Your plenty will supply what they need

2 Corinthians 8:1-15 (TNIV) -

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 went beyond our expectations; having given themselves first of all to the Lord, they gave themselves 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 you —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.
10 And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so.11 Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means.

12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.
13 Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality.14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality,

15 as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”

My thoughts -

I've never been much for stewardship campaigns, in part because I don't like the perception that the church's "real" goal is to get your money and in part because I never really seem to have any money to give. It's when I read passages like this and the story of the widow and her two copper coins in Luke 21 that I start to get convicted about my own giving, which is both sporadic and reluctant.

Quite frankly, in this world churches need money to operate. Maybe churches don't need as much of it as some of them think they do, but the ministry must be funded. If the church is to do it's duty to care for the needs of the poor and the hungry then that must be funded. And yes, full disclosure, I rather like my church having enough resources to continue to pay my salary.

Jeffery Rudy recently had an excellent post on stewardship and sanctification. In it he said something that I found truly compelling:

All of life itself is a gift from God. What if we really treated all of life that way? That would drastically change not only what we do with our money, but also what we do with the things that enter or approach our mind ('hold them in obedience to Christ'), our time, our physical abilities, our words, our attitudes, our education...again, everything.

I don't think that I have much (with the exception of guitars and gear - that I have an embarrassing overabundance of) but what I do have I like to cling to. I've carved out my own little meager sacred space that is mine and I don't like it violated. And yet, nothing here is really mine. I'm not even mine. All that I have and all that I am is a gift from God.

The church in Macedonia seemed to understand this, at least according to Paul in this letter. They were having some trouble and yet still managed to give eagerly and generously. Some of the most generous people I know have so little. It's almost as if that vulnerability, the glaring lack of resources, at least in comparison to others, has somehow made them less dependent upon material things that they might otherwise cling to. It's as if they have a deeper understanding of the frailties of this life and our dependence upon God for everything.

I like what Paul says to the church in Corinth in verses 13 and 14:

Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality.

There is a connection there. One church has plenty of material resources; the other less so. They are both called to give eagerly and generously. But, obviously more will come from the church with more. Their plenty will help provide what the other needs. We have political pundits who would freak out about this principle and declare it to be evil socialism. And yet, here it is, plain as day, in Scripture, staring us in the face.

I don't know any way around this issue. I need to do better. Whether I have plenty, like the rich people in the temple in Luke 21 and the church in Corinth in this passage; or whether I have little like the widow or the Macedonian church, I am called to give eagerly and generously. If I have plenty that plenty will supply for another's need. The goal is equality. It's not socialist, it's Biblical.