Poor and Rich

 DEVOTION

THE 2^ND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

POOR AND RICH

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

Although we are taking portions of this section that Paul is speaking to them about giving, which takes the whole chapter. Nevertheless, we want to take some little truths alone the way. Here Paul says that wants to test the sincerity of their love. It certainly appears he is comparing them to some other church and the diligence of that church. Although it must be implied, because it is not spelled out, this other church was diligent in giving. It is a little strange that he makes this statement about Jesus became poor so that through His poverty they might become rich. Because Paul is talking about giving and this refers to funds, it almost sounds like Jesus had a lot of money, being God, and he gave it all away, becoming poor so that we could become wealthy financially so we could give. But that is actually what Paul is saying. Christ, the creator of the universe, who all things belong to, who sat in the heavenly’s left it all and took the form of man, born a baby in a stable, lived his whole life, never owning any property, had no inheritance to leave at his death, except his peace. From the stable to the cross, Jesus owned nothing, but his life and death were a benefit to all mankind. The point Paul is making is that if God did this for our benefit, then how much more should we give for the benefit of others. Paul will also go on to talk about giving from that which we have and not from that which we don’t have. But we should not get ahead of ourselves, yet the point is that we can only give according to our means. We have turned this into the tithe as our way of giving according to our means. But again, this still is saying the rich here means financial gain. Of course, the world works on a gold standard or is based on money and how much can be accumulated. We all need to know we have some financial security to a point yet does that hinder our willingness to give other than our tithe, which as we already considered is not actually giving to the poor, but rather supporting the expenses of the church itself. Although our budget usually includes some missionary giving, or a portion to some local outside ministry, the bulk of our giving pays staff salaries and building expenses, plus setting as much aside for future needs of the church. Meanwhile, there are some smaller churches where the pastors must work outside the church to support themselves. There is such a disparage in what would be seen as rich in the sense of financial matters. However, this seems to be the central theme of this portion of the letter and we should not try too much to spiritualize Jesus becoming poor so we can become rich. There are many believers all throughout the world that would be considered poor by most standards, so then how can they be rich, if we don’t see this in some spiritual sense. There is also a great chasm between many believers, even in one local church where they are very wealthy individuals and others who are barely making ends meet. It would seem equality does not exist in money matters, so then maybe this truth of Jesus becoming poor, emptying himself so that we could become rich by inheriting eternal life and that is what we should be eager to share with others. There may be more to this than we can consider in this short time. Nevertheless, the truth is still that he become poor so we could become rich.