“Remember this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.”
Because of a famine in Jerusalem, churches from various areas pledged to send love offerings to the church there. In our text, Paul is urging the Corinthians to make good on their promise to take part in sending this offering. At first, they had been all for it, but as time passed their zeal for giving had flagged somewhat. Paul is reminding them in 2 Corinthians 9:5 to give and to give generously because of the reciprocal nature of giving. He used an agricultural metaphor to illustrate his point. If one plants a lot of seed, he or she can expect an abundant crop. If one plants sparingly, his or her crop will not be abundant. This is a principle that applies not just to crops but to all areas of life. As to the matter of giving money, we have discovered that we do not miss what we give, in fact the more we give, the more we prosper. People really get aggravated when we talk about money at church, but that is their problem, not the churches. The Bible is full of admonitions to be generous with what God has given us. This applies, not just to giving to the church, but to being a giving person in all of life. The principle also applies to more than giving money. (But this is not an excuse not to give money, as some see it.) It applies to our attitudes. If we give out grumpiness, we will receive grumpiness in return. I am tempted at times to try this out and greet people in different ways and watch their reactions. I haven’t done it because I know the answer already. I remember that when our daughters were much younger, we visited Disney World. Now there was a real jolly world, except for one character. As we walked along the street, we encountered “Grumpy.” He really lived up to his name. (That’s when I decided that Grumpy is a Baptist. Come on, it’s a joke.) Give out grumpiness and you get grumpiness back in spades. What about love? Unloving people wonder sometimes why people don’t seem to love them. The truth is that people pick up on how we relate to them. If they feel love from us, they will return it; if they don’t, they return that too. After I had been in the ministry a few years, I took a class at seminary called“clinical training.” In that class we learned how to relate to people. I had often wondered why people didn’t seek me out with their burdens. After getting a “personality reaming” in clinical training, I discovered why. People did not perceive that I cared. I was getting back what I was putting out –indifference. People know when we care and they know when we do not care. At that point, I became a better pastor. Proverbs 18:24 comes to mind: “A man (or woman) that hath friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.” Simple isn’t it? If you want friends, be a friend to other people. If you want enemies, just act like an enemy to other people and you will have more enemies than you can count. That is just the reciprocal nature of life: We get back what we give out. I will be glad when we learn this in churches. Churches that grow and prosper have learned this. If people attend a church and hardly anyone speaks to them, they will go down the street to another church. They don’t mean to be ugly, but they were just looking for fellowship and got grumpiness or indifference. This has become a cliche, but it is true "that no one cares how much we know until they know how much we care."Rememer 2 Corinthians 9:5 when the collection plate comes around in church. Better yet, remember when you are out in daily life mingling with other people. You will get back what you give out. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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