Grace Empowered Generosity
April 19, 2026
Preached by Ron Smith
Discussion Questions
How have you seen generosity in your life? Either being shown generosity or by showing generosity to others.
What are all the ways we can be generous besides giving money? Which one is your biggest struggle?
Why is being generous difficult?
What are excuses we make to justify not being generous?
What lessons can we learn from the churches in Macedonia as relates to generosity.
Why is grace so important to generosity?
How do we know that verse 9 is not speaking of material poverty?
How does Christ make us rich?
Scripture Reading
2 Corinthians 8:1-24
1 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.6 Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. 7 But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.
8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. 10 And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. 11 So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. 12 For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. 13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14 your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 15 As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”
16 But thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you. 17 For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest he is going to you of his own accord. 18 With him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel. 19 And not only that, but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us, for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our good will. 20 We take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us, 21 for we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord's sight but also in the sight of man. 22 And with them we are sending our brother whom we have often tested and found earnest in many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you. 23 As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for your benefit. And as for our brothers, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ. 24 So give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you to these men.
The past three weeks I have been swimming in a wealth of generosity that has overflowed from an abundance of joy and, at least in some cases, extreme poverty. I was humbled as people with less means than I have showered me with gifts. They fed me meals in their one room homes. Went out of their way to make me feel welcomed and wanted.
Generosity like this does not come from an overflow of riches, or from a checking account with a large balance. Where does it come from? How can we be generous like that? What would it look like for us to overflow in a wealth of generosity?
The truth of the matter is that our generosity is often suffocated by our love of comfort, our desire for luxury, our appetite for more stuff. We don’t see what belongs to us as having been given as a gift from the Lord. So, we hold on tightly to what we have.
But that is not the kind of generosity that we see here in 2 Corinthians 8. This morning I want to focus on 4 aspects of generosity that Paul draws our attention to.
Generosity is a gift of grace.
Generosity flows from a transformed heart.
Generosity comes from what’s in your wallet.
Generosity unites the church.
Generosity is a gift of grace
We are going to take things a little out of order and start in verse 9. Here we see the source of generosity.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
Paul anchors our generosity in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is the source of what true generosity is. If we have any hope, any desire to be generous people, we must come to him. He is generosity embodied. He left the overwhelming riches of heaven to come to the earth he created. He left all surpassing glory; he left the heavenly throne room where angels sing and exalt him 24/7. He leaves it all to come to earth to the total opposite. He was subject to hardships, persecutions, the temptations to sin, betrayal, being forsaken, and unjustly condemned to die.
His becoming poor is not a reference to his economic status while he was on earth. It does seem that he was not a wealthy person. But that is not the point. He became poor by taking the form of a servant, by not using his divinity for his own advantage. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. (Philippians 2:5-11).
He did it for us. By his poverty, we become rich. His earthly poverty allows us to experience heavenly riches. We become heirs of all things. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. We are sons and daughters of God himself.
This is the foundation of generosity. But please understand that Jesus is more than just an example to follow. Yes, there is that aspect. We certainly need to follow his example and be generous as he is generous. But there is more than that going on here.
There is grace. This unmerited favor that comes from God to us as a gift. “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Paul says. The word grace shows up 5 times.[1] Generosity is a gift that comes to us through what Christ has done for us. He gives us the riches from which we can draw from. Our generosity is not so much doing as Jesus did, but rather living out of our newfound identity and spiritual wealth that we have been given in Christ.
Generosity is a work of God in us. It is a gift of grace.
Generosity flows from a transformed life (1-8)
This brings us to the second aspect of generosity we want to consider, generosity flows from a transformed life. Look with me again at verses 1-5.
1 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.
Paul mentions the churches in Macedonia. These churches would have been located in the north, northeast of modern-day Greece. We are talking about the churches at Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea.
The grace of God had been given to these churches. And even though they were in deep poverty, they begged Paul to take part in the relief of the saints. How does that happen? Any ordinary person would ask for help or at least not beg to give money they seemingly didn’t have.
Well, Paul gives us the recipe for their generosity in verses 1 and 2. Just like taking ingredients to bake a cake, Paul tells us that for the churches in Macedonia four ingredients were in their cake of generosity. A pinch of a severe test of affliction. A great big heaping of abundance of joy. A cup of extreme poverty. All of this was brought together by God’s immeasurable grace. They begged to take part in the relief of the saints. They wanted to contribute to the money that Paul was collecting for the poor Christians in Jerusalem.
This seems to have caught even Paul off guard. He says we didn’t expect this from them. They should have been asking for relief themselves! But then he goes on to say they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us (5). They were committed to the Lord above all. He had taken the primary role in their life.
Their lives had been transformed by God. Poverty was no obstacle to them freely giving and overflowing with generosity. It’s just what Christian do. Or at least should do. Paul did not have to coerce them to give. They gave over and beyond their means of their own accord.
I toyed with the idea of bringing all the gifts that I had been given the past three weeks and placing them here on the stage. The generosity of these people, most of whom gave out of their poverty, was overflowing. They had an abundance of joy. I remember one night being invited to a small group meeting. We sang, we prayed, I taught God’s word, and then we ate. There was an abundance of food. At a certain point, the realization hit me that this was a one room apartment that was shared between a mother and her two kids. On one side of the room was the kitchen – a two-burner propane stove. There as a stool for counter space. A little space on top of the chest of drawers was also being used for counter space. And I was sitting on their bed. Eating delicious food. What generosity!
When our lives are transformed by the grace of God, generosity overflows. When we commit ourselves first and foremost to the Lord, we understand that what we have been given, the little or the much, is a gift from the Lord to be held onto with open hands. Generosity reflects the fact that we have given ourselves fully to the Lord.
Now this raises some questions. What is generosity? How do we do it? This brings us to our third aspect, Generosity comes from what’s in your wallet.
Generosity comes from what’s in your wallet (10-15)
10 And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. 11 So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. 12 For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. 13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14 your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 15 As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”
Paul says that generosity benefits us. But it will only benefit us if desire leads to action. It is a good thing that the Corinthians desired to help in the relief of the saints. But we all know that desire alone does not necessarily lead to action. So, in verse 11 we find the only command Paul gives in these verses: finish doing it. Finish the job. Bring it to completion. Let your desire to help result in actually helping.
Generosity is an action – it needs to be completed. Generosity is a focused goodness that gives itself without reserve and with no strings attached.[2] Certainly, we could be generous with lots of things: money, time, words of encouragement, attention, stuff. We would do well to reflect on how generous we are with each of these things. But Paul here is focused on financial generosity. And he has some practical guidelines.
One of the questions that is often asked is rather or not we need to give 10% our income – the tithe. Well, I am not going to answer that question. You reflect on what is being said in this chapter as well as the next week in chapter 9 and see if you can come to some conclusions. I will only say that you might come away with the idea that we should not attach a number, like 10%, to our giving.
At any rate, Paul says very clearly in verse 12, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. In other words, no one is being asked to give what they cannot afford. There is required of us to do some calculations. We need to make sure our families are taken care of. Bills are paid. Food is on the table. We are not asked to give ‘in faith’ what we don’t already possess.
This does not mean that our giving should not be sacrificial. Paul allowed the Macedonians to give out of their poverty. We should be ready to make sacrifices in order to help those in need. Maybe we don’t need to go out to eat as much. Maybe we don’t really need an outfit for everyday of the week. Maybe we don’t need some of the superfluous things we either own or desire owning. If the Lord has given you extra money, ask him why. What does he want you to do with it?
Visiting a country like I have just come back from, will cause you to rethink what is truly important. We don’t need to put them on a pedestal and conform to their situation. But we would do well to consider our brothers and sisters in poorer countries. We need to guard our hearts from things that might rob us of generosity. Such as our desire for things that will make us more comfortable. Or inordinate desire for luxury. Or maybe it is the opposite. It could be greed, stinginess, or simply being “frugal.”
Again, we are not to go into debt in order to help others. But I don’t want us to read these verses and not be challenged to some degree to be more generous. At least to consider, could we do more?
So, as we move towards finding solutions for the growth we are experiencing such as building a new building or renovating some existing building, let’s not lose sight of generosity. Maybe we don’t need all the bells and whistles.
On a humorous level, maybe we don’t even need chairs. People have suggested for us to get rid of the pews and put in chairs. But the church I was in last week had no pews or chairs and was able to squeeze about 80 people in a room not much bigger than our café.
Coming back to our text, for Paul the issue is fairness. Christians who have given themselves to the Lord should be ready to help those who are in need and have less means than we do. It is not socialism. There is no appeal to make everyone have the same income level. This is voluntary giving from the abundance we have. And Paul points out that one day the roles will be reversed. We will be in need and those we have helped will supply what we need.
The grace that is at work in the kingdom of God, leads to a generosity where everyone’s needs are met. There is a fairness where people give according to what they have.
We have seen that generosity is a gift of grace. It flows from a transformed heart. And it comes from what you have in your wallet. Let’s look at the last aspect of generosity, that is generosity unites the church.
Generosity unites the church (16-24).
In these final verses Paul explains to the Corinthians how the collection for the relief of the saints is going to take place. In verses 16-24 Paul explains a little bit of the logistics. We see that there are going to be three people who will be coming to collect the funds. One is Titus. He loved and cared for the Corinthians and was eager to go back even though he had just visited them. The other two members of the team are nameless, but well known. One is well known for his preaching we are told. The other brother is someone who has been “tested and found earnest in many matters.”
These two nameless brothers were appointed by the churches to accompany Titus. They are official representatives of the churches. We don’t know which churches, only that this is something that Paul welcomes. He doesn’t want any accusations of mishandling the money. He doesn’t want any temptation for any one person to skim some off the top. By going as a team, they could hold one another accountable and not give anyone the possibility of accusing them of wrongdoing.
We take similar steps here. We have two people count the money on a weekly basis. On communion Sundays we take up a special offering for our benevolence fund. We instruct the greeters who collect the money to go in twos to turn the money in.
By Paul taking these extra steps the funds could get to where they were intended, and all impropriety would be avoided.
But don’t miss in all these details that the church, the global church we could say, is coming together for a solitary purpose. Churches are uniting together to carry out this act of grace. Churches from different cities, different regions, are united. The gentile church is united with the Jewish church. God is glorified as generosity unites the church.
Even today, we have opportunities to unite with the church around the world. Let me give you two examples. If you are looking for additional ways to give, you could consider giving towards scholarships for the students in the Leadership Center. I just spent three weeks with them, and I can tell you they are sharp. These are students in their 20s who are going through a two-year program where they are being taught the whole Bible verse by verse, going through classes on leadership, and being mentored for future ministry in their country. Scholarships of $50/month are needed. See me after the service if you want more information.
You could look in the back our prayer guide for ways to give to our ministry partners. Almost everyone of them are in financial need. Any extra gifts would be appreciated.
These are just two ways we could use our generosity to unite with the church from around the world.
Generosity is a gift of grace. Generosity flows from a transformed heart. Generosity comes from what’s in your wallet. Generosity unites the church.
Conclusion
I want to end with a word of encouragement. This is a generous church. We certainly need to always be asking ourselves how we can improve even in the areas of strength. But let’s not skip over the celebrating we should do for what we are doing well.
I see your generosity in our benevolence fund. We have a healthy balance right now. Many people have been helped. If you need help, please let us know. You may have found yourself in the past contributing out of your abundance, but now find you are in need. There is no need to be embarrassed! This is the grace of God at work in our church.
I see your generosity in your support of the staff. The yearly bonuses that are taken up are greatly appreciated.
I see your generosity in your support of missions. There have been several times that appeals have gone out for funds for various projects. The most recent was the trip to Southeast Asia. I put out a call to raise $6000 in order to cover the cost of the trekking for the 23 people that went. $11k came in! That covers not just the trek, but all the expenses associated with the trip – flights, visas, transportation, food, etc.
We could go on. But remember generosity is a gift of grace that the Lord works in us. If we move it into the realm of earning God’s favor, we will mess it up. It is the overflow of what the Lord is doing in our lives. As we submit to him, as we give ourselves to him, his grace brings transformation that overflows in a wealth of generosity.
[1] Modified from Trent Casto’s definition in his commentary on 2 Corinthians in the “Reformed Expository Commentary” Series. Pg 205.
[2] In Greek it shows up 7 times, but 2 of the times seem best translated “favor” (4) and “thanksgiving” (16).