2 Cor 9: Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 2 Cor 9:1-5

1 There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the Lord’s people. 2 For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. 3 But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be. 4 For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we – not to say anything about you – would be ashamed of having been so confident. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.

A. Find Out:

1.  For what did Paul say there wasn’t a need? v.1
2. For what did he know and had been doing? v.2
3. Why was he sending these men? v.3
4. What could happen otherwise? v.4
5. So what was the purpose of their visit? v.5 

B. Think:

1. How did Paul provoke by competition?
2. How did he provoke by esteem?
3. Why, again, were men going to Corinth?

C. Comment:

     Throughout this whole part Paul is exhorting, encouraging, provoking and challenging the Corinthians in respect of their giving. We might wonder that he feared that, because they were annoyed with him for correcting them over various issues, they might opt out of giving to the offering for the Jerusalem church.

     What he starts out saying here is, “Well I really don’t need to write to you about this giving”, but then he carries on and writes. He first of all seeks to stir them by a bit of healthy competition. I’ve told the Macedonians all about you, what leaders you are in giving. You don’t want them to outdo you, do you? (implied). If you don’t complete what you started, when the Macedonians hear about it, we’re all going to be a bit embarrassed if you aren’t seen to be as good at giving as I’ve told them you are. Underlying this is a form of esteeming them. He’s really saying, you are really great at this, don’t let me down now by changing.   

When we encourage people it’s good to remind them how good they’ve been with Christ’s help, and to go on to provoke them to even greater things. To finally confirm this whole thing, Paul goes on to say that that is why he’s sending a team of men to them, simply to help them bring through to completion the collection for this gift. These men, as we’ve seen, are all respected, so be ready for them. 

D. Application:

1. Encouragement by praise is good. Do we do it?
2. Challenging to higher things is good. Do we do it?

Passage: 2 Cor 9:6-8

6 Remember this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 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. 8 And 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.

A. Find Out:

1. What happens to the man who sows sparingly? v.6a
2. What happens to the man who sows generously? v.6b
3. How should each person give? v.7a
4. How should they not give and why? v.7b
5. What is God able to do? v.8a
6. With what effect? v.8b

B. Think:

1. What “spiritual law” reflects a natural law here?
2. What guidelines for giving are given here?
3. What confidence are we given to enable us to be givers?

C. Comment:

     In this world there are givers and there are takers. Takers are always looking to get and rationalise why they can’t give. In these three verses Paul lays down some incredibly important helps for us, living as we do as Christians at the start of the twenty first century.

     First, in the spiritual kingdom of God the same rules apply as in the natural world that God created. If you sow many seeds in your garden many plants will come up. If you give (for that is what Paul is talking about here) generously then you will find that you will get back generously.

     Now, second, note in God’s kingdom we don’t give with the selfish intention of getting back. We give because we see need or we are prompted by God, and we give without any thought for return. This is where so-called “prosperity theology” goes wrong. Our giving is to be completely without strings as we have decided in our hearts (v.7), not in our cunning intellects! God loves a person who is free in their hearts who can give generously without contemplating the return.

     Third, when we give like this, we can leave it to God to provide all we need. Note that he doesn’t promise affluence, but he does promise abundance of grace in all things. He will meet every need. These verses bring an axe to the roots of self-centred giving!

D. Application:

1. Giving should be from the heart, not wanting return.
2. God will then provide for our every need , not our every want!

Passage: 2 Cor 9:9-11

9 As it is written:

‘They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
    their righteousness endures for ever.’

10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

A. Find Out:

1. What has God given to whom? v.9
2. How is God first described? v.10a
3. What things will God do? v.10b,c
4. What will happen to them? v.11a
5. So what can they do? v.11b
6. With what result? v.11c

B. Think:

1. Why is God described as righteous in this passage?
2. Why is man described as righteous in this passage?
3. How is giving seen as a real kingdom issue?

C. Comment:

     Our tendency in these chapters when we read them on our own might be to skim over them, but when we take them few verses at a time we find much spiritual wealth.

     Paul, in these verses, first quotes psalm 112:9 where God is described first as a giving God and then, because of that, as righteous. In other words God’s practical caring for people is described as righteousness.

      In verse 10 Paul sees God as the one who provides our food, whether it be by the seed that comes from every plant, or by the food (bread) we make from the plants. In a day when most of our food comes pre-packed it is easy to forget that God is THE provider. Because He is this, Paul promises the Corinthians that the Lord will provide physically for them if they give, and their giving will be an act of righteousness.

     In verse 11 he goes on to promise them that they will be made rich in every way. This is when they are a giving people, a people who give out of the abundance of their hearts. Not only will God provide for them materially, but there will be a spiritual reward as well. In their abundance they will then be able to give more and more and that giving which is to be both material and spiritual will result in praise and thanksgiving to God. Does praise go to God because of the way we give?

D. Application:

1. God is THE provider. Do we thank Him regularly?
2. A generous heart produces a harvest of praise to God.

Passage: 2 Cor 9:12-15

12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

A. Find Out:

1. What 2 things was their giving doing? v.12
2. What is the first outcome of their service? v.13a,b
3. What is the second outcome? v.13c
4. What will happen in prayer and why? v.14
5. How does Paul conclude? v.15

B. Think:

1. What is the first obvious blessing of giving?
2. What other things come from that according to Paul?
3. How can giving build up the church therefore?

C. Comment:

     As Paul comes to the end of this section on giving, he highlights some of the outcomes or fruits of giving. Before we note them, we should perhaps just note the more obvious outcomes of giving to the needs of others.

     The first outcome is that the needs of the other are met and that is a relief to them.

    The second outcome is that you are blessed in the knowledge that you have been able to help someone else.

    The third outcome is that God will have been blessed as well by your loving others in a practical way. Now onto Paul’s additional outcomes.

    Fourth then, others will praise God because of you. They will praise God that your salvation is being worked out in very practical ways, that you are being obedient to the word of God and to the prompting of the Spirit. There is always praise when there is generosity, and that is by the onlookers who realise that this is a working of God’s grace in you.

     The fifth outcome is that it will bond you more closely to the recipient of your gift because their hearts will be knit with yours in love and when they pray, they will pray for you and about you, in response to the good you have brought to them. Giving generously is a very real means of creating unity!

D. Application:

1. Giving blesses the receiver, the giver and God. Will we give?
2. Giving brings praise to God as others see the grace of God in you.
3. Giving knits your heart to the recipient and bonds you together in