The Grace of Giving

Hello, again! I can't seem to stop yawning! Must have expended too much energy yelling and celebrating during the Penguin game last night. Plus, it's a little gloomy outside. That never helps get energy levels up.

At any rate, let's get down to business.

Here's the question and answer from yesterday:
Who is Paul especially delighted to see happy because his spirit has been refreshed by the Corinthians? (2 Cor 7)
2 Corinthians 7:13 13 By all this we are encouraged. In addition to our own encouragement, we were especially delighted to see how happy Titus was, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you.

And here's the question of the day:
Hezekiah is ill and close to death. He prays to God. What does God tell Isaiah to tell Hezekiah? (2 Kings 20)

And here's the reflection of the day:
I'd like to look at 2 Corinthians 8 today. But first, I'd like to give you a little background from J. Paul Sampley's article in the New Interpreter's Bible Commentary:

" . . . we must gain clarity concerning the collection for the saints at Jerusalem, the subject that dominates 2 Corinthians 8:1–9 and is one of the reasons for Paul's having written 2 Corinthians 1:1–9. Paul and the Corinthians have a history together around this collection. 155 We know that Paul has been busy—with the Corinthians as with others—setting up the collection for the saints in Jerusalem for at least a year (cf. 2 Cor 8:10). . . .
"The subject matter of chaps. 8–9 is the collection that Paul variously describes as “for the saints” and “for the poor” in Jerusalem. This offering had its genesis in the conference in Jerusalem as described in Gal 2:1-10 (cf. Acts 15:1) and requires a rehearsal of that event for its understanding."

During Paul's time, people learned by watching. One learned a particular trade or job by watching someone else do it first. One became an apprentice before becoming independently employed.

That's how babies learn to talk, right? They watch and listen to those around them and they imitate them. That's how babies learn to walk and to behave.

So Paul is hoping that people will learn the "grace of giving" by watching their friends and neighbors giving to the "collection." He holds up the Macedonian churches as a positive example for the Corinthians to learn from because they gave as much as they could and beyond; they did not do what was expected--they did more. (Paul actually held up the Corinthian church as an example to the Macedonian churches to get them fired up about giving!!)

Times are tough. People are losing retirements and jobs left and right. Things are not good. But times will become even worse if we are deprived of the grace of giving--the grace of being a part of God's work in the world. Sampley says it this way: "Paul is onto something: Believers do and give because they have been done unto and been given to. . . . As 1 John puts it so succinctly: We love because God first loved us. . . . Believers cannot fail to love, because love received prompts love in return."

May you be blessed by the grace of giving!
Allison