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 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. ⁹ 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 by his poverty might become rich.

It has been said of the apostle Paul that he ‘uses a steam-hammer in order to crack a nut.’ In other words, he takes hold of big theological truths and uses them to make every day practical points. This great doctrinal statement about the incarnation (in some ways a distillation of Philippians 2:5-11) comes in the heart of a section of teaching all about giving. In pointing to the great example of Jesus, we are cornered, are we not? This is, as Tom Wright observes, ‘the beating heart of the gospel itself.’ He adds that it is found in a passage which is basically saying, ‘Isn’t it time you finished taking the collection?’

Furthermore he adds, ‘When Jesus, for the sake of us all became poor, we became rich; now when people who follow him are ready to put their resources at his disposal, the world and the church may benefit, not only from the actual money but from the fact that when the Jesus-pattern of dying and rising, of riches-to-poverty-to-riches, is acted out, the power of the gospel is let loose afresh in the world, and the results will be incalculable.’

”The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation.” Corrie Ten Boom

Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. ⁷ But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.

There is something of an irony here, and maybe Paul is teasing the Corinthians just a little. Because the truth is that they were proud of their spiritual attainments. They believed they did ”excel” in a number of areas. So Paul urges them to be ‘excellent’ givers.

What will excellent giving look like? Well it will certainly mean this: giving generously and going beyond the bare minimum. Giving with excellence does not say, ‘What is the least I can get away with?’

In the Old Testament, God’s people had to give a tenth (tithe) of their income. In the New Testament this practice is not commanded as such, but what we do see is that Christian giving is to be proportionate to one’s income and means. This is a personal point of view, but I have long thought along these lines: ‘If they had to give a tenth under the Old Covenant, why would I want to give less, living, as I do, on this side of the Cross and Resurrection, and having so much more revelation, and privileges, than any Old Testament believer?’ I agree with the person who said he regarded the tithe as the floor and not the ceiling of Christian giving.

Excellence in giving seeks to rise above floor level!

As someone put it, do we give God a tip or a tithe?

begging us earnestly for the favour of taking part in the relief of the saints— 

“In all of my years of service to my Lord, I have discovered a truth that has never failed and has never been compromised. That truth is that it is beyond the realm of possibilities that one has the ability to out give God. Even if I give the whole of my worth to Him, He will find a way to give back to me much more than I gave.” – Charles Spurgeon

David Pawson pointed out that the word ”begging” is normally associated with wanting and receiving, but in this case it is linked to giving – or the desire to give.

Paul’s farewell address to the Ephesian elders included these words:

” In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Acts 20:35.

These words of Jesus are not recorded in the gospels, but they are in tune with everything we hear from Him and see of Him in their pages. In Paul’s quoted words, Jesus is stating a fact: ”It is more blessed to give than to receive.” This is not up for debate. It just is.

When we give, do we not find it to be true?

Like Spurgeon, we have no doubt also found that we cannot out give God. It was Spurgeon who also said:

“God has a way of giving by the cartloads to those who give away by shovelfuls.” – Charles Spurgeon

Nevertheless, giving in order to receive must not become our motive. The act of giving is in itself ”more blessed”.

For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, ⁴ begging us earnestly for the favour of taking part in the relief of the saints— ⁵ and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.

“A lack of generosity refuses to acknowledge that your assets are not really yours, but God’s.” – Tim Keller

Here is the heart posture that lay behind the almost impossible giving of the Macedonians, and which will overflow in generous giving among Christians today. It is all a matter of Who comes ”first”. We are talking priorities here. First and foremost these believers were the Lord’s. But then there was an overflowing of this primary commitment to others.

It has been said that the secret of joy is:

Jesus first;

Others second;

Yourself last…

…and the Macedonians definitely had J.O.Y!

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, ² for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. ³ For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, ⁴ begging us earnestly for the favour of taking part in the relief of the saints— ⁵ and this, not as we expected… ESVUK

“Giving is true having.” – Charles Spurgeon

The grace of God in our lives enables us to do and to be so much more than we could left to our own devices. This can show itself in numerous ways. Here, in our passage, it particularly relates to giving.

Some people seem to think that money should never be mentioned in church. It appears to be an embarrassment to them. But I would ask, ‘Why should we mention money (and material things) less than the Bible does?’ It actually speaks about them quite a lot. This is one of the values of working systematically through Bible books in a church’s preaching programme. It means we can deal with these matters, in context, and hopefully treat them in the way Scripture does – rather than feeling the pressure to produce a sermon on giving because the offerings are down!

It is interesting, though, that Paul does not use any of the Greek words for ‘money’ here. He handles the subject diplomatically, and somewhat indirectly. Rather he speaks about ‘grace’. This puts the focus on God’s work in human hearts. Look what generosity He inspired in the Macedonians. Tom Wright says that ‘…under an impulse that came from God himself, they gave money with almost reckless generosity.’

 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, ² for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. ESVUK

“If I and a need meet, God must have had in mind my filling it.” Jack Hyles

In writing to the Corinthians, Paul wanted to ensure that by the time he arrived in their city, they would have set aside the full amount of money that they were going to give the impoverished Jerusalem church (see 1 Cor.16:1-4). Surely the example of the Macedonian churches would spur them on? These believers had done something remarkable. They were terribly poor, and had suffered great persecution. Indeed, these two things may have gone together, as the persecution might have entailed loss of jobs and income for some of them. Yet in spite of their dire circumstances, they had given with almost reckless abandon For Paul, it was a work of ”grace”. It was nothing less than God at work in their hearts.

I heard Jim Graham preaching on this passage some years ago, and I remember him saying that in the contemporary church we don’t lack resources, but we do lack joy!

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia…

Somebody said that there is no greater test of a person’s spirituality than their attitude to their possessions.

This, of course, includes money.

Two great New Testament chapters about Christian giving begin with the above statement. It is an important reminder to us that giving is itself a gift of God. It is a manifestation of His grace in human lives.

I love this paragraph from Tom Wright’s commentary:

‘Some years ago I heard of a church (I’m not making this up) where the pastor once got into the pulpit to give his people a severe lecture about the level of giving in the church; not because they weren’t giving enough but because they were giving far too much. He knew that most of his people weren’t well off. He knew that the amount of money that had been coming in was way beyond what most of them could afford. He was genuinely worried that they were pushing themselves to the point of serious personal problems in order to support the work of the church.’

It reminds me of the story found in Exodus 36:2-7:

 Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab along with all whom God had gifted with the ability to work skillfully with their hands. The men were eager to get started and engage in the work. They took from Moses all the offerings that the Israelites had brought for the work of constructing the Sanctuary. The people kept on bringing in their freewill offerings, morning after morning.

 All the artisans who were at work making everything involved in constructing the Sanctuary came, one after another, to Moses, saying, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing this work that God has commanded us to do!”

 So Moses sent out orders through the camp: “Men! Women! No more offerings for the building of the Sanctuary!”

The people were ordered to stop bringing offerings! There was plenty of material for all the work to be done. Enough and more than enough. The Message

Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish wrong. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right. ¹² My purpose, then, was not to write about who did the wrong or who was wronged. I wrote to you so that in the sight of God you could see for yourselves how loyal you are to us. ¹³ We have been greatly encouraged by this.

In addition to our own encouragement, we were especially delighted to see how happy Titus was about the way all of you welcomed him and set his mind at ease. ¹⁴ I had told him how proud I was of you—and you didn’t disappoint me. I have always told you the truth, and now my boasting to Titus has also proved true! ¹⁵ Now he cares for you more than ever when he remembers the way all of you obeyed him and welcomed him with such fear and deep respect. ¹⁶ I am very happy now because I have complete confidence in you. New Living Translation

The above passage shows Paul’s integrity in ‘grasping the nettle.’ In his ministry he had to ‘die’ in multiple ways. This was one of them. He was prepared to address problems, and cause pain (if necessary) in order to resolve them. It wasn’t that he wanted to hurt anyone, but he knew that his directness was likely to create waves, and he was prepared to take the repercussions.

But lying behind all that he had said, he actually believed the best about them, and his faith had been well and truly vindicated. Titus could now see for himself that what Paul had told him about the Corinthians was correct, much to the apostle’s great delight.

Tom Wright’s words are helpful, I think: ‘In particular, he wants to assure them, as he did in chapter 2, that they have acted properly in relation to the matter of discipline. (I wonder how many Christians, when teetering on the brink of some sin, think of the problems they will cause, not only for themselves and any other people immediately involved, but for the whole church as it faces the question of how to deal with that sin? Not many, I fear; which may be a sign, not only that Christians are careless about the effects of their sin, but that the church is by no means always eager to exercise appropriate discipline.)’

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. ESVUK

Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets. The Message

Simon Peter and Judas Iscariot stand out as working models-respectively illustrating ”godly grief” and ”worldly grief.”

‘On the night of the Last Supper, Peter followed Jesus to the high priest’s house, where he proceeded to deny three times that he’d ever known Jesus. On realizing what he had done, Peter went out and cried like a baby. That was the first step towards the restoration that came with Jesus’ appearance to him (Luke 24.34; 1 Corinthians 15:5) and the remarkable conversation with Jesus by the lakeshore (John 21.15-19). His sadness led him to repentance, and that was a cause, ultimately, for rejoicing. On the other hand, Judas, who had betrayed Jesus, showing the high priest’s servants where to find him in the dark, was plunged into the darker depths of the world’s way of sadness. In Matthew’s account, he flings down the money he’d been paid at the feet of the chief priests, and goes off and hangs himself (Matthew 27.5). Two types of sadness; two end results.’ Tom Wright.