Grace-based Giving

I really appreciated Scott Hafeman’s help as I studied 2 Corinthians 8:1-15. Here are a few quotes from his commentary on the book of 2 Corinthians in the NIV Application Commentary Series that were especially helpful:

The grace of God received by the Macedonians was their ability to “well up” with a “wealth of generosity” toward others in the midst of their own afflictions (v. 2b). Only the grace of God can account for such generosity springing from the soil of their “extreme poverty” on the one hand, while at the same time issuing forth from their “overflowing joy” on the other! (332)

Such giving in the midst of adversity with joy (!) confirms that one’s faith is real . . . Joyful giving to others and joy in one’s good fortune, even in the midst of one’s own poverty and suffering, is the sign of having received God’s grace. (332)

The greatest expression of God’s grace in a person’s life is not its demonstration toward others, but its response to God and his cause. The most important thing for Paul is not that the Macedonians gave their money to others, but that they gave their lives to God. . . (333)

Genuine obedience is an act of delight-driven duty. The greatest way to honor the one who commands is not to obey because one must, but to do what is required with joy, having willingly given oneself to his authority. . . (337)

Jesus’ incarnation illustrates that the “grace” expressed in love is the willingness to give up one’s own rights for the sake of meeting the needs of others. (337-338)

By comparing the Corinthians to the Macedonians, who were less well off and yet gave beyond their means, . . . Paul is not trying to manipulate the believers in Corinth to do likewise. Rather, Paul’s qualification that the amount given need not exceed one’s ability (in contrast to the Macedonians) serves to emphasize the fundamental point that where the heart is, the will must follow. It is the condition of one’s heart and the circumstances of one’s life, not the attempt to measure up to the practices of others, that should determine how much a person will give. As Paul makes clear in this passage, genuine desire acts. The issue is not the amount given (but cf. 9:5-11), but the expression of willingness. Action without the right attitude is of no avail, but a genuine attitude inevitably results in action. (339-340)

For Paul, the basis for giving to others is not what they have done or will do for us, but what God has already done for us in Christ. The foundation of giving is God’s grace. (342)

Paul stresses that the Macedonians’ generosity derived from their joy; their joy did not derive from their generosity. The progression of thought in 8:2 is from grace to joy to giving, not the other way around. Their giving was an expression of God’s grace, not their own moral or spiritual virtue; they gave to others because they were already experiencing an “overflowing joy” from God. Since God’s grace is the springboard for our giving, even our gifts rebound to God’s glory. The only real giver is God. (343)

Giving is not a way of showing God how much we can do for him, but a way of illustrating how much God has done for us. (343)

Paul sees no conflict between God’s grace and his commands. God’s commands express how the experience of his grace will manifest itself in everyday life. Every command of God is a promise of God in disguise. God commands what he commands because he promises what he promises. Obedience to his commands is made possible by trusting in his promises. (344)

Giving is not merely an expression of compassion for the needy. Nor is it simply a reflection of our own concern. Rather, the spiritual gift of giving to others is to be the reflex of our own joy in the grandeur of God’s gift to us in Christ. As we have seen, the Macedonians’ joy led to giving, not the other way around. (350)

How we spend our money is no innocent matter . .

(Hafeman now goes on to quote William Law who published A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life in 1728.)

Now this is truly the case of riches spent upon ourselves in vain and needless expenses; in trying to use them where they have no real use, nor we any real want, we only use them to our great hurt, in creating unreasonable desires, in nourishing ill tempers, in indulging our passions, and supporting a worldly, vain turn of mind.

. . . So that money thus spent is not merely wasted, or lost, but it is spent to bad purposes, and miserable effects, to the corruption and disorder of our hearts, and to the making us less able to live up to the sublime doctrines of the Gospel. It is but like keeping money from the poor to buy poison for ourselves. (ch. vi, 52-53)

As there is no foundation for comfort in the enjoyments of this life, but in the assurance that a wise and good God governeth the world, so that the more we find out God in every thing, the more we apply to Him in every place, the more we look up to Him in all our actions, the more we conform to His will, the more we act according to His wisdom, and imitate His goodness, by so much the more do we enjoy God, partake of the divine nature, and heighten and increase all that is happy and comfortable in human life. (ch. xi, 102)

Understood in this way, the Christian faith teaches believers how to use everything God has granted them, so that they “may have always the pleasure of receiving a right benefit from them” (ch. xi, 110). Specifically,

. . . it shows [a person] what is strictly right in meat, drink, and clothes; and that he has nothing else to expect from the things of this world but to satisfy such wants of his own, and then to extend his assistance to all his brethren, that, as far as he is able, he may help all his fellow-creatures to the same benefit from the world that he hath.

[Conversely] it tells him that this world is incapable of giving him any other happiness, and that all endeavors to be happy in heaps of money, or acres of land, in fine clothes, rich beds, stately equipage, and show and splendour, are only vain endeavours, ignorant attempts after impossibilities; these things being nor more able to give the least degree of happiness than dust in the eyes can cure thirst, or gravel in the mouth can satisfy hunger; but like dust and gravel misapplied, will only serve to render him more unhappy by such an ignorant misuse of them. (ch. xi, 110)

(355-356)