But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also. I am not speaking this as a command, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also. 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 through His poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:7-9 (NASB) For as much trouble as there was in the Corinthian church the believers excelled in everything – they had faith, good preaching, much knowledge, much earnestness, and much love. Paul had encouraged them to excel in giving. In a lot cases the stewardship of money is given a different status than other aspects of discipleship. Most believers would not want growth in faith, knowledge or love to stop at a certain level. Yet, we find many decide a fixed percentage of their money to give and stay there for life. True discipleship includes growing in the mature use of all resources, so giving should expand as well. God can give you the desire and enable you to increase your capacity to give. Do not miss this opportunity for growth. We find no evidence that Jesus was any poorer than most first century Palestinians; rather, Jesus became poor by giving up His rights as God and becoming human. In His incarnation God voluntarily became man – the wholly human person, Jesus of Nazareth. As a man, Jesus was subject to place, time, and other human limitations. He did not give up his eternal power when He became human, but he did set aside His glory and His rights. In response to the “poor” He became human, because He set aside so much. Yet in so doing he made us “rich” because we received salvation and eternal life. What made Jesus’ humanity unique was His freedom from sin. In His full humanity, we can see everything about God’s character that can be conveyed in human terms.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 13:41:41 +0000
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