Wednesday, March 2, 2016

2 Corinthians 9:1-5

1 Now concerning the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you; 2 for I know your willingness, about which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal has stirred up the majority. 3 Yet I have sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this respect, that, as I said, you may be ready; 4 lest if some Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we (not to mention you!) should be ashamed of this confident boasting. 5 Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time, and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation.

Commentary
Vs. 1 "Now concerning the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you"

The Apostle Paul now acknowledges that it was not necessary for him to write to them about the needs of the brethren in Judea and Jerusalem (i.e. "the ministry to the saints"). The Corinthians already knew these things and had begun a collection on their own for them. And so Paul says it is superfluous for me to write to you; that is to readdress all of the reasons why they should do this good thing for them, for they themselves had already demonstrated their own willingness to do so. 

Vs. 2 "for I know your willingness, about which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal has stirred up the majority." 

The Apostle Paul now acknowledges the Corinthians own willingness, of which he himself had already boasted of too the Macedonian churches, saying that already a year ago the believers in Achaia (i.e. the Roman province that was in the southern part of Greece to which the Corinthians belonged) were already very zealous for this good work. Now when the Apostle Paul reported the Corinthians zeal to them, it stirred up all the believers in Macedonia, who then wanted to be about doing the same. 

Vs. 3-4 3 Yet I have sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this respect, that, as I said, you may be ready; 4 lest if some Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we (not to mention you!) should be ashamed of this confident boasting. 

The Apostle Paul is clearly being as diplomatic as he can in his assertions that the Corinthians need to fulfill their promise; neither wanting to offend the Corinthians; or worse compel them to do something unless they themselves are still wanting to do it. And so here Paul again states his reason for sending these brethren to them, so that when he himself comes to them; quite possibility with some Macedonian brethren this time; the Corinthians are not caught unaware and unprepared, which as he points out would not only be a major embarrassment to himself, but also them as well. 

Vs. 5 "Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time, and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation."

And so in order to have all things prepared and set in order before his arrival, the Apostle Paul dispatched those previously mentioned brethren to them; to prepare their generous gift; so "...that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation." Again the theme of giving as a matter of free-will, of being born out of a generous and compassionate spirit, rather than something being done as a grudging obligation, is at the heart of the Gospel. 

Scripture Quotations
The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.



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