Sermon on 2 Corinthians 8:16–9:15: Grace, generosity, and the inexpressible gift of God
A sermon from Latimer Church on how understanding God's grace produces genuine, joyful generosity.
Summary
This is a sermon by a pastor at Latimer Church — likely James de Costobadie (Costa) — preaching through 2 Corinthians 8:16–9:15. The central argument is that grace drives generosity, not the reverse: a person who truly understands what God has given them in Jesus will naturally become a generous person. The sermon addresses Paul's practical arrangements for collecting a financial gift for believers in Jerusalem, his concern for integrity in handling money, and his deeper pastoral concern — that the Corinthians' generosity would prove the genuineness of their faith. The preacher applies this directly to Latimer Church, discussing what proportion of income Christians should give, challenging the congregation to planned, sacrificial, cheerful giving, and warning against both the prosperity gospel distortion and the opposite error of giving less than the Old Testament tithe on the grounds of being "under grace."
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
The treasure in the field: Grace and the motivation for generosity
Preacher: The story has been told of a man in the first century who was walking home one night with his staff in his hand, along a dirt road. He took a little detour to cut through a field, and as he was walking along he felt his staff hit something just below the surface — dunk, dunk, dunk, dunk. He scraped away the dirt to see what it was, and there before him was an amazing chest. He scraped away enough dirt to open it, and behold, it was full of treasure. Someone must have buried it there and then forgotten it, and he had never seen so much gold and silver and pearls in his life. It was way too heavy for him to carry home, and he didn't want to steal, so he closed it, covered it over with dirt again, went home, and could hardly sleep with excitement. The next day he sold everything he had and bought that field, because he knew it was worth it.
Now, that is a slightly embellished version of a story that Jesus actually told in Matthew chapter 13, verse 44. He says that the kingdom of heaven is like that treasure chest — that when you find it, it is so valuable that you are willing to give up anything and everything in order to have it.
It was that great truth that the famous missionary Jim Elliot knew. Jim Elliot was a man who died at the age of 28 in 1956. He was murdered by the Aucas Indians that he was seeking to tell about Jesus. But before his death, he wrote in his diary: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
Jim Elliot knew that he had the greatest treasure in the whole world because he knew Jesus. He knew that he had a home in heaven, treasures in heaven that could never be taken away. And so he was willing to give up everything in this life in order to have more of that.
When you understand the grace of God, it generates generosity. Grace drives generosity. Now notice the order of that phrase — grace drives generosity — because it is important. It is not that generosity gets you grace. Sometimes that is what we tend to believe: that if we are generous with our money, God will somehow reward us because he will owe us. Like we can buy our way into heaven. If I am generous enough with my money on earth, then maybe God will open up heaven for me. But that is not true at all. It is not generosity gets you grace, but rather grace fuels generosity. Grace drives generosity.
When a person understands the grace of God, they give generously and joyfully. They realise how much they have been given, and therefore they give much. That was Paul's argument, which we saw last week in chapter 8, as he writes to this church in Corinth. He is urging them to be generous, motivated by the grace that they have received.
Paul's argument from grace: 2 Corinthians 8:9
Have a look back at chapter 8, verse 9. Paul says:
Preacher: "For 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."
The Corinthians know the grace of God. They know that God loves them even though they don't deserve it. They know that Jesus, being in very nature God, made himself nothing, stepped off his throne in heaven, became poor, became a man, obedient even to death on a cross. They know that Jesus died in their place for their sins. They know that they are therefore freely loved and freely given to — because that is grace. And when a person comes to believe that, they become a different person. They become a generous person.
So if you are here tonight as someone who is just investigating Jesus, not quite sure where you stand with him, not sure what you make of him, then the message of the Bible for you tonight is not "you should be more generous." The message of the Bible for you, if you are in that position, is that you need to understand the generosity of God. And then when you understand the generosity of God, you will become a more generous person. The way to come to understand the generosity of God is to come to know his Son, Jesus, who was rich but became poor so that we might become rich.
And so the Apostle Paul writes this section — both chapters 8 and 9 together — to the Corinthians in order to urge this first-century church to let go of their money and to be generous. But as he urges them to do that, he is not doing it just because he needs their money for ministry. He is not just fundraising. It is much more than that. It is because he is concerned about their hearts. He wants to test the genuineness of their faith in Jesus. He wants the Corinthians to prove that they have a real love for Jesus by letting go of their love for money. Because he knows that grace generates, fuels, drives generosity.
The mark of a spiritually healthy Christian and the mark of a spiritually healthy church is that we are generous. Look back again at chapter 8, verse 8:
"I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others."
So it is a test. Is your faith genuine? Is your love for Jesus sincere? Do you really understand the grace of God? If you do, Corinthians — if you do, Christian — then it will be seen by your generosity.
Three men sent to collect the gift: Integrity in handling money
Preacher: Paul wants the Corinthians to prove their love, and he says that is the test in chapter 9 as well. You may recall that Paul is collecting money for a particular purpose — to support poorer believers in Jerusalem. He is collecting money from the Macedonian church and from the Corinthian church in order to pass it on to the Jerusalem believers. The Corinthians had already promised to contribute financially to this gift, and Paul is eager to make sure that they now follow through with what they said they would do.
So he tells the Corinthians in chapter 8, verse 16 to verse 24 — which we just heard read — that he is sending three men to come and get the gift so that they can take it and distribute it fairly. He sends Titus in verses 16 and 17, another brother in verse 18, and a third brother in verse 22. All three men are commended by Paul for their godly service to the gospel. They are men of good standing, good report. They care about Jesus and they care about the Corinthians. And Paul sends them to go and get the money.
There are two reasons he sends them. First, he sends them so that he might maintain his integrity. Have a look at verse 20:
"We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift. For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord, but also in the eyes of man."
Paul knows that if he just goes and gets the money himself, he opens himself up to accusations — that maybe he is lining his own pockets, maybe he is only going to pass half the money on and keep the rest. He does not want to leave himself open to that kind of accusation. And so he sends three godly men and says, give it to them and then they will distribute it.
Integrity is of the utmost importance when it comes to money. Paul knows his own heart and he knows our hearts — that we are naturally prone to dishonesty and greed, and much damage has been done by churches who have mishandled money. And so Paul takes pains to do what is right, to be seen to be doing what is right, both in the eyes of the Lord and in the eyes of man.
I think he is a great example for us at Latimer. I am so thankful for the work of Rachel Aspinall, who volunteers her time as our church treasurer. She and the finance committee do a great job of making sure that we are above reproach when it comes to money. Every dollar is accounted for. There is not one person who has access to the bank accounts. There is transparency. We release a full audited copy of our accounts every year, and every quarter we give a financial update. There is nothing hidden, nothing secret, because integrity matters.
Proof of love: What our hands do with money reveals our hearts
Preacher: The second reason Paul sends these three godly men to collect the money from the church in Corinth is so that these men might see proof of the church's love for Jesus. Notice that in verse 24 — chapter 8, verse 24:
"Therefore show these men the proof of your love and the reason for our pride in you, so that the churches can see it."
So again, it is a test. Is their faith genuine? Do they really love Jesus? Do they really believe what they claim to believe?
What we do with our hands and our money reflects what our hearts are doing with God. If you forget anything else tonight, remember that. What your hands do with your money reflects what your hearts are doing with God. If we are treasuring God, delighting in God, rejoicing in the grace of God, we will be generous with our money — because we realise we do not need it for happiness or security. We will realise that money is temporary but the kingdom of God is eternal, and we will treasure God more than our money.
So this is Paul's primary concern for the Corinthians: their hearts. He wants them to prove their love for God by their generosity. And my concern for us as a church tonight is exactly the same. It is not about raising money for Latimer. I am interested in our hearts. Does our love for Jesus as a church show itself in joyful generosity? Does your love for Jesus as an individual show itself in joyful generosity? Because it should.
Two things our generosity will prove
Preacher: There are two aspects of our faith that our generosity will prove, and I want to draw your attention to them.
First, our generosity will prove our trust in God's promise to bless us. Have a look at chapter 9, verse 6:
"Remember this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously."
Paul is saying that we should be generous with our money out of self-interest. Be generous with your money out of self-interest — it is good for you to be generous, because if we are generous, God will bless us. If you trust God's promise here, you will be generous because you know it leads to blessing. You reap what you sow, says Paul.
He uses this farming illustration. Imagine a farmer with a sack of seed. If all he does is hide it away in the barn, then at the end of the season all he is going to have is a slightly older sack of seed. He is not going to reap much of a harvest because he has not sown anything. But if he takes the sack of seed and throws it out liberally, sows it liberally, then he will reap an abundant crop. Paul is applying exactly the same principle to our money. If we are stingy, we will not reap much. But if we are generous, we will reap a great harvest.
So if you are stingy with your money — you earn a good income but really only give away spare change, never give sacrificially or generously — then you cannot expect much back. But if you use the wealth and the income that God has given you in a generous way, giving sizable amounts that actually matter to you, then you will find something wonderful. You will reap generously. God will bless you. That is Paul's argument. Give little, reap little. Give much, reap much. It is God's mathematics.
It is different to our mathematics. I was homeschooled — my math is not very good — but our math says that if you have $10 and you give away $1, you are left with $9. So if you want to be rich, you had better hold on to the $1, not give it away. But God's math is different. God says, give away the $9 out of your $10, and then he will bless you abundantly, reward you generously. He will richly bless the generous giver. So give out of self-interest. Trust God's promise and be generous. That is the promise of Scripture. And the extent of our trust in that promise will be seen by the extent of our generosity.
The prosperity gospel distortion — and the danger of over-correcting
Preacher: Now for some of you, I hope there are alarm bells going off. Something seems wrong. Because doesn't this sound a lot like the prosperity gospel? Give your money to God and he will make you rich? Isn't this the message that the televangelists have used over and over again to get money out of people in order to line their own pockets? "You give $1,000 today and God will give you $10,000 tonight, so quick, pick up the phone, make the donation."
Well, there have been people in the church who, sadly, in the name of Jesus, have abused these verses in that kind of way. They are misrepresenting God, they are taking advantage of people, and God will be their judge. But sometimes I think we can be so quick to distance ourselves from teaching like that — from a prosperity gospel that we don't like — that we don't grasp the reality of what these verses are actually promising.
God says you reap what you sow. It is, as Jesus said, more blessed to give than to receive. If you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly, but if you sow generously, you will reap generously. And the question we need to ask is: what is it that the generous giver reaps? What does God promise to give to the generous sower?
Verses 8 to 15 unpack that for us. Have a look at chapter 9, verse 8:
"And God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."
Notice all of the "alls" and "everys" in that verse. The problem with those prosperity teachers is that they are too limited in their understanding of what it is to be blessed. What this verse is saying is that if we are generous, God will bless us in every way. Money is only a very small part of what it means to be blessed by God. If you are generous, God's grace will provide for you — not just money, but everything you need in order to live the godly life that he wants you to live.
That is the point of verse 9. It is a quote from Psalm 112. In the context of the psalm, the psalmist is talking about a person who trusts God for his future, and one of the outcomes of his trust in God for the future is that he gives generously of his money — and that the man who gives generously out of a trust in God's provision reaps a harvest of righteousness that goes on and on forever.
It is made clear again in verse 10:
"He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food — that is God — will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God."
God gives us what we need and then even more than we need so that we can be generous. He does not give us more than we need so that we can save it all up for ourselves and get rich. He may not give us enough to go on that overseas cruise, but he will definitely provide enough for us so that we can do the good works that he has prepared for us in advance to do.
The blessing that God will pour out on the generous giver is much more than money. You will be enriched in every way, says Paul, so that you can keep on being generous on every occasion — generous with your time, generous with the way you treat people, generous with your gifts, generous in all sorts of ways, including financial provision.
The person who really understands this realises that financial provision is only a very minor part of what we reap for our generosity. What we reap is far more wonderful than that. How does Paul describe it in verse 10? The harvest of righteousness. That is the most wonderful thing we can reap. The real harvest is the joy of seeing how our righteous act of generosity has a gospel impact, a gospel harvest — how our generosity bears gospel fruit. The blessing God promises to give the generous giver is the blessing of being able to abound in good works. It is the blessing of having a gospel impact in our world. It is the blessing of being able to live such good lives that people will see us and praise God.
So you give generously, and God will bless you abundantly so that you can live a life of righteousness.
Now, I suspect some of you feel like that is a letdown. You might be tempted to think, actually, you know what, I would rather the money. And when you hear that the blessing is righteousness, you feel ripped off. You were hoping to get financially rich, and the thought of becoming rich in righteousness is nowhere near as exciting.
But friends, can I say gently that if you feel that in your heart — if you think like that — could it be a sign that perhaps you have not really grasped the gospel? That in your heart of hearts, you value money more than righteous living, despite knowing that God's own Son died to give you righteousness? And you would rather have money?
Friends, there is nothing more valuable than righteousness. Your money is fleeting. The more you have, the more you want. Anything you have now, you are going to lose. You cannot take it with you. But our righteousness will be rewarded by God for all eternity. Righteousness lasts forever, and it results in God being praised forever.
So will you trust God's promise to bless you abundantly, and show your trust in that promise by being generous with your money?
Our generosity proves our delight in God's praise
Preacher: That is the first thing — our generosity will prove our trust in God's promise to bless us. Secondly, our generosity will prove our delight in God's praise. Our generosity will prove that we care more for God's glory than our own material comfort.
That is what these final verses in chapter 9 show us. Look at verse 12:
"This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God."
He is saying that the generosity of the Corinthians is not just meeting the physical needs of the Christians in Jerusalem — which it is doing — but more than that, it is causing people to thank God for them. When we give, we are not just meeting the financial needs of our church or the financial needs of other people. We are not just ensuring that our mission partners on the other side of the world can live. More than that, we are leading them and others to give thanks to God for our generosity. When we give generously, God is praised. And knowing that is the greatest joy for a generous Christian.
As I give to support the work of the gospel here and in other places, the greatest joy is knowing that others are going to come to know Jesus because of my generosity, and praise God.
He says it again — have a look at verse 13:
"Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you, their hearts will go out to you because of the surpassing grace God has given you."
Notice first there in verse 13 that generosity is an act of obedience for the Christian. You cannot follow and obey Jesus and not be generous. We are told by Jesus to be generous. But it is not a reluctant obedience. The Christian obeys Jesus out of love, not out of duty. We do not just obey Jesus for what we can get out of it, but because of what other people get out of it — and more than that, what God gets out of it as he is praised.
When people see us open our hands in generosity, they get a glimpse of our hearts that treasure Christ more than our money. And they praise God. Generosity proves our salvation. Other believers see it and thank God for it. And so if we really want God to be praised, we will be generous. Our generosity means the needs of God's people can be met, and it means that others have the opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus and then praise God for it.
In fact, just last week after the sermon — which if you did not hear it, jump online and have a listen to chapter 8 — someone came up to me full of gratitude because it was the generosity of someone else in this church that enabled them to go to an event free of charge where they heard the message of Jesus and were saved. Isn't that amazing? That our generosity as a church can do that?
We have the great blessing here of being part of a church where we can see the impact of our generosity firsthand. This year already there have been over 40 guests who have come through our Life Course and heard the message of Jesus. And that is a result of your generosity — praise God. Every year we see over a hundred kids who come and hear about Jesus at our holiday club, and over half of them are unchurched and would not have an opportunity to hear about Jesus otherwise. We can do it because of your generosity — praise God. Every week the Bible is taught down at Ara with some students on a Tuesday, down at Christchurch Boys' High School, and in a number of rest homes around the city. People hear about Jesus, grow in their love for Jesus, and we are able to do it because of your generosity — praise God. Because of your generosity, we are able to raise up godly men and women like Izzy for full-time gospel work around New Zealand and around the world through our ministry apprenticeship program. And because of our generosity, there are people throughout our church, throughout New Zealand, and all over the world who praise God.
Isn't it extraordinary? If you give financially to the work of the gospel at Latimer, you have played a part in seeing people come to salvation. You have played a part in seeing people grow in their love for Jesus. You have played a part in the gospel being proclaimed, and God's people provided for, and God being praised as a result of it all.
Whoever gives generously reaps generously. But it is also true, isn't it, that whoever sows sparingly reaps sparingly. It is possible that someone who is not generous, who does not give their money, cares about someone coming to faith — and yet they do not get any real joy from it because they played no part in it. They did not give anything to make it happen. And so they see the rest of us celebrating and praising God but they do not join in the celebrations. They miss out on the joy of being partners in gospel work, because whoever sows sparingly reaps sparingly.
Isn't that what Jesus was talking about in Matthew chapter 6, the Sermon on the Mount, when he says, "Where your treasure is, there your heart is also"? If your treasure — your money — is all tied up in making your life better and more comfortable, then all you will care about is yourself. Your heart will follow your treasure. But if you are generous and your treasure is tied up with gospel work and righteous living and good works, then that is what you will care about, and you will reap the reward. You will share the joy of seeing the fruit of your generosity as God is praised.
What our hands do with our money shows what our hearts are doing with God. A lack of trust in God and a lack of delight in God will lead to greed. But if we trust God's promise to bless us, we will be generous. And if we really delight in God being praised, we will be generous. And our generosity will lead to blessing for us and praise to God.
Deliberate, planned, cheerful giving — and the question of how much
Preacher: And so Paul says: give generously, and give cheerfully. Have a look at verse 7:
"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
In other words, the kind of giving that Paul is speaking about here is deliberate and thoughtful generosity. It is not just giving on a whim. It is not just that some salesman comes knocking on the door and you drop a few coins in the bucket to make him go away. It is not just that there is some emotional appeal for money and you get hyped up and give away money a bit thoughtlessly. No — this is deliberate, thoughtful planning. It means that you sit down, you look at your accounts, you look at your income and how much you earn, and then you carefully and prayerfully determine what would be a generous gift. We do not just give out of our leftovers once we have paid all of our bills. We actually plan to give, we budget to give, and we set aside a generous, sacrificial gift. That is the kind of giving that Paul wants from the church of Corinth.
Now, I know I am running out of time, but can I have another five minutes to talk about that? Because I think it is often debated how much money Christians should give. We want numbers, right? We want a specific number. Should I give 5%? Is that generous? Or 10%? Or what about 20%? What is generous? And I do not think we often get much guidance on it, so I just want to take a moment to talk about it.
I wonder if sometimes our eagerness for a number actually stems from a heart that is not generous. What we are really asking, perhaps, is not how much can I give, but rather how much can I keep? What is the minimum I can get away with to be generous? But that is not generosity — that is just legalism.
All through the Old Testament, God's people were called to give 10% of their earnings to God to be used in his service. That was their tithe — 10%. Under the Old Testament, it was simple. You would set aside 10% of everything — 10% of the corn, 10% of the wheat — give it all to God. But it is not as simple for us, because we are no longer under the law but under grace. You will not find any command in the New Testament telling us to give 10% of our income. We are free from the law. In fact, you will not find any command for any percentage. We are just told to be generous. No figure is given.
And so people ask, what should I give? How much? And I find it a slightly funny question, because why should a Pharisee under the law give more than a Christian who is under grace? The Pharisees gave 10%, religiously. And all through the New Testament, Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for their legalism. And every time he does it, he raises the bar when it comes to obeying the law. The law says, do not commit adultery. Jesus says, I tell you, if you just look at a woman lustfully, you have committed adultery in your heart. The law says, do not murder. Jesus says, if you just hate another person in your heart, you have murdered them. He raises the bar every time. The grace of God liberates us so that we can voluntarily and cheerfully go above and beyond the law.
So why then do we think that when the law says 10%, anything less than that might be sufficient? And yet for some reason, the one area where Christians seem to say "I am not under law but under grace, and so I will do less than what the law requires" is in the area of money and generosity. It seems very strange to me that we might be outdone in our generosity by the Pharisees who lived under the law, when we live under grace.
And so I think 10% of our income should be a starting point when it comes to thinking about our generosity. Now, it might be for some that 10% would be extraordinarily generous. For those who are students, perhaps on a minimum wage, not earning much at all, it might be more appropriate that you only give 1% or 2%, because that would be generous and sacrificial of you, and God would delight in that cheerful gift. But for those of you who are on a six-figure income, or a double income, it might be that 10% is actually not very generous at all. You could give 10% and hardly feel the pinch.
The world says that if you have been given more money than you need, you are liberated — you are free to spend it on yourself, to buy the second house, the third house, to travel the world, to enjoy expensive experiences that others can only dream of. But the Scriptures say that if God has given you more money than you need, you are liberated — you are free to be generous. And so it might be more appropriate that you generously give away 20%, or 50%, or 90% of your income.
All of our circumstances are different, and so we must all determine what we ought to give to be generous. But it is planned, thoughtful, prayerful, deliberate, sacrificial, joyful generosity — remembering that the more generous we are, the more generously we will reap.
And whatever we determine to give, we must give cheerfully. A Christian is not someone who just gives their money to the church out of duty, begrudgingly. There are all sorts of wrong motivations for giving. Feeling a bit guilty, so you give — that is a wrong motivation. Thinking that maybe if you give, God will somehow be pleased with you and you can buy your way into heaven — that is a wrong motivation. If you are giving reluctantly and for the wrong reasons, then I would encourage you to stop giving and get your heart right with Jesus, and then give generously. True, joyful giving flows only from a heart captured by God's grace.
We are told in verse 7 that God loves a cheerful giver. Isn't that a great phrase? God delights in a person who is cheerfully generous. I sometimes get annoyed at my kids because they are too cheerful. I get home from work and I just want to sit down with a cup of coffee and have some quiet, and they are like, "Daddy, let me tell you about the day!" They are so darn happy. And I just say, settle down, just stop, I have only just got home. Or the night before your birthday, and you are so excited you cannot sleep — my kids are up and down, just so happy. Just settle down and go to sleep.
Friends, isn't it good that God is not like that? If you are happy in your giving, he does not say, just settle down a bit. He delights in it. He loves it. He delights in a cheerful giver. God cannot be irritated by excessive joy in giving because there is no such thing. God is pushing us in these verses to as much joy as we can possibly experience, by encouraging us to be joyful givers, so that he can enrich us in every way, so that we might praise him and cause others to do the same.
Our generosity has a real harvest — a real, lasting, eternal treasure. That is a challenge, perhaps particularly for married couples. You can either justify your lack of generosity to each other, or you can help each other store up treasures in heaven.
Paul's closing doxology: Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift
Preacher: Paul ends this entire section — these two chapters of carefully structured argument to raise money, using all of these metaphors and comparisons — with just seven words. Look down at the last verse:
"Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift."
He does not close with a financial update, going, "Oh, thanks for the accounts, they are looking pretty good, the people in Jerusalem thank you." He does not end like that. He ends in worship. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift.
Paul is trying to produce something in the Corinthians, and that is a heart that looks like God's heart. And God's heart, at its centre, is a heart that gives. He is the giver of an inexpressible gift — the gift of his Son, the gift of eternal life, the gift of giving. Praise God.
Friends, if that gift has landed on you — if you believe it, if you rejoice in it, if it is real to you — then generosity is not something I even need to tell you to do. Generosity is not something you need to be persuaded to do. It just flows out. You give because you have been given to extravagantly.
And so the sincerity of our love for Jesus will be seen in our generosity. What our hands do with our money shows what our hearts are doing with God.