Giving 3 - 2 Corinthians 9:8-10

9:8 - Expounding on the law of the harvest, and that God is in charge of it, Paul reminds the people that “God is able to make all grace abound toward you.” Like we talked about yesterday, most success and opportunities that we have in this life are due to gifts from God. You can be the richest person in the world and still not be happy or a good person, or you can be just barely scraping by and be ok emotionally, usually not, but it’s possible. It’s hard to reconcile this concept, though, with the devastating poverty that plagues most of the world where billions of people still don’t even have fresh drinking water. If God can give gifts of money and opportunity, then surely, he could give the gift of a well or something. But then again, the Church’s humanitarian branch does a lot to provide wells and food and farming education, etc. So I guess when we think about that, we can say that God does provide fresh water but he does it through the Church. I guess it’s also important to remember that Jesus suffered and died feeling all of our pains and afflictions. So that person who drank dirty water because that’s all they had and got very sick and died a horribly painful death, then Jesus experienced all of their suffering and will in the end will compensate that person so that they will look back on it and say, “worth it.” That’s really difficult for me to understand or accept from my comfortable position in my soft cushy chair and full belly. I can accept that he did that for me and that he can compensate ME enough for me to think “worth it,” looking back at my own existence. And I can accept that he can do that for everyone who has it better than I do, but it’s so hard for me to accept that he can do that for those who are worse off than I am. It’s like, I don’t feel like I could look them in the eye and tell them “don’t worry, everything you have suffered in this life will be made up for in the next.” Some people, and probably the vast majority of people throughout human history have suffered unthinkable tragedies, from war, rape, starvation, illness, death, enslavement, etc. It’s not that I don’t believe that Jesus can do it for them, and I know that if he can he absolutely will, but I don’t think I can ask them to accept that as good enough. It would be like some princess coming to me and saying, “don’t worry, everything bad that has ever happened to you will be made up for in the next life.” I mean, what a cop out, what a way of saying, “I have no reason to help you because everything will be compensated for in the next life.” It could also just appear flippant, like “I don’t care about what’s going on because it will all be ok in the end.” I frickin HATE that phrase, “it will all be ok.” How does the person saying that to me know that it will be ok for me? And even if it is true, what a heartless way to dismiss someone’s suffering. It’s like saying, “suffer now and you’ll be happy you did later.” Or even more than that, I’ve always taken it to mean, “I don’t care about your misery and I’ll do nothing to alleviate your suffering because that’s Jesus’ job.” In fact, this whole “God can give you gifts of wealth,” etc. when taken at face value, can imply this very fact. Going back to the Puritanical work ethic concept, we can reject that hard work doesn’t mean that you have what you deserve, but we must also consider the argument that you have financially what God wants you to have. God wants us to have all the amazing and good things available, but the corruption that people perpetrate on others in this life are horrific to the point of mass starvation, abuse, and neglect. I guess it goes back to the whole “why do bad things happen to good people?” Because everything will be made for our good, even though it will most likely be in the next life. I think the main difference between myself and my arguments against asking people less fortunate than myself to consider Christ’s atonement as comfort is how I act while teaching that concept. If I truly believe, and therefore teach other people, that Jesus descended below all things, that our existence is planned, that we are love and watched over, and that all things will work together for our good, and it’s made a difference in my hope and understanding in this life, then I have to believe also that it will do the same in the lives of others. The law of compensation and the law of the charitable giving aren’t exclusive, in fact, they go hand in hand, but we have become very one sided in that we will say, “it will all work out,” or “you’ll be compensated in the next life,” and then leave it at that, let it go and walk away, forgetting that it is also our responsibility to ease the burdens of others. The law of compensation has brought so much peace, hope, and understanding to my life that it would wholly unfair to deprive someone else of that knowledge just because I think they have it worse off than I do. When I say it like that, my logic really doesn’t make any sense. But what’s just as important as teaching someone this principle, is making sure that they also know that I’ll do whatever I can to ease their suffering. I feel like this has kind of gone down a rabbit hole, but I’ve learned a lot about my deep-seated feelings about this concept, that honestly, I had no idea that I held on to this whole time. Basically, Paul is telling the Corinthians that they should give all they can because God is ultimately in charge of what they have and has the ability to bless them in their lives as they follow his commandments. I’ve seen this work in my own life, repeatedly, not necessarily as a result of my charitable giving, well maybe with tithing, but just opportunities that I could not have created for myself. There’s absolutely a hard work aspect to it, but I couldn’t work hard enough to get myself these advantages. Paul’s also reminding them that caring for others is a commandment, and that God loves those who happily keep his commandments, and rewards them with blessings. 9:9-10 - Verses 9 and 10 is a reference to Psalm 112:5,9, which also seems to be a teaching on the purifying aspect of giving. How does giving charitably make you more righteous? I think that in the case of the widow’s mite, what Jesus accused the wealthy of doing was giving and making themselves more self-righteous. They adopted an attitude of “I’m so righteous because I give so much.” The fact that they did it so that other people could see it was abhorrent, but even if they had not “sounded a horn” to call attention to themselves, the attitude of “I’m giving this because I’m righteous” is not what brings someone closer to God. I think this goes back to the concept of baby steps. If someone doesn’t pay tithing, initially, their motivation for paying tithing might be because they were commanded to by God. Then after a while, their motivation might change to a desire to help the work along and do what they can. Honestly, my motivation for paying tithing is because I’ve been commanded to, I hadn’t really thought about it before now. Being obedient brings us closer to God, but I guess the motivations behind the obedience is the defining characteristic. I pay tithing because I want to do what God tells me and I believe that I will be blessed for my efforts. If I paid my tithing because I wanted everyone to know just how much money I make, then that wouldn’t bring me closer to God. If I gave to charity so that I could have my name on a sign, then that might not have the same effect as if I had done it another way. I don’t know, I don’t want to knock other people’s donations. Another way that verse 10 could be read is “the person who donates seeds to the farmer not only gives him bread, but also the opportunity to bless others as they share the seeds that grow as well.” It’s a kind of exponential math. This might be a good way to look at our own donations, we are not just blessing the life of the single person that we serve, but we are also blessing the lives of all those that the single person will serve in the future. It’s also kind of a “give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a life time.” Sometimes the answer is simply to give a fish, but when possible teaching the concept so that they can be self-sufficient is best.