2 Corinthians 9:8, commentary and pictures

God is able to cause every kind of favor to overflow toward believers so that always possessing complete sufficiency in all things they may overflow in every good work. In its setting on giving, this provision enriches believers for generous service, meets the needs of fellow believers, and returns in thanksgiving and praise to God as part of Paul's appeal to Corinth for the poor saints at Jerusalem. The promise belongs to cheerful givers who purpose in the heart and sow bountifully rather than sparingly, grudgingly or under compulsion, and to those whose working faith relieves the necessities of others. God supplies sufficiency by constantly imparting grace and light to the heart, ministering seed to the sower and bread for food, multiplying what is sown and increasing the fruits of righteousness unto generous giving. The good works are personal kindness in feeding, clothing, visiting and comforting the poor, needy, oppressed and suffering and in sustaining gospel work, which supplies the saints, deepens love to God, and causes thanksgiving and glory to God.

Wording and Historical Setting

God is able to make every kind of grace abound toward believers, so that always having all sufficiency in all things they may abound to every good work. That sufficiency is given in every circumstance, supplying what is needed and enabling continued generous service rather than withholding resources. God constantly provides for both the giver's own needs and for continued generosity, increasing the good that results.

In its setting on giving, this provision enriches believers for generous service, and their generosity meets the needs of fellow believers. Such giving is to be bountiful, purposeful and cheerful rather than sparing, grudging or under compulsion, and it enriches toward further liberality. It produces many thanksgivings and praise flowing back to God, causes others to glorify God for obedience to the gospel and liberal sharing with them and all people, draws their prayers and affection because of the grace seen, and points to God's unspeakable gift.

The verse belongs to Paul's appeal to the brethren at Corinth to kindle their zeal and stir them up to make a contribution for the poor saints at Jerusalem. He held up before them the example of the churches of Macedonia to inspire benevolent action, setting before the church the necessity of the church at Jerusalem and the example of others with fewer advantages and less ability who had given. Duty was urged in this way without laying a command, to induce giving and to lead every converted soul who appreciates God's rich endowment to show great benevolence and make returns to God from His vineyard.

The lessons and examples of chapters 8 and 9 teach how to lift debt from institutions in Scandinavia so they can stand in freedom. When those who handle His money in His fear, knowing it is His money brought even by the poor from their tithes and offerings, all do something, God cooperates with their efforts. Reading those chapters teaches how to fill up the gap and come up to the help of the Lord by maintaining the righteous principles of heaven and hanging the helpless soul upon Christ rather than upon humanity. Those same lessons and examples must be studied, heeded, and kept ever before workers for the hard, destitute Southern field, where God supplies from His own treasury grace, facilities and means for His specified design to help ignorant, defiled, needy fellow beings. Those entrusted with book profits and church offerings are to abound to every good work by using the entire designated means in that field, and neglecting the field, appropriating its means to better-favored fields, and practicing deception after light and warning increase guilt, will meet judgment, require restitution of diverted means, and require doing more than merely beginning late, for God rewards according to neglect of His purposes and methods.

Conditions for the Promise

The promise belongs to cheerful givers who purpose in the heart to give and who sow bountifully rather than sparingly, grudgingly, of necessity or under compulsion, and such willing givers are loved and blessed. God is able to cause every grace to abound toward them so that always having all sufficiency in all things they may abound to every good work, having enough for their own needs and being able to continue generous in all kinds of helpful service. That continued generosity enriches toward further liberality, meets the needs of fellow believers, produces many thanksgivings to God, causes others to glorify God for obedience to the gospel and liberal sharing, draws their prayers and affection because of the grace seen, and points to God's unspeakable gift. Scattering gifts to the poor is righteousness that remains, and God ministers seed to the sower and bread for food, multiplies the seed sown, increases the fruits of righteousness, and enriches in everything unto generous giving that causes thanksgiving to God, as a bountiful harvest answers bountiful sowing. The same sound principle is to be learned and practiced for missionary work, with men and women giving gifts and offerings in addition to tithes, purposing willingly and cheerfully in the heart rather than grudgingly or of necessity, sowing bountifully rather than sparingly in order to reap bountifully.

The promise is made to all who reveal a working faith, a faith that prompts the receiver to good actions and to relieve the necessities of fellow men. Such faith works by love and purifies the soul, while faith without works is dead, being alone, and rich promises are given to those who reveal by good works in daily life the virtue and power of faith and self-denial, making plain everyone's duty to do their best. This working faith moves those who trust God to relieve the needs of others, and even those with little money can give through self-denial, with God able to bless a small gift and bring surprising results.

God compels no one to give but reveals His requirements in His Word and then supplies what is needed for obedience, expecting corresponding returns from every individual. He is the Source of all power, rich in resources, bestowing His goods upon His people and able to make all grace abound toward them so that always having all sufficiency in all things they may abound to every good work. Those who have received the light of truth and the heavenly gift must impart the same to others in darkness, letting light shine and warning of the soon coming of Jesus, and no one is approved who waits in idle expectancy dwelling on doctrine while doing very little, for living up to the light given brings more and increased light. His promises do not fail, but they are not to be claimed while disregarding the conditions revealed in His Word, which call for separation from what is unclean, wholehearted service to God, and decisive reform.

Even those in deep poverty and in hard, scarce times can give liberally when grace works in them, for grace transforms character and produces generosity and unselfish service and gives sufficiency in every circumstance to abound in every good work. By practicing self-denial, doing their best, working faithfully with the hands, sharing what they have with cheerful gratitude rather than grudgingly or of necessity, and helping build places of worship, the poor impart to others and earn means for the cause of God and for those who cannot obtain labor. Their giving supplies the needs of fellow believers and leads to thanksgiving to God, as seen when poor believers with limited means gave generously to build a needed church. That grace gives a heart of tenderness and love for souls for whom Christ paid the ransom of His own life, providing for erecting churches, feeding little flocks with meat in due season, and giving the last message of mercy to the uttermost part of the earth, with testing proving genuine love for Christ and neighbor. God sees each labor of love and knows the measure of every act of self-denial done for His name's sake, for all one has belongs to God and is to be used without selfish waste.

How God Supplies Sufficiency

God constantly pours grace and heavenly light into the heart to give full sufficiency in all things, so that what is received from Him may be continually imparted in word and deed and believers may abound in every good work. This sufficiency is given to cheerful givers who purpose in the heart to give, not grudgingly or of necessity, and who minister gospel truth in the simplicity of Christ by talking the truth and praying the truth. When they willingly give from the means entrusted to them, He can entrust them with more to share, and He enriches His church with His grace and gives her means as a talent so she has wherewith to supply His treasury. That enrichment calls for thanksgiving to the Lord, while failing to tell of His faithfulness and instead murmuring and complaining darkens the pathway of the murmurer and of others.

He ministers seed to the sower and bread for food, multiplies the seed sown, increases the fruits of righteousness, and enriches in everything unto generous giving that produces thanksgiving to God. Scattering gifts to the poor is a righteousness that remains forever, and he who sows bountifully reaps bountifully while he who sows sparingly reaps sparingly. Where Christ abides in the soul as a well of water springing up unto everlasting life that never runs dry there will be an overflowing of beneficence, acts of love for the needy, and provision for the destitute, and as the close of earth's history approaches this perfect love of God in the heart does wonderful things in the large work to be done. Property is a trust from God, and giving it generously helps meet needs in advancing the truth and saving souls, so that generous sowing brings a proportionate harvest and lays up treasure in heaven, with giving returned in good measure pressed down and shaken together and running over. By contrast selfishness and self-caring and indifference to suffering humanity sap spirituality, leaving the soul dry and sapless and fruitless.

Even a small gift suffices when placed in Christ's hands, for as with the disciples' loaves He can multiply what is offered and use it to meet others' needs. The lesson is simple reliance on God and generous service to the poor, trusting His blessing and putting His instruction into practice so that even a small offering can go far through His blessing. Christ's provision of food for the multitude illustrates God's abundant supply in both spiritual and temporal things, together with the duty to use it carefully, without waste.

Grace is received and then shared, and as believers continually receive blessings from God they pass them on through generous service. Those who share the grace and gifts they receive are given grace to share further, receiving grace more abundantly as they give, and as they impart grace and use what God has provided to bless others God blesses them with increased grace and their hope and faith grow. He opens a way before the giver whereby he may receive more to impart, so that those who impart constantly receive more to impart, and the more that is given to God's cause the more He can enable them to give from His abundant resources. This service does not require great wealth or education, but withholding leaves a Christian incomplete.

The same abounding grace gives power for victory over sin, so that no one is left to battle evil in finite human strength. No one enslaved by hereditary or cultivated habit, appetite, or passion needs to stay in bondage, even when he has been overcome again and again, is weak in moral power, is controlled by a life of sin, feels his promises are worthless, and thinks God cannot accept him or work with his efforts. Such a one need not despair, for those who put their trust in Christ can and must resist temptation, rule every appetite and passion, and overcome every inherited or cultivated tendency to wrong through the power God is ready to impart.

Good Works and Their Fruit

The good works to which God gives sufficiency are kindness and love in relieving the poor, the oppressed, the needy and the suffering. They include personally feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, caring for the weak, visiting the fatherless and widows, and ministering to the saints. They include breaking every yoke of oppression that comes under notice, extending hospitality, comfort, hope and courage, and helping others become able to support themselves. They embrace both sustaining the cause of God and giving personal attention and help to relieve suffering, for zeal for the cause never justifies neglecting the pressing necessities of brethren, since the cause of God is the cause of the oppressed and the poor. What God provides is entrusted not for self alone but to feed the hungry and care for the poor.

That sufficiency enables willing support of gospel work by sustaining workers and sending them to fields that lack resources, so that God enriches His people to give bountifully. Spirit-stirred generosity and self-denial provide gifts for proclaiming present truth and carrying the message for the time to many people. It keeps the cause healthy by supplying the treasury with means to carry the work forward, and aids institutions that help orphans, the dependent and destitute, the infirm and the aged, glorifies God by helping those with large families, uses Christmas and New Year to give for the helpless, and helps neglected children through self-denying gifts that bring blessing. Yet the promise does not support idleness, for no one able to work and earn a living has a right to live on what others produce.

Such giving supplies the needs of fellow believers and of poorer churches sharing means to relieve poverty and debt. It deepens love to God in the heart and awakens thanks and praise in the hearts of the needy that flow back to God. It causes others to glorify God for obedience to the gospel and for liberal sharing with them and all people, draws their prayers and affection because of the grace seen, and points to God's unspeakable gift. Angels join the songs of praise from human lips.

The promise was fulfilled in the unselfish liberality of the early Christian church, whose benevolent energy proved grace had not been received in vain. That liberality brought wonderful blessing and threw believers into a transport of joy because they knew the power of God was being carried to the needy through their gifts. It stands before believers and unbelievers as a miracle of grace, produced only by sanctification of the Spirit through the Word. Grace still transforms character to produce generosity and unselfish service, so that even those in deep poverty can give liberally when grace works in them.

Benevolence expressed in tangible deeds of love and in returning to God His due by sustaining every good work is the very best evidence of sincerity of faith, and character cannot be complete unless benevolence is expressed and selfishness and self-indulgence are counterworked. Usefulness is not limited by scant resources, for earnestness and freedom from selfishness and self-indulgence can make means available for service, and withholding leaves a Christian incomplete. By heeding the Holy Spirit and placing themselves in His hands, believers have liberty to abound in every good work and represent God to the world. Holiness makes a person fruitful in every kind of good deed, giving the mind of Christ that never tires of doing good and seeks no promotion in this life but looks to be exalted by God to His throne. Grace suffices for every duty in whatever sphere of service, even a humble one, where servants may show themselves Christian gentlemen and ladies, and faithful practical labor in using God-given abilities to bless others produces abundant material and spiritual returns.

Practical Calls to Give

Everyone is called to do what can be done to lift debt from schools, sanitariums and churches, for the promise is that divine grace supplies what is needed for good work so that means for doing good are not exhausted when reliance is placed on Christ. A school heavily in debt and needing more buildings for crowded students is to be helped by donations, and the call is met even when poor believers give freely, yielding fifty pounds for the need. The Colorado Sanitarium, despite good work with increasing patronage and larger income, could do little more than pay interest on its heavy debt, and the excellent present work to free it for its appointed and exceedingly important work of blessing the world is for believers to advertise it and recommend the sick in their communities to patronize their conference institution for physical healing and healing of the soul, so that larger patronage gives greater financial ability to do its noble work. Funds faithfully earned and given can help pay the Battle Creek College debt and can encourage others to join the work. To free the house of worship in Washington, D.C. from debt, self is to be denied instead of spending for selfish pleasure, and what can be given, large or small according to ability and means, brings God's blessing and rich blessing in return.

The same sufficiency in every circumstance is a lesson and example for supporting the difficult Southern field despite its difficulties. It was seen in the poor believers in Rockhampton, who gave generously despite limited means and sought to build a needed church.

The promise gives full supply to cheerful and generous givers so they always have enough for themselves and can keep helping in every kind of useful service, for giving bountifully rather than sparingly, as purposed in the heart without grudging or compulsion, brings abundance of divine favor and provision. This calls for reformation from selfish ambition, jealousy, and centering means and power on one's own interest, to instead take equal interest in every part of the vineyard, restrict one's own wants, and liberally sustain needy places and other fields, so that brotherhood is strengthened and petty jealousy is shut out. Prosperous churches should share their means to relieve the poverty and debt of poorer struggling churches, and such service supplies the saints' needs and leads to thanksgiving and praise to God. The success of institutions increases in proportion to disinterested generosity in sharing abundance with others who are struggling.

Entrusted means are designed to be made a blessing to the needy, with acknowledgment of God as the Giver to whom account must be given, and with spending in watchfulness in wise investments with an eye single to the glory of God. The will is to be brought into conformity to the will of God rather than the world's habits and customs or personal inclination to extravagance, and the outlay of means is to be conformed to Christian principles so as to be of greatest benefit and usefulness to fellow men. Those who stop constantly spending money on things they can do without and practice self-denial turn means cruelly wasted in selfish gratification into gifts placed in the treasury of God, and their giving brings blessings back to them in return.

What is given for Christ enriches, uplifts and strengthens the giver, for property is a trust from God and generous sowing to meet needs in advancing the truth and saving souls brings a proportionate harvest and lays up treasure in heaven. Giving to advance the truth increases love for the truth and gives personal benefit, uplifting and strengthening the one who invests what has been entrusted when the cause needs help, providing a fund to sustain the work in its different branches and reacting upon the giver for good in this world, while the deed is kept in the record of heaven to bring reward in the future eternal world. Those who give according to their means receive blessing.

Sowing beside all waters is continually imparting received blessings in word and deed with Christlike simplicity, talking the truth and praying the truth and ministering the truths of the gospel, as co-workers returning seed first given by the Lord. God constantly imparts grace and heavenly light into the heart to give full sufficiency in all things so that believers may continually impart what they have received and abound in every good work, and the Lord then enriches for every good work those cheerful givers who give as purposed in the heart, not grudgingly or of necessity. God supplies enough for the work of giving so servants can keep meeting the needs of those who lack, and supplies a faithful steward with enough for every need to abound in every good work through continual sharing of gifts and offerings. Every member of the church continually receives gifts from heaven so each one has sufficiency, with the sacred responsibility to work together with God by constantly imparting what has been bestowed, not consuming everything gained in selfish indulgence with nothing to present to God but learning through self-denial to present willing gifts and offerings that demonstrate constant receiving from heaven. This earnest, cheerful, constant giving is true religion as imitation of Christ, and every member is tested and proved on whether prayer is with the whole soul, self is denied, and labor becomes more intelligent.

The sound principle to be learned and practiced is for the missionary work originated by the greatest Missionary: men and women are to give gifts and offerings in addition to tithes, purposing in the heart to give cheerfully and willingly rather than grudgingly or of necessity, sowing bountifully rather than sparingly in order to reap bountifully, and God will bless every willing soul who gives with always having all sufficiency in all things to abound to every good work. Giving to God what is owed in tithes and offerings belongs with consecration in every line of His work, uniting with Christ and acting faithfully at the appointed post of duty, working with Christ by planning, devising and building, giving cheerfully, gladly, willingly and thankfully from the privilege of advancing the kingdom, emptying the heart of selfishness and bracing the mind for Christian activity, in close connection with God that makes a person willing to make any sacrifice to place eternal life within reach of the perishing. Keeping the cause healthy by supplying the treasury with means to carry the work forward includes aiding institutions that help orphans, the dependent and destitute, the infirm and the aged, cooperating with Christ in helping the weak, glorifying God by giving to help those with large families to support, and using Christmas and New Year celebrations to give for the helpless, with blessing resting on those who represent Christ in this work. The promise does not support idleness, for no one able to work and earn a living has a right to live on what others produce.

When God's people deny themselves and sacrifice to give and to advance the work, rich blessings flow in upon them through that self-denial and self-sacrifice. Meeting their need by large donations from others would deprive them of that blessing.