2 Corinthians chapter 8

vs 1

Paul's changing tac now and wanting to talk about another church, the Macedonian church, so the Corinthians can learn from their example.

vs 2

You wouldn't normally think that extreme trials and crushing poverty would create generosity. Or joy for that matter.

vs 3

Normally I would have defined generously as "giving beyond what you really need to". I don't know how you define "giving beyond what you really can afford". I guess Christians would say "sacrificially". We'd probably say "irresponsibly".

vs 4

How many people do this? The fact they basically had to beg Paul might be a mark of their poverty - Paul was saying "No, no, don't give, you don't need too, you're too poor". And yet they were insistent! No wonder Paul uses them as an example. I don't think he's using their poverty as an example, or their sacrifice necessarily, but the fact that their joy overflows so much that this is the resulting generosity. Quite challenging.

vs 5

I'm not sure if Paul is talking about their giving (ie they gave to God via the donation to Jerusalem, and then gave to Paul to support him) or if Paul's talking about their allegience being first to God and then to Paul. Either I am sure would make Paul happy. The former is obviously an outworking of the latter, I guess.

vs 6

The idea was, it seems, that Titus would get the Corinthians to give a gift too, and that he would collect it.

vs 7

I think Paul does mean this a little tongue in cheek, but only a little. His inclusion of "your love for us", which he commended them on only before, means he's not completely taking the piss. So he is actually trying to be encouraging.

vs 8

So while Paul makes it clear he is not commanding them to give, he also makes it clear that he's making comparisons between the two churches. Interesting. I mean, we would tend to say that people (and churches) are individuals, and you can't really judge between them on such matters. But of course, Paul doesn't see the world in our post-modern pluralistic-relativistic crappy view. He sees an absolute standard, the God-standard, and anyone who's closer to it in one area than you is who you should be compared to.

vs 9

This is the most obvious verse for my sermon tomorrow. And I haven't used it. I was putting it off, wanting to save it till next week, but I think it's got to go in tomorrow. So I'll throw it in. Because the ultimate gold-standard is the Jesus-standard. We hold everything up to that. Including ourselves, and each other. So our generosity should be like Christ's, which was sacrificial. Although, you might say, Christ got everything he sacrificed back again. You think you won't?

vs 10

And the Corinthians were generous, and sounds like they made an initial gift, and pledged more in the future.

vs 11

If they really were eager to do good when they made their pledge, and not just eager to look good, then they should match their eagerness with action for completion. But note that Paul does add the proviso, according to your means. Now that doesn't mean he doesn't approve of the Macedonian church's giving sacrificially (although it could mean that, and if scholars are right, Paul would be wary because this is supposedly how the Jerusalem church lost all their money in the first place and why they needed the help!) but it shows that Paul's attitude towards giving is not there to stumble the Corinthians, but to assist them in their serving of God.

vs 12

God, it seems, judges by willingness, and not the size of gift directly. However God does, it seem, judge the size of a gift proportionally, according to what one has. Interesting.