In II Corinthians 9:7 Paul makes a bold statement: God loves a cheerful giver. The Greek work for cheerful is 'hilarion' -- this is the root of our word 'hilarious.' The idea is that God loves those who give to support the work of His kingdom with a sense of gladness, happiness, merriment, and joy. Put differently God loves those who give with a sense of reckess pleasure and abandonment. This is not to say that God loves those who simply throw their money in the direction of anyone who asks for he expects us to use discernment in determining whom we should support. It means that God loves those who willingly part with their money for the sake of His kingdom. Such people realize that giving to God's work is a better use of their money than investing it or having it sit in some account and earn interest.
But a question arises about this entire proposition: Why does God love a cheerful giver? I have to admit that it is a question that I had never fully answered until this last week as I prepared my sermon. Here is what one pastor wrote:
"Why does God appreciate generosity? It is because He himself is not a drudging or manipulative giver, but the most generous being in the entire universe. We have a reminder of this in verse 15, which speaks of 'God's indescribable gift', a gift so great that words cannot express the wonder of it, the gift of a Savior to a desperately, but wholly undeserving world. Generosity is therefore one of the marks of holiness. It makes us like God." Strength in Weakness, J. Philip Arthur, Welwyn Commentary Series, p. 173.
There you have it -- God loves a cheerful giver because such people mirror His generosity towards us (II Cor. 8:9 and 9:15). When we give cheerfully to the Lord's work, according to our ability (8:3) we are 'a chip off the old block.'
2 comments:
Nice blog.
Have you seen the new electronic edition of the Welwyn Commentary Series (49 Vols.) from Logos Bible Software? I thought you might be interested.
Welwyn Commentary Series (49 Vols.)
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