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riches of their liberality, for they had given beyond their power. The greater their
poverty, the greater their liberality seemed to be and furthermore they begged earnestly
for the favour (grace) of taking part (fellowship) in this service for the Lord and His
people. Professor R. 5: G. Tasker points out that the Macedonian's poverty was partly
due to the harsh treatment they had received from their Roman conquerors, who had
exploited the rich natural resources of their land, and partly to the succession of civil wars
which had been fought on their soil before Augustus became sole emperor.
But none of this was made as an excuse for not contributing to the gift for the
impoverished Jerusalem saints. It was a case of the poor giving to the poor! and what an
example this must have been to the Corinthian church and should be to us today also.
Plummer's comment is apt here, `the crowning point of their generosity was their
complete self-surrender'.
Paul trusts that this will act as a stimulus to the Corinthians to complete their gift and
accordingly he plans to send Titus to help them with the final stages of their donation
(verse 6). He had asked them in I Cor. 16: 2 to set aside their money gift systematically
once a week, its size being decided by the way the Lord had prospered each one. It is
significant that no actual sum is mentioned here or anywhere else in the N.T. In the O.T.
dispensation the Lord had commanded that one tenth (the tithe) should be given to Him.
In this present age of the abounding grace of God and the riches He has showered on us
in Christ, we might ask ourselves, can we give less? This is for each child of God to
decide, but the context we are studying assures us that `God loves a cheerful giver' and
he that gives to the Lord bountifully reaps a bountiful harvest of blessing, whereas the
mean Christian can only receive back `sparingly'. In any case, a mean believer is a
contradiction in terms (II Cor. 9: 6-10).
The Apostle Paul assumes that the weekly giving of the Corinthians had been kept up
and all that needed to be done was a final liberal gift to complete the sum. He reminds
them that they abounded in spiritual gifts. Let them show themselves to be possessed
also of the gift of liberality (8: 7). Let them also remind themselves of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for our
sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich" (8: 9 R.V.).
Can we ever assess what it meant to the Lord Jesus to leave all the supreme riches
connected with His Godhead and to stoop down to this poverty-stricken human life, so
much so that He hadn't enough money to pay His tax! (Matt. 17: 25-27) nor even
anywhere to lay His head (Luke 9: 58). He died without a single soldiers carrying out
His execution! And He willingly submitted to this deep poverty for our sakes, so that we
might be made eternally rich beyond all comprehension!
With all this (and more) in view, surely the Corinthians did not need any command to
give. It was a joyous privilege so to do and we should realize that it still is for each one
of us today. It should be hardly necessary to say that Christian giving in the N.T. was
without any material return in the way of entertainment. When one looks around on