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