TOPIC:‌“Giving Is a Grace”

                  by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap

 

TEXT:‌II Corinthians 8:1-15

 

‌‌“See to it that this grace of liberal giving also flourishes in you”

‌‌(II Corinthians 8:7; Weymouth).

 

‌A number of years ago, I read about a minister of a certain denomination who made a plea for a million dollars for missions. A few days later he received a letter from a small school-boy with a battered nickel contained in it. The letter read: “I'm so glad you are going to get a million for missions. I'm going to help you get it too, and here's a nickel towards it. It's all I've got now, but when you want more, call on me.” What a beautiful example of what I mean by Christian giving. It is indeed a grace.

 

‌I wonder, how many of today's Christians have come to grips with this kind of giving? How many of us have really grown in this grace? Many of us, we must admit, think of giving as tipping God whenever we feel like it. Not giving systematically, but spasmodically. Not out of devotion, but out of duty. As J. Oswald Sanders so well put it: “A lavish hand without a loving heart is spiritually valueless.”

 

‌How urgently we Christians of today need to permit the operating grace of God to work itself within every area of our lives, and particularly, in this matter of Christian stewardship. Such was the high motivation of Paul as he wrote to these Corinthians about how giving is a Christian grace. No less than 5 times in the eighth chapter does Paul make use of the word “grace.” On every occasion when Paul uses the word he ties it in with the thought of giving.

 

‌In verse 1 we read about “the grace of God” which was bestowed on the Macedonians who were not found lacking in their giving. In verses 6 and 7 we read the words “this grace also” which Paul encourages the Corinthians to add to their virtues. In verse 9 we read about “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” which becomes the driving reason why we ought to give. Then, finally, we see it used in verse 19: “this grace.”

 

‌Here, let me say, Paul clearly implied in this chapter that giving is a grace that we all must grow in throughout our lives. Let us with the Holy Spirit as our Guide do some sober thinking about this Christ-like way of giving.

 

I.

 

‌Consider, first of all, the SECRET which ought to DISTINGUISH our giving. Paul pointed this out for us in the words of verse 5: “And this they did, not . . .