Week 12: Love in Generosity

Lesson 12 opens 2 Corinthians 8:1-9, where Paul tries to get a stalled Corinthian church to finish its offering for the poor saints in Jerusalem by telling it about the churches of Macedonia. Those congregations were afflicted and desperately poor. Even so, their joy spilled over into a wealth of generosity, and they begged Paul for the privilege of sharing in the gift. Paul gives the reason in verse 5: they gave themselves first to the Lord, and the money followed the person. He doesn’t order Corinth to give. He sets Macedonia’s example beside them as a test of whether their love is genuine, and then he points them to a grace they already knew. Christ was rich, and for their sake He became poor so that they might become rich. The lesson follows that grace to the cross. There the soldiers divided His clothes and threw lots for the last thing He owned, yet He still gave His mother a son and handed over His own life. A congregation that opens its hand is passing along the wealth it received from Him.