A Matter of the Heart

DEVOTION

2 CORINTHIANS

A MATTER OF THE HEART

2 Cor 8:8-9

8 I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

NIV

There is a couple things here which seem a little odd at first. The first is this comparing thing, and second, the part of becoming rich.  It would be worth noting that Paul is not commanding them to give, but appealing to their hearts and conscience. It might appear he is trying to use the giving of others to create an atmosphere of competition. But we surely know God would not in any way use those kinds of tactics in order to have us give more than someone else has. First off, he does not want our right hand knowing what the left hand is doing; our giving should be in secret, not as a competition to see who can give the most. But it does appear he is spurring them on to give as not to be outdone by others. The point which could be at the center of this would be their expressed love. The fact that we say we love others, the fact that we profess how good of a Christian we are, the fact that we declare how spiritual we are should be backed up by how much we give. That could especially count if we are the kind that stores up wealth for ourselves for some later date. We will see this later in this conversation about giving according to our ability. Now as to becoming rich we should always be aware that Jesus was there in the creation, and that everything that was made was made through him. He is the almighty Lord and owner of everything, the wealthiest Lord of all. He is all powerful and has all authority over everything. Yet he humbled himself, he became poor, he became a servant even onto death, a terrible death on the cross, so that we could inherit all the riches of his glory. Through his poverty, his servitude we can have eternal life, the greatest riches of all times. We have the blessing of God in our lives. Is all this material stuff, all our worldly wealth able to compare with that? Now we also we see a little later that we are not being spurred to give others so much that we make ourselves poor in doing so, there is this work equality used. But once again we should be aware that the point here is we have so much ahead of us because of our faith in Christ that we should not cling so strongly to what we have here and share with those who are in need. There is no command to give and the preachers of today should never use that kind of language, but it is a matter of the heart. Each one of us should consider this.