2 Corinthians 9
Preparing the Gift
9:1 For it is not necessary for me to write you about this service to the saints,
Paul had asked the Corinthians a year earlier to take up a collection for the mother church in Jerusalem.
9:2 because I know your eagerness to help. I keep boasting to the Macedonians about this eagerness of yours, that Achaia has been ready to give since last year, and your zeal to participate has stirred up most of them.
Paul had been boasting to the Achaia church that the Corinthians were very eager to give to Jerusalem. This was true at first, but then the Judaizers moved in and misinformed the Corinthians that Paul was a huckster.
9:3 But I am sending these brothers so that our boasting about you may not be empty in this case, so that you may be ready just as I kept telling them.
Paul is sending a team to collect the Corinthians’ gift for Jerusalem.
9:4 For if any of the Macedonians should come with me and find that you are not ready to give, we would be humiliated (not to mention you) by this confidence we had in you.
If the Macedonians came to pick up a small collection, it would embarrass both Paul and the Corinthian church.
9:5 Therefore I thought it necessary to urge these brothers to go to you in advance and to arrange ahead of time the generous contribution you had promised, so this may be ready as a generous gift and not as something you feel forced to do.
When Paul planned his next visit to Corinth, he did not plan to teach about giving. He had other subjects to cover.
9:6 My point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.
Jesus made a similar point, "it is more blessed to give than to receive”
9:7 Each one of you should give just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver.
If one cannot give cheerfully, then he should not give at all. God will simply bless someone else.
9:8 And God is able to make all grace overflow to you so that because you have enough of everything in every way at all times, you will overflow in every good work.
God will bless the giver. It will not always be materially, like the prosperity preachers falsely teach. However, God will bless the cheerful giver in other ways that God chooses.
9:9 Just as it is written, “He has scattered widely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness remains forever.”
Paul quoted from Psalm 112. God blesses the giver in earth time and in heaven time.
9:10 Now God who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your supply of seed and will cause the harvest of your righteousness to grow.
Paul quoted from Isaiah 55:10 to give more Old Testament support. It is God who multiplies the seed and the harvest of the cheerful giver.
9:11 You will be enriched in every way so that you may be generous on every occasion, which is producing through us thanksgiving to God,
A cheerful giver will be enriched so that he can give more.
9:12 because the service of this ministry is not only providing for the needs of the saints but is also overflowing with many thanks to God.
Giving causes those receiving to praise God.
9:13 Through the evidence of this service they will glorify God because of your obedience to your confession in the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your sharing with them and with everyone.
Those who receive will thank God for those who gave.
9:14 And in their prayers on your behalf they long for you because of the extraordinary grace God has shown to you.
Those who receive will draw closer to those who gave. The saints in Jerusalem provided more intercessory prayers for the Corinthians.
9:15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Romans was written several months after 2 Corinthians. According to Romans 15, Paul's appeal was successful. In conclusion, no one can out give God. God gave His son. This alone should demand our praise.