Generous Giving Sets the Whole Christian Life in Motion, to God’s Glory (2 Cor. 9:12–15)

St. Chrysostom transitions from the preceding to this subject thus: “Generosity not only gives occasion for thanksgiving but also for much else. The Apostle enumerates this in the following words, so that by showing many good consequences of generosity, he might stir them to greater zeal. What are these fruits? — Listen to what he himself says:”

2 Cor. 9:12. 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.

“The service of this ministry,” διακονια της λειτουργιας, as it were the performance of service in this liturgical, worshipful matter. He means both the entire institution of gathering alms and the gathering itself and its delivery to the place and its distribution to the needy. He called this a liturgical work because of its being pleasing to God, for those who perform it seem to be performing sacred worship and offering a sacrifice to God, upon which God himself looks with favor. This service, he says, “is not only” “supplying the needs of the Lord’s people;” “do not think that through this you will advance only in one thing and serve only the needs of the saints” (Theodoret); “you are not only” “supplying the poverty of the saints” (St. Chrysostom); “this service does not only produce” “coverage of the deficiencies and needs of the saints” (Oecumenius). Although this is a very great work, the fruit of almsgiving is not limited to this alone. It is at the same time “overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.” This fruit is better and higher than that; that remains on earth, but this ascends to heaven. Thanksgiving to God is a simple feeling, a single one, but it comes from a sense of blessing being ordered by God. In inscrutable ways he stirs the hearts to benevolence and himself arranges everything so it reaches to its place indicated by him. What faith, self-devotion to God, and clear sight of the divine order of affairs in those who give thanks to God! Such a movement of spirit in the hearts of believers helped by you would not be, he says, if it were not for your alms. Just as the scent of a rose brought into a place not only pleases the eyes of those looking but spreads its pleasant fragrance far and wide, so alms overflow with spiritual good, which is all expressed in thanksgiving to God. When the Apostle says that the service overflows, by this he means not only that the benefited give much thanks, but that on this account not they alone but many others give thanks too, so thanksgiving to God spreads everywhere and like incense from the censer rises up to heaven everywhere.

2 Cor. 9:13. And they glorify God for your obedience that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.

The movement of spirit aroused by this service does not stop at thanksgiving but rises to glorification of God, which is higher and more rarefied than thanksgiving. For it is called forth by perception of the beauty and perfection of God’s works, without consideration of their beneficial relation to those who glorify. What then do they perceive in this service? — The victoriousness of the Gospel and its beneficialness for all.

“By proof of this service,” δια της δοκιμης, having tasted the fruit of this service, having tried how sweet it is for them, and having given thanks to God for it, they begin to glorify him. For what? First, “for your obedience that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ,” because he subjected you to the Gospel and disposed you to confess the faith of Christ. Jerusalem and Corinth—how far has the light of Christ spread! Glory to you, O Lord! Darkness of error passes, the light of truth reigns. Glory to God! St. Chrysostom says: “‘So as not to give the thought that they give thanks merely because they receive benefits, see how elevated he presents them. What I said about myself in the letter to the Philippians: ‘Not that I am seeking a gift’ (Phil. 4:17), I testify the same about them. Although they rejoice that you make up their deficiencies and ease their poverty, they rejoice far more that you are obedient to the Gospel.” Theodoret writes: “Through experience of this service, seeing how you received the divine preaching, how you yourselves submitted to the Master, they raise glorification to the author of this, God.”

“This is the first reason for glorification, but there is another. This is ‘your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.’ They glorify God for the fact that the Gospel in you was not received dead but has benefited you actively. Selfish principles reign everywhere in the fallen. The Gospel, establishing itself in hearts, expels selfishness and establishes there selfless self-sacrifice of all for all. This we see in you, in your generosity in sharing not only with us but with all, in the fact that you are ready generously to share with all everything that God himself has sent to you. In this is the glory of the Gospel, the glory of Christianity. No other faith gives this. Such disposition is given by the grace of the Spirit, given by faith alone in Christ the Lord. This is not hidden from the unbelievers either. And they too begin to be conscious of this and marvel at the power of the Gospel. And thus they glorify God who chose you as an instrument for glorifying the power of our confession. The Apostle enters the thoughts and feelings of the benefited Jerusalemites and says that they have already turned away from themselves and look at your generosity—your generous sharing with all—and, seeing in this the glory of the Gospel, glorify God. St. Chrysostom stops attention on this turning away of the Jerusalemites from themselves and points out their highly praiseworthy side. ‘They glorify God because you are so generous not only to them but to all. This—giving thanks to God for what is given to others—serves to their praise. Although they themselves are in dire poverty, they care not only for their own advantage but for the advantage of others. This shows their high virtue. For no one is as envious as the poor; but they are free from this passion, and not only do they not envy, seeing your benefits to others, but they even rejoice no less as if they themselves had received them.’”

2 Cor. 9:14. And in their prayers for you they long for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.

The grammatical structure of this text presents difficulties even in the original; yet the thought is clear: they not only thank and glorify God but also pray for you, having loved you for the exceeding grace of God toward you. “And you gain fruit in prayers brought for you because they love you greatly, having seen the generosity of God toward you” (Theodoret).

“And in their prayer on your behalf” και αυτων δεησει υπερ υμων, επιποθουντων υμας. One can also understand it thus: they glorify God and for the surpassing grace of His poured out upon you, in their prayer on your behalf, which they offer to God, having loved you. Επιποθουντων means a strong disposition toward someone, a drawing, with a desire for close fellowship, with a desire to see. Saint Chrysostom says: “They pray to God so that He would grant them to see you. And they desire this not for your possessions, but so that they might see the grace given to you.” The words: “for the surpassing grace,” if not attributed to the glorifying of God, should be attributed to “those desiring you,” as they stand. “Grace,” if attributed to glorifying, will mean generally the manifestation of grace in the Corinthian Church,—and that they heard the preaching, and that they believed, and that they were baptized and renewed, and that they were supplied with special gifts, and that they are so cheerfully generous; and if attributed to “those desiring,” it will mean more specifically the latter, that is, that God so expanded their hearts toward charity. Throughout this whole section generous almsgiving in the Apostle is signified by grace, because such a thought is fully justified by the flow of the discourse. Saint Chrysostom says: “Do you see the wisdom of Paul, how he, having exalted their virtue, attributed everything to God, when he called their deed grace? After all he had said about them, having called them ministers, elevated them to heaven, called them skilled,—he now shows that the author of all this is God, and himself with them offers thanksgiving to God, saying”:

2 Cor. 9:15. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

“He calls gift here either the numerous blessings which those receiving alms and those giving alms receive through alms, or those ineffable blessings which were bestowed most abundantly by the coming of Christ upon all the world, and the latter especially should be understood here” (St. Chrysostom). “He reminds of the blessings which we were granted through the incarnation of Christ, as if saying thus: do not think that you do something great, for ineffable are the blessings which we received from God. And if we give little of what is corruptible, what is great?” (Theophylact). But if here gift means in general the gracious economy, then in the preceding the exceeding grace is more fittingly understood the same way. The Apostle presupposes the Jerusalemites as having flowed toward contemplation of the great grace of Christ in the face of the Corinthians; but naturally after them the Corinthians too have flowed toward the same; after both of them he himself fixes the eye of his mind on the same and concludes the discourse with common thanksgiving to God for the indescribable gift in the Lord Jesus Christ, covering by this one contemplation all other good thoughts.