation, as though our mission is really the only one worth supporting. We are but one local manifestation of the universal body of Christ. As Baptists, we believe in local church autonomy, but that pertains only to church government. We see no biblical support for a governing structure above the local church. That does not mean, however, that we must be disconnected from other churches. Instead, we must labor to maintain strong connections with our fellow believers around the world. One of the primary ways we do that is by giving to the Cooperative Program and to the special Christmas and Easter offerings that support missionaries throughout the world. What few churches could do on their own, some 40,000 churches of the Southern Baptist Convention are doing together. So let me encourage you to give generously, in particular, to the Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong offerings when they come around, for they will produce thanksgiving to God among believers around the world.
It is also important to note the mention of “the surpassing grace of God” at the end of v. 14, that for which the Jerusalem believers would give thanks. The word “grace” appears multiple times throughout these two chapters. In 8:1: “We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia.” In 8:6-7: “Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.” In 8:9: “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.” In 8:19: “And not only that, but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us, for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our good will.” In 9:8: “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” Because these two chapters are dominated by the idea of grace, it is only fitting that Paul should conclude in verse 15: “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!” What is the “inexpressible gift”? It is the gospel of God’s grace that produces the grace of generosity in us. It is, in other words, human self-giving that is driven by prior divine self-giving; it is gospel-driven generosity.
I know that you are people who want your lives to count for something. When all is said and done, you want the fact that you lived on this earth to have made a difference to someone. More than that, I know that you are a people who seek to glorify God by helping others find joy in him. I hope you see from this text that one way you can do that is by giving of your money, which represents time and energy you have invested in labor—indeed, it is represents a portion of your own life—for the good of others so that they in turn might thank God for his surpassing grace upon you.
If I could summarize the main idea that has emerged in these four messages on 2 Corinthians 8-9, it would be this: let your generosity be driven by the gospel, not by the law. Give, not because there is a certain percentage you have to meet, but because you delight in the good news of Jesus Christ given for you.
I have spoken much about gospel-driven generosity, but what is this gospel that I have been referring to? If you have not identified yourself publicly with Jesus Christ, I want to share with you the gospel, or the good news of what God has done for us. I know that you are aware that we do not live in a perfect world, but it is a world full of evil and suffering. And many have concluded, in light of the fact that evil goes on and on, that there must not be a God at all, or if there is, he is not good. But the Bible teaches, first, that the world is full of evil, not because God is not good, but because the human race fell away from obedience to God at the beginning of creation. Furthermore, it teaches that we are nearing the end of the story, when God is going to remake this world into a glorious, new, perfect creation, with no trace of evil whatsoever. Every tear will be wiped away on that day, because God is supremely good. But in order for that day to come, there must first be a Day of Judgment, when every sin will receive its fitting answer from God. And when that day comes, every mouth will be stopped, and the whole world will be held accountable to God. No one will be able to question his justice again.
Every human heart longs for that day to come. But what you may not realize is that, if God is going to answer every sin with his righteous judgment, that means he is going to answer your sins too. Don’t imagine that if God just got rid of the really bad people and left normal people like you, the world would be fine. You too belong to a rebellious, idolatrous human race. Your sins have merited eternal separation from God. You, along with every person born in Adam, deserve to be cast into hell for an eternity. And if you have not sought God’s forgiveness in Christ, you are, as the great preacher Jonathan Edwards once said, walking over the pit of hell on a rotten bridge, with uncertainty at every step of how long it can hold you up.
But here is the good news: God has sent us a mediator. Jesus Christ, who is God the Son, added a human nature to his divine nature and became man. He, the Last Adam, lived a perfect life, triumphing over the temptations of the devil in the desert where Adam had succumbed to temptation in the Garden. Jesus kept every command of the Law for us. And though he did not deserve death, he willingly went to death on a cross, where he bore the final judgment in place of everyone who would ever believe in him. If you are hidden in him by faith, your judgment has already been poured out, and he has taken it for you. But more than that, he was raised from the dead on the third day as the beginning of the new creation, as a testimony that all who belong to him will likewise be raised to enter the new creation, once this creation has been purged by the judgment of God. This is how I know we are nearing the end of the story: Jesus Christ has been raised, meaning the new creation is now at hand. One day, God will judge the world through his Son. So where will he find you on that day? Will you be trusting in yourself, or will you abandon all hope of standing before God on your own and place your faith in Christ alone? Call out to Christ. Seek his forgiveness and confess his lordship. And then demonstrate your identification with him through baptism.
If you are a believer in good standing with an evangelical church, you are invited now to partake of the bread and the cup once again as a reminder of the glorious truth of Romans 8:32: “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Come to the table again. Eat and drink in remembrance of God’s gift of his Son for you. And let it remind you, once more, that the gospel itself is proof that you can’t out-give God.