II Corinthians 8:1 Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;
2 How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.
3 For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves;
4 Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
5 And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.
6 Insomuch that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also.
The grace of God is very important to all of humanity. The Bible declares that we are saved by grace through faith.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
We can go all the way back to Noah and see that he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God’s grace is important for man. Man has always needed God’s grace to find favour in His sight.
Paul needed to remind the Corinthian saints of the grace of God that was bestowed upon the churches of Macedonia. Notice here that Paul spoke of the “churches”. There is no such a thing as a universal church now. Once all the saints are gathered in Heaven, there will be one church and Jesus Christ will be the Head. There will be no denominations. There will be no divisions amongst those who are in heaven. Only those who have been saved by the grace of God, will be there.
Beyond that, the true child of God lives by God’s grace.
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
We have noted before that God’s grace is never the license to sin. We do not presume upon the grace of God. We do not live in sin under the pretence that God’s grace will protect us. That is the heresy of New Evangelicalism and the ecumenical movement. That is not the Bible.
Paul explains God’s grace further in verse 2. The Macedonian saints faced great affliction. In the midst of that, they had an abundance of joy. They suffered poverty on the material level, but there was a richness in their liberality with Christ. That liberality was the ability to draw nigh to God and to serve Him.
The true Christian is not about himself. He is about God. He wants to exalt God and help others to see the blessing of knowing Him. That blessing cannot be known while wallowing in sin. It is seen and known by walking in the Spirit.
In verses 3-4 we see that the Macedonian saints acted beyond their own power. They were not rich, yet they banded together and collected a gift for the poor saints in Judaea. True saints are open to the work of God. They are willing to help to see God’s Work advance, not just in their area, but also in areas that have a need.
God can rain down manna from heaven. He can bring water out of a rock. He can feed five thousand men beside women and children with just a few loaves and fishes. God can do many things that are impossible with us.
He can also make the little that we have abound to the richness of others.
In verse 5 we see how this grace works. The saints in Macedonia first gave their own selves to the Lord. That is the fact that all true saints need to understand. When a person is saved, he or she does not belong to themselves. We still have needs. However, we learn to dismiss our wants and focus on real needs. We do not always do that. God is gracious and He often gives us more than our basic needs. There are times when we can be lacking in our basic needs as we serve the Lord. The apostle Paul stated that he knew what it was like to be hungry.
After the saints gave themselves to the Lord, then they gave themselves unto the apostle Paul and his companions by the will of God. Paul was not a corrupt salesman. He did not put together a book in a hurry and then offer it for sale for a certain fee. He did not tell the saints that if they would give him a certain amount of money, God would bless them with a bounty they would not be able to handle.
God does not work that way. He does not ask for “seed” money. He asks for a surrendered life from those who have trusted in Him for salvation. Every day, the true child of God needs to choose whether he will surrender to the Lord or not.
I Corinthians 15:31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
For the true child of God, the question is not: ‘what is in it for me?’ The question is: ‘how can I serve the Lord better today?’
In verse 6 we see that Titus was there to encourage this same grace in the Corinthian saints. They needed to see the blessing of serving the Lord. They had been carnal. They were now coming out of that sinful state. They needed to learn what that really looked like.
False teachers like Kenneth Copeland and Paula White are out to get rich for themselves. They are terrible stewards of the money they steal from others. They want to live like kings and queens. They need a lot of money because they are self-centred and selfish.
God is not like that. He does not need our money. In fact He does not need anything from us. He wants to give us His grace. When we have that grace, we can do amazing things. Those things may not look amazing to the world, but they will be amazing to the saints. They are amazing because they are the result of the grace of God. The apostle Paul was able to travel to various places because of the grace of God that caused various saints to give to his needs so that he could preach the Gospel in many cities. Many churches were started and established for a time. The problem then was the same problem as today. The saints lost sight of the prize and their children never were saved and many churches died out. That is still happening today. There are places that once were strong churches, but they have lost sight of the goal and became too inward focused and the result was that they eventually die. There may be much activity, but there is little fire.
Humility is important for the true child of God. The Macedonian saints had that. Paul was encouraging that in the Corinthian saints. Every saint in every generation needs to study God’s Word and check where their heart is at.
True local churches need to faithfully teach God’s Word to encourage the saints to walk humbly with the Lord and seek to reach the lost with the true Gospel that will save the soul.
God’s desire still is that souls be saved and saints be strengthened in the faith. The faithful preaching and teaching of the Word of God is necessary for that to happen.
Pastor Bartel