We all know the verse “God loves a cheerful giver,” and even “whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly.” But 2 Corinthians 9 contains so much more. And some of it is rarely taught, maybe because its promises sound almost too good to be true.
In an effort to avoid stepping into prosperity theology, some preachers never talk about the rich promises in the chapter and miss out on teaching about what the apostle Paul calls “the grace of giving.” Maybe it’s easier to approach it as a parable.
A parable
Imagine you have some land. Maybe you’re a farmer. Maybe you’re not, and the land is just sitting there. Someone who cares about you comes to you with bags of seeds. He tells you to plant it. Just do that much. You don’t even have to know at first how to plant it correctly. (This is an easy yoke, if ever there was one.) Just trust him enough to scatter the seed on the ground and watch what happens.
That’s all you have to do, he says. He will water it. He will make it grow. He will take all responsibility for the outcome of the crop (since it was his seed to begin with).
You get the strong impression that he is trustworthy, so you do it. You plant the seed, and you’re surprised to see that he comes and tends it alongside you. He’s out there, even sometimes when you’re asleep. It grows and produces far more than you could have asked or imagined. It benefits you and others. (And he keeps bringing you delicious loaves of bread baked from your wheat crop, along with other things you need.)
At harvest time, he asks how much of it you want to give away. You take what you need, and you give the rest of it away. (Of course you do, because if you don’t, it’ll just go bad. There’s no sense in hoarding grain.)
The next year, he comes back with more seed. Of course, you plant it. Eventually, you become a great farmer, producing more and more each year and learning as you do. People may notice your prosperity.
There may have been a point when you thought about keeping more of your harvest. You tried that. The reward wasn’t so great. Less growth in the crops. Less growth in you. Why keep more when you already have everything you need?
You learn that even if you scatter the seed onto the ground, using it all up (though you have more land to plant), the seed for that land comes, too. And the more you plant, the bigger the harvest. And the bigger the harvest, the more relationships you form with people who need what you have and those who want to join you in giving from their crops.
The One with the seeds continues to return, faithfully, with more seed. Sometimes, maybe, it isn’t as much as you’d hope. Often it’s more. You get to know him better. You trust his judgment. Your gratitude abounds. (How could it not? Think of all the people you’re helping and those you’re befriending … but only because he taught you how and provided the means for you to do it.)
You start giving up some of the things you thought you needed so you can buy more land to plant on. This seed grows well there, too. Maybe, you think, you don’t need to be rich. Giving has become part of your regular pattern, a really good habit, and giving up something to do more giving sounds like a pretty good deal.
The joy of farming and the joy of giving to others who need it builds in you, sometimes overflows. You are changing as a person. You’re happier, stronger, wiser, yet more trusting in general. You are rich in so many ways, and all you want to do is keep working alongside the One who taught you to farm.
You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and … your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
– 2 Corinthians 9:11 (NIV)
The more you do this, the more other people are praising the One who brought the seed (even the ones who haven’t met him yet). Though you have dedicated yourself to this work, they recognize something else in the overflowing nature of it. All thanks goes to the One who brought the seed. Even those who have never met him believe you that he is faithful. They see your obedience to him. They sense your joy, and they are grateful for you, too.
You find friends who are farming with the same seed, taught by the same One who brought you the seed. They’ve had a similar experience with their crops. They are growing in similar ways. The One with the seeds tells you to gather together, to farm together, to learn how to farm together on different land where other groups of people desperately need what your seed is producing.
You do it. And the love in you for other people in other places grows, too. You have friends all over the world who have received from your crops, who have farmed with you. And all this came your way because you said “yes” to a couple of bags of seed and went out and scattered them.
This is a picture of 2 Corinthians 9. Read it yourself, and compare.
You don’t have to know everything
You’re not required to be an expert (though you may become one). You don’t have to know what to do. (You just have to be obedient.) In Matthew 13, Jesus tells a parable. A sower goes out to plant crops, but he loses some of his seed along the path. Some lands on hard soil that doesn’t have the nutrients it needs. It sprouts but then withers. Some lands among weeds that choke it. But the sower in Jesus’ parable isn’t blamed for any of this. Instead, he’s rewarded. Some of the seed fell on good soil and produced a crop that outweighed by 30, 60, even 100 times the seed lost to hard, shallow soil and weeds.
Planning your giving is wise. Doing your due diligence is great. But how much better is it when it is backed by a good Heavenly Father who works together with you to cause your work to produce fruit? He who planned and started a good and generous work in you is faithful to complete it. The only thing you have to concern yourself with is going out and doing the simple thing he asked you to do.
Your giving is never a waste
There’s a little word in 2 Corinthians 9:9: skorpizo. In Greek, skorpizo means “to scatter.” It can even mean “to waste.” The giver talked about in Matthew 13 isn’t even careful about his planting; but his scattering is not a waste, because it is God who brings the harvest. If you obediently plant seeds, he is faithful to bring fruit.
When you first start giving with God, it’s a learning process. But he’s providing the means – almost like a parent allowing a child to learn how good giving is. Though it’s right to work at becoming a wise steward, there’s a sort of safety feature built into giving with God. Even what may look like giving “failures” to you can be redeemed and worked out (as he works out all things) for a harvest of righteousness.
God isn’t watching your productivity. He’s looking at your heart. And he’s looking at the way your heart’s work is touching the hearts of others and how much it is paving the way for his gospel.
And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
– 2 Corinthians 9:14-15 (NIV)
Real results are coming, whether you see them or not
Through you, God is providing for the needs of the hungry and caring for the poor. But it’s not just about that. The gift of seed will always produce more and bless others. But this passage says it will produce a harvest of righteousness.
This is part of the “surpassing grace” Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians. You are changed when you give what you’ve been given. It’s not just what you produce – the harvest –that is growing, but you are growing too – in righteousness. And it’s a righteousness that cannot be taken from you (9:9).
We hear all the time that God loves a cheerful giver, but cheer isn’t something we just muster. A cheerful giver is someone who is experiencing this life with God, receiving from him as the source, and giving it away joyfully. Learning to be generous with God naturally leads you to be that cheerful giver God loves.
Learning to be generous with God naturally leads you to be that cheerful giver God loves.
And one of the most amazing lines in 2 Corinthians 9 says that God is perfectly able to replenish whatever you give, so you can be generous on all occasions, which will result in thanksgiving to God. We avoid this verse, because it sounds like we’re presuming upon God. But there it is in the text. Though it doesn’t say he will automatically replenish what you give away, it says he is able to make it happen. He is able to increase your supply, so that you can produce more fruit and grow in giving.
It’s no wonder givers are joyful!
Photo: Thomas Bennie on Unsplash
