New Creation Generosity

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
2 Corinthians 9 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 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. As it is written: 

“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;

their righteousness endures forever.” 

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. (2 Corinthians 9:6-11, NIV)

 

 

REFLECTIONS:

I've never been very good at motivating others. That's particularly true when it comes to trying to persuade others to do something challenging. When I was younger I learned the hard way that it's never a good idea to scold, guilt, or badger others into doing something they don't particularly want to do. This was a method I tried often when I first served in college and youth ministries. Many times I succeeded at getting others to do what I wanted, but it came at the cost of some pretty severe relational damage.

 

The key to motivating others to do difficult things—so I've been told—is to spark a new vision in their minds, to help ignite their imaginations, so that what once seemed forced, awkward, or unnatural now seems to be the most natural thing of all.

 

In today's reading, Paul sums up his appeal about the Jerusalem Collection—his fundraiser for the suffering Jerusalem church—by describing the worldview within which generous giving of the sort he has in mind no longer seems awkward or peculiar. It would be easy to read this chapter as simply a list of wise sayings or pithy statements about human generosity and God's abundant goodness. But there is more to Paul's appeal than that. In this passage, he describes the mindset of what it means to be God's people. As he's done throughout this letter, he tries to help the Corinthians see everything—God, the world, the church, their individual lives—in a whole new light. His aim is to help them see things from a new perspective so that their behavior might more freely and naturally reflect Christ's character.

 

As always, Paul's vision of God's people is firmly rooted in the Bible. Whenever Paul quotes a passage of the Bible, it's worth looking at the original scripture (and the entire chapter or paragraph from which the quotation is taken) in order to see what its overall sense is. In verses 6-11 Paul quotes three Old Testament passages, each of which help him construct a larger picture of who God's people are, what their goal in life should be, and how generosity plays a vital part in it all.

 

The first passage Paul quotes is from the Greek translation of Proverbs 22:9, which says: "God blesses a cheerful giver." (For whatever reason, this passage isn't in the Hebrew text; consequently, it's not in our English Bibles, either.) Paul and most of the churches in the New Testament era would have read the Bible in Greek. Much of Proverbs 22 is about riches and poverty. The chapter begins: "A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold." A number of subsequent verses give instructions about riches. Verse 8 speaks of the person who "sows" injustice and "reaps" calamity, while verse 9 speaks of the people who share food with the poor being themselves supplied with food. As he is wont to do, Paul is calling to mind an entire passage of Scripture, not just a single verse. In 2 Corinthians 9:6 he talks about people "sowing" in a meager way or in a generous way; and the word he uses for "generously" is the same word that Proverbs uses ("blesses") for what God will do to a cheerful giver. Proverbs presents a reasonably complete picture of a wise and God-fearing person who knows how to be generous with money. Paul wants the Corinthians to see this as a portrait of themselves.

 

The second passage he quotes from is Psalm 112:9, which speaks of the person who scatters blessings to the poor. According to the psalm, such a person has a "righteousness" that endures forever. In the Psalms and elsewhere in the Old Testament, the word "righteousness" regularly refers on one hand to God's own faithfulness to his promises, and on the other hand to the behavior by which people demonstrate their gratitude to God for his faithfulness. In the case of Psalm 112, the whole song is a celebration of the people who fear and trust the Lord, and in particular of their generosity and merciful behavior towards their dis-advantaged neighbors. Once again, Paul is inviting the Corinthians to step inside the biblical portrait and to discover a whole new righteous identity.

 

The third passage Paul quotes is the real climax of his message to the Corinthians. Quoting from Isaiah 55:10, Paul says God "supplies seed to the sower and bread for food." Isaiah 55 is the glorious invitation to come and feast on God's rich bounty, because God is making a new creation in which everything will be renewed. This new creation, achieved through the death and resurrection of the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah 53 is based on the covenant renewal celebrated in Isaiah 54, and will come about because God will "sow" his word in the same way he sends rain and snow to provide seed and bread. The picture in Isaiah 55 is the exact same large-scale picture Paul has been drawing throughout 2 Corinthians—God's new creation (5:17), based on the new covenant (3:7-18), accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and now at work in the world through the preaching of the gospel.

 

Paul is urging the Corinthians to see things from this perspective and to realize that they are characters in the great drama which is going forward. If they do so, then the generosity he is urging will come naturally. In the normal and healthy Christian life, everything proceeds from God's generosity, and everything returns to God in thanksgiving (verse 12; compare 1:11 and 4:15). Grace, generosity, and gratitude. These are not optional extras of Christian living. They are the very heart of it all.

 

 

PRAYER:

Gracious Father, we praise you for your abounding generosity! Thank you for working to make all things new in Christ. Give us a renewed vision. Call us out of our small, selfish lives. Rescue us from our tendency to live with clenched fists. Give us a new vision for living so that everything and everyone is seen in a different light. Open our eyes to the needs of those around us and set us on the path of heavenly-focused, others-centered living. And be glorified in and through our lives.

 

 

WHO AM I?

I am Tres Sansom, and I almost wrote today about verses 12-15. I have personally experienced these verses on a number of occasions throughout the years. If I was to describe some of the expenses surrounding my spinal injury, you would be shocked. In the years directly following my injury, my financial needs were particularly great—on top of the medical bills, our home needed to be renovated, I needed a vehicle in which to travel, I needed equipment and medical supplies, just to name a few. Thankfully, a number of very generous people helped to provide me with financial support. I lived in Wylie at the time (then, a small town in the Dallas area), and a number of people in my town held fundraisers on my behalf—carwashes, raffles, and other such things. On top of that, every few months I'd get checks—some $20, some $200—from anonymous people who felt led to send me some support money. All of this generosity provided me with a fairly substantial sum of money with which I was able to support myself. I remember being overwhelmed at the generosity of others. Sometimes I would spontaneously weep with thanksgiving. I can testify that my heart definitely overflowed with many expressions of thanks to God. On a daily basis, my prayers went out on behalf of those who generously supported me. And I felt so much more intimately connected with those who sacrificed their own desires in an effort to supply for my needs.