Giving - 2 Corinthians 8:10-15

8:10- - While the giving is important, the actual money amount doesn’t matter as much as the motivation behind it does. Paul uses the words “willing mind” to indicate the proper purposes motivating charitable giving. Like we talked about yesterday, Jesus is fully capable of funding his own church and blessing his own people, he doesn’t need us to provide for these things because he is physically able to command all the elements to accomplish his purposes. However, he gives us the opportunity to do portions of his work so that we can be blessed and to maintain a certain amount of agency for the people. A “willing mind” is someone who is giving because they want to ease the burdens of others. A “willing mind” is pretty much anything that is not the opposite of it, which is someone who was guilted into giving, or someone who is doing it so that other people can see it. Really, giving for any other purpose than these is a “willing mind” and Paul says that this giving “is accepted.”

 

The rest of that verse is “it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened.” There is some really interesting psychology in this concept. First is that our offering is accepted, regardless of amount but purely based on our intentions. That’s not really how this world works usually, it’s the larger donations that make the news. But that’s not always true I guess, we see stories all the time about kids who have raised money for a cause and while it’s usually not large amounts, their motivations for doing it are admirable. This indicates that Jesus pays personal attention to us, our needs, and our hearts.

 

Second, is that we are not meant to give more than we have. In the account of Jesus and the rich, young ruler, Jesus answered the ruler’s question “what lack I yet?” telling him to sell all that he had, give to the poor, and follow him. Now, this was personal instruction for that man, not a commandment to all of us, but Jesus didn’t tell him, “sell all your stuff, live on the street, beg, and give your money to me,” or to the Pharisees or to the Romans or anything like that, He said, “give to the poor.” This one man’s wealth wasn’t going to solve the problem of poverty in Jerusalem, it would have probably fed some people for a few days, but that’s about it. This means that giving all that he had to the poor and therefore being poor himself, didn’t elevate those he gave to above him, just lower him to them. Jesus asked the man to live on his faith in God to provide for him.

 

Third is the way that people feel when they give up what they have to others. I think that there is a difference between making a sacrifice in order to help someone else, and sacrificing everything. We are still commanded to be self-reliant, to work to provide our for our own welfare. Depending on the level of our sacrifice, even if we give with a “willing mind” at some point it becomes so exhausting that resentment can develop. Take for example a person who works really hard and gives every penny extra that they have to someone who is poor. At some point, the person doing the giving might start thinking, “wait, why can’t this person do more to support themselves? I work all day while they sit inside and do nothing.”

 

While this might sound a little extreme, propping someone else up isn’t always the best way. What if we took that same money the poor person was being given and paid tuition for them to go to school? Or paid into the start up of a business? This isn’t always possible, but that’s why the Church has not only the welfare program but the perpetual education fund as well.  It’s good and healthy for people to do what they can for their own support and then if supplements need to be made, that that’s available. This reduces the risk of resentment on the part of the giver and self-pity, dependence, or entitlement on the part of the receiver.

 

8:14-15 - Paul even points out the cyclical nature of the material things which we need to live. He says that he doesn’t mean for people to give so much that they be “burdened,” but also that there will be times when the giver will need to be the receiver. This is definitely how it is in our lives, there are times when things are going great and then there are times when we really need help. It’s important for us to do what we can to help ourselves in that moment, both through work and preparedness, but when that time comes, we might be reliant on those who we have helped previously.

 

Apparently this is also a reference to the early church’s attempt to live the law of consecration because Paul notes, “as it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack.” There are a few different ways that this could be applied, but the article on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com quotes Bruce R. McConkie as teaching that both the ancient and modern church tried to live the law of consecration saying, “All of their talents, strength, time, properties, and monies were made available for use in the establishment of the Lord’s earthly Church and kingdom… The New Testament contains only passing allusions of how the system operated in that day. See 2 Cor. 8:1-24; 9:1-15; 1 Tim. 5:1-18.”

 

It was always interesting to me about the city of Enoch,, how they were translated and that there were “no poor among them.” I thought, “well of course they were righteous, they were rich.” It wasn’t until I was older that I understood just how large an accomplishment it was to have all people be equal in terms of wealth and standard of living. Consecration is such an interesting concept, I think about it often and wonder how much different life would be if we lived it. Would stress over making ends meet be gone? Would the need to work two jobs and sell blood be reduced? I guess in this global world tithing is going to be the best compromise until Jesus comes again, but man wouldn’t it be nice to not have to worry about money.