And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you.
Those aided by generous gifts pray for the givers and long to see and be with them because of the exceeding grace of God at work and seen in them. In its setting Paul is urging the brethren at Corinth to be zealous in contributing for the poor saints at Jerusalem, holding up the example of the churches of Macedonia to inspire benevolent action. Bountiful, cheerful giving that supplies the wants of the saints abounds in many thanksgivings to God, causing those helped to glorify God for subjection to the gospel and for liberal distribution to them and to all men. Such generosity reveals the exceeding grace of God in the givers and the effect of the gospel in their lives, deepens love to God, and awakens gratitude, praise, and affection toward the givers. The harvest is proportionate to the sowing, so giving as purposed in the heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, with self-denial and sacrifice even in deep poverty, brings rich blessing to the receivers and to the givers themselves.
Meaning and Original Setting
Those who are helped by generous giving pray for the givers and long to see them and be with them because of the exceeding, surpassing grace of God at work in the givers and seen in them. The poor believers who receive generous aid deeply desire fellowship with those who gave, with love and yearning drawn out toward them by the extraordinary grace of God evident in them. Their prayer for their benefactors and their longing for them belong together as the response of aided believers to a ministry that reveals God's abundant grace.
In its setting the verse belongs to Paul's appeal to the brethren at Corinth to kindle their zeal and stir them to contribute for the poor saints at Jerusalem, holding up the example of the churches of Macedonia to inspire benevolent action. The chapter pictures believers bringing gifts to support the work so the message can be proclaimed, with God's Spirit moving people to recognize the needs of the work, deny themselves, and give. Sharing means with poorer churches in this way brings gratitude to God and loving prayer from those who receive the aid.
The recipients' prayers for their benefactors are connected with their longing for them, because God's abundant grace is at work in the recipients themselves. A timely gift for building the church is an answer to earnest prayer and a reason for gratitude both to God and to the people moved by the Holy Spirit to give.
What Generosity Produces
Bountiful, cheerful giving that supplies the wants of the saints abounds in many thanksgivings to God, and those who receive glorify God for subjection to the gospel of Christ and for liberal distribution to them and to all men. Bountiful sowing in relieving the poor and the oppressed causes those helped to pray for the givers and to long after them for the exceeding grace of God in them. Liberal giving to supply the wants of fellow believers in needier places turns material help into prayer, earnest desire and affection, thanksgiving, and glory to God.
Such generous service reveals the exceeding grace of God in the givers and the effect of the gospel in their lives. It deepens love to God in the heart, while thanks and praise awakened in the hearts of the needy flow back to God. Those who receive such help pray for their helpers and feel affection and longing toward them because they recognize God's abundant grace at work in them. Generosity prompted by the Holy Spirit both shares grace with others and draws them to thank God, and meeting material needs and not only preaching shows faith is genuine rather than selfish or hypocritical. Angels join the songs of praise coming from human lips.
When stewards of the grace of God handle the Lord's money as Christ would act in their place, they make Christ's service a reality and reflect back God's benevolence in praise and deeds of mercy. Strengthened by rich grace day by day to understand God's will, and found faithful in least as well as great, their liberal distribution to the saints and to all men not only supplies want but is abundant in thanksgivings to God. This ends in thanks for God's unspeakable gift.
When those consecrated to God supply both spiritual need and temporal necessities, this work of mercy and love by faithful stewards of gospel truth and of temporal blessings demonstrates the reality of sympathy and love and keeps Christ as Pattern. It causes praise to flow from hearts hungering and thirsting for the Bread of Life, warms the heart and awakens gratitude to God. It overcomes selfish ambition, jealousy, and indifference toward other parts of the Lord's vineyard, and strengthens the bonds of brotherhood between members of God's family on earth. As an experiment of ministration it is a savor of life unto life that always produces the very best fruit both in the receiver and in the giver.
How to Give Faithfully
The chapter teaches that generous giving to advance the work of saving souls brings a harvest proportionate to the sowing. Sowing beside all waters means continually imparting the gifts received from God. This requires the light of heaven shining into the heart and the grace of God constantly imparted in order to abound in every good work. It is ministering the truths of the gospel in word and deed in the simplicity of Christ, talking the truth and praying the truth. Giving is to be as purposed in the heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, with God making all grace abound and enriching in every good work while righteousness remains forever.
When believers deny themselves and sacrifice to give, rich blessings flow upon God's people because of that self-denial and self-sacrifice, and the givers themselves receive a blessing. Receiving help in a way that bypasses this self-denial deprives them of that blessing. Self-denial and directing resources to God's work rather than selfish wants are connected with blessing. Devoting means to God goes with giving self to His service, and the exceeding grace of God in believers is seen when even the poor give to their power and beyond their power willingly of themselves. Thus small gifts given in deep poverty are liberal giving that the Lord blesses and that draws love and yearning toward the givers.
Christian service includes meeting people's material needs, not only preaching, and such generous help supplies the needs of others and leads to thanksgiving and glory to God. Good deeds are evidence that faith is genuine rather than selfish or hypocritical. Giving to sustain the cause of God is required, but zeal for the cause never justifies neglecting brethren in need. True liberality gives help for the cause and also gives personal attention and help to relieve suffering, breaks every yoke of oppression that comes under notice, refuses sinful actions toward brethren, and rightly represents the character of Christ before the world. Being enriched is for bountifulness that causes thanksgiving to God, and the administration of this service supplies the wants of the saints and abounds in thanksgivings to God. Acknowledging God as the Giver to whom account must be given brings watchfulness to make wise investments in the expenditure of means with an eye single to the glory of God, bringing the will into conformity to the will of God, not taking the world and its habits and customs as the standard and not following personal inclination to extravagance, but conforming to Christian principles to be of greatest benefit and usefulness to fellow men.
The eighth and ninth chapters give lessons and examples of giving that must be studied, heeded, and kept ever before those responsible for the work. That means the destitute Southern Field is to be sustained with designated means, and the entire profits of the books for that field belong to it. Diverting that means to fields with much better advantages, practicing deception about it, and doing scarcely anything for the hard Southern Field displeases the Lord. After light and calls to duty, continued neglect increases guilt, will be met in the judgment, and requires restitution and doing more than beginning late where work should have begun years ago, because the design for the work originates with God and the facilities are His from His treasury, and God rewards according to neglect of His purposes and specified methods. Abounding in good work is applied to loving service that helps free the Colorado Sanitarium from debt and enables it to serve more people, by promoting the institution and directing sick people to it. The passage from chapter 9 supports the truth that God gives the increase and that success in the work comes from Him, not from any one worker, for God gives each person talents and can work through different ministers, so the work should not depend on one person alone and no worker should take glory for its success.
Those aided by generous gifts pray for the givers and long to see and be with them because of the exceeding grace of God at work and seen in them. In its setting Paul is urging the brethren at Corinth to be zealous in contributing for the poor saints at Jerusalem, holding up the example of the churches of Macedonia to inspire benevolent action. Bountiful, cheerful giving that supplies the wants of the saints abounds in many thanksgivings to God, causing those helped to glorify God for subjection to the gospel and for liberal distribution to them and to all men. Such generosity reveals the exceeding grace of God in the givers and the effect of the gospel in their lives, deepens love to God, and awakens gratitude, praise, and affection toward the givers. The harvest is proportionate to the sowing, so giving as purposed in the heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, with self-denial and sacrifice even in deep poverty, brings rich blessing to the receivers and to the givers themselves.
Meaning and Original Setting
Those who are helped by generous giving pray for the givers and long to see them and be with them because of the exceeding, surpassing grace of God at work in the givers and seen in them. The poor believers who receive generous aid deeply desire fellowship with those who gave, with love and yearning drawn out toward them by the extraordinary grace of God evident in them. Their prayer for their benefactors and their longing for them belong together as the response of aided believers to a ministry that reveals God's abundant grace.
In its setting the verse belongs to Paul's appeal to the brethren at Corinth to kindle their zeal and stir them to contribute for the poor saints at Jerusalem, holding up the example of the churches of Macedonia to inspire benevolent action. The chapter pictures believers bringing gifts to support the work so the message can be proclaimed, with God's Spirit moving people to recognize the needs of the work, deny themselves, and give. Sharing means with poorer churches in this way brings gratitude to God and loving prayer from those who receive the aid.
The recipients' prayers for their benefactors are connected with their longing for them, because God's abundant grace is at work in the recipients themselves. A timely gift for building the church is an answer to earnest prayer and a reason for gratitude both to God and to the people moved by the Holy Spirit to give.
What Generosity Produces
Bountiful, cheerful giving that supplies the wants of the saints abounds in many thanksgivings to God, and those who receive glorify God for subjection to the gospel of Christ and for liberal distribution to them and to all men. Bountiful sowing in relieving the poor and the oppressed causes those helped to pray for the givers and to long after them for the exceeding grace of God in them. Liberal giving to supply the wants of fellow believers in needier places turns material help into prayer, earnest desire and affection, thanksgiving, and glory to God.
Such generous service reveals the exceeding grace of God in the givers and the effect of the gospel in their lives. It deepens love to God in the heart, while thanks and praise awakened in the hearts of the needy flow back to God. Those who receive such help pray for their helpers and feel affection and longing toward them because they recognize God's abundant grace at work in them. Generosity prompted by the Holy Spirit both shares grace with others and draws them to thank God, and meeting material needs and not only preaching shows faith is genuine rather than selfish or hypocritical. Angels join the songs of praise coming from human lips.
When stewards of the grace of God handle the Lord's money as Christ would act in their place, they make Christ's service a reality and reflect back God's benevolence in praise and deeds of mercy. Strengthened by rich grace day by day to understand God's will, and found faithful in least as well as great, their liberal distribution to the saints and to all men not only supplies want but is abundant in thanksgivings to God. This ends in thanks for God's unspeakable gift.
When those consecrated to God supply both spiritual need and temporal necessities, this work of mercy and love by faithful stewards of gospel truth and of temporal blessings demonstrates the reality of sympathy and love and keeps Christ as Pattern. It causes praise to flow from hearts hungering and thirsting for the Bread of Life, warms the heart and awakens gratitude to God. It overcomes selfish ambition, jealousy, and indifference toward other parts of the Lord's vineyard, and strengthens the bonds of brotherhood between members of God's family on earth. As an experiment of ministration it is a savor of life unto life that always produces the very best fruit both in the receiver and in the giver.
How to Give Faithfully
The chapter teaches that generous giving to advance the work of saving souls brings a harvest proportionate to the sowing. Sowing beside all waters means continually imparting the gifts received from God. This requires the light of heaven shining into the heart and the grace of God constantly imparted in order to abound in every good work. It is ministering the truths of the gospel in word and deed in the simplicity of Christ, talking the truth and praying the truth. Giving is to be as purposed in the heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, with God making all grace abound and enriching in every good work while righteousness remains forever.
When believers deny themselves and sacrifice to give, rich blessings flow upon God's people because of that self-denial and self-sacrifice, and the givers themselves receive a blessing. Receiving help in a way that bypasses this self-denial deprives them of that blessing. Self-denial and directing resources to God's work rather than selfish wants are connected with blessing. Devoting means to God goes with giving self to His service, and the exceeding grace of God in believers is seen when even the poor give to their power and beyond their power willingly of themselves. Thus small gifts given in deep poverty are liberal giving that the Lord blesses and that draws love and yearning toward the givers.
Christian service includes meeting people's material needs, not only preaching, and such generous help supplies the needs of others and leads to thanksgiving and glory to God. Good deeds are evidence that faith is genuine rather than selfish or hypocritical. Giving to sustain the cause of God is required, but zeal for the cause never justifies neglecting brethren in need. True liberality gives help for the cause and also gives personal attention and help to relieve suffering, breaks every yoke of oppression that comes under notice, refuses sinful actions toward brethren, and rightly represents the character of Christ before the world. Being enriched is for bountifulness that causes thanksgiving to God, and the administration of this service supplies the wants of the saints and abounds in thanksgivings to God. Acknowledging God as the Giver to whom account must be given brings watchfulness to make wise investments in the expenditure of means with an eye single to the glory of God, bringing the will into conformity to the will of God, not taking the world and its habits and customs as the standard and not following personal inclination to extravagance, but conforming to Christian principles to be of greatest benefit and usefulness to fellow men.
The eighth and ninth chapters give lessons and examples of giving that must be studied, heeded, and kept ever before those responsible for the work. That means the destitute Southern Field is to be sustained with designated means, and the entire profits of the books for that field belong to it. Diverting that means to fields with much better advantages, practicing deception about it, and doing scarcely anything for the hard Southern Field displeases the Lord. After light and calls to duty, continued neglect increases guilt, will be met in the judgment, and requires restitution and doing more than beginning late where work should have begun years ago, because the design for the work originates with God and the facilities are His from His treasury, and God rewards according to neglect of His purposes and specified methods. Abounding in good work is applied to loving service that helps free the Colorado Sanitarium from debt and enables it to serve more people, by promoting the institution and directing sick people to it. The passage from chapter 9 supports the truth that God gives the increase and that success in the work comes from Him, not from any one worker, for God gives each person talents and can work through different ministers, so the work should not depend on one person alone and no worker should take glory for its success.