2 Corinthians 9:7 ~ 20191027 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org
10/27_2 Corinthians 9:7; God Is a Cheerful Giver; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20191027_2cor9_7.mp3
2 Corinthians 9:6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
God loves a cheerful giver. What does it mean to be a cheerful giver? What does this imply about those who don't give cheerfully (or at all)? Why does God love a cheerful giver?
Proverbs 22:8-9 [LXX]
Paul takes his ideas from Proverbs 22:8-9. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, Proverbs 22 reads like this:
Proverbs 22:8 (lit. trans.) The one who sows worthlessness/evil reaps bad, but will fully complete the punishment of his works. A cheerful man and a giver God will bless, but will fully complete the futility of his works, 9 The one who is merciful to the poor, he will himself be maintained, for his own bread he has given to the poor
Then in verse 11 it says:
Proverbs 22:11 (LXXE) The Lord loves holy hearts, and all blameless persons are acceptable with him:...
A cheerful man, even a giver God will bless. The Lord loves purity in heart, the one who is merciful to the poor, who gives his own bread to the poor. God loves a cheerful giver. God will bless a cheerful giver.
A Single Eye
Proverbs 22:8-9 in the ESV reads:
Proverbs 22:8 Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail. 9 Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.
He who has a bountiful eye; literally a good eye. What does that mean? Jesus picks up this idea about eyes and money in Matthew 6
Matthew 6:20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy [ἁπλοῦς], your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
Jesus says literally 'if your eye is single' or 'simple'. Paul used the noun form of this word to describe the generosity, or literally the simplicity of the Macedonians back in 2 Corinthians 8:
2 Corinthians 8:2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity [ἁπλότητα] on their part.
As we have seen, this word translated 'generosity' is literally the word for simplicity or single-hearted devotion to the Lord. Paul uses this word again in 9:11 and 13 to describe the heart from which they give. It is simple or single. It is not divided or double minded. Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 6:
Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Jesus said the most important thing is:
Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
A cheerful giver gives out of simplicity, eager to please one Master. There is no duplicity or double mindedness. The cheerful giver gives out of single-hearted devotion to Christ.
A Cheerful Giver
What does it mean to be a cheerful giver? We can learn something of what it looks like to give cheerfully, out of a single heart by looking at what Paul describes as the wrong motives. He said in verse 5 that it would be willing and not as an exaction, literally not as greed or covetousness. A greedy or covetous heart is not a cheerful heart.
He says in verse 6 that we should not sow sparingly or stingily, looking at the loss we might incur. That is not cheerful giving.
Verse 7 says that we are not to be reluctant or under compulsion; not out of grief or sorrow, not under pressure or necessity. That is not cheerful giving.
What he says positively is that it should be 'as he has determined in his heart' (9:7); out of an abundance of joy, riches of simplicity (8:2), giving themselves first to the Lord (8:5), begging for the grace and fellowship of service to the saints (8:4); a genuine love (8:8); a will and advance desire (8:10-12); out of abundance (8:14); for the glory of the Lord himself (8:19) a predisposed desire and zeal (9:2). They were making preparation (9:2-3), It was a promised blessing (9:5); it was to be upon blessings (9:6)
Upon Blessings
What does he mean in verse 6 to sow bountifully, literally 'upon blessings'? 'The one who sows upon blessings, upon blessings also will reap.' He says in verse 5 that he is sending the brothers to prepare in advance their promised in advance blessing, so that it is ready as a blessing. To bless is to speak or pronounce God's grace to others. To sow upon blessings is to sow out of a heart that has received God's blessings; a heart overflowing with God's blessings. When we have richly received and experienced God's grace, we can widely scatter God's amazing grace to others. A cheerful giver is one who liberally scatters blessings because he has lavishly experienced God's blessings.
God's Unconditional Love
God loves a cheerful giver. But what does that imply about those who are not cheerful givers? Or not givers at all? Does God not love those who are not cheerful givers? Doesn't John 3:16 say that God so loved the world? Doesn't God love everyone?
Let me put this another way. If we say that God loves the world, everyone, and cheerful givers are one subset of everyone, therefore God loves them, it makes this statement meaningless. It would be equally true to say that God loves the grudging givers, and those who give nothing at all. They are also subsets of the everyone whom God loves. Saying that God loves the cheerful giver must be saying something different than that God loves the sinful world or even than God loves all who trust in him.
You may have heard it said 'there's nothing you can do to make God love you any more than he does right now, and there's nothing you could ever do that would make God love you less.' God's love is unconditional. God's love is based on his own character, not on your performance. You didn't do anything to earn his love, and you can't do anything that would turn his love away from you. This is good news. This is grace. That God loves us not because of anything we have done or ever will do.
Titus 3:5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy...
Ephesians 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— ...8 ...this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
In this there is profound freedom; freedom from striving, freedom from performance, freedom from attempting to impress God.
Romans 4:5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
We must understand grace. Before we can give we must receive. Grace upon grace. And all our giving must flow out of these multiplied blessings poured out on us.
Consequences of Not Giving Cheerfully
But the Bible also talks like this: God loves a cheerful giver.
Jude 1:21 keep yourselves in the love of God...
John 15:9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
Keep yourselves in the love of God. There is an 'if'; if we keep his commandments, then we will abide in his love. God loves a cheerful giver.
This implies that there is a way to abide and a way to not abide in his love. That he loves a cheerful giver and is grieved when his people give sparingly or grudgingly or not at all.
The puritan pastor John Owen gives us categories to help us make sense of this. He draws a distinction between union and communion. We are united with Christ by grace alone through faith alone. Nothing we can do or fail to do will change our union with Christ. We belong to him. But how we respond to him can and does affect our communion with him, our day to day fellowship with him, our enjoyment of our union with him.
Think of the marriage relationship. We took wedding vows before God and in the presence of witnesses 'to love, cherish and serve, in sickness and health, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, 'til death do us part.' I might act rudely toward my wife, and that won't change her commitment to her vows before God, but it will affect the level of intimacy we enjoy in our relationship. It doesn't change our union, but it will affect our communion.
Notice Jesus exhorts us to abide in his love for our joy, that our joy may be full. We will enjoy our relationship with God more if we walk in his ways, if we follow his commands, if our hearts are overflowing with gladness in him. We ought to pursue cheerful generosity, because cheerfulness is more enjoyable than being grudging or greedy or stingy.
God Is a Cheerful Giver
But there is a deeper, a more important reason that God loves a cheerful giver. It is simply this: God loves a cheerful giver because God is a cheerful giver. God created us in his own image, and he loves to see his own character reflected in his people.
Look to God the cheerful giver!
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
Matthew 7:11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Every good gift is from God. God is the giver of every good. God himself is the greatest good.
Psalm 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 21:6 For you make him most blessed forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence.
Psalm 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.
God is our greatest good. And he does not withhold good from us.
Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
He graciously gave us his own Son. He will with him pour out every spiritual blessing on us.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
God is the giver. God gave his only Son, and Jesus gladly gave himself.
Galatians 2:20 ...I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Ephesians 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
Hebrews 12:2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
It was his joy to give himself up for us.
2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
Why does our motive and attitude matter to God? Why does our cheerfulness in giving matter? Because we image him, and when we don't give cheerfully, we lie about him, we misrepresent him. God is not a stingy giver, he is not reluctant, not a grudging giver, he does not give out of compulsion or obligation, he does not sow sparingly. We could say God is lavish, excessive, prodigal. over the top, extravagant. God love a cheerful giver because God is a cheerful giver.
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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org