Look at the Book
2 Corinthians 8:1–2: An Abundance of Joy
We take some words in the Christian vocabulary for granted. 2 Corinthians offers a definition of love that you may not have considered. By paying close attention, we can find keys to loving people more truly and effectively. We also learn what’s behind the kind of generosity that pleases God.
- Duration:
- 7m
- Broadcast on:
- 19 Sep 2014
- Audio Format:
- other
In this session of Look at the Book, we're going to focus on 2 Corinthians 8, 1 and 2, and then one other verse over in chapter 9. So Father, as we focus here on one of the most amazing pictures of love in the Bible, I pray that our hearts would be tuned to this love, and it would become part of us. And we would become more loving people because of what we see in this text. I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. So you heard where I think we're going, but you see, if you can see it. Paul is writing now to the Corinthians, "We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God." So I want you to know this, that the grace of God has done something, the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. Now, those are the churches in the northern part of Greece, up there, Philippi, Thessalonica, and he's writing to the churches in the southern part of Greece so that they would be inspired by the churches of Macedonia, and the issue is, "Will there be a sufficient and generous collection for the poor saints in Jerusalem?" He's trying to motivate them to give. So I want you to know the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, and I want you to know this because it is astonishing what happened there, and here's what happened. In a severe test of affliction, so affliction abounded, their abundance of joy, joy abounded, and their extreme poverty. So their poverty that the grace of God met didn't change, at least not right away. But rather, this joy and this poverty overflowed, overflowed in a wealth of generosity. Now that's a story of how love happens and what love is, and the reason I say that is because I included verse 8 down here, a few verses later, that's verses 1 and 2, so that you could see the name that Paul puts on all of this. He says, "I say this, not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others." That's these churches in Macedonia, the earnestness of others, that your love also. So this was their love, that's what love looked like, their love looked like that. I want your love to look like that. So how would we define love on the basis of what we've just seen? Here's the way I would define it, I'll write it out for you and show you where I get each of the parts of this definition, love. What I get love from down here is the overflow, and I get that from right here of joy. I get that from right here in the grace of God. And I get that from right here that meets the needs of others. And I get that from right here, a wealth of generosity overflowed, and what was overflowing was joy, and that joy was what happened when the grace of God showed up at the churches in Macedonia. So grace leads to joy, leads to generosity, which equals love. That's what I see in this text. And how can this joy not result? The grace of God is the grace of the gospel. My sins are forgiven, Christ's righteousness is counted as mine, I'm escaping hell, I'm entering heaven, all my guilt is gone, I've been adopted into God's family. If joy doesn't happen in view of that news, we just haven't seen it. And Paul is saying when that joy happens, in spite of affliction, and in spite of poverty, this is not a health, wealth, and prosperity gospel. It's joy in the face of affliction, joy in the face of poverty overflowing with extraordinary generosity called love. Now in the next chapter, look at this, this is a very familiar passage. Notice the same structure. Each one must give, so he's still trying to motivate them, as he has decided in his heart not reluctantly, and not, not under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, so cheerful. This is the overflow of joy. Use it in grace, look at this, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency and all things at all times you may abound in every good work, and the good work in mine here is this giving, this giving right here, and now notice the structure. Grace leads to cheer, which leads to generosity, and we call it love, which is why I have said for so many years in my effort to understand Christian hedonism that you can't perform any true worship of God, and you can't, as we've seen here, perform any true virtuous love for people if you do not pursue your own cheerfulness in God's grace. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
We take some words in the Christian vocabulary for granted. 2 Corinthians offers a definition of love that you may not have considered. By paying close attention, we can find keys to loving people more truly and effectively. We also learn what’s behind the kind of generosity that pleases God.