Day 14 – 2 Corinthians 9:1-15

For it is superfluous for me to write to you about this ministry to the saints; for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the Macedonians, namely, that Achaia has been prepared since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I have sent the brethren, in order that our boasting about you may not be made empty in this case, so that, as I was saying, you may be prepared; otherwise if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to speak of you—will be put to shame by this confidence. So I thought it necessary to urge the brethren that they would go on ahead to you and arrange beforehand your previously promised bountiful gift, so that the same would be ready as a bountiful gift and not affected by covetousness. Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; as it is written, “He scattered abroad, he gave to the poor, His righteousness endures forever.” Now 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; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all, while they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!^[1]

Do Christians have a moral and ethical obligation to one another? It would seem from what the Apostle Paul writes here that they do. We are Kingdom people who echo the words of the prayer Jesus used to teach His disciples how to pray saying, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” However, it is often more correct to say that we are more interested in developing our own personal fiefdoms (small kingdoms within a larger kingdom), than we are building the Kingdom of God. On the one hand we pointedly declare that we are living in the post-denomination era, but on the other we are in the process of building thicker walls to protect what we have built or in the process of creating new organizations. We feel a calling to ministry and immediately interpret that inward persuasion to mean that we are supposed to start a church instead of walking along someone else assisting them in the call on their life while at the same time prosecuting our individual call.

The Apostle Paul calls out the church at Corinth for her failure to minister to the needs of her fellow believers, even though they had pledged to do so. Paul wants them to faithfully fulfill their pledge and even sends leaders ahead of him to the city to insure that the pledge is paid even before he arrives. The importance that he places on their pledge is not so much on the lack of integrity they will display if they are not faithful, neither is it on the spiritual principle of sowing and reaping, although both are extremely important elements that he does address. The emphasis here is on the moral imperative sisters and brothers have to minister one to the other, and it so happens that the ministry required here is financial. So, I ask again, do Christians have a moral and ethical obligation one to the other?

Lord, forgive us for our personal desires to be significant to the extreme that the need of others does not move us. Forgive us for being more concerned about our little part of Your Kingdom than we are about the entirety of Your Kingdom. Show us how to minister one to another and to whom You would have us minister, even this very day. Amen.

^[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), 2 Co 9:1–2 Co 10.