2 Corinthians 9

8 Further, God is able to make all ‘grace’ abound toward you, that always having all sufficiency in everything you may abound to every good work*I believe verse 8 gives the ‘secret’; let’s consider the meaning with care. It is God who is powerful, not we. He it is who will cause to abound, not we ourselves. And what He causes to abound to us is "all grace". The grace in view here is the grace of giving (as in 2 Corinthians 8:1, "the grace of God given to the churches of Macedonia", which was precisely the grace to give, even beyond their means). Now the Text piles up emphatic words: "always, all, sufficiency, everything, abound, every". All that emphasis serves to guarantee two results: we ourselves should always have enough (at least), and we should be a significant channel of blessing to others. Let’s see how it works. I understand that it is as follows: God wants us to be channels, conduits through which He can send a flow of blessings, both material and spiritual, to others. Much of what we receive may not be intended for our own use—it has another address and we are supposed to pass the blessing along (the precise address must be discerned through the Spirit). When we get the point and cooperate with God, He sends more. The more sensitive and faithful we are, the more God sends, an ever increasing flow of blessings. But if God sends a blessing, suppose a sum of money, that has another destination and we choose not to understand, decide not to cooperate, if we retain it for ourselves we become like a water pipe that corrodes shut. (Now a plugged pipe is a sad thing; it has lost its reason for being.) With that, the flow of God’s grace through our lives is staunched, because He stops sending it. Surely. Why should God keep on sending if we will not let it pass? Can it be that our churches are full of ‘plugged pipes’? When we cooperate with God He gains, the others gain, and we gain. But whoever holds back or abstains will be cheating himself, others and even God. Consider verses 9-14. Verse 9 is a quote from Psalm 112:9, bearing on the last clause of verse 8. Now verses 10 and 11: "The One who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, so as to supply and multiply your seed for sowing and to increase the yield of your righteousness; you being enriched in everything so as to always be generous, which passing through us produces thanksgiving to God." This is marvelous! God even gives the seed to be planted, and lest we eat the seed He also gives us bread to eat. He wants us to plant, He wants to see fruit! When we are faithful and cooperate, then God not only meets our needs but augments our planting; in other words, He increases our generosity, or at least He will do so to the extent that we cooperate with His purpose. As a reasonable and proper consequence of this process God receives what He deserves: the beneficiaries give praise and thanks to Him. Verses 12 and 13 elaborate on this aspect. When we line ourselves up with God’s economy He receives the glory due Him, the needs of the saints are supplied, and we are blessed. First, the people who receive the benefits from our ministry will pray for us, and certainly God will listen to those prayers. Next, even if they do not pray, our obedience will receive the effects of God’s faithfulness. This we know, not only from the promises and affirmations in this passage, but as an inference from God’s own interests—a faithful and useful ‘water pipe’ must not die of hunger. So there it is, my friends. God is no man’s debtor. That is worth repeating: God will not be anybody’s debtor! We are too small; He will not allow Himself to be in debt to the likes of us. We may rest assured: whoever gives much, receives much; whoever gives little, receives little; whoever gives nothing… It seems to me that this principle, much like the tithe, works even when one’s motivation is selfish or self serving. However, I trust that the reader will agree that my whole appeal has been against selfishness. It is because of the "mercies of God" that we should present our lives as a "living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1). It is the privilege and pleasure of participating in God’s grace that should motivate us to give. I believe it is fair to say that our prosperity is in our own hands, at least in part (unfortunately it is also true that we may suffer because of others' disobedience, just as they may suffer because of ours).—