Christ Our Pattern

II Corinthians 8:7–15
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I have known pastors, missionaries, and Bible school students who argue that since they devote their whole life to serving the Lord, they are not obligated to give financially to the Lord’s work. Paul says just the opposite is true (vv. 7-8). If you are gifted from God, you ought to want to give more. These Corinthian believers were so wrapped up in the gifts of the Spirit that they neglected the grace of giving. They had an abundance of spiritual gifts and yet they were lax in keeping their promise and sharing with their money. Paul had every right to expect the Corinthian church to participate in this special offering. This was their expressed desire more than a year before this. He is only asking that they follow through with their orig­inal commitment. How easy it is to make a commitment to support some missionary or project and then not follow through.

Dr. Charles Ryrie in his teaching on this book says that we should study “Faith Promise” giving in the context of verse 12, where it states that a gift “is accepted according to that a man hath, and not accord­ing to that he hath not.” The whole emphasis of “Faith Promise” giving is that we don’t promise to give some­thing that we have, but instead promise to give something that we don’t have. Then we will trust the Lord to provide. Our giving needs to be in proportion to our income. 

Three Levels of Giving:

1. You must (law)

2. You ought to (obligation)

3. You want to. (grace)

Application

I need to be a good steward by example. I will look for opportunities to teach others how they can give to the Lord’s work if they just trust the Lord to meet their needs instead of going into debt.