Every week Australians spend millions of dollars on lottery tickets. Their hope is that they will pick the winning numbers and take home the first prize of many millions of dollars.
Have you ever thought about what you would do if you won that amount of money? Would you pay off the mortgage, travel the world, invest in cryptocurrency, or maybe even buy a new tertiary training institution for the LCA? Or would you do something else with it…?
When we let our imaginations go wild, there is so much we could do with that amount of money. However, if you ever won the lottery, could you imagine giving it all away?
In 2 Corinthians 8:7-15, Paul writes to the early Christians at Corinth about the importance of giving in the Christian life. He is careful to say that this isn’t a command (v8). Giving isn’t something that they must do. Instead, he points his readers to Jesus when he writes,
You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9 NLT)
Paul isn’t just talking about money. He is using finances as a way to share the good news of God’s grace for us in Jesus. As the Second Person of the Trinity, everything that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son. Psalm 24:1 tells us that ‘The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it’ (NLT). Because God created everything, it all belongs to him. However, Jesus didn’t use what was his for his own benefit. Instead, as we read in Philippians 2:6-8, Jesus gave up his heavenly privileges to become human, born as a helpless baby. He became a servant, making himself a slave to the people he served, even to the point of death on a cross. Throughout his earthly life, Jesus used what he had for the benefit of others, not for his own gain. He gave everything away in love for us until he was left with nothing, not even clothes to hide his nakedness, as he died on the cross. Even though everything was his, he gave it all away out of love for us.
Paul writes that he did this ‘so that by his poverty he could make (us) rich’ (v9 NLT). We can think of these ‘riches’ in a spiritual sense, such as forgiveness, acceptance, hope, and joy. We can’t put a price tag on any of these blessings, and even though people can look for them in financial wealth, we can’t buy them for any price. Jesus also provides us with the riches of a new relationship with God and with other people established on and built up by the grace God has for us in Jesus. These relationships give us the riches of belonging to a community of faith where sisters and brothers in Christ share what God has given us with each other in practical ways to support, encourage and provide for each other. Acts 2:42-47 gives us a picture of this community where people who are rich in the love of God through Jesus display that grace to each other by sharing what they have with each other, so every spiritual, emotional and physical need is provided for in the fellowship of this community.
All of this expresses the giving nature of God. Throughout the Bible, we read stories of God showing grace to people, especially to sinners. These stories show us that God is more concerned with what he can give to us than what he can get from us. When Jesus became poor so that we can become rich through faith in him, we encounter God’s giving character as he sees our need and sacrifices everything to meet those needs. God doesn’t show this grace to people who deserve it or who have earned it in some way. God’s grace is given to people who need it the most but who deserve it the least. Through Jesus we meet a grace-filled God who sees our need and gives everything to and for us in Jesus so we can know the riches of his grace in our lives.
When Paul wrote to the early Corinthian church, he encouraged them to ‘also excel in this grace of giving’ (v 7 NIV). He was talking specifically about a financial offering he was collecting from the church communities he was visiting to take back to the Christians in Jerusalem and Judea who were suffering through a great famine. Paul’s hope was that the people who carry Jesus’ name are as full of grace in their relationships with others as God is with us. To ‘excel in the grace of giving’ means to reflect the giving nature of God in everything we say and do, as the foundational element of our relationships and faith communities. It means being fundamentally counter-cultural by prioritizing what we can give over what we can get, no matter what it might cost us.
To ‘excel in the grace of giving’ is an act of faith in two ways. Firstly, prioritizing what we give over what we get reflects our belief that Jesus gave everything away out of love for us. When we trust that he gave it all up to become poor so we can become rich in him, we will want to follow him. Secondly, we excel in the grace of giving when we trust that God will provide for us through our sisters and brothers in faith when we are in need. Paul writes about this when he says, ‘Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you need it. In this way, things will be equal’ (v14 NLT). When we are part of a community of faith which prioritizes what we give over what we get, we can give to others when they are in need trusting that others will give to us from the riches God gives us in Christ to meet our needs.
This becomes a vital part of working with God in his mission to the world. In a culture where getting is more important than giving, we give a powerful witness to our faith in our grace-filled God when we extend grace to others by focussing on their needs and giving what we can to serve, love and bless them. When we are giving people in a giving faith community, our words and actions will stand out from those of the world around us as we witness to the giving nature of God in Jesus. In a world where getting is more valued than giving, when we excel in the grace of giving and are happy to give more than we get, the light of God’s grace-filled nature shines brightly through us in a dark world.
What would you do if you won millions of dollars in a lottery? Or what would you do with the money if someone else won the lottery and gave it all to you? When Jesus was rich with everything in heaven and earth that was his, he gave it all up and become poor so we might know the riches of his love and grace. As people who receive the gifts of his grace, he wants us to excel in the grace of giving to the people around us, so they might encounter God’s grace through us.
More to think about or discuss:
- What would you do if you won millions of dollars in the lottery? Could you imagine giving it all away? What would you do with it if someone else won and gave it all to you?
- What do you think Paul meant when he wrote that Jesus was rich, but became poor so we might become rich (v9)? What do you think these ‘riches’ might be?
- What might it be like to be part of a church that ‘excels in the grace of giving’ (v7)? How do you think we can become a more giving faith community?
Pastor Eugene Online 
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