Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints...
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:4,9
I heard a story - a true one, apparently - about a minister who used a sermon to tell his congregation off about the level of their giving.
So what’s new? you say. Isn’t this normal in many churches? “Come on,” says the preacher, “we need to do more to bump up the church’s income.”
Only... it wasn’t like that. No - the preacher was telling the people off because they were giving too much. Yes, really. They were mainly quite poor people, but such was their love for God and his work that they were giving so generously that they were leaving themselves short.
The Bible says that “God loves a cheerful giver”, of course. A week or two ago I wrote about what I called “holy extravagance”, focussing on the unnamed woman who poured a bottle of perfume over Jesus, much to the disapproval of the religious people watching. And I don’t go back on a word of that.
But in this case a time had obviously come when the people were giving over-extravagantly, and the minister felt it right to ask them to stop.
Something like this happened in Paul’s ministry. The “they” he is speaking about in 2 Corinthians 8 are members of the Macedonian churches - Gentile churches, probably Philippi and Thessalonica. And the “service” he mentions is that of raising money for fellow-believers in need.
Paul was keen to collect money from the churches he had planted in the Gentile world in order to help the Jewish mother-church in the Jerusalem area. These Christians had fallen on hard times (we aren’t told why) and they needed help. And Paul was bowled over by the sheer generosity of the Macedonian churches: “They urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service.” Note those words: urgently... pleaded... privilege... These people were anything but half-hearted! And this in spite of the fact that they themselves were experiencing “extreme poverty”.
A challenge to us all.
But it’s not really money I’m thinking about, important though our financial giving is. No, I’m thinking more about our overall attitude towards service for God.
Over my years in ministry I developed a little joke. When we made known a job needing to be done in the life of the church, I would sometimes say, “Please form an orderly queue at the end of the service” - knowing, of course, that that was (to put it mildly) extremely unlikely to happen.
All right, a pretty feeble joke - but you get the point.
(Mind you, I do remember with great respect and gratitude one young woman in particular who would often quietly say “Yes, I think perhaps that’s something I could help with...” And if it did indeed turn out to be something that was right for her, she proved herself totally reliable. Thank God for people like her!)
I’m not saying this to pile guilt on us. No, of course, we’re living in days when everyone is frantically busy, and fitting in just the basic tasks of everyday life can be a struggle.
But could it be that some of us have slipped into a wrong mentality? A mentality where the immediate, unthinking, knee-jerk reaction is to say, “Not me! Oh no, that’s not something I could do! That’s for someone else”? - without even pausing for ten seconds to think and pray, “Lord, is this something you would like me to do?”
Here are two great Bible principles.
First, it is a joy and privilege to serve God in the building of his kingdom.
Regarding the Macedonian Christians, Paul spells this out: “In the midst of a very severe trial, their over-flowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity” (verse 2). And for us - well, what greater use of our earthly lives could there be than to offer our gifts and talents (and these are things we all have!) to the business of making more widely known the love of God shown in Jesus?
Second, it is through service that we grow.
Why are some Christians, even those of many years’ standing, spiritually flabby and slack? Often, I suspect, it’s because they have never rolled up their sleeves and committed themselves to the discipline and hard work of some specific task for God.
Why not read the whole passage (2 Corinthians 8:1-9), and ask yourself the question: Is there any area, whether involving money or not, where I need to take a leaf out of the book of the Macedonian Christians?
Even better, a leaf out of the book of Jesus himself, who “though he was rich, yet for your sake became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich”?
Oh use me, Lord, use even me,/ Just as you will, and when, and where,/ Until your blessed face I see,/ Your rest, your joy, your glory share. Amen. (Frances Ridley Havergal)
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:4,9
I heard a story - a true one, apparently - about a minister who used a sermon to tell his congregation off about the level of their giving.
So what’s new? you say. Isn’t this normal in many churches? “Come on,” says the preacher, “we need to do more to bump up the church’s income.”
Only... it wasn’t like that. No - the preacher was telling the people off because they were giving too much. Yes, really. They were mainly quite poor people, but such was their love for God and his work that they were giving so generously that they were leaving themselves short.
The Bible says that “God loves a cheerful giver”, of course. A week or two ago I wrote about what I called “holy extravagance”, focussing on the unnamed woman who poured a bottle of perfume over Jesus, much to the disapproval of the religious people watching. And I don’t go back on a word of that.
But in this case a time had obviously come when the people were giving over-extravagantly, and the minister felt it right to ask them to stop.
Something like this happened in Paul’s ministry. The “they” he is speaking about in 2 Corinthians 8 are members of the Macedonian churches - Gentile churches, probably Philippi and Thessalonica. And the “service” he mentions is that of raising money for fellow-believers in need.
Paul was keen to collect money from the churches he had planted in the Gentile world in order to help the Jewish mother-church in the Jerusalem area. These Christians had fallen on hard times (we aren’t told why) and they needed help. And Paul was bowled over by the sheer generosity of the Macedonian churches: “They urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service.” Note those words: urgently... pleaded... privilege... These people were anything but half-hearted! And this in spite of the fact that they themselves were experiencing “extreme poverty”.
A challenge to us all.
But it’s not really money I’m thinking about, important though our financial giving is. No, I’m thinking more about our overall attitude towards service for God.
Over my years in ministry I developed a little joke. When we made known a job needing to be done in the life of the church, I would sometimes say, “Please form an orderly queue at the end of the service” - knowing, of course, that that was (to put it mildly) extremely unlikely to happen.
All right, a pretty feeble joke - but you get the point.
(Mind you, I do remember with great respect and gratitude one young woman in particular who would often quietly say “Yes, I think perhaps that’s something I could help with...” And if it did indeed turn out to be something that was right for her, she proved herself totally reliable. Thank God for people like her!)
I’m not saying this to pile guilt on us. No, of course, we’re living in days when everyone is frantically busy, and fitting in just the basic tasks of everyday life can be a struggle.
But could it be that some of us have slipped into a wrong mentality? A mentality where the immediate, unthinking, knee-jerk reaction is to say, “Not me! Oh no, that’s not something I could do! That’s for someone else”? - without even pausing for ten seconds to think and pray, “Lord, is this something you would like me to do?”
Here are two great Bible principles.
First, it is a joy and privilege to serve God in the building of his kingdom.
Regarding the Macedonian Christians, Paul spells this out: “In the midst of a very severe trial, their over-flowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity” (verse 2). And for us - well, what greater use of our earthly lives could there be than to offer our gifts and talents (and these are things we all have!) to the business of making more widely known the love of God shown in Jesus?
Second, it is through service that we grow.
Why are some Christians, even those of many years’ standing, spiritually flabby and slack? Often, I suspect, it’s because they have never rolled up their sleeves and committed themselves to the discipline and hard work of some specific task for God.
Why not read the whole passage (2 Corinthians 8:1-9), and ask yourself the question: Is there any area, whether involving money or not, where I need to take a leaf out of the book of the Macedonian Christians?
Even better, a leaf out of the book of Jesus himself, who “though he was rich, yet for your sake became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich”?
Oh use me, Lord, use even me,/ Just as you will, and when, and where,/ Until your blessed face I see,/ Your rest, your joy, your glory share. Amen. (Frances Ridley Havergal)
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