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Monday, I said the following scripture needed no commentary.  Well, this morning I changed my mind…

 ⁶Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. ⁷Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. ⁹As it is written:
   ”He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor;
      his righteousness endures forever.” ¹⁰Now 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. ¹¹You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

Upon rereading the scripture above, it dawns on me that through my word-study (all year) on righteousness God led me to this scripture on thanksgiving on the week of Thanksgiving.  I didn’t catch it Monday, but I caught it today, and I saw a few things in the context of Paul’s message that provides now an interesting message to the church.

My earlier reading of this passage, and in fact every other reading of this passage in my Christian life, has been interpreted in the context of my walk, the walk of a single man.  However, this morning I saw a few contradictions that are cleared up if one realizes that Paul’s audience was not any individual man, but was the church at Corinthian, and should therefore be interpreted as a message to the church.

The type of contradiction I refer to is where Paul first writes that people will reap based on what sow… but then in verse 10 Paul says that God is going to enlarge the supply of seed and the amount of harvest from it.  Another contradiction is where Paul says that a man should only give what is in his heart give… this, despite Jesus’ command to tithe (a reiteration of the Old Testament command to tithe); but that hardly sets the context for God scattering his gifts abroad to the poor!  So, seeing these conflicts, it dawned on me who Paul was talking to… not the individual, but the church.  And where Paul was writing of the individual, these were members of that church.  So, with that perspective, let us again review the passage.

  ⁶Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

Paul writes this to the church, but is generally true, whether spoken of a church or individual.  You reap what you sow, or at least in proportion to it.  So, the individuals of the church should take that into account, as should the church that collects to the tithes.

⁷Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Paul is causing the individuals of the church to keep-in-check their motivation in giving, and the church their mode of collecting.  In other words, the church is not to collect guilt offerings, but love offerings.  Now, because this is being written to the church, it begs the question: How is it that God will reward the church for collecting love offerings (v. 7) if the amount of giving that is truly out of love only allows the church to sow sparingly (v. 6)? Will the church only reap sparingly? And should they worry, if they are running their church in faith?  I believe that it is with that concern in mind that Paul goes on…

⁸And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

In other words, even if the church does away with the guilt offerings, and sees a dramatic decrease in giving, being left with only cheerful givers does not intimidate God, because God make sure that church has all that it needs to do God’s work.  In fact, all grace will abound beyond the means given, if that be God’s will, and the church that collects love offerings and itself give its own offerings in love as well, “will abound in every good work.”

⁹As it is written:
   ”He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor;
      his righteousness endures forever.”

The word righteousness is key here, because God’s righteousness is a reference to God’s justice.  In other words, God is not going to let the stingy giving of a few (or even many!) stop Him from using the gifts of the church to feed the poor.  God knows who and where they are, and if He has it mind to feed them, He will not let others’ sin stop Him… His righteousness endures forever.

¹⁰Now 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.

In other words, the same God who provides the jobs and money from which the church’s congregants give, will essentially pool all of that given together into a larger “harvest” with which to do His good work.  That church will have sufficient savings, and sufficient harvest, as a reflection of that church’s righteousness.  Now, again the word righteousness is key here.  However, unlike God’s righteousness, which is from within Himself, a church’s righteousness is from without.  A church’s righteousness only comes from believing God, obeying Him.  God also accounts righteousness for being zealous for His name, but that is more of a lawful rule, where belief and obedience have always been in faith… and if you are obedient, then you will be zealous for His name.  In addition, the righteousness that comes from belief and obedience is not created by the church.  It is not like the church can make righteousness by believing and obeying… it is God’s choice to see them as righteous, to account righteousness to that to body for their faith, and to see them live that righteousness in obedience.  So, here is how verse 10 would work in a practical sense, when taken in context:

1) Believe that God provides for the church through love offerings.
2) Obey God by using your church’s collections to help others and do God’s will.
3) God will enlarge your harvest, in reward for your obedience.
4) And what is your church’s harvest? More believers! And if you think about it, more believers means more love offerings… and so the cycle begins all over.

It is actually quite a practical plan when you think about it.  Obedient believers beget more obedient believers… and while God can turn $100 into a million supernaturally, it seems here that His goal is to turn 100 believers into a million… naturally.

¹¹You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

Thank you, God.  Amen.

 

 

This entry was posted on Friday, November 27th, 2009 at 10:17 am and is filed under Word Studies, Bible Commentary, Devotional Notes, Righteousness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.