The encouragement which the apostle here addresses to the Corinthian Christians, in order to stimulate their liberality, is appropriate to all professed followers of the Lord Jesus. Paul urges that the liberal helper of others is in every respect the wealthier and happier for his generosity. It is not the highest motive, but it is sound and powerful and effective.
I. THE HUMAN NEED OF SUCH ENRICHMENT. Impoverishment is the lot of multitudes; but whilst many are deeply sensible of their temporal needs, it is too often the case that, with regard to spiritual possessions, they boast that they are rich and increased with goods, and know not that they are poor. In fact, we have nothing which we have not received from the free bounty of him who is the Giver of all.
II. THE DIVINE AUTHOR OF SUCH ENRICHMENT. The God of nature supplies the need and relieves the poverty distinctive of our bodily and physical state. The God of grace provides liberally for the wants of the soul, saying to his child, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." "In everything," says
III. THE VARIETY AND PLENTITUDE OF THIS ENRICHMENT. "In everything," says the apostle. He appears to teach that, as a general rule, it is the ordinance of Providence that the way of liberality should be the way of prosperity. All have known fortunate and wealthy misers; and all have known generous men who have come to poverty; but such cases are the exception. And if generosity is the way to temporal abundance, a liberal spirit is sure to acquire virtues and excellences. Faith, hope, and love, - all are cultivated in the exercise of liberality; progressive enrichment is the recompense of a large heart and open hands.
IV. THE HUMAN AND EARTHLY RESULT OF THIS ENRICHMENT. This is increase of liberality; the more the generous man receives from God, the more he helps his fellow men.
V. THE ULTIMATE RESULT OF THIS ENRICHMENT. Thanksgiving will be rendered to God, both by the liberal who are enriched, by the grateful recipients of their abundant bounty, and by all who witness the fruit of the Spirit and the evidences of the power of the Saviour's love. - T.
As touching the ministering to the saints.
I. WHY DOES GOD CALL US TO GIVE?
1. He cannot need our gifts. We can give Him nothing that we did not first get from Him.
2. It must be somehow for our sakes. Giving is God's way of getting for ourselves the highest good. The root of sin is selfishness. God would have us grow bigger, have a larger world to live in, find a higher joy; and the secret of all this change is giving. It is a curious fact that we call a man who gets but does not give a "miser," that is, a miserable man. The true worth of money is never learned until we begin to make others happy with it. It is just so of learning. There is joy in getting knowledge; but a higher joy it is to teach those who do not know.
II. NATURE TEACHES US MANY LESSONS ON GIVING. The sun exists to give light, heat, and life. The sea is always giving.
III. GOD MEASURES OUR GIVING BY OUR PURPOSE. "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart." What did you mean to give, and what was your motive?
IV. LIBERAL GIVING IS PERHAPS THE CHOICEST, RIPEST FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT. The Arab proverb says, "The water you pour on the roots of the cocoanut-tree comes back to you from the top, in the sweet milk of the cocoanut." You may hang up a bar of slightly tempered steel, strike it with a mallet, and make it a magnet. Then with that magnet you may, by rubbing other bars with it, make them magnets too; and it is wonderful that instead of making the magnetic power of that first bar less, you increase it.
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I. THE TACT AND WISDOM AND TENDERNESS OF PAUL IN PRESENTING AND PRESSING THE SUBJECT ABE WORTHY OF UNQUALIFIED ADMIRATION. The apostle does not say how much a child of God should give, simply because he regards giving as a spiritual attainment, and not as an outward function. It is to be governed by spiritual laws and to move by spiritual impulses. He cites the case of the Macedonian Christians, not as a standard of comparison, but as a heart-incentive. The true giver in blessing others will always be a large receiver of blessings. The word which in the Received Text is translated "bounty" has in the margin its more literal meaning, "blessing." The giver is a sower of seed. His gifts are the seed of a future harvest for which he may confidently look. There is here no appeal to selfishness, but the simple statement of a Divine law, and one of widest scope. The man who puts forth little physical strength reaps little vigour of body. The man who feebly uses mental faculty gains little mental power. The man who loves little is little loved and destroys his capacity to love. As giving is a spiritual grace, it can grow and reward its possessor only by use. We are at cross-purposes with our own faculties and with God's plans respecting us if the power of giving lies unused within us. Our selfishness dwarfs and impoverishes us. stinginess is a most miserable investment. Put any Divine gift under the leadership of greed or of sloth, and it is sure to err and come to no good. In the great sum of things giving has a royal place. Do we not comprehend how the giver is a receiver? It is sufficient in answer to appeal to two things: first, to the homely evidence of experience; second, to the promises of God. But this testimony of experience reaches deeper than all rewards in kind. True giving is the act of the soul; it touches character; it is a grand power of moral discipline. It cleanses conscience and purifies the heart to give rightly and generously. It awakens a higher manhood in the soul. It crucifies the low, base lust of selfishness. It strangles closeness and stinginess and all the meaner and craven lusts of our nature to get beyond and above the greed of getting and keeping into the high and Divine realm of giving. Giving enlarges a man. It develops all that is good in him. It stirs him with higher impulses. It makes him a holier and happier man. But it must be giving in Christ's sense and after His example. But this certainty of a Divine return to the giver rests also on the direct promise of God. Here is the giver's security. What is given is not lost. It is a deposit in the exchequer of Heaven. God loveth the cheerful giver. He is able to bless him, and He will bless him.
II. The final thought of the apostle is THE CONNECTION OF GIVING AND THANKSGIVING. Every gift is a "bounty," a "blessing," a "thanksgiving." It is a free thank-offering out of the blessings God has given. True giving rises out of the catalogue of hard duties into the rank of happy privileges. The root of all giving is love, and love is full of thankfulness. And then, as the mind and heart of the apostle are filled with a sense of what a great blessing is this spirit of free and generous giving both to the giver and to the receiver, he ends abruptly the discussion with the well-known sentence, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!" He rises from all human giving to the Divine, the gift of the Saviour. He contrasts our feeble gifts with the unspeakable one. He inspires our giving with that. He links our giving to that. To give is to be like God.
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Monday Club Sermons.
It is plain that God means that His people shall all be givers. Opportunities to give everywhere surround us. The Christians at Jerusalem were at just this time in great want. In part this may have been due to their experiment of a community of goods, and in part to their repeated and long-continued persecutions. Christian giving should be —
I. PRIMARILY, THOUGH BY NO MEANS EXCLUSIVELY, TO NEEDY SAINTS (2 Corinthians 5:1).
II. PROMPT AND ENERGETIC, THAT SO IT MAY BE ADEQUATE AND SURE (vers. 2-5). The good name of a church is no small part of its power. It is this which makes its teachings respected, and its example a stimulus to others. It is in all things a good rule to be deliberate in planning, and then swift in execution. For thus it is that good intentions become worthy deeds.
III. NOT SPARING BUT BOUNTIFUL (ver. 6).
IV. DELIBERATE AND CHEERFUL (ver. 7).
V. TRUSTFUL. This is enforced by the apostle by a twofold consideration (vers. 8-10).
VI. MINDFUL OF THE GREAT BLESSINGS SURE TO COME OF IT (vers. 11-14).
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People
Corinthians,
Macedonians,
PaulPlaces
Achaia,
Corinth,
MacedoniaTopics
Aboundeth, Abounding, Abounds, Abundant, Administration, Awakens, Care, Cause, Chorus, Expressions, Filleth, Filling, Fully, Gift, Giving, Givings, God's, Helps, Lack, Lacking, Makes, Measure, Ministration, Ministry, Needs, Overflowing, Overflows, Perform, Praise, Relieve, Rendered, Rendering, Results, Rich, Sacred, Saints, Service, Supplies, Supplieth, Supplying, Takes, Thanks, Thanksgiving, Thanksgivings, WantsOutline
1. He yields the reason why he sent Titus and his brothers beforehand.6. And he proceeds in stirring them up to a bountiful alms, as being but a kind of sowing of seed,10. which shall return a great increase to them,13. and occasion a great sacrifice of thanksgivings unto God.Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Corinthians 9:12 7142 people of God, NT
7155 saints
2 Corinthians 9:6-13
5856 extravagance
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
5503 rich, the
2 Corinthians 9:8-14
4035 abundance
2 Corinthians 9:11-12
8676 thanksgiving
2 Corinthians 9:11-13
6672 grace, in relationships
2 Corinthians 9:12-13
8344 servanthood, in believers
2 Corinthians 9:12-15
7912 collections
Library
December 25 Evening
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.--II COR 9:15. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with singing. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.--For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily PathGod's Unspeakable Gift
'Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.'--2 COR. ix. 15. It seems strange that there should ever have been any doubt as to what gift it is which evokes this burst of thanksgiving. There is but one of God's many mercies which is worthy of being thus singled out. There is one blazing central sun which shines out amidst all the galaxy of lights which fill the heavens. There is one gift of God which, beyond all others, merits the designation of 'unspeakable.' The gift of Christ draws all other …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
Praise for the Gift of Gifts
"Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift."--2 Corinthians 9:15. IN the chapter from which my text is taken, Paul is stirring up the Christians at Corinth to be ready with liberal gifts for the poor saints at Jerusalem. He finishes by reminding them of a greater gift that any they could bring, and by this one short word of praise, "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift," he sets all their hearts a-singing. Let men give as liberally as they may, you can always proclaim the value of their …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 38: 1892
3D Day. All-Sufficient Grace.
"He is Faithful that Promised." "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."--2 COR. ix. 8. All-Sufficient Grace. "All-sufficiency in all things!" Believer! surely thou art "thoroughly furnished!" Grace is no scanty thing, doled out in pittances. It is a glorious treasury, which the key of prayer can always unlock, but never empty. A fountain, "full, flowing, ever flowing, overflowing." Mark these three …
John Ross Macduff—The Faithful Promiser
Letter Lviii to the Duchess of Lorraine
To the Duchess of Lorraine He thanks her for kindnesses shown, and deters her from an unjust war. I thank God for your pious goodwill which I know that you have towards Him and His servants. For whenever the tiniest little spark of heavenly love is kindled in a worldly heart ennobled with earthly honours, that, without doubt, is God's gift, not man's virtue. For our part we are very glad to avail ourselves of the kind offers made to us of your bounty in your letter. But having heard of the sudden …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux
1872-1874. Letter from Rev. A. M. W. Christopher --Letter from Gulf of St. Lawrence-Mrs. Birt's Sheltering Home, Liverpool --Letter to Mrs. Merry --Letter from Canada --Miss
Letter from Rev. A. M. W. Christopher--Letter from Gulf of St. Lawrence-Mrs. Birt's Sheltering Home, Liverpool--Letter to Mrs. Merry--Letter from Canada--Miss Macpherson's return to England-- Letter of cheer for Dr. Barnardo--Removal to Hackney Home. Though human praise is not sought, we cannot but feel peculiar pleasure in giving the following testimony from a servant of the Lord so much revered as the Rev, A. M. W. Christopher of Oxford:-- "Of all the works of Christian benevolence which the great …
Clara M. S. Lowe—God's Answers
How to be Admonished are those who Give Away what is their Own, and those who Seize what Belongs to Others.
(Admonition 21.) Differently to be admonished are those who already give compassionately of their own, and those who still would fain seize even what belongs to others. For those who already give compassionately of their own are to be admonished not to lift themselves up in swelling thought above those to whom they impart earthly things; not to esteem themselves better than others because they see others to be supported by them. For the Lord of an earthly household, in distributing the ranks and …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great
Perhaps There is no Book Within the Whole Canon of Scripture So Perplexing and Anomalous...
Perhaps there is no book within the whole canon of Scripture so perplexing and anomalous, at first sight, as that entitled "Ecclesiastes." Its terrible hopelessness, its bold expression of those difficulties with which man is surrounded on every side, the apparent fruitlessness of its quest after good, the unsatisfactory character, from a Christian standpoint, of its conclusion: all these points have made it, at one and the same time, an enigma to the superficial student of the Word, and the arsenal …
F. C. Jennings—Old Groans and New Songs
The Spiced Wine of My Pomegranate;
OR, THE COMMUNION OF COMMUNICATION. I would cause Thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate."--Song of Solomon viii. 2.And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace."--John i. 16. THE SPICED WINE OF MY POMEGRANATE. THE immovable basis of communion having been laid of old in the eternal union which subsisted between Christ and His elect, it only needed a fitting occasion to manifest itself in active development. The Lord Jesus had for ever delighted Himself with the …
Charles Hadden Spurgeon—Till He Come
Meditations of the State of a Christian Reconciled to God in Christ,
Now let us see how happy a godly man is in his state of renovation, being reconciled to God in Christ. The godly man whose corrupt nature is renewed by grace in Christ and become a new creature, is blessed in a threefold respect--First, in his life; Secondly, in his death; Thirdly, after death. I. His blessedness during his life is but in part, and that consists in seven things:-- 1. Because he is conceived of the Spirit (John iii. 5), and is born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety
The Work of the Holy Spirit
The Church of Christ. "It is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is ruth."--1 John v. 6. We now proceed to discuss the work of the Holy Spirit wrought in the Church of Christ. Altho the Son of God has had a Church in the earth from the beginning, yet the Scripture distinguishes between its manifestation before and after Christ. As the acorn, planted in the ground, exists, altho it passes through the two periods of germinating and rooting, and of growing upward and forming trunk and …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit
Perseverance Proved.
2. I REMARK, that God is able to preserve and keep the true saints from apostacy, in consistency with their liberty: 2 Tim. i. 12: "For the which cause I also suffer these things; nevertheless, I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." Here the apostle expresses the fullest confidence in the ability of Christ to keep him: and indeed, as has been said, it is most manifest that the apostles expected …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology
Sunday after Ascension Day
Text: First Peter 4, 7-11.[1] 7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore of sound mind, and be sober unto prayer: 8 above all things being fervent in your love among yourselves: for love covereth a multitude of sins: 9 using hospitality one to another without murmuring: 10 according as each hath received a gift, ministering it among yourselves, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God; 11 if any man speaketh, speaking as it were oracles of God; if any man ministereth, ministering …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II
Of the Public Fast.
A public fast is when, by the authority of the magistrate (Jonah iii. 7; 2 Chron. xx. 3; Ezra viii. 21), either the whole church within his dominion, or some special congregation, whom it concerneth, assemble themselves together, to perform the fore-mentioned duties of humiliation; either for the removing of some public calamity threatened or already inflicted upon them, as the sword, invasion, famine, pestilence, or other fearful sickness (1 Sam. vii. 5, 6; Joel ii. 15; 2 Chron. xx.; Jonah iii. …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety
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