In this verse, Paul reminds all believers that God is the ultimate giver, who is able to make all grace abound toward His people. As believers give, they must be persuaded that God is able to reward their giving. Just as God is able to make the sowing of seed abound to a great harvest, so God is able to bless the generosity of His people.

In rewarding our giving, God does it with all grace. Our giving is rewarded in many ways, including both the material and the spiritual. Materially, God may bless our giving by job promotions with better pay, by unexpected gifts of money, or by making things last so we don’t suffer the cost of replacing them. Spiritually, God may bless our giving by freeing our hearts from the tyranny of greed and materialism, by giving us a sense of blessing and happiness, and by storing up rich reward in heaven. There is no end to the ways we can be blessed when God is able to make all grace abound toward us.

Part of God’s blessing to the giver is for their always having all sufficiency in all things. That word sufficiency may also be translated contentment and is so in 1 Timothy 6:6. God gives a special gift to the giving heart: always having all contentment in all things. That is a lot of all!

It’s easy for many Christians to say they have this contentment; but whether they have it or not is often more truthfully known by their spending and shopping habits. How much of a place does shopping and buying have in your life? How much does material loss affect your happiness? How happy do you get from having some material thing?

With this contentment, believers can be the richest people in the world. A man might have the wealth of the richest man in the world yet lack contentment. But if we have this contentment, it really does make us better off than the wealthiest people who don’t have it.

Also notice that God blesses His people materially and spiritually so that they will have an abundance for every good work. We are blessed so that we can be a blessing to others. God wants us to be channels of blessing, not reservoirs of blessing.

Dear believer, learn to live in the generosity that is fitting for the people of God. It’s an important step in the path of God’s great gift of contentment.

Click here for David’s commentary on 2 Corinthians 9

 

First, we learn that Jesus was rich. Before Jesus added humanity to His deity and walked this earth, Jesus was rich beyond measure. Jesus, as the eternal Second Person of the Trinity, as God the Son, living in the riches and splendor of heaven, was surrounded constantly by the glory, power, and majesty of God. These make any amount of wealth on earth seem poor. He was rich in possessions, honor, power, love, and happiness.

Second, Jesus became poor. Look at the whole nativity scene. The newborn King was not laid in a cradle of gold but in a feeding trough for animals, set in a humble stable, wrapped in the swaddling bands of poor children. His whole life was lived humbly. At a very young age, He was banished from His own country. Raised as the son of a humble carpenter, Jesus had no fancy clothes, no home of His own, and often relied on others for food. He never even owned His own grave.

Third, notice the manner of His poverty: He became poor. It does not say that Jesus was made poor by others; He volunteered to become poor Himself. Every moment of His life on this earth, Jesus made the conscious choice to live as a relatively poor man.

Fourth, the reason for His poverty: yet for your sakes He became poor. There was a real reason why Jesus did this, and it was not for His own sake. It was for your sakes – the sake of His people – that He became poor.

Look at the result of His poverty: that you through His poverty might become rich. Because of Jesus’ poverty (in all that related to it), His people can become rich. Believers have a share in Jesus’ eternal, heavenly wealth because He came and had a share in their poverty.

– As Jesus was rich in possessions, so are believers – especially contentment.
– As Jesus was rich in honor, so His people have the honor of being sons and daughters of God.
– As Jesus was rich in power, so Christians can come as sons and daughters to the God of all power.
– As Jesus was rich in love, so believers have the love of God poured out into our hearts.
– As Jesus was rich in happiness, so are His people with the peace that passes all understanding.

Finally, consider that Jesus isn’t poor any longer. If this is what Jesus did for His people when He was poor, how much more do you think He will do for them with His heavenly wealth?

Click here for David’s commentary on 2 Corinthians 8