Freely Giving in the Church

Read: 2 Corinthians 8: 8-15

Macedonia, in Paul’s time, had it all. They had all the resources within their lands, and they exported like crazy. (like China today, actually) Largely everyone was relatively wealthy. But all of a sudden, due to persecution, many of the Christians lost their wealth, and some have become impoverished. Thus, Paul encouraged the Corinthian church to “finish the work” and bring their desire to give to completion. He admonishes them not to let whatever doubts dampen their desire to give abundantly.

Thus far in my life, I’ve only gone to churches in wealthy countries. St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Singapore is a very wealthy church in a very posh part of town. WCAC is a comparatively wealthy church in an affluent American suburb (Wheaton) and near an even more affluent American suburb (Naperville). Yet, we cannot forget that we have brothers and sisters that go to churches that are suffering from a lack of necessities. There are brothers and sisters who go back from church hungry because there is no food to eat; weak because they could not afford basic medical care for their illnesses; and even hopeless because they think they are forsaken by the world at large.

Here is where Paul chimes in. Note that Paul never advocated a Marxist-communist equality. “Our desire,” wrote Paul in vs. 13, “is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed...” It’s not that we in the USA should eat only breadcrumbs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so that children in Africa can eat filet mignon. What Paul desired was “equality”, which (vs. 14) is that all our needs are fulfilled, according to the contexts we live in. The problem is that the Macedonians couldn’t survive in their impoverished state, just like today, when so many of the poor in the world can’t even afford to buy food.

Note that Paul here wasn’t even talking of giving to random poor people. He was talking about giving to people in the church who are poor! Picture this: in your own families, if a sibling doesn’t have money, won’t you reach into your pocket and give freely? So it must be in the Church, because the Church is one big body of Christ, one big family of faith! So often we think of the Church as just a bunch of individual families, but that’s not biblical. Worse, it prevents us from being generous with one another, preferring to withhold God’s blessings to ourselves.

Are there any brothers and sisters you know that are in need of something? It doesn’t have to be money. Perhaps they’re missing intangibles such as friendship, etc. Regardless of what they are poor in, perhaps now is the time to give freely and generously.