If you’ve ever worked construction you might have heard this phrase, “the deeper you dig, the higher you build.” It’s used when talking about skyscrapers. It means that the foundation of the building has to be proportional to the height that it will be.
Four of the top five worst skyscraper collapses were due to faulty foundational work. Our #5 spot comes in 2009 in Shanghai, China. They were building eleven, 13 story buildings. As construction was finishing up on building nine, the whole thing began to tilt over and fall, as if someone just pushed it over. People witnessed the foundation’s pillars tare out of the ground as the building toppled over.
Moving up one spot to #4, in 1986, in Singapore, a building collapsed, which caused the worst disaster in that country since World War 2. Come to found out, that in the original designs, the engineer didn’t account for the weight of the building when it was all said and done. So it collapsed under it’s own weight, because the foundation wasn’t strong enough to hold it.
Finally, two buildings, one in Rio, Brazil, and the other in Seoul, South Korea, both had shoddy construction and needed reinforcement in their structures. But due to corrupt business practices, where the construction company took shortcuts to make a little extra money, those buildings collapsed and took the #2 and #3 spots for the worse high rise collapses in the world.
To put these into perspective, guess what the number one skyscraper collapses is? It’s the Twin Towers on 9/11. That means that out of the five largest skyscraper collapses, all but one were caused by defects connected to the foundations of the buildings (https://www.bestonlineengineeringdegree.com/the-10-worst-high-rise-building-collapses-in-history/).
So it’s this idea of having a foundation that’s solid, which brings us back into our series where we pick it back up in 2nd Corinthians, starting at verse 1 of chapter 8. But before we read starting in 2nd Corinthians 8:1, let’s look back at the last four weeks to get the context of this section in our minds.
From chapter four onward, Paul is trying to move the Corinthians forward in their faith so they can move beyond the painful situation that brought them to this point. If we were going to boil down this forward movement that Paul wants from the church, we coal put it like this.
We are called to please God, knowing we’re breakable, handling God’s word correctly, possessing all things in Jesus without obstacles, unrestricted through repentance.
It’s only when we being to understand that it’s the breakable, possessor of Jesus, who is unrestricted by sin’s desire that we can begin to live Jesus’ words of Mark 12, “love your neighbor as yourself (v.31).”
And that’s where Paul is moving us. Once we understand who we are in our relationship with Jesus, then we can begin to love other people.
It’s with that in our minds that we can now read Paul’s next thought on what it means to move forward in our faith. Let’s read 2nd Corinthians 8:1-15 together.
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.”
What we just read, is one part to a larger whole. Chapters 8 and 9 work together in one big thought of Paul’s that combines loving our Christian brothers and sisters, with God’s desire that we give generously. Held within that big thought, there are three connective thoughts that give a foundation to the overall idea.
So you’ve might have heard the verse used when taking up offerings or collections, “for God loves a cheerful giver (9:7c).” That’s true, but there’s actually more to it than that. There’s three aspects to being a cheerful giver. There’s the theological, the character of a person, and the purpose. In the next three weeks, we’re going to unpack each of those. Starting with the theological which we just read.
The whole situation that Paul is talking about had started a little over a year from this writing. In 1st Corinthians, Paul ends his letter, in chapter 16 with, “Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do (v.1).” Paul mentions this same collection in the book of Romans, “25 At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. 26 For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem (15:25-26).”
Paul was calling on the more affluent Gentile churches to aid the poorer and afflicted church at Jerusalem. This call originated in Antioch, and seems to have carried on through Paul’s other missionary journeys.
The Corinthians, along with several other Gentile churches, had volunteered to take up this offering, but because of the circumstances that carried bigger sinful issues, that offering was put to the side in Paul’s mind. It was more important for the Corinthians to get to an unrestricted, open heart position in their faith, that it was for giving money. The reason for this was because outward actions that have religious purpose, like giving money for God’s work, can easily be seen as a way to overlook the root of sin in a person’s life.
How many times have we said things like, “Look what I have done for you?” If the motivation of the heart is not right with God, the religious actions, like giving, are meaningless. This is why David in his repentant Psalm 51 wrote, “16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise (51:16-17).”
Once the Corinthians came to the point of repentance, restoring that right relationship, then the giving to the churches could continue without religiosity getting in the way.
With that in mind, it’s the theology of giving that Paul centers his first of his three connective thoughts. Yes, we are to give out of our means as part of our Christian walk, which is our weekly giving as our tithe to the Lord. And yes we should seek the Lord as to how we can give beyond our means for his purposes, these are our offering to the Lord that go beyond our tithe.
But the question is why? Why should we engage in giving in the first place. To this Paul gives us a Christ centered theological reason for giving. Paul states in verse 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.”
Paul connects our giving to Christ’s giving. Jesus, the Word of God from eternity past to eternity future, descends to us. He descends from the riches of heaven, where buildings are made with sought after jewels and streets use gold instead of asphalt. He descends to the poverty of a stable and the lowliness of a non-Roman citizen Jew. This descended God-man then dies a criminal’s death, allowing his rebellious creation to carry out horrific beatings upon him. The Son does this to trade his life for those rebels’ lives, that he might inherit a people that become children of God, and who now join with Jesus in the full inheritance of heaven. That inheritance is given to us as a free gift, and all those who accept it, receive it without one drop of silver or gold for compensation.
This is the theological basis of Christian giving. This is how we are to view giving of possessions back to God. In theological terms we might say it like this, at the heart of the believers’ giving is the Christological understanding of the incarnation of Jesus.
Giving for the believer does not start with the question, “What does God want me to given?” It doesn’t start with, “What do I have to give?” It starts with, “What did Jesus give?” The right answer to that question is, everything.
As Paul would writer to the Church at Philipi, “5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8 [NIV])!”
Jesus gave all by descending to us, that he might go to the cross to gain us. For us to give back to God, we do so from a redeemed position. A position that understands the great work that Jesus did on our behalf.
Eventually we’ll get to the cheerful giver verse in a few weeks, but we’ll never incorporate that into our Christian walk until we have a solid footing as to why we give in the first place. We give, because he first gave to us. Or as John would put it in his first letter, “We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).”
Everything in the believers’ life begins with Jesus. As the writer of Hebrews penned, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (12:2).”
God desires that we look to him in everything. From the turning away from sin in repentance and confession that opens our heart in loving God, to giving of what he has already given us, that we might show both love to him and love to our brothers and sisters.
In the last three years, the tithes and offerings that you have given to this ministry, that not only goes to share the Gospel with our children and teens, which is our primary ministry, it also goes to help your brothers and sisters in their difficult situations. Just in the last two and a half years, this church has given almost $30,000 in this area. That has acquired AC units, trailers, food, shelter, clothes, gas, and car repairs. That’s not to mention all that is done for our young people. We give, not out of obligation, but because the great God of the universe descended to us, that we might know him and the riches of his presence.
So I hope you notice, that here, we don’t emphasize giving. Most weeks we don’t even bring it up. That’s because, as your pastor, my primary goal, is not to get you to give money to build a ministry, but rather, that you respond to God’s desire, and that’s basing your lives upon the life of Jesus. Until you get to that understanding, giving is meaningless. But when you do get to that understanding, giving is natural outflow.
My challenge this week, isn’t to give money, but is to understand why you give. Why give anything to the Lord? Why do you give of your time, why do you give of your finances? This week I want to challenge you to take the fake dollar bill in your bulletin. Put it up somewhere you’ll see it every day, and pray the prayer that’s on it. “Lord, you gave everything that I might be brought into your riches. Let my giving find it’s foundation upon you.”
Let us be a people who have a good theological reason to give, which is, because Jesus first gave to us. Amen.
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