When I was a young boy in Sunday School, we were given Bible verses to learn each week. One of these was, “God loves a cheerful giver” from 2 Corinthians 9:7. At the time I thought it meant that we were supposed to give to others and be happy about it. This interpretation might have been shaped by the culture of the congregation I belonged to, the way my Sunday School teacher had explained the text, or my experiences growing up as a pastor’s kid. Whatever the reason, for a long time I thought that I was expected to give my time, efforts & money to others and not grumble or complain about it but be happy about it.
As I got older, I started reading the Bible for myself. At some stage I was reading 2 Corinthians and discovered that there was more to this verse than I had learned in Sunday School. The text I was expected to learn as a child left out the first part of the verse in which Paul writes, “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (v 7 NIV). It was eye-opening to read that while God loves a cheerful giver, God doesn’t want us to give “reluctantly or under compulsion”. Admittedly, this could still be understood as an expectation to “give and be happy about it”, but a more likely interpretation is something like, “you shouldn’t give if you’re doing it reluctantly or under compulsion.” God wants us to give cheerfully and because we’re happy to give, not because we feel like we have to.
This is supported by Paul’s words earlier in this chapter. In verse 5 Paul writes that he sent a couple of “brothers” to visit the Christians in Corinth to check on the arrangements for the gift that they had promised to send so “it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given” (NIV). The idea is the same: God doesn’t want his children to give because we feel we have to, but because we want to and are happy to give generously.
If we are honest, sometimes we can do things and give to others more out of a sense of expectation or duty than love and joy. For most of my life I have seen people serve the church more out of reluctance or compulsion than cheerfully, doing things because they felt they had to, not because they wanted to. Others have thought that if we give people jobs to do, then they will come to church more often and become more active members. This might happen sometimes, but most people I’ve seen who have been given jobs to do to keep them connected to the church have left as soon as they could get out of the job. They were giving “reluctantly and under compulsion” and not giving cheerfully, so as soon as they had the opportunity, they stopped giving and left the church.
Is it time for us to ask what our churches could be like if we listened to what God is saying to us in 2 Corinthians 9:7 and encouraged people to only give their time, effort or money when they can do it cheerfully, and not “reluctantly or under compulsion”?
I imagine that initially our churches might find things hard for a while. I guess that there would be people who would be happy to be released from what they’ve been doing, along with the expectations that go along with that. In the short term, this might mean that we could have less people doing things, some of the jobs we ask people to do might not get done, and we could have less money in the offerings. If we give people the freedom to not give if they don’t want to, I imagine some people will just stop giving.
And to be honest, I’m OK with that.
Because in the longer term, I believe it would be better for our church. When we have people who are giving their time, effort and money cheerfully and joyfully, it changes the culture of the church. It’s possible that when people see that others are happy to give their time, effort and money, they might be happy to give as well. Trusting God’s Word, finding grace in his promises, and giving cheerfully to each other could shape our church into a more joyful faith community. Over time, as we find the joy which comes with the freedom to give what we’re happy to give, people might be more likely to connect with and commit to a cheerfully giving church. It sounds counterintuitive but maybe giving people the freedom not to give might in time lead to a more grace-filled, joyful and giving church community.
This requires a deep trust in God’s promises to us. In this week’s New Testament reading, Paul writes, “God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8 NIV). A more literal translation of the original Greek says, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (ESV). Last week I talked about learning “the unforced rhythms of grace” (Matthew 11:29 MSG) from Jesus as his disciples. God promises to “make all grace abound to us” through Jesus because of his love for us in his life, death and resurrection. God is able to fill our lives with his grace and provide us with every good thing we need “in all things at all times”. Trusting in God’s all-sufficient grace for us in Jesus means we don’t have to get people to do things “reluctantly or under compulsion.” Instead, because God promises to provide us with everything we need through his grace (Romans 8:32), we can trust that he will provide us with everything we need to be a grace-filled, giving church. God will give us enough people who are happy to give cheerfully so we will have what we need to do what he calls us to do.
I admit this isn’t a usual message for Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday. However, this reading only appears in the Revised Common Lectionary once every three years, so I wanted to take this opportunity to share it as we think about what it means to be a faith community where people are learning the unforced rhythms of God’s grace for us in Jesus. I understand why we spend a lot of time & effort trying to encourage people to give their time, efforts and money to our church. However, adopting a “Give and be happy about it” attitude doesn’t grow a healthy church culture. As we follow Jesus and learn his unforced rhythms of grace, maybe it’s time to ask what our church could be like if we dropped our expectations, released people who are giving their time, effort and money reluctantly or under compulsion from what they’re doing, and asked people just to give what they’re happy to give. How might that help us put our faith in God’s grace in action, help others experience God’s grace through us, and help us extend God’s grace to the people of our church and beyond?
More to think about or discuss:
- What do you think of when you hear that “God loves a cheerful giver”? What does that mean to you?
- If you regularly give to something or someone, why do you do it? Would you say you give cheerfully? Or more reluctantly or under compulsion? Why do you do that?
- What do you think your church or faith community might be like if people who gave reluctantly or under compulsion were released from their obligation? What might it be like if only people who were happy to give were asked to contribute…?
Pastor Eugene Online 
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