The Act of Generosity
Today we’re finishing a mini-series on the theme of generosity. In between Judges and Matthew we’ve taken two weeks to consider some passages in 2 Corinthians where Paul encourages generosity towards the poverty-stricken Christians in Jerusalem.
Last week we considered 8:1-15 and what it said about the heart of generosity. We saw that generosity is a deeply Christian behaviour, which means that when the gospel takes root in a person’s heart, one of the fruits that grows up is generosity.
Today, from 2 Corinthians 9, we consider not so much the heart of generosity but the act of generosity. “The point is this,” verse 6 begins. The sense is, this is what he wants the Corinthians to be thinking about when the final collection happens and the moment give actually takes place. We know, from last week, why they are to give, and here he tells them how.
1. Give like a Farmer (v. 6)
How are they to give? First, they are to give like farmers. We get that from verse 6: “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6).
We live in Saskatchewan, and it’s September 1, which means that everywhere we look we can see combines taking the harvest off the field. And here’s what we can say without a doubt: every farmer who is taking in a good crop also put in a good amount of seed.
If they had sized things up in the spring and thought, “You know, I don’t want to spend a lot on seed this year. Maybe I’ll just put in a little bit here and there and hope for the best,” then guess what kind of crop they’d be taking off right now?
The more you sow, the more you reap. That’s the way God has set things up and that’s the way that He continues to make things work. And the same principle applies to generosity. Giving to those in need is like planting a crop. You can give sparingly if you want, tiny bits here and there. But then you are going to reap sparingly as well. The benefit you receive will be small. But if you sow bountifully—if you give generously—God will see to it that you receive and enjoy a great benefit from that.
Some of that benefit is the blessing of being able to give more, like we’ll see in verse 8. Some of that may be the joy that comes from giving. Like we heard last week, happiness, the good life that we actually want, comes not from receiving but from giving.
The point is, there is benefit from being generous, and that benefit will be in proportion to what is given.
It’s encouraging to remember here the Lord’s comments about the widow’s offering (Luke 21:1-4). According to God, her two pennies were a more generous gift than all of the money given by rich people who had so much they’d never miss it. When God looks for “generous giving,” he doesn’t compare you to other people. He looks at what He’s given you, and what you do with what you have.
But when you consider what you have, and you ask “How much should I give?”, the answer is, “Think like a farmer. How much benefit to you want to receive? How big of a harvest do you want? That’s how much you’ll give. Whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”
2. Give with Joy (v. 7)
You can’t miss that Paul is leaving it up to them to decide exactly how much to give. He doesn’t give them a percentage. He gives them a principle, and lets them decide how much they want to give. And that point becomes very clear in the next verse, verse 7, which says, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion.”
How much should you give? You decide. In your heart. Don’t give reluctantly, all sad about what you’re losing. And don’t give because other people are forcing you into it, or because you’re trying to impress them. Give what you’ve decided to give.
And the reason for this is given at the end of verse 7: “for God loves a cheerful giver.” It’s true that God loves everyone. But there is a special love He has for cheerful givers. Perhaps we could understand this as a special delight He feels in the generosity of His people. Or a special attention He pays to a cheerful giver for the purpose of blessing them even further.
However we explain it, the point is that God loves a cheerful giver. God loves it when we give because we want to, out of the overflow of our hearts.
Giving to the Lord, giving to others, should not feel like paying taxes. “Serve the Lord with gladness!” says Psalm 11:2, and that applies to generosity. God wants us to delight in being generous, like the Macedonians we read about last week. He loves a cheerful giver.
And in my experience, I’ve seen that when people give cheerfully, one of the benefits they reap is more joy. The happiest people I’ve known are the most generous, because giving makes them happy, and out of that happiness they give more.
And by the way, this verse is not an excuse to not give if you’re not cheerful. If you don’t want to give, you need to go back to last week, back to chapter 8, and ask God to help you believe the gospel. Because a fruit of the gospel will be willing generosity.
So, give with joy, what you’ve decided in your heart, knowing that as you do that you’re going to enjoy the special love that God shows to a cheerful giver.
3. Give by Faith (vv. 8-11)
There’s a third way that we’re to give, and that’s by faith. Verse 8: “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”
In other words, we are to give trusting in God’s ability to provide for us. This is an important counterbalance to the truth from chapter 8 last week, which said that we are to give out of what we have, not out of what we don’t have. We’re not all expected to give ourselves into poverty like the Macedonians. But at the same time, we can’t just give based on what we have and reasonably expect to make based on purely human calculations.
Didn’t verse 6 already tell us that? We’re to give like farmers, with eyes not just on what we have but on what we expect to gain from what we give. And that’s what verse 8 is emphasizing. We need to give, looking to the future, believing that God is going to take care of us in every way we need.
Look at how expansive his language is here in verse 8. God is able to make all grace abound to you. Not just some grace trickling down, but all grace overflowing. So that having all sufficiency—more than enough—in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
What an incredible way to express this overflowing totality of enough-ness. God is able to make sure that you have more than enough, not so that you can store it up for yourself, but so that you can abound in every good work.
And to back this up, in verse 9 he quotes from Psalm 112: “As it is written, ‘He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.’” Contrary to what we might think, this verse is not talking about God. If you read Psalm 112, you’ll see that it’s talking about a man who fears the Lord, a man who, as Psalm 112:6 says, “deals generously and lends; who conducts his affairs with justice” (Psalm 112:5).
And verse 9 of that Psalm says that this righteous man distributes freely, giving to the poor. That’s what a righteous man does. And instead of impoverishing him, instead of his generosity leaving him with nothing, God sees to it that this man’s righteousness endures forever. His righteous acts of generosity are remembered and rewarded into eternity.
So the point again is that we need to be generous by faith—not giving based just on what we have, but on what God has promised to do, now and forever. This is made even more explicit in the next two verses. Verse 10: “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness” (2 Corinthians 9:10).
The language here picks up from verse 6, and Goes back to God’s bountiful provision for His creation. What we’re seeing around our province in these weeks is His provision at work. That’s why we pray before we eat. Everything that grows comes from the Lord. Psalm 104:14: “You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth.”
And just like he’s multiplying grain and seeds and food, so he will do the same for us as we sow the seeds of generous giving. He’ll supply and multiply our seed for sowing—which means, our ability to give—in order to increase the harvest of our righteousness. And in the context of verse 9, “righteousness” points to the righteousness of generosity.
In other words, give, because God is going to so take care of you that you’ll be able to keep on giving.
Which means that this has nothing to do with the prosperity gospel, which says that if we give, God will enrich us so that we can enjoy being rich. Talk about missing the point. The focus in these verses is not on us being able to have easy and luxurious lives, but us being able to keep on doing good in whatever state we’re in. Verse 8: God is able to make all what about to you? Not necessarily money, but grace. So that you may abound in what? Not cash, but every good work. Verse 9: the generous man gives to the poor, and his what endures forever? Not his RRSP, but his righteousness. Verse 10: God will multiply our seed for what? For sowing. If he gives us more, it’s so that we can give more, which will increase the harvest of our what? Not our personal luxuries, but our righteousness.
God is going to make sure that we keep on having enough money to keep on being as generous as He wants us to be—not so that we can keep more for ourselves. Verse 11 sums up perfectly: “You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way” (2 Corinthians 9:11). So we can give by faith, trusting the Lord to keep providing enough for us to keep being generous.
I’ve seen this principle work itself out over and over again. Without fail, every single time that we’ve been over-and-above generous with someone, we’ve had that more than made up for in some unexpected way. It’s almost been a game at times. “How are you going to provide for us this time, Lord?” I’ve heard other people say that they just keep giving, and they don’t know where the money comes from, but they keep having enough to keep being generous.
So, we give like farmers, we give with joy, and we give by faith, knowing that God will see to it that our righteousness endures forever. He’ll enrich us in every way to be generous in every way, which will produce thanksgiving to God.
4. Give to the Glory of God (vv. 12-15)
That last phrase in verse 11 is so important, because it shows us a key ingredient to all of this. Our primary motivation in being generous is not to get richer ourselves, or even to draw attention to ourselves. This is what sets Christian generosity apart from worldly generosity. Many rich people in this world love giving money away if it means they get their name on a plaque or they get the hospital named after them.
Christian giving produces thanksgiving to God. In other words, we give so that God, not us, receives the glory.
That just flows out of what we’ve seen. If God is the one enriching us and providing for us, then when we are generous, why would we get any credit? We’re just the conduit for His provision. He gets the thanks. That’s what Paul goes on to explain in verses 12 and following:
“For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God” (2 Corinthians 9:12). When you give, it’s not just taking care of needs—it’s bringing a lot of praise and glory to God. Verse 13 says that when the saints approve the Corinthians giving, “they will glorify God.” They’ll recognize this giving flows from their confession of the gospel. They’ll praise God for your generosity. They will pray for you because they see this generosity has come from God’s gift. And Paul ends in verse 15 by offering His own praise to God—“Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”
That is our motivation as we give. We recognize that the whole thing, from motivation, to opportunity, to ability, is all His grace. He’s been so kind to us to let us be a part of what He’s doing to provide for His children. And so we give like farmers, giving generously in order to receive a generous harvest—so that we might give all the more. We give with joy, for the pleasure of the Lord. We give by faith, trusting in God to provide for all we need. And we give to the glory of God, driven by a desire to see thanks and praise go to him when the gift is received.
This is how Christians are to give.
Practical Questions
Now that we’ve walked through this passage, we want to ask some very specific questions about this passage and about generosity in our lives today.
The goal here is not to set aside the passage and talk about the real stuff. This passage is the real stuff. And as we ask some very specific questions, we’ll better understand how this passage applies to and impacts the nitty gritty of money and finances in our lives.
If you have one of the sermon outlines in your bulletin, you can turn it over to see a series of five questions we’re going to briefly consider in the next few minutes.
1. Should I tithe?
The first question is one I alluded to next week. The question is, “should I tithe?” We’ve been talking about giving for two weeks here and I haven’t said a thing about 10%. Isn’t that the biblical pattern of giving? Whatever money we get, we tithe 10%, and the rest is ours to save and spend. And occasionally we might give beyond that 10%, but that’s called an offering and we only do that on special occasions.
There’s two major problems with this view of tithing. First, it misses that tithing was bound up in the life of ancient Israel. They were to give a tenth, or a tithe, to support the Levites (Num 18:21). Tithes were also used to celebrate feasts before the Lord at the temple (Deut 14:22-28), and another passage speaks about a tithe that came out every three years to care for the poor in the land (Deut 26:12).
Some argue these were actually three different tithes that actually work out to something like 23.3% of their income. Even if that’s not the case, the point is that tithing was bound up in the life of ancient Israel and their Old-Covenant, temple-and-Levite realities. That’s why Malachi 3:10 says “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.” Literally, the temple had storehouses that were supposed to be food for the priests.
So Christians don’t tithe any more than Christians offer sacrifices at the temple. We’re in a New Covenant. And that’s why tithing is not taught anywhere in the New Testament.
The second problem with tithing is that it actually works against everything we’ve seen in today’s passage. The tithing mindset says, “God gets 10% of whatever I make, and the rest is mine. And if I make more money, as long as I keep giving God that percentage, I get to enjoy the rest.”
The mentality we’ve seen in these passages says, “God provides for me. After my needs are met, how I can I use His money He’s entrusted to me to help those who need it more than I do?” With this mentality, as your wealth increases, instead of increasing your standard of living, you increase your standard of giving.
This goes back to last week, and the idea that God was providing for the Christians in Jerusalem by giving more to the Christians in Corinth s other could pass it on. Their abundance was for giving away. We see this in. Ephesians 5:28, which says that the thief should stop stealing and work “so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” 1 Timothy 6:18 doesn’t say, “As for the rich in this present age, charge them to give 10%.” It says, instead, that “they are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.” Our money is for being generous. And in fact, generosity is such a priority that more than once Jesus tells people to sell their possessions so that they can give to those in need.
So no, Christians should not tithe, because the tithing mindset might actually hold us back from the kind of generosity the Lord intends for us. God doesn’t get 10% of your paycheque. 100% of it is already His. You are managing His money, and if you’ve been enriched, it’s that you might enrich others. So let’s throw out the percentage points and give freely and cheerfully, without compulsion or reluctance, like this passage has instructed us.
2. Where should I give to?
Second question—who should I give to? Or where should I give? There’s so many needs in the world; how do we know where we should give our money?
When I think about the teaching in Scripture on this topic, the priority that we see is that we give to people who need it. That might sound obvious, but in our world of organizations and non-profits, it’s helpful to remember that the focus of our giving is people.
And the New Testament gives several categories of people we should give towards. One is poor Christians. Not lazy Christians, if you remember last week. But those in legitimate need. That’s been the focus in 2 Corinthians here.
The second group would be gospel workers. People who have given their lives to the work of the gospel and so don’t have any other means of bringing in an income. 3 John says about missionaries, “For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth” (3 John 7–8, see also Titus 3:13–14). Similarly, 1 Corinthians 9, Galatians 6:6, and 1 Timothy 5:17-19 all speak about the supporting those who work to serve the local church.
And then, there is the instruction to give to anybody in legitimate need. Galatians 6:10 says “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Our brothers and sisters are a priority, but everyone is included there. Let’s get this clear that giving to the poor is not a “social justice” issue that only left-wingers care about. Giving to the poor is what Christians just do as we spread the gospel (not instead of spreading the gospel).
Now, in addition to giving to these groups of people, I think a second broad category we can imply is that we should give towards the tools that are needed for the spread of the gospel. Paul needed not only to eat and survive, but also to purchase materials and pay a secretary to write down his letters. We know he had books and parchments. Someone would have needed to pay rent for the hall of Tyrannus in Ephesus where Paul set up what was basically the first Bible college. Someone had to pay for boat tickets for sailing around the Mediterranean.
So in addition to caring for people, we give to ministry tools for the spread of the gospel.
Now, the question still is, how do I know who and where to give to? There’s so many needs. So many organizations. This is especially true in our day, where global communication makes us aware of every need, everywhere.
And one of the principles we see in Scripture that can help us is the principle of proximity. Or nearness. The closer we are to a real need, the greater our responsibility is to meet it.
The Good Samaritan was not commanded to go search every highway to take care of every wounded person everywhere. He was a good neighbour by caring for the need literally in his path. 1 Timothy 5 says that if there was a widow in need, her family should take care of her before burdening the church. Galatians 6:6 says, “Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.” It says to share with the person who teaches you, not with every person everywhere who teaches anybody.
And yes, there will be times where we learn about needs more distant from us, and we know we have a responsibility to care for them because nobody closer can take care of it. Like the Christians in Corinth giving to the Christians in Jerusalem. But in general, Scripture shows us starting with what’s right in front of us and moving out from there.
And this is why most Christians have recognized the priority of giving first and foremost to their local church. That’s where you’re being taught the word. That’s where your children are being served with resources that are not free. Even consider the fact that the lights are on in here, there’s a bulletin in your hands, there’s paper towel in the bathrooms—all of which you benefit from, and all of which costs something.
When the members of this church vote on a budget each November, we’re agreeing together that these are financial priorities to us, and we’re going to do our part to help those priorities be met.
But in addition to the responsibility, there’s also the joy and privilege of partnering together to do more with God's money than any one of us could do on our own. Think of the missionaries and ministries that we evaluate and support together. We spend a big chunk of our budget on the spread of the gospel all around the world. Giving to your local church covers a lot of these biblical priorities and categories.
But not all of them. Our church budget only covers a small percentage of the budgets for each of these missionaries. They need more than what we can budget for them. It’s also important for us, individually, to remember the poor. That’s one of the reasons why Aimee and I love giving to Compassion. Instead of sending money to a faceless organization, we actually have a personal connection with two children we’re helping to free from poverty, in Jesus’ name, in connection with a local church in their country.
One of the more challenging categories of giving has to do with giving to financial needs here among us in our own church family. The tax laws in Canada make it really hard for us, as a church, to set up a find to meet needs within our own church. Maybe we should consider the costs verses the benefits of our charitable status. But in the meantime, what we do is let people know about needs so they can give directly. That’s something we want to get better at organizing and facilitating in the future, perhaps appointing a deacon to oversee that ministry.
But to sum up what I’m saying here, we can see biblical priorities to give to our church as a priority, and then beyond that, as we’re able, to give to the spread of the gospel and the needs of the poor, especially Christians in need, prioritizing the needs that are closest to us.
3. Is giving just about money?
The third question: “is giving just about money?” In other words, can’t I be generous in other ways, like through time or talent?
I’ve heard this question often enough, and it might come from two places. First, it may come from someone who doesn’t have many resources to give. They’re already depending on the generosity of others themselves. And they wonder if they can still be generous in other ways. And the answer is, “of course!” Be generous in whatever way you can. Maybe you have a skill you can use to benefit people. Maybe you can spend time with people. Of course you can.
On the other hand, this question could come from someone who wants to be generous in ways that feel easier for them. I remember talking to someone who straight up told me, “I don’t give money. I give my time.” And I basically said to him, “your time doesn’t keep the lights on in this place. We need money for that.”
In other words, if people need money, and you have it, being generous “in other ways” is not being generous at all. On the other hand, sometimes people need your time, and throwing them $100 might be easy but not very helpful. Growing up poor, lots of people gave us money, but almost nobody offered their time to help us set up a budget.
So we should be generous in every way we can, in every way that people actually need.
4. Should I give out of debt?
A fourth question someone asked this week while we were discussing this passage. “Should I give out of debt?” They were asking specifically from the perspective of a college student living off of student loans. Should you use money loaned to you by the government to give to others?
I don’t think so. “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” (Luke 20:25). That money was lent to you to pay for your education. So use it for that purpose.
But, actually use it for that purpose. The person I was talking to this week admitted that when they were living off of loans, they didn’t give anything to the church, but they also felt very free to spend it on take-out food and and entertainment and whatever other luxuries they felt like enjoying.
And the question that should be asked is: if you can’t afford to be generous to others, why is it okay to be generous with yourself? If you’re living off of loans, be as frugal as you can, so that when you start earning an income you can give more of it away.
5. What do I actually need?
Fifth and final question: “What do I actually need?” We’ve talked a lot today about taking care of needs. And it’s a genuine question what those needs are. I need food, but do I need Amazon Prime? I need clothing, but do I need life insurance? I need transportation, but do I need retirement savings? I need a roof over my head, but do I need art to hang on the walls of it?
These are questions that a discussion like this morning certainly prompts, and I can only point in a few directions in terms of where you can find the answers. First, I encourage you to read the Bible with these questions in mind. Notice the kinds of ways that the characters in Scripture use their wealth and possessions and make financial decisions.
Second, ask hard questions. Is that TV on your wall a tool to help you rest in edifying ways, or learn helpful truths, or see beauty, or show hospitality, all so that you can better love God and His people? Or is it an expensive time-waster you think you deserve because everybody else has one? I don’t think we should be afraid of prayerfully asking those kinds of questions and talking about them together as brothers and sisters.
Third, I want to recommend some resources to explore these questions more. We did a class a few years ago called Making Sense of Money which you can find on our website. It that delves into some of these questions, and you might find it helpful. I also want to highlight this book, Money, Debt, and Finances by Jim Newheiser. It’s written in a Q&A format and tackles everything from network marketing to budgeting to saving to investing, all from a biblical perspective. You don’t have to read the whole book—you can just go find the question and answer that you’re interested in. I’d also commend Act of Grace by James Petty, which helped inspire this series. These books are in our library and I really recommend them as good resources to explore these questions further.
Above all, we need God’s wisdom. It’s His money, it’s His stuff. We’re just stewards. We need His help to resist the temptations of our materialistic world and really recognize how much of our income we need, and how much he wants us to pass along.
“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:7–8).