Our return in blessings will be proportionate to what we sow. Let our works of charity be therefore done with thought and prayer, rather than by accident, giving cheerfully, not grudgingly, being glad we have ability and opportunity to be charitable. God loveth a cheerful giver, therefore no man can be the loser by doing that with which God is pleased for He is able to make His grace the more abundant toward us.
II Corinthians 9
1 For as touching the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you:
2 For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal hath provoked very many.
3 Yet have I sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf; that, as I said, ye may be ready:
4 Lest haply if they of Macedonia come with me, and find you unprepared, we (that we say not, ye) should be ashamed in this same confident boasting.
5 Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof ye had notice before, that the same might be ready, as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness.
6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
9 (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever.
10 Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;)
11 Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.
12 For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God;
13 Whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men;
14 And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you.
15 Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
II Corinthians 9:1-5 – J. Vernon McGee
II Corinthians 9:6 – J. Vernon McGee
II Corinthians 9:7-8 – J. Vernon McGee
II Corinthians 9:9-15 – J. Vernon McGee
2 Corinthians 9:1-7 – “God Loveth a Cheerful Giver”
Paul evidently had considerable anxiety about the collection at Corinth for the starving saints at Jerusalem. He had started the idea, not merely because of his affection toward his own people, but in order to promote and foster the unity of the Church of Christ. There could be no greater evidence of the transforming power of the gospel than that it should obliterate the strongly-marked differences between East and West, between Jew and Gentile, and make it clear that Christ is all in all Paul does not, therefore, urge and entreat the Corinthians so much as he reminds them of his confidence in their response. No motive is so potent as the sense that a worthy response is expected of us by one whom we revere and love.
He likens money-giving to seed-sowing. What was placed in the collection box would assuredly return to the giver with large increase. Christians, therefore, should not give grudgingly, or of necessity, but freely, spontaneously, generously, as the farmer, who does not hesitate to dip his hand deeply into his granaries, expecting, as he does, that every additional atom of grain scattered will come back to him augmented certainly to thirty-fold and perhaps to a hundred-fold. You will meet again somewhere and sometime every coin that you have given with a pure heart. —Through the Bible Day by Day
2 Corinthians 9:8-15 – Enriched unto Liberality
We are not really poorer by what we give away; and God will never starve His own almoners. Note the comprehensiveness of II Corinthians 9:8. God’s grace is like an ocean at full tide. Count the alls: all grace, always, all sufficiency, every good work, and twice the verb abound. When you are going forth to sow, ask God to give you the seed. When after sowing you are hungry, ask God to supply you with bread. When you are discouraged at the results, ask God to increase the fruit. We sow the seed, whether of the gospel, or of money to aid its circulation, and lo! we reap a harvest of thanksgiving to God and of love to those who have given. But who can ever measure the thanks and love which are due to God for having given the Gift that includes all gifts! But have we accepted it? Do we use it?
Remember to look to God for your own supplies of spiritual nourishment, and specially for your seed of thought or money, of word or act. Leave the increase with Him. Hold all that God has given you as a trustee holds property for others. Administer God’s good gifts, giving people continual cause to glorify and praise Him for your exhibition of the essential nature of His holy gospel. —Through the Bible Day by Day
II Corinthians 9:10—He that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food.
In every harvest there is a twofold object. First, the supply of seed for the next autumn’s sowing, and then of food for those that sow or reap; so in the spiritual sphere God will not fail either sowers or reapers.
All sowers must eat.—However much wheat has passed through the sewer’s hands, he is not fed thereby. At night he returns hungry to his home. So we, who are engaged in the work of God, cannot live on what we do for the world around. After the most fruitful day of service, we need to take our Bibles and feed our famished souls by meditation and prayer. We must not mistake the glow and exhilaration of the sanctuary for nourishment. They are rather a stimulant. Therefore we may expect God to increase the fruits of our righteousness. Shall Boaz cause handfuls on purpose to fall for Ruth, and shall not God supply our need? Will the Father not provide bread to those who are engaged in tilling his fields?
All eaters should sow.—It would never do for the farmer to live on all the produce of his fields. He must sow a certain proportion of his grain. And nothing is more foreign to the genius of true religion than to be always nursing and ministering to oneself; eating the fine wheat of the Gospel, but not sowing it in other hearts; consuming the consolations of the Divine Spirit, but not endeavoring to pass them on to others. Oh ye who have eaten bountifully, sow bountifully; else ye shall suffer the results of spiritual repletion and indigestion. And note this precious assurance, that God will supply seed for daily and weekly sowing for the congregation and the class; and that He will multiply it when sown. —Our Daily Homily