The Word Is Alive 2 Corinthians

1. The Word Is Alive2 Corinthians Chapter Nine Narrated by Tony Gillon

2. Chapter Nine • 2 Corinthians 8:1–9:15 - Paul’s Appeal to the Repentant Church in Corinth Regarding the Collection (continues/concludes)

3. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • Summary of Chapter Nine • The reason why the collection should be completed as promised.

4. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • Summary of Chapter Nine • The reason why the collection should be completed as promised. • The benefits the Corinthians will reap as a result of generous giving.

5. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • Summary of Chapter Nine • The reason why the collection should be completed as promised. • The benefits the Corinthians will reap as a result of generous giving. • Paul identifies four beneficiaries of charitable giving.

6. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • 2 Corinthians 9:1–15 – • The Collection for Christians at Jerusalem

7. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • 2 Corinthians 9:1–15 – • The Collection for Christians at Jerusalem • Paul’s final strategy in completing the collection in Corinth (vv.1-5).

8. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • 2 Corinthians 9:1–15 – • The Collection for Christians at Jerusalem • Paul’s final strategy in completing the collection in Corinth (vv.1-5). • Paul argues that the Corinthians’ gift will maximise their joy, help fellow believers, and bring honour and praise to God (vv.6-15).

9. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • 1Now it is not necessary for me to write to you about the ministry to the saints, 2 for I know your eagerness, which is the subject of my boasting about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year; and your zeal has stirred up most of them.

10. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • Now it is not necessary for me to write to you about the ministry to the saints acts as a reminder of what Paul has said before, without the need to repeat the detail, for it should be familiar to them. • Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. • (1 Thessalonians 4:9).

11. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • The subject of my boasting about you to the people of Macedonia. • Because of the political and social tensions that had always existed between Greeks and Macedonians, Paul is able to use this to his advantage. • By boasting of one group to the other, he would have had the effect of motivating the one to at least match the efforts of the other.

12. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • By saying that those in Achaia were eager to contribute to the collection, i.e. the ministry of the saints, it is likely that the Macedonians would do all they could to display that same attitude. • However, this would not have been as necessary in Macedonia for they had already demonstrated their determination in the face of adversity to do what was right in the sight of Christ.

13. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • Saying that Achaia has been ready since last year most likely refers to Paul’s expectation that they would have continued with their promised collection and completed it. • However, when Titus met up with Paul in Macedonia, he had informed him this was not the case, thus Paul urges them to resume with their promise or they will lose face with the Macedonians.

14. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • Some commentators believe it means that Corinth had been ready to contribute since last year, but this makes less sense when read with Paul’s other statements.

15. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • Your zeal has stirred up most of them: • Paul recalls the Corinthians’ initial enthusiasm and how it had stirred the Macedonian churches to action.

16. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • 3 But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you may not prove to have been empty in this case, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be; 4 otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated — to say nothing of you — in this undertaking.

17. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • I am sending the brothers: • Paul had determined to send a party of three including Titus: • As for Titus, he is my partner and co-worker in your service; as for our brothers, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 8:23).

18. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • May not prove to have been empty, Greek kenoō, belongs to the same stem as the adverb used in 6:1, which there refers to the danger of apparently receiving God’s grace in a less than genuine way. • Here the danger is that the Corinthians may fail to give generously as Paul had boasted they would (v.2).

19. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • The implication may be that their failure to give generously would be evidence that their faith was less than genuine, but they would also be missing out on the blessing that is in store for everyone who ‘sows bountifully’ (v.6).

20. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • If some Macedonians come with me: • It seems that, at the time of writing, final arrangements had not been made. • It subsequently proved to be the case that Sopater, Aristarchus and Secundus did travel with Paul as recorded in Acts 20:4.

21. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • We would be humiliated — to say nothing of you. • Paul was not thinking just of his personal reputation, although he has argued much in his letters to retain his credibility as an apostle against the counterclaims of his opponents.

22. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • However, here he has the reputation of his co-workers, the Corinthians and indeed the entire Gospel in mind, and the damage that unfulfilled promises can cause.

23. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you, and arrange in advance for this bountiful gift that you have promised, so that it may be ready as a voluntary gift and not as an extortion.

24. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • May be ready as a voluntary gift and not as an extortion. • The word translated voluntary or willing gift can also mean blessing, for Greek eulogia means generous; the collection is to be a response to God’s grace in their lives (vv.6–9), not something coerced by the fear of judgment.

25. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • Elsewhere, Paul indicates the intent is just as important as the gift: • Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the profit that accumulates to your account. (Philippians 4:17).

26. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • The point is well taken. If Paul had waited until he had arrived with the Macedonian representatives, then Corinth would have felt compelled to give and the arrangements would have been hastily made so as not to lose face. • The preparatory visit of Titus and his companions would buy enough time for the Corinthians’ gift to be ready as a voluntary one.

27. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • 6 The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

28. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • Sows bountifully: • Paul expands a well-known proverb: ‘You reap what you sow’, which is common agricultural analogy and seen in various forms, such as: • As I have seen, those who plough iniquity and sow trouble reap the same (Job 4:8).

29. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy (Psalm 126:5).

30. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy (Psalm 126:5). • Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of anger will fail (Proverbs 22:8).

31. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns, they have tired themselves out but profit nothing. They shall be ashamed of their harvests because of the fierce anger of the Lord (Jeremiah 12:13).

32. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6:26).

33. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6:26). • Give, and it will be given to you. • (Luke 6:38a).

34. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps” (John 4:36–37).

35. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps” (John 4:36–37). • Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow (Galatians 6:7).

36. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • God does not command Christians to give a certain amount, but he provides opportunities to give generously. • Those who sow generously will also reap bountifully in terms of bearing fruit for God’s Kingdom; and in other ways as well (v.11).

37. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • 7Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.

38. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • Each of you must give as you have made up your mind. • Paul offers three distinct guidelines to the Corinthians: • Giving is an individual matter of the heart: Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering; from all whose hearts prompt them to give you shall receive the offering for me (Exodus 25:2).

39. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • Giving requires resolve: Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own (John 7:17).

40. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • Giving is to be a private and not a public decision: But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you (Matthew 6:3-4).

41. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • God loves a cheerful giver, that is, loves in the sense of approves of, which comes from the LXX version of: • Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor. • (Proverbs 22:9).

42. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • And is similar to: • Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake (Deuteronomy 15:10).

43. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • God loves such joy-motivated giving to others because it expresses contentment in God’s gracious giving to the believer (v.14) that makes every good work possible and results in thanksgiving and glory to God (vv.11–13).

44. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • What form does God’s favour take? Is Paul thinking of spiritual benefits or material blessings? The focus in the context is clearly on material blessings. Yet Paul could well be thinking of all the benefits people receive from God. For inherent in the term grace is the idea that whatever people possess, be it physical or spiritual, they possess by reason of God’s goodwill toward them, not because of personal merit.

45. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • Possession is also by reason of God’s power. God is able is perhaps better rendered ‘God is powerful’. • It is God Almighty who provides the means to be generous: • Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.(Ephesians 3:20).

46. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • This same thought is found in proverbial form in the teaching of Jesus: • Freely you have received; freely give. (Matthew 10:8b NIV). • The order here is important. It is only as one has freely received that one can, in turn, freely give.

47. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • 9 As it is written, • ‘He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; • his righteousnessendures for ever.’

48. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor: • The good work of God’s people: Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58), corresponds to the description of the man in Psalm 112:9 quoted here, whose righteousness is manifest in his generous provision for the poor.

49. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • Endures for ever: • Such righteousness remains beyond the Day of Judgment because it originates from and is sustained by the Lord’s righteousness, expressed in giving to his people, which also endures for ever: • Full of honour and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures for ever. • (Psalm 111:3).

50. Paul’s Appeal Regarding the Collection • 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.