2 Corinthians 8:10

Herein, I give my counsel or advice, for this is expedient for you, who have begun before not only to do but also to be forward a year ago. Now, therefore, perform the doing of it, that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which you have. For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what a man has, and not according to what he has not.

For I mean not that other men be eased and you be burdened, but by an equality that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want, and there may be equality. As it is written, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack.

Father, we do ask for wisdom now as we look into Your Word. We thank You that You promise that if anyone lacks wisdom, they are to ask of You, and that You would give what is needed. So we pray that You would supply this morning wisdom, knowledge, and understanding as we look through Your Word, that You would continue to transform us by the renewing of our minds, Lord.

Lord, that we would not be conformed to this world, but that we would be conformed more and more into the image of Your Son, and that we would reflect Your grace and Your glory to the world around us. Lord, we pray this in Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, Amen. You can be seated.

This is now our fourth week looking at the text before us here in 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9, dealing with treasure, wealth, and giving. If you are new to our church in the last month, you may think that all we ever talk about is money here at Cross Connection. At least for the last month, that has been somewhat true. But the reality is that since the end of January this year, we have been going through the book of 2 Corinthians. We have been journeying for the last four years through the book of Acts and looking through...

The epistles of the New Testament are arranged chronologically with the book of Acts. As we've gone through Acts, we are now in Acts chapter 20. We have looked at the books of James, Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and now 1 Corinthians. Here we are in 2 Corinthians.

In this second letter to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul is writing to a church that is not unlike many modern churches in our own country. They, like so many of us, were a church with many problems. A church is a gathering of people called out of darkness and into God's marvelous light. When we come out of darkness into the marvelous light of Christ, we do not do so cloaked in any form of human righteousness. There is not a single person represented today in this church or in any church in our nation or in the world who is practically perfect. It's just not a reality. We come to Christ miserable, poor, blind, and naked. That is who we are at the depths of our being.

The wonderful truth of the gospel is that God does transform us, bringing us into His body, the body of Christ, the church, robed in His righteousness. We do not stand before the Lord with any privilege, right, or opportunity apart from the work of Jesus Christ in our lives, which makes the way open for us to come before the Lord. Praise be to God for His indescribable gift. We will see this next week in 2 Corinthians 9, verse 15. The gift we have in Christ is unspeakable and indescribable. It is an awesome thing that God has given us in salvation, the salvation we have received in Him.

With this in mind, we must never think it strange that a church would be filled with sinful people. Look around; we are sinful people. We come to Christ, as stated in Revelation 3, verse 17, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. We need the work of Christ. We are saved by grace and granted new life in Christ, but we still carry with us the remnants, the vestiges, if you will, of that former sinful nature.

Nature is evident in every single one of us, and we can see that former carnal nature in ourselves every day. Other people see it too, although we may try to hide it. It's there, and it's very evident that we are not a perfect people. So, it's understandable that the world would look at the church and say the church is full of hypocrites. How many of you identify with that reality? Yes, it's true. We desire to be something that we're not. We have a desire that God has planted in us to be righteous before Him.

Now, we are righteous before Him because we're clothed in Christ's righteousness. He sees us as holy and blameless. But practically speaking, every single one of us has sin—sin that so easily ensnares us because of our flesh. This church, like any church, is not filled with sinless people at all. If you think you found the perfect church when you came here, well, that's just not a reality. There is no perfect church, and your mere presence defiles it even more. I'm speaking biblically, okay? It's just who we are.

I think it's important for us to recognize and be honest about that fact. We can't put on a show for people and make it seem like we all have it together, that everything is just right and perfect. However, Christ-likeness is the aim of God for His people. It is His desire and design that we who are in Christ would be conformed more and more into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. We are told in the book of Hebrews that He is the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person.

God is holy. God is perfect. It is His desire to transform us, and this transformation begins internally. This is what the gospel is all about. This is what the prophet Ezekiel foresaw when he said in Ezekiel chapter 36 that God is going to give us a new heart. We need a new heart because, at the very same time that Ezekiel was receiving that from God, Jeremiah was also receiving a word from the Lord.

Jeremiah chapter 17 tells us that the heart of man is desperately wicked. There is a promise of a new heart, and it is fulfilled in Christ. This new heart begins internally and is perfected or worked out in us by the power of the Spirit and through the working of God's Word. This transformation takes place in the context of Christian community, within the body of Christ.

This is why I believe that gatherings such as this are so very important. The author of the book of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews chapter 10 that we are not to neglect or forsake the assembling together of the body of Christ. When we come together in this manner, we do so to be corporately provoked through the worship of God unto good works. Hebrews chapter 10 emphasizes that the desire is for us to be provoked unto good works, and we are provoked through the worship of God.

When we worship God in song, as we just did, in sacrificial giving, as we gave an offering, and in the Scriptures, we are exalting Him. We are lifting Him up. When we lift Him up and see Him exalted, we adore His holy perfection. We see Him for who He is, and in the light of that, we see our lowly imperfections very clearly. When He is lifted up and seen for who He is, we recognize who we are.

This is practically illustrated in the book of Isaiah, chapter 6. Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, exalted, and he witnessed this awesome scene of the heavenly throne room of God. What was Isaiah's response? He said, "Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips." This is what happens when we come in contact with God as He is exalted in worship. We should recognize our nakedness and understand that we are completely lost without Him.

God exposes our sinful nature in the light of His glory for the purpose of expunging our sinfulness, for the purpose of removing it. This is God's aim; it is His goal—Christlikeness.

And it is in this process that God is developing that practically in us. He's transforming us by the renewing of our minds and by the washing of the water of His Word. I set all this before us prior to stepping into the text of 2 Corinthians today because I think it's necessary for us to recognize the importance of texts such as the one that is before us. We have spent a significant amount of time over the last three weeks up to this point.

God's aim is to make us more like Him. To make us, using the language of Scripture from the book of Ephesians, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that we should be holy and without blemish. Now, every single one of us here today who has received the gospel of grace recognizes that not one of us can say that this last week we were practically holy and blameless, without spot or blemish. It is a reality of our sinful condition. But God is working in us, desiring to work in us, so that we would be a glorious church, not having any spot, wrinkle, blemish, or any such thing.

One of the aspects of the sinful nature, as we have considered over the last few weeks, is that we are born greedy. We are born selfish. This inborn trait, this inborn covetousness, this selfishness that is exhibited in all humanity, is seen very early in the life of an individual. It does not take long to see selfishness and greed in a little child. How many parents here can say yes, amen to that? It's there.

Charles Swindoll, in his book, You and Your Child, quoted a report that was commissioned in 1926 by the governor of Minnesota. It was called the Minnesota Crime Commission, and it said this: every baby, this was what they found in 1926, starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it.

His bottle, his mother's attention, his playmate's toy, his uncle's watch. Deny these things, and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness, which would be murderous were it not that he is so helpless. He has no morals, no knowledge, no skills. This means that all children, not just certain children, are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in the self-centered world of his infancy, given free reign to his impulsive actions to satisfy his wants, every child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist.

Could you imagine that being written in 2012 by a government-sponsored study? Never. Some things have changed in four score and six years; it's phenomenal. But one thing has not changed: the selfish sinfulness of humanity. In fact, it will never change apart from the saving work of Jesus Christ. It doesn't just get reformed by the betterment of society, better laws, or equality. Equality does not fix this reality.

Now, that quote highlights the reality that not only is selfish greed an inborn trait, but that selfishness and greed lead to a sad and bad world. They lead to a terrible environment. You see, sin is not bad because it's forbidden; sin is forbidden because it's bad. What do I mean by that? Well, sin, if allowed to remain, will bring about destruction and death. That's clearly seen in the Scriptures.

The wages of sin is what? A lot of times, we contemplate that in the reality of God's justice and God's judgment. The wages of sin is death because God will judge sin. The reality is this: the wages of sin is death because sin is deadly. Now, that's not to say that God will not judge sin because He is just, but the judgment that God will bring upon sin is not a physical death; it's a spiritual death. It's called the second death, as it's revealed in the book of Revelation.

So, the reason that people die is because sin is deadly. The soul that sins shall die.

The prophet Ezekiel said in Ezekiel chapter 18 that judgment and justice are important, but not just because of that; sin will kill you. It is like the worst poison. This is why Adam and Eve were told, "In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die." They were not going to die solely because of the resulting judgment of God; they were going to die because sin is deadly. Greed, selfishness, and other sinful tendencies that are bound up in the heart of every individual who comes into this world will kill you if left unchecked. Like the worst form of cancer, untreated sin will destroy. It destroys inwardly before it becomes evident on the outside.

Sin is a problem of the heart. We see sinful behaviors all around us, but those are just the evidence of the sinful heart. Therefore, it is the heart that needs to be dealt with. The idea that we can legislate a better world only addresses the external problems of sin. Many people in various churches would like to see better laws to combat or speak against the criminal or sinful behaviors of humanity. The reality is that you could do that all day long and still have a world filled with sinful people.

Sin is a problem of the heart. It cannot be allowed to remain in the life of the Christian or within the life of the church. As Paul previously stated in 1 Corinthians, sin is like leaven; it is like yeast. A little bit of it will destroy the whole. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 6 through 9, that a little bit of leaven will leaven the whole lump. God is in the business of purging out leaven. He is in the business of removing sin from our lives.

Jesus illustrates this by the picture he gives in John chapter 15 of God being a vine dresser. In John chapter 15, verse 1, Jesus said, "I am the vine; my Father is the vine dresser." Every branch in Him that does not bear fruit, He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes, that it may bear more fruit, much fruit. God is actively cleansing, purifying, and pruning us. This is a part of His work in our lives.

What is called the salvific work, the saving work of God? You see, salvation is not just something that happened when you prayed a sinner's prayer at a harvest crusade, here at this church, or somewhere else. Salvation wasn't something that happened in the past. Salvation is a progressive work that God is doing in the person who has put their trust in Christ for that salvation. They are trusting Him for salvation, believing that He is going to fulfill the work, as Paul says in Philippians chapter 1, verse 6: "Being confident of this very thing, that He who began the good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus."

God has justified those who put their trust in Him. This means He has dealt with the punishment of their sin. He who knew no sin became sin for us, taking the punishment for our sin on the cross. But God is currently working in His church, those who put their faith in Him, through the work of sanctification, transforming them from the inside out. Ultimately, we are looking forward to the completion of salvation, which is glorification. When we see Him, we will be like Him. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we will be transformed. The dead in Christ are going to rise first. Paul discusses this in 1 Thessalonians 4 and in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where he talks about this corruption putting on incorruption, this mortality putting on immortality.

As Christians, we look forward to that. But between now and then, God is doing a work of sanctification. He is actively cleansing, purifying, and pruning us for the purpose of making us fruitful, productive, and glorifying to Him. That is His aim: that we would reflect Him. This is what it means to glorify God; we would exalt Him and reflect Him in our lives.

God does this work by the working of His Spirit through the power of His Word. Jesus said in John 17, verse 17, in a prayer that He prayed for us: "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth." God's Word is true; that is the testimony of Jesus. This is the standard of truth. Jesus is the Word; He is the standard of truth. He sanctifies us. Furthermore, Paul said in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 26...

God's aim is to sanctify His church by the washing of water through His word. He says, in a verse I already referenced, that He might present the church to Himself as a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.

So, how does God get us to be practically blameless when we stand before Him on that day? He does so by the working of His Spirit through the power of His word and the life of the Christian. That's what He is doing when we gather together in this form. That's what He is doing when we are simply reading through His word individually and personally. Sometimes we may think, "Why am I doing this? Just reading through the scriptures?" Well, you're doing it because He says, "I'm going to wash you by the washing of water by the word."

The story is told of an old man who had, for many years, been instructing his children and grandchildren on the importance of consuming God's word. One day, while this old man was working in his garden, his young grandson, who was in his late teens, came to him and said, "You know what? You've been telling me this for all these years, and I've been reading through my Bible, but I just don't understand the importance of it. I know all these stories; I've read through them, and it just seems like I know this stuff already."

As his grandfather listened, he handed his grandson a basket and said, "Could you go run some water through this basket, or could you fill this basket up with water?" The grandson replied, "You can't fill this basket up with water. Just please, would you just go and do it?" Seeking to oblige his grandfather, he went and ran water through the basket. No water filled it up, so he returned and gave it back to his grandfather, saying, "No water."

His grandfather replied, "Can you go do it again?" The grandson returned a second time and said, "It doesn't hold any water." The grandfather responded, "It may not hold any water, but it's cleaner."

In the same way, God transforms us; He cleanses us by the washing of water through His word and the effective working of His Holy Spirit in our lives, using the word as a sword, sharper than any two-edged sword, to divide between joint and marrow, soul and spirit, as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The word of God is living and powerful, and it is important.

Although greed is, in some ways, valued and almost encouraged in 21st-century American culture, it is revealed by God.

His word reveals sin to be deadly. Our culture is wrong in the light of God's word, which is truth. Sanctify them by Your truth; Your word is truth.

We live in a culture today that questions truth. Everybody has their own truth, and people say things like, "Well, that's true for you, but I have my own truth." Has anyone ever heard that kind of rhetoric before? The reality is that there is a standard of truth, and God incarnate said, "Your word is truth." This is the bar to which every other idea is brought to bear.

When we look around our culture, we see that people seem to esteem greed. They do so in their actions and in the way we teach the importance and value of money in our society. In America, it's a really big deal, isn't it? We encourage it and seem to foster it, yet the Bible reveals it as sin. We can be sure that God wants to expel greed from our lives because His word reveals it as sin, and sin is deadly. God does not want His church to die because of the sin of greed, so He seeks to remove it and purge it from us.

This is one of the reasons I know that teachings such as the prosperity gospel are wrong. They encourage and foster greed, while God wants to remove it. He desires to eliminate the sinful roots of greed from my life and from your life—the selfishness that resides in every single one of us from birth, which is immediately reflected back to us by our children. He wants to remove that.

God does this by stirring in us, through His Spirit, a desire to give. You see, giving is a sanctifying work. Let me say that again: giving is a sanctifying work. God wants to remove greed and selfishness from us. He wants to destroy covetousness in us. One of the ways that God does this is by stirring in us a desire, through His Spirit, to give. Then He encourages us to do so and to perform.

What we desire to do by His Word shows the working of the Spirit and the working of the Word. God, by His Spirit, inspires a desire to give, which is not according to our flesh. Sinful people don't sacrificially give; they may give to get something, but they don't give sacrificially because that is inspired by God, His Spirit working in us. He inspires a desire to give and then works through His Word to encourage us to perform what we desire to do.

God works in us to desire and to do those things that are pleasing to Him. Philippians 2:13, one of my favorite verses in the Bible, states, "For it is God who works in you both to desire and to do what is pleasing to Him." He plants in us new desires when we begin to follow Him by faith, transforming us in that way. God is working in us through His Spirit and by His Word to have new desires and to encourage those desires to do things that are pleasing.

I am convinced, as I have said, that giving is a sanctifying work, a work of God. As we saw previously in 1 Corinthians 8, it is a work of God's grace in our lives. Now, let’s look at the passage before us: 2 Corinthians 8:10-15. In this passage, we will see this spiritually inspired desire, a desire planted by the Spirit, working in concert with the exhortative Word that Paul is going to bring. Ultimately, this will produce sacrificial giving, resulting in God's glory and growth in Christ's likeness.

In this passage, we see God inspiring a desire and, through the Apostle Paul, bringing His Word to say, "Now fulfill it." Look at 2 Corinthians 8:10. "And herein I give my advice, my counsel, for this is expedient or beneficial for you who have begun before not only to do but also to be forward a year ago." He says, "You started to do this and you desired to do it a year ago. Now, therefore, what? Perform it." Just as there was a readiness to will, you had a desire, so there may be the performance also out of that which you have.

You had a desire to give. A need was presented to you; the church in Jerusalem had a need, and that need was brought to your attention. When that need arose, you felt an internal desire that said, "I want to help with that." You even started to actively contribute. However, somewhere along the line, you stopped. Paul says, "Now do it." There was a willingness there, so there may also be a performance based on what you have.

In verse 12, it states, "For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what a man has and not according to what he has not." Paul clarifies that he does not mean for others to be eased while you are burdened, but rather that there should be equality. At this time, your abundance may supply their need, and their abundance may supply your need, creating equality. As it is written, "He that had gathered much had nothing over, and he that had gathered little had no lack."

Admittedly, there is a lot going on in these six verses in 2 Corinthians 8. I want to unpack about four key things that we see in these verses this morning. Notice that Paul begins in verse 10 with, "Herein I give my advice." As we have considered previously, and it is such an important point, I have emphasized it every week over the last several weeks: New Testament giving is not mandated or commanded; it is not a tax.

These are words that are in our lexicon right now as a nation—mandates and taxes. However, New Testament giving for health and welfare is not a mandate or a tax, and that is important for us to recognize. Paul does give an exhortation; he counsels the Corinthians to give, reminding them of the expedience or the benefit of doing so. You see it there in verses 10 and 11: "In this I give advice. It is to your advantage," says the New King James Version. It is to your advantage.

Not only is it important to do what you began and desired to do a year ago, but it is also beneficial for you to give. Why is it a benefit? Well, as I mentioned, giving is a part of the sanctifying work of God's grace in our lives. He transforms us by the renewing of our minds and by the washing of the water of His Word. He works internally in us by His Spirit to give us a new desire. When a need is mentioned, God plants a desire in our hearts that says, "I want to try and meet that need." It is God doing that work; it is not self-motivated.

When that desire is built, there is an exhortation in the Word to fulfill or to make good on that desire. Apparently, when the needs of the disadvantaged church in Jerusalem were presented a year prior to the time Paul was writing this letter to the Corinthians, there was a desire in the church. The people at Corinth said, "Yes, we want to meet that need." They recognized that their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem were going through a difficult time, so they decided to help because they were experiencing less difficulty. The church at Corinth was apparently fairly wealthy; they lived in a trade city, much like the Wall Street of the day. There was a good amount of wealth in Corinth, and they said, "Well, we have an abundance, so we want to help with this."

The Corinthian church was the first to express a willingness and a desire to give. They had that desire and started to do so, but something seems to have held them up. We have already considered this a little in 2 Corinthians. Part of the reason they stopped giving was that questions arose about Paul's character. Even today, we do not want to give to people who have bad character. There was a question, inspired demonically, I believe, by some within the church at Corinth, that Paul was of bad character. Consequently, people said, "Well, we're not going to give."

Additionally, as you read through the text, it seems that another reason they stopped giving was that they began to feel uncertain about their own resources. There was a famine in Jerusalem, and they worried, "What if the famine extends to us?" Right now, they had an abundance, but they felt they needed to be careful. Thus, they became hesitant about giving because they were concerned for their own well-being. Can anybody identify with that?

The Word of God is applicable. It's living and powerful. One of the principles we see here is that the desire to give is good. Did you see that in verses 10 and 11? In verse 10, it says, "It is expedient for you to do what you began to do a year ago. You were desiring to do it." Look at verse 12: "For if there is a willing mind, it is accepted." God honors the willingness in the life of the Christian to give. Desiring to do good is good. I believe it is evidence of God working in us because He works in us new desires, as stated in Philippians 2, verse 13.

However, desire without action has not gone far enough. Several years ago, I worked for a time at the coffee shop that we used to run. How many of you remember that place? We had it down on Grand Avenue. I was working there after I returned from serving in Germany. In January of 2006, a really cute girl started coming into the coffee shop. She was buying coffee from me, and after seeing her and making her coffee a few times, I developed a desire to get to know her.

Now, if it stopped there, it would have been problematic—just a desire. We all recognize that a desire needs to motivate action. It needs to ultimately become active in our lives, such as in asking her out to dinner, which I did. Months later, we got engaged, and six months after that, we got married. Six years later, we have three kids. That's the way it works.

We recognize that a desire is there, but that desire needs to motivate action. Desire must become active to truly be beneficial for us and for others. Paul says in 2 Corinthians, chapter 8, verse 12, "Now therefore perform the doing of it." Faithfulness extends beyond good intentions.

Faithfulness extends beyond good intentions. What begins as a wish or a desire must move forward into action. Words are good, even necessary, but works are essential.

Remember the word that we read in Romans chapter 5, verse 8: God demonstrates His love towards us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We see in many places in Scripture where God expresses verbally His love for us, but He demonstrated it towards us in this profound way. It shows us the exceptional nature of God's love. When we were His enemies, He died for us.

The word translated here in verse 11, when Paul says "perform it," literally means "perfect it" or "finish it." If we were to update it into our language, it would say, "get her done" or "put her through the uprights." That's basically what is being said here in modern language. It is the same root word that is used in a different form, a different tense, when Jesus said on the cross, "It is finished." It's the Greek verb "teleo."

So, Paul is saying your desire, your inward wish, needs to move to a place where you can say, "It is finished. It's done. It's accomplished." This is the work that God is desiring to do in His church there at Corinth at that time, and He wants to do the same work in us as well. The implication is very clear: we should, in our good works, be able to cry, "It is finished."

This should not just be at the end of our lives, when we reflect, "Well, I really intended to do it." An interesting story is told by Jesus in a parable. He says that a father went to his son, who had a field, and said, "I want you to go out and work in the field today." The son replied, "Yes, Dad, I'll do that." The father then went to his other son and said, "Son, I want you to go work in the field today." This son responded, "I don't want to do that."

Interestingly, the son who said, "Yes, Dad, I will do that," did not end up doing it, while the son who said, "No, I don't want to do that," ultimately did the work. Jesus shows the blessedness of the one who performed the work and not merely the one who desired the work.

Desire. Now, we do see in the text in verse 12 that God does honor the desire. If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted. This is really interesting to me; it's a powerful principle. God honors our willing desires.

We see this illustrated in the life of King David. In the Old Testament, there came a point in his life where he desired to build God a temple. He even expressed his desire to build the temple for God to the prophet Nathan. Nathan said, "Oh, king, that's great. Do all that is in your heart." However, as Nathan was leaving the palace, God told him to go back and inform David that he could not build the temple. So, Nathan goes and tells David, "No, you cannot build God a temple. You're unable to do what you desire to do at this moment."

Afterward, we read that David prepared the work; he got everything ready so that his son, Solomon, would be able to fulfill the task. Years down the road, after David had passed away, Solomon finished building the temple, which was his father's desire. David even made it easy for Solomon to accomplish this.

We read in 1 Kings chapter 8, verse 17, the words of Solomon after he has finished building the temple. He says, "It was in the heart of David, my father, to build a house in the name of the Lord God of Israel." Solomon acknowledges that his father had a desire to do this. In verse 18, he continues, "And the Lord said unto David, my father, whereas it was in your heart to build a house unto my name, you did well in that it was in your heart."

David had a desire but was unable to fulfill it, yet God honored the desire he had, even though there was an inability to carry it out. I think this is very important.

Having a desire does not release us from actually performing the good work. If we have a desire and the ability, we should fulfill that desire. Proverbs chapter 3, verse 27 states, "Withhold not what is good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of your hand to do so." Therefore, if there's a need, and you have a desire along with the ability, then fulfill your desire to the glory of God and for your benefit.

Is present, the ability to fulfill it is not there. What then? Well, notice what we see in David's life. As it was in your heart, it was good. It was good.

Now, look back at 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 11. "Now, therefore, perform the doing of it. You had a desire; now do it. There was a readiness to will, so there may also be a performance out of what you have. For if there be a willing mind, it is accepted according to what a man has, and not according to what he has not."

He says if you're unable to fulfill it, the desire is accepted of the Lord. You're only able to give as you are able. The interesting thing here is that the desire among the Corinthians to give was there, but they did not have as much to give as they had wanted. Have you ever experienced that? The need is bigger than your ability to meet that need. We're constantly confronted with this reality in our lives. The need is always bigger than our ability.

There will never be a time where we have enough. Actually, I can think of only one time in all the Scriptures, and we're going to reference this next week in our final study on this topic of giving. There's only one time in all the Scriptures that I can find where God says, "Okay, stop giving. I have enough." One time. We'll look at it next week. See you then.

So here we recognize there are times when the need is bigger than the capacity that allows us to give. The problem was that their desire in Corinth was bigger than what they had. The need was bigger than what they had, and apparently, they gave up. They thought, "We just can't meet that need, so we're just not going to do anything about it."

Paul, in the New Living Translation, translates this passage: "Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving in proportion to what you have." Verse 12 states, "Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly and give according to what you have and not what you don't have."

The idea is simply illustrated in the picture of Peter and John in Acts chapter 3, when they went up to the temple to pray, and there was a man by the gate called Beautiful who was a...

There was a lame man there, and he was begging for money. Peter walked by him and said, "Look at me." The man looked at him, and Peter continued, "Listen, silver and gold I don't have. I don't have what you need. But what I do have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk." What he gave to him was far better than silver and gold.

There is a recognition that he didn't have what the man was asking for, but that did not diminish his willingness to give. His willingness, in some way, to serve was evident. Sometimes, in fact, many times, the need is greater than what we are able to accomplish. However, the greatness of the need should not discourage or diminish the willingness of the giver in giving a gift.

Paul says to give according to what you have and not what you don't have. He goes on to say in the same passage, in the next verse, "For I mean not that others be eased and you be burdened." These last words are challenging to our American ethos and culture. The Corinthians had more than some; Corinth was wealthy. It was a trade city. Perhaps they even had more than many or more than most, but they were not exorbitantly wealthy.

This describes us. We have more than many, perhaps more than most, but it's very likely that we don't have anyone in this church who is exorbitantly wealthy. When I say that, I mean you are not a part of the 1%. There were those in Corinth who also suffered need at times. So Paul says to give what you can give. If you have a desire to give more than you can, don't be condemned by what you can't give. Rejoice in what you can give.

You see that in the text? Don't be condemned by the fact that you can't fulfill the entire need, but rejoice in what you did. Now, Paul did use the illustration of Jesus, who became poor so that we might become rich, in verse 9. However, that's not what God is asking us or calling us to do here in this passage. Rather, the idea is that if...

If you have an abundance and another has a lack, then we should recognize that perhaps the abundance we have is purposed by God for the purpose of being a blessing. If we have an abundance and someone else has a lack, we should at least consider, according to what the Scriptures seem to be saying here, that it may be that we have an abundance because God ordained it. He purposed that we would have it so that we could use it for the work that God has set before us.

Paul now uses the book of Exodus to illustrate his point. He quotes from Exodus chapter 16, verse 18. The children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, where they had been slaves for over 400 years. Now they find themselves in the wilderness, and they do not have what they need. Clearly, in the passage, they had a lot of silver and gold because later on in Exodus, they gave a lot of their silver and gold. However, what they didn't have were the essential necessities. It doesn't matter how much silver and gold you have if there is no bread or food. There were no grocery stores like Vons or Costco, so the silver and gold they had was essentially pointless. They didn't have water, and they didn't have food.

In Exodus chapter 16, they come before God and Moses, lamenting, "Oh, you brought us out into the wilderness to die, to kill us with hunger." Moses goes to God, and God says, "Okay, I'm going to provide food for you. In the morning when you wake up, go outside your tents. You're going to look around, and there will be this stuff on the ground. You pick it up and eat it."

The next morning, they wake up, go outside, and see all this white stuff on the ground that looks as delicate as frost. They ask Moses, "What is it?" That's what manna means: "What is it?" They are told to eat it. For 40 years, God provided manna every single morning. They had to gather it each morning, and if they gathered more than they needed and left it over until the next morning, it would breed worms and stink. It spoiled quickly. Yet, on Fridays, the day before the Sabbath, they could gather twice as much, and it would be okay for their day of rest on the Sabbath. It was miraculous.

In the passage, Exodus 16, verse 18, it says that these people went out and gathered, and some gathered lots while others gathered little.

He that gathered much had nothing left over, and he that gathered little had no lack. So they all gathered; some gathered more, and some gathered less, but there was no lack. It seems that there was some form of sharing going on here between the people who gathered much and those who gathered little. That's what Paul points out in this passage.

Now, this reference from Exodus chapter 16 reveals two very important points in this whole concept. Paul uses a word that has become significant among some social scientists and community organizers today: equality. It's mentioned twice in that verse, in verse 14. "But by an equality, that your abundance may be a supply for their want, and that their abundance may be a supply for your want, that there may be an equality." As it is written, "He that gathered much had nothing left over, and he that gathered little had no lack."

Two important things emerge from this passage that Paul quotes from Exodus chapter 16, which addresses the question of equality as it is being presented by some in our culture today. First, notice in the story from Exodus 16 that both gathered. This is important from a welfare perspective. God prescribes in His law that the poor be provided for, especially those who cannot provide for themselves. Repeatedly in the Old Testament, God uses two groups to classify those who cannot take care of themselves: the fatherless and the widows. He commands that you are required to take care of the fatherless and the widows, those who cannot care for themselves. In fact, God judges the nation of Israel during the time of Isaiah for not defending the cause of the fatherless and the widows.

However, the fact that both gathered means that if you can, you should work. Some might say, "Well, I just can't earn as much as that CEO of that company, so I'm not going to work. He needs to give me some." Wait a minute. The principle is that he who gathered little had no lack, and he that gathered much had nothing left over, but both gathered. Paul illustrates it like this in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 10: "He that does..."

Not work, shall not eat. I don't think it could get any more clear than that. We don't even need to break that apart. God made provision in His law that those who could not work would be supported, such as the fatherless and the widows.

Now, this is really big in our news right now because the idea currently causing great conflict in Europe involves many nations within the European Union. Some of those nations are known for their strong work ethic, particularly the Germans. The German economy represents their strong work ethic very well. I've lived in Germany and worked among Germans. These are a people who are very diligent about their work. They are also diligent about their vacations, but they are hard workers who work very efficiently and do a very good job.

There is a big discussion in the European Union right now. The Germans have a stronger economy than the Greeks, the Spanish, and the Italians, who all take a siesta for two hours in the afternoon. A lot has been written about the consternation that the Germans are experiencing because they are being asked to delay retirement until age 67 to pay for the Greeks, who retire at 50. They are saying, "Whoa, wait a minute here. Something doesn't make sense." Wouldn't you be a little concerned too?

You can see the issue going on in this geopolitical problem. One group of people says, "We just don't want to work." Another group says, "Listen, we have worked, we have saved, and our economy is strong because of that." Now, you're going to say, "We're going to retire at 50." It's nice down here in Greece; you'd want to retire at 52. Sorry you live in the cold, but we live in the sun.

It's a problem. What's the answer? Everybody needs to gather. You may gather less than someone else, but still, the requirement is given here. God's design is that one individual's lack be provided by another individual's abundance.

Now notice this. Paul says in the passage that when the tables are turned and the situation is reversed—when the person who had an abundance now lacks, and the person who did lack now has an abundance—they can take care of one another. That's the equality he is talking about here. There are times when some people in the economy are hurting, and Paul says that those who are doing better should help those who are struggling. This way, when the time is flipped, there will be equality.

The biblical concept of welfare seems to presuppose its temporary nature. Let me say that again: the biblical concept of welfare presupposes the temporary nature of it. This is biblical. The concept of forever living on the welfare of another is only prescribed in the Scriptures for those who cannot provide for themselves, as illustrated in the Old Testament with the fatherless and the widow. However, if you are able, as stated in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, Paul says, "For even when we were with you, this we commanded: that if any of you would not work, neither should he eat."

So, the first principle is that everyone gathered. The second principle, as we close, is that no one lacked. When we obey God in this matter, He ensures that there is no lack. This does not mean that everyone will be excessively wealthy, but the needs of all can be met.

Okay, I lied. One final thought: when the children of Israel received manna from God, where were they? They were in the wilderness. What happened when they came into the Promised Land? The manna stopped. We need to recognize that, biblically speaking, earthly retirement is early retirement. This is not the Promised Land, and we have a reward waiting for us in heaven, which is the Promised Land promised to us. Again, this challenges our American ethos, which places an excessive focus on a...

Lazy early retirement is a common notion, but the reality is this: though your job description may change somewhere later in your life, probably in your 60s, the work does not cease. You may no longer identify yourself as a contractor, an engineer, a car salesman, or whatever it is. However, what we are praying to see happen in our church and in the church in general is more of a rewirement than a retirement.

We need to rewire our thinking and recognize that in those latter years, having gained great experience, great knowledge, and perhaps more wealth than you once had, you can now use your time for the kingdom of God, knowing that He has a greater reward than a 401(k)—much greater.

You might ask, "What if I'm unable?" If we follow the Scriptures, the person who is unable to take care of themselves is supported, but not through taxation or by mandate. Instead, it is through the loving willingness of the body of Christ to support the needs of those who are weak. This is revolutionary thinking in our American context, and I’m sure some of you are sitting here today wondering, "What are you talking about?"

It’s a paradigm shift. Amen?

Let's stand and pray. Father, I thank you for the challenging exhortations of your Word. I ask, Lord, that you would work in us so that we would think about these things this week. Help us seriously contemplate what it is that you are speaking to us. If there needs to be adjustment, if there needs to be rewirement, work it in us, Lord. Transform us by the renewing of our minds so that we would be conformed to your image and represent you well in the world in which we live. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.