2 Corinthians 8

What zeal. True zeal will hate sin, yet love the sinner. True zeal will hate heresy, and yet love the heretic. True zeal will long to break the idol, but deeply pity the idolater. True zeal will abhor every kind of wickedness, but labor to do good, even to the vilest transgressor. True zeal will speak truth boldly, like Athanasius, against the world; but true zeal will speak the truth in love. Ryle.

12. No other system except the Christian system of grace could thus afford to honor penitence, because no other gives such testimony against sin. It is because Christianity is so holy, that it can take hold of the fallen to lift them out of the mire in which they have sunk, and can make use of those even who have dishonored Christ, as promoters of his cause before a censorious and Pharisaical world. The man who had disgraced Christianity at Corinth, when he evinced thorough repentance, was taken back into a holy body, to be a blessing again, and to be blest in that sacred circle. But if the gospel had been another kind of religion, if external purity of morals had been its highest aim, then doubtless every marked lapse would have been visited with hopeless exclusion, lest the white, or rather the white-washed, robes of the pure should be soiled by the contact of the unclean. But Christ came to call sinners to repentance, and so his Church is a blessed sort of hospital, where the faulty and guilty can be cured; where bitter, ineffaceable memories, instead of overwhelming the soul in sorrow, can be the starting-point of a new life, can be a motive to new fidelity, a warning against return to sin; where the sympathies aroused by a common experience can greet the penitent on his return; and where those whose sin-malady has been of a more hidden sort, knowing that they too belong to the class of the recovered, can welcome him as a fellow in suffering, a fellow in salvation. T. D. W.

13-16. This chapter is one of the most impassioned utterances in all literature. Now he glories in the Corinthians. They fill him with comfort to overflowing, with joy to painful excess. And, again, he grieves that he should ever have grieved them, and can only console himself with the happy effects of their grief—that it was a sorrow to repentance and life. Yet, beneath all this intense sympathy with the Corinthians, there runs and heaves an undercurrent of feeling for Titus hardly less intense. The mere coming of Titus had been a great comfort to him; and not only his coming, but the assurance that the Corinthians had been kind to Titus, and had comforted him. “I was comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more I rejoiced for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all.” In the frankness of confidential talk, Paul had often boasted to Titus of the Corinthians; and now it is an inexpressible happiness to him that his boasts have been verified: “If I have boasted to him of you, I am not ashamed”; and that Titus has learned to love them “with a deep, inward affection.” And thus throughout the chapter he makes much of the Corinthians and much of Titus, till we can not say whether we more admire the apostle or love the friend. Cox.

1. MORROVER, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of

2. Macedonia; how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep

3 poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power, I bear record,

4 yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves; praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering

5 to the saints. And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the

6. Lord, and unto us by the will of God. Insomuch that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also.

7. Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in

8 all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also. I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of

9 your love. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet

10 for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. And herein I give my advice: for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but

11 also to be forward a year ago. Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was

12 a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have. For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened: but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality: as it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack.

16. But thanks be to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you. 17 For indeed he accepted the exhortation; but being more forward, of his own accord he went unto you. And we have sent with him the brother, whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches; and not that only, but who was also chosen of the churches to travel with us with this grace, which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord, and declaration of your ready mind: avoiding this, that no man should blame us in this abundance which is administered by us: providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. And we have sent with them our brother, whom we have oftentimes proved diligent in many things, but now much more diligent, upon the great confidence which I have in you. Whether any do enquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellowhelper concerning you: or our brethren be enquired of, they are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ. Wherefore shew ye to them, and before the churches, the proof of your love, and of our boasting on your behalf.

If we would be as Christ is in this world, if we would follow his steps as our loving Master, there is but one way, one straight, narrow way; the way of self-denying charity. Shall we go on speaking of His atoning sacrifice, but ourselves sacrifice nothing; of His poverty for us, but have ourselves no thought except for this world’s riches; of His humiliation for us, but ourselves seek only how to exalt ourselves and our families in this world; of His having “emptied himself” of his inherent majesty, and ourselves remain “full”? Not in words but in deeds did He love us, when he came down amid our sin and shame and sufferings, to be hated, scorned, crucified, to bear our sins. Not in words then but in deeds must be the love which we meanwhile show to Him in his poor; learning, slowly it may be, but day by day, to forego things which tempt the eyes, the taste, the senses; looking not at what we can afford to spend upon self, but what we may lawfully deny self; not what additional comforts we may keep around us, but what indulgences we may part with, that we may give the more unto Him; seeking how our habits may become more simple; parting with luxuries which perish in the using, and which soon must part with us, in order to win the love of God; parting with things temporal for things eternal, with fading enjoyments for everlasting glory; with things without us, that Christ (as He has promised to those who love) may make his abode in us. F. D. H.

THE second division of the Epistle occupies the eighth and ninth chapters, and forms the only specimen extant of apostolic teaching on the duty and privilege of giving money to God and the poor. It is well to mark how much attention the foremost of all the apostles gave to such a matter as the collection of money. It is not right to let the money of the Lord’s house be collected and managed on mere earthly principles. The treasury of his temple is holy. Those who put money into it should be reminded that Christ sits over against the treasury. Those who give contributions ought to regard them in the light here thrown around them by Paul, exercising liberality under the grace of God, making an offering with the same reverence as belongs to prayer and praise, and with such an overwhelming sense of the Lord’s goodness as will lead them, not to speak of their own gifts, but to repeat with humble joy the words which close this second part of the Epistle: “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” D. F.

1. “Make known to you” would now be better understood than the obsolete “do you to wit of.” A.

2. It was not the splendid donations of the rich which drew forth the praises of the Son of God, but the more than royal munificence of that indigent widow who gave “all that she had, even all her living.” So the apostle tells us here of “the churches of Macedonia.” . . . In every section of the Christian Church, a spirit of self-denying benevolence is the exception, and a spirit of worldly self-indulgence, which leaves little for God, is the rule. Nor can a thoughtful Christian reflect on the growing necessities of the kingdom of Christ, and the imploring attitude of the heathen world, and then remember how insignificant a proportion of the vast pecuniary resources of the Christian Church is at present appropriated to the demands of that kingdom and the salvation of that world, without feeling that, among the revolutions which must precede the universal reign of Christ, one must be a revolution in the economy of Christian benevolence.

5. First gave their own selves to the Lord. The gospel heightens benevolence into one of the most spiritual and improving duties the Christian can perform. For, by imbuing his heart with the love of God, it enables him to taste the godlike enjoyment of doing good; and, by teaching him to refer all his acts of benevolence to Christ, to perform them as expressions of gratitude to him, to hope for their acceptance through him, and to pray that they may tend to his glory, it keeps him near to the cross, in an atmosphere of spiritual and elevated piety. J. H.

9. Christ is the reference for everything. To Christ’s life and Christ’s spirit Paul refers all questions, both practical and speculative, for a solution. It is in spirit and not in letter that Christ is our example. The Corinthians were asked to give money for a special object, and Christ is brought forward as their example. But Christ did not give money: he gave himself. His riches were perfect happiness; his poverty was humiliation; and he humbled himself that we, through his poverty, might be made rich. He gave himself to bless the world. This, then, is the example; and it is the spirit of that example which the Corinthians are urged to imitate. It was giving, it was love, that was the essence of the sacrifice. The form was a secondary thing. It was life in His case, it was money in theirs; the one thing needful was a love like His, which was the desire to give and to bless. F. W. R.

The mere circumstance of His assuming our nature was to him an unutterable humiliation. We can not measure the depth of it, for we can not measure the height of his original greatness. All we can say is, he was God, the self-existent, boundless Jehovah; no lofty angel, no inferior deity, but “very God of very God,” possessing in himself all the fullness of the divine perfections, sharing with his eternal Father in all he was and enjoyed. Nay, he was the eternal Father, one with him in essence as well as in glory. C. B.—He took on himself our manners and our poverty that he might bestow on us his own riches. For his passion is our relief from suffering, and his death is our immortality, and his tears are our joy, and his burial is our resurrection, and his baptism is our sanctification, and his stripes are our healing, and his chastisement is our peace, and his ignominy is our glory. Athanasius.

You know the height from which he stooped. You know the depth of humiliation to which he descended; that he found no resting-place between his throne and the cross. You know for whom he did this—for his enemies, his destroyers. You know that he did this voluntarily; that his own love was the only obligation; that he welcomed each indignity, invited each pang; made them a part of his plan of condescension. You know how earnestly he prosecuted the work of our salvation; that in every step he took he was only gratifying the compassionate yearnings of his own heart; that he assumed life for the express purpose of laying it down. You know the object for which he did it all—for your salvation; that he might pour his fullness into your emptiness, his riches into your poverty; that he might raise you to heaven, and share with you the glories of his own throne. And will you withhold from him any thing in your possession? Will you not freely contribute of your worldly substance to diffuse the knowledge of his grace? J. H.

11. Now therefore perform the doing of it. True though it is that willingness is accepted where the means are not, yet where the means are, willingness is only tested by performance. Test yourself by action; test your feelings and your liberal words by self-denial. Do not let life evaporate in slothful sympathies. You wish you were rich, and fancy that then you would make the poor happy, and spend your life in blessing? Now—now is the time—now or never. Habituate your heart to acts of giving. Habituate your spirit to the thought that in all lives something is owed to God. Neglect this now, and you will not practice it more when rich. Charity is a habit of the soul, therefore now is the time. F. W. R.

Out of that which ye have. It is plain that the little and the much are to be estimated by the quantity of the means. Such was our Lord’s judgment in the case of the widow’s mite. This virtual or moral estimate claims the special consideration of that portion of the religious community which Providence has more largely favored. It is not for them to be well satisfied with themselves for rendering only a little larger share of aid than what is expected from those in much inferior condition. J. F.—Let us proportion our alms to our ability, lest we provoke God to proportion His blessings to our alms. Beveridge.

12. I give no alms only to satisfy the hunger of my brother, but to fulfill and accomplish the will and command of God. I draw not my purse for his sake that demands it, but His that enjoined it. I relieve no man upon the rhetoric of his miseries, nor to content mine own commiserating disposition; for this is still but moral charity, and an act that oweth more to passion than to reason. He that relieves another upon the bare suggestion of pity, doth not this so much for his sake as for his own; for by compassion we make other’s misery our own; and so, by relieving them, we relieve ourselves also. Browne.—You go into the Church to obtain mercy: first, show mercy. Make God your debtor, and then you may ask of Him, and receive with usury. We are not heard barely for the lifting up of our hands. Stretch forth your hands not only

to heaven but to the poor. If you stretch out your hands to the poor, you touch the very height of heaven; for He that sits there receives your alms. But if you lift up barren hands, it profits nothing. Chrys.—Alms should come out of a little purse as well as out of a great sack; but surely where there is plenty charity is a duty, not a courtesy; it is a tribute imposed by Heaven upon us, and he is not a good subject who refuses to pay it. Feltham.—Defer not charities till death. He that doth so is rather liberal of another man’s than of his own. Bacon.—A life of benevolence ending in a munificent bequest is like a glorious sunset to a summer’s day; but he who withholds his hand from deeds of benevolence till his last hour, surrenders his property to death rather than devotes it to God. J. H.