Cheerful Giver

I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be. Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—for being so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 

- 2 Corinthians 9:3-7

If the Corinthians fail to give, Paul believes it would evidence their faith as empty or ungenuine. There is a huge difference when people willingly give than when people are taxed. A tax is an extraction of money but giving freely comes from a thankful spirit and out of the depths of love that Christians have for each other anchored in their love of God. When you look at your own giving, do you give out of love or out of duty only? Do you give to serve God and others or to save face in your church community? There really is a difference.

Jesus says in Luke 6:38, “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” This is what Paul means about how we sow. God richly blesses such an attitude for those who sow bountifully. Paul tells us to examine our hearts, for it is from there that people give cheerfully or reluctantly. Our generosity in giving is to mirror God’s generosity in giving us his Son. This is the heart of the matter.

Prayer

Pour into our hearts the spirit of unselfishness, so that, when our cup overfows, we may seek to share our happiness with our brethren. O thou God of love, who makest thy sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendest rain on the just and the unjust, grant that we may become more and more thy true children, by receiving into our souls more of thine own spirit of ungrudging and unwearying kindness; which we ask in the name of Jesus Christ.

- John Hunter, 1849-1917