2 Corinthians 8:6

Paul opens a new subject with dé (“moreover”, “now”), a simple connective that moves the letter on, and he speaks to the Corinthians as “brethren” (adelphós), members of one family. That subject fills 2 Corinthians 8–9: the collection Paul was gathering from the Gentile churches for the poor believers in Jerusalem. The Corinthians had already agreed to take part, and in his earlier letter Paul had told them how: “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him” (1 Corinthians 16:1–4). Their giving had since stalled, and Paul writes to see it finished.

He begins with the grace of God. The word is cháris, which means graciousness, favour freely shown, a kindness given, and also the thanks that answers it. Used of God, it is his favour reaching the heart and showing itself in the life, and that is the sense here. The generosity Paul is about to describe is God’s undeserved favour at work in the Macedonians, so it was his gift to them before it was their gift to anyone. The grace was “bestowed”, from dídōmi, the ordinary verb “to give”. God gave, and what he gave made them givers.

It was given “on the churches”, and the word ekklēsía means an assembly or congregation. Whole congregations were moved together. Macedonia was a Roman province in northern Greece, and its churches included Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea.

The word cháris comes back twice more in these six verses. It is “the gift” the Macedonians begged to give in verse 4, and “the same grace” Titus is to finish in Corinth in verse 6. Paul uses one word for God’s favour and for the gift it produces, because the gift flows from the favour. Scripture teaches this order everywhere. We are saved by grace through faith, and “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8–10). “It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

The Macedonians were in “a great trial of affliction” and in “deep poverty”, and out of that came “the abundance of their joy” and “the riches of their liberality”.

“Trial” is dokimḗ, a test, and by implication the proven worth that a test brings out. Their affliction tested them, and their joyful giving proved that their faith was real. “Affliction” is thlîpsis, which means pressure, and in the New Testament tribulation, affliction and distress. The Macedonian churches had known trouble from their first days. Paul and Silas were persecuted at Philippi (Acts 16:19–24), and a mob rose against the believers at Thessalonica (Acts 17:5–9). The affliction Paul has in mind here may have been persecution, hard times, or both. Their poverty was “deep”, in Greek katá báthous ptōcheía, literally ‘poverty down to the depth’, which means they gave out of real need.

The verb “abounded” is perisseúō, to overflow, to be more than enough. Their joy overflowed, and together with their poverty it spilled over into generosity. Joy in trouble is a fruit of the Spirit that God gives his people whatever their circumstances. Paul writes that “we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience” (Romans 5:3–5), and to the Philippians, one of these very churches, he writes, “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4).

“Liberality” is haplótēs. Its first meaning is singleness, a sincere heart free of hidden motives or self-seeking, and from that it comes to mean generosity, giving freely and fully. Both senses fit the Macedonians. Their gift was rich because it came from undivided hearts, and it was given with an open hand. Paul calls it “riches” even though the people giving it were poor. Jesus taught us to lay up our treasure in heaven, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19–21). He also watched a poor widow cast two mites into the treasury and said she had given more than all the rest, for “she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living” (Mark 12:43–44). God measures a gift by the heart and the sacrifice behind it.

Paul gives his own testimony: “I bear record”. The verb martyréō means to bear witness, to testify, and Paul speaks as one who saw what happened. They gave “to their power”, katá, according to what they were able, and then “beyond their power”, hypér, above and past it. Dýnamis is power or ability, and here it means their means. They gave all that could fairly be asked of them, and then more than they could afford. Jesus honoured the same kind of gift in the widow who “of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had” (Luke 21:1–4). The strength for it came from the grace of God that Paul named in verse 1.

Paul knew these churches and what they had already borne. He told the Philippians, “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake” (Philippians 1:29–30). People who had suffered for Christ now gave for his people.

In verse 4 the givers plead with the one collecting, which is the reverse of what we would expect. “Praying” is déomai, to beg or make request, and “much intreaty” is paráklēsis, an earnest appeal. The Macedonians pleaded with Paul and his companions, earnestly and repeatedly, to be included.

What they asked for was “the gift”, and the word is cháris again. The chance to give was itself a grace, a favour from God, and they asked for it as a favour. The words “take upon us” are supplied by the KJV translators to make the sense plain, and the Greek joins the two things they asked for: the grace and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

“Fellowship” is koinōnía, a sharing, a partnership, a joint participation. By giving, the Macedonians became partners with the saints in Jerusalem and with every church that gave. “Ministering” is diakonía, service, ministry or aid, and here it is the relief sent to the believers in Jerusalem. The “saints”, hágios, holy ones, are those believers, God’s own people.

This sharing goes back to the church’s first days. The believers in Jerusalem held their possessions in common and gave to each as he had need (Acts 4:32–35). The disciples in Antioch sent relief to the brethren who lived in Judea (Acts 11:29–30). The Philippians shared in Paul’s own needs more than once, and he assured them, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:14–19). The collection was Paul’s charge put into practice: “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

“Not as we hoped” means beyond anything Paul had hoped for. He looked for a gift, and they did far more. The words “this they did” are supplied in the KJV, and they point back to all the giving of the verses before.

“First gave their own selves to the Lord” is the heart of the passage. “Gave” is dídōmi, the same verb as “bestowed” in verse 1, so the God who gave grace to them received them as a gift in return. “Their own selves” is heautoû, the ordinary reflexive pronoun, “themselves”. What they gave first was their own persons, and their money followed.

“First” here marks what came first in importance as well as in time. Their giving began with surrender to Christ, and everything else grew from that. Paul urges the same on every believer: “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). Jesus calls whoever would follow him to “deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). We belong to him, for “ye are bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20), and Christ “died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:15).

Then they gave themselves “unto us by the will of God”. Having given themselves to the Lord, they put themselves at the service of Paul and his fellow workers. Thélēma means will, purpose or determination, and used of God it is the purpose he has set and carries out. Their partnership with Paul was God’s purpose for them, worked out in them by the same God who works in his people to will and to do.

“Insomuch that” translates eis, which here marks a result. Because the Macedonians gave so freely, Paul urged Titus to go to Corinth. “Desired” is parakaléō, to ask earnestly, to exhort or encourage. The noun paráklēsis in verse 4 comes from this verb, so the Macedonians appealed to Paul, and now Paul appeals to Titus.

Titus was a trusted fellow worker who had already been to Corinth and had come back with news that comforted Paul (2 Corinthians 7:6–7). He had a good relationship with the church, and he was the one who had “begun” the collection there. Proenárchomai means to begin before, to have already made a start, and epiteléō means to complete, to carry through to the end. Titus had started the work, and Paul wants him to bring it to completion “in you”.

What Titus is to finish is “the same grace also”, cháris once more. The giving that God’s grace produced in Macedonia is to be completed in Corinth as well. Corinth was a wealthy port city, far better off than the believers in Jerusalem or in Macedonia, and the poorer churches had led the way.

A good start needs to be carried through. James tells us, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22), and he shows how Abraham’s faith “wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect” (James 2:22). Behind every good work we finish stands God, who finishes his own: “he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

Three verses later Paul names the grace behind all of this: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). The Macedonians’ deep poverty overflowing into rich giving is a small likeness of what Christ did for us. He “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant”, and he “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:5–8). He “gave himself for our sins” (Galatians 1:4), and he came “to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Behind it all is the Father’s own giving, for “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16).

The Macedonians gave “willing of themselves”, and Christ laid down his life of his own will: “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself” (John 10:17–18). They gave themselves first to the Lord, and he had first given himself for them. Every grace they showed came from his fulness, “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace” (John 1:16). Being justified by that grace, we are made “heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7).

Christ also finished what he began. From the cross he cried, “It is finished” (John 19:30), and he is “the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). When Paul asks Titus to finish the grace begun in Corinth, the work he asks for follows the pattern of Christ himself.

The Macedonians show us where generosity starts. They had little and gave much, because God’s grace had reached them first and they had given themselves to him. God counted their gift as riches because of the joy, the sincerity and the cost behind it. Your giving, whether of money, time or strength, can begin in the same place, as a glad answer to all that God has given you in Christ.

Their example also shows giving as a privilege to ask for and a fellowship to share. A gift to believers in need joins us to them as one family, across distance and background. And what we have begun, we can carry through, because the grace that starts a good work in us is the grace that brings it to its end.