Giving Justly

August 12, 2018 Background Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8, 9 Lesson Passage: 2 Corinthians 8:7 – 15 The psalmist asked a pertinent question: What should a child of God give? More specifically, the question was: What shall I render unto God for all of His benefits towards me? Put another way, how do I know when I am giving justly. When we are left to our own devices, many will give the bare minimum that is required while others will give above and beyond that which is reasonable. And there are people all along the spectrum between these two extremes of people who purposely give. To be clear, our lesson today is about giving financially to support others who are struggling. Often those who don’t like to give financially like to muddy the waters by throwing in all of their time and physical help as evidence of their stewardship. But today, the lesson is about giving financially. I believe we can learn a lot about giving from the church at Corinth as we consider today’s lesson. The Corinthian church had received so much from God that the Apostle Paul could boast on how they were made to abound in everything—except in their giving. We know from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church that they were richly blessed with all of the spiritual gifts. Much of the first letter was devoted to instructing the Corinthians about the proper use of their manifold spiritual gifts that God had bestowed on them. Whereas today it is rare to recognize or see very many spiritual gifts in any congregation, the Corinthian church teemed with spiritual gifts such that they had to be taught the proper way to use them. What a blessing for any church to have such a distinction! Now, let’s get back to the matter of giving financially. It is clear from the lesson text that the church had pledged to give to support the relief of the Jerusalem church just as other local congregations had already done. As we know all too well, there can be a world of difference between pledging to do something and following through to give as pledged. As one elderly deacon so properly put it: “The time is over for making pledges. It is time to start writing checks!” A year had passed since the Corinthians had pledged to give but no apparent effort had been made to fulfill the pledge. Paul reminded them in a gentle way so that their response by giving would lead to their being further blessed. Paul could have demanded that they comply, but that would not have accrued to their benefit to give as a result of such apostolic demand. They needed to give willingly and cheerfully as an act of faith rather than responding to a demand. Paul previously cited the giving of the impoverished churches of Macedonia as an example for the Corinthians to consider. If others who had little could give out of their poverty, surely the Corinthians could give out of their wealth. Paul went on to cite the example of Jesus. Jesus was eternally wealthy, but he became poor to provide spiritually impoverished mankind the opportunity to become spiritually rich. Paul used the act of giving as an application of the spiritual principle that the strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. The Corinthians were strong at that point, but it may be that the time would come when others would have to come to their rescue. In their strength, they were requested to give justly. Robert C. Hudson July 5, 2018