Welcome! Over the next few weeks we are going to be reading 2 Corinthians together as a church, 1 chapter every week day. We’re encouraging everyone to read the passage, pray, and share with a few others what they felt God was pointing out to them in his word. Every day we’re going to be hearing from someone at Redeemer about what they felt God pointed out to them as they read the passage.
This morning Vince is sharing with us, you can watch his video above. Read on to hear some more thoughts on the passage, and to get some ideas for further study.
This morning as we read 2 Corinthians 9 we continue to hear about the source of genuine generosity, which is the grace that we have been shown by God through his son Jesus.
In the first 5 verses of Chapter 9 we get a glimpse into Paul’s strategy for motivating the Corinthian church to be generous givers. He uses their readiness and eagerness as a central theme, the fact that they have prepared themselves to give way in advance of the gift needing to be given. There is a valuable lesson that we can learn here, that in order to give generously, we need to prepare ourselves to be able to give generously! It is no use consistently finding ourselves with opportunities to be generous, but having nothing to give, we must be preparing ourselves so that when God stirs us to be generous, we have the means to do so. What could you do today to make yourself ready, so that you can be generous at the next opportunity?
Verse 6 is a challenging one, as it lets us know that those who are generous are those who are often the recipients of generosity (be that from others or from God). It also brings to mind Jesus’ words in John 12:24 - Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. - We see this in nature and throughout scripture, that in order to grow, we must sacrifice something. It is not that Paul is saying that to get rich all we need to do is give away all of our money, but instead that as we give generously, we provide ourselves with more opportunities to grow. This may be that giving causes us to be humble, it may be that it means we give our time and learn to find joy in the success of others, it may be that we give our knowledge and see it passed on to others and transform situations. Whatever it looks like, as we plant more seeds in the soil of God’s great plan for our lives we can expect the fruit to be exciting and bountiful!
And let’s not forget the main theme running through 2 Corinthians 8-9, which Paul reminds us of in verse 8.
And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
The source of our good works, the reason that we are able to be generous, and to see that generosity bear fruit, is because we have been so blessed by God. The ESV translation uses the phrase - And God is able to make all grace abound to you… - which wonderfully sums up the fact that anything we do as Christians today is in light of the grace we receive daily as we come before our heavenly Father. He is the source of all our good works.
And that’s how Paul finishes the chapter in verses 14-15. As we seek to follow God today, as we read his word and are stirred to be generous with our money, our time, our resources, we are reminded of the only reason that we are all here this morning.
Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Have a blessed weekend, and see you on Monday.
