If you didn’t read the first post you can find it by clicking HERE.
1 Corinthians 8:1-9
1 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own,4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people.5 And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.6 So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part.7 But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in yout—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
8 I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others.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 through his poverty might become rich.
(Principle 1 & 2 of 4)
Principle # 1: This kind of giving comes out of GRACE, not out of DUTY (8:1,6,7,9; 9:8,14)
-Two verses I love to lay side by side:
-8:9 “You know the GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” (Verse about SALVATION!)
-9:8 “God is able to make ALL GRACE about to you, so that in ALL THINGS at ALL TIMES, having ALL THAT YOU NEED, you will abound in every good work.” (Verse about GIVING!)
-Both are permeated with grace!
-There is no other way to be saved except by grace.
-There is no other way to give (in the way God intends) expect by grace.
-Both (Paul would say) are driven by grace, sustained by grace!
Principle # 2: This kind of giving (so often) comes out of POVERTY, not out of PLENTY. (8:2.9)
-What hit me in a fresh way: Even God operates by this principle!
-Psalms 24:1 “The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it..”
-Psalms 50: 10,12 “Every animal of the forest in Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills…If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and all that is in it.”
-Yet when God set out to bless the world through His Son, it was not through abundancebut through poverty.
-8:9 “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became POOR, so that you through HIS POVERTY might become rich.”
-If that’s the kind of giving God blessed in and through His Son, don’t you think it’s the kind of giving He wants to bless in and through you and me?!
-That’s what He did among the Macedonian Christians, Paul says.
-V2 ”Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.”
-Look at those words! (Would you put them together?)
One one side On the other side
“sever trial” “overflowing joy”
“extreme poverty” ”rich generosity”
-Isn’t it true?: What God loves to bless and multiply so often comes out of the need and sacrifice, not surplus and abundance.
I will add principle 3 & 4 in my next post. Let me know what you think.
