July 25
2 Corinthians 9: 11: Being enriched in every thing to all
bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. 12: For
the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints,
but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God; 13: Whiles by the
experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection
unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and
unto all men; 14: And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the
exceeding grace of God in you.
The
Holy Spirit is using Paul to describe what God is doing by providing a need to
our brethren, while at the same time providing brethren with all things
necessary to meet that need. As in all
things which God works amongst his people, God is bringing glory to his name
because it is God who is doing the giving, both to the giver, as well as to the
receiver.
Most think that it only takes the grace of
God to make his people cheerful givers.
The truth is it takes the grace of God to make his people cheerful
receivers as well. Most think it is the
grace of God to provide plenty so that brethren can provide for their
brethren. The truth is it is the grace
of God to provide a need so that brethren can receive from their brethren. But this ministration cannot be successful
when merely performed in the flesh. It
is only accomplished in spirit and in truth by Christ the Word making his
people willing in the day of his power through the gospel word, teaching us how
God brings glory to his name using both the plenty he provides to brethren as
well as the need God provides to brethren. By
nature we simply do not and cannot
understand the importance of giving and receiving.
The Holy Spirit tells us through the
prophet Isaiah that “as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and
returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and
bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my
word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but
it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing
whereto I sent it.” (Is 55: 10-11) Once
the rain and snow has accomplished God’s purpose they do return from where they
came. But they do not return in the same form.
The word of God is the same way as God works in his people through this
ministration of giving and receiving.
It is God, by his sovereign word revealing
the great sacrifice of Christ our Savior that strengthens faith in God and his
ability, so that though the believer may not have a surplus in material things,
the believer beholds we have all sufficiency in Christ, which makes his people
cheerful givers. This is how God “makes all grace abound toward you; that ye,
always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” Likewise, it is God, by his sovereign word revealing
our need for God to provide us all spiritual blessings in Christ by which God
makes his needy people willing to receive all spiritual provision from God’s
hand and to see that temporal provision provided by our brethren is coming
directly from God’s hand. So it is the
effectual word of God that makes both the giver and the receiver.
But like the rain and snow, once the word
has accomplished this purpose, the word returns in a different form than it
comes down. The word returns to God in
the form of “thanksgiving to God” both from the giver as well as the receiver. Just as we do for God’s gift of election,
predestination, adoption, redemption, regeneration, preservation, resurrection
and glorification, in this ministration of giving and receiving, when the word
has accomplished its purpose in both parties, we each “glorify God.” It is
because we behold that this ministration has far more to do with God providing
a great gift to the spiritual need of both the giver and receiver, than with
simply the giver providing material needs for the receiver. God works this grace in us by his word to
bring praise and glory to his name, to bring his saints into subjection to God,
to draw out intercession from his people on behalf of one another, to make his
people long for one another, all while God draws us each to the feet of the
great Intercessor. When giver and
receiver are brought to behold that this effectual work of God by his Word is a
gift to each of us by our Head, who is God’s greatest gift unto us, it causes
words of praise and glory to ascend up to him like the rain and snow after it
has accomplished its effectual work. Then each involved is brought to exclaim
with Paul, “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.”