Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

The Collection for Christians at Jerusalem

Now it is not necessary for me to write you about the ministry to the saints, ²for I know your eagerness, which is the subject of my boasting about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year; and your zeal has stirred up most of them. ³But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you may not prove to have been empty in this case, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be; ⁴otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—in this undertaking. ⁵So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you, and arrange in advance for this bountiful gift that you have promised, so that it may be ready as a voluntary gift and not as an extortion.

⁶ The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. ⁷Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. ⁹As it is written,

“He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor;

his righteousness endures forever.”

¹⁰ He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; ¹²for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God. ¹³Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others, ¹⁴while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you. ¹⁵Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

11. May be enriched unto all bountifulness. Again he makes use of the term bountifulness, to express the nature of true liberality — when,

casting all our care upon God, (1 Peter 5:7,)

we cheerfully lay out what belongs to us for whatever purposes He directs. He teaches us ⁷²⁹⁷²⁹ “Or yci il nous remonstre et donne a entendre;” — “Now here he shows us and gives us to understand.” that these are the true riches of believers, when, relying upon the providence of God for the sufficiency of their support, they are not by distrust kept back from doing good. Nor is it without good reason, that he dignifies with the title of affluence the satisfying abundance of a mind that is simple, and contented with its moderate share; for nothing is more famished and starved than the distrustful, who are tormented with an anxious desire of having.

Which produces through you. He commends, in consideration of another result, the alms which they were about to bestow — that they would tend to promote the glory of God. He afterwards, too, expresses this more distinctly, with amplification, in this way: “Besides the ordinary advantage of love, they will also produce thanksgiving.” Now he amplifies by saying, that thanks will be given to God by many, and that, not merely for the liberality itself, by which they have been helped, but also for the entire measure of piety among the Corinthians.

By the term administration, he means what he had undertaken at the request of the Churches. Now what we render functionem (service), is in the Greek λειτουργία term that sometimes denotes a sacrifice, sometimes any office that is publicly assigned. ⁷³⁰⁷³⁰ The term λειτουργία is very frequently made use of in the Septuagint, in connection with the sacrifices and other services of the priests and Levites. (See Exodus 38:21; Numbers 4:24, and Numbers 8:22.) It is commonly employed by the Greek writers to denote a public service, more especially at Athens, discharged by the richer citizens at their own expense, and usually in rotation. The λειτουργοὶ, says Potter, in his Grecian Antiquities, (volume 1,) were “persons of considerable estates, who, by their own tribe, or the whole people, were ordered to perform some public duty, or supply the commonwealth with necessaries at their own expenses. Of these there were diverse sorts, all of which were elected out of twelve hundred of the richest citizens, who were appointed by the people to undergo, when they should be required, all the burdensome and chargeable offices in the commonwealth, every tribe electing an hundred and twenty out of their own body, though this was contrary to Solon’s constitution, by which every man, of what quality soever, was obliged to serve the public according to his ability, with this exception only, that two offices should not be imposed on the same person at once, as we are informed by Demosthenes, in his oration against Leptines, where he likewise mentions an ancient law, requiring every man to undergo some λειτουργία every second year.” — Ed. Either of them will suit this passage well. For on the one hand, it is no unusual thing for alms to be termed sacrifices; and, on the other hand, as on occasion of offices being distributed among citizens, ⁷³¹⁷³¹ “Les charges estans distribuees, en vne ville entre les citoyens d’icelle;” — “Offices being distributed in a town among the citizens of it.” no one grudges to undertake the duty that has been assigned him, so in the Church, imparting to others ought to be looked upon as a necessary duty. ⁷³²⁷³² “Ainsi en l’Eglise la communication consiste en ce que chacun s’acquitte enuers ses prochains de ce qu’il leur doit en charite;” — “So in the Church, imparting to others consists in every one’s discharging to his neighbours, what he owes them, in love.” The Corinthians, therefore, and others, by assisting the brethren at Jerusalem, presented a sacrifice to God, or they discharged a service that was proper, and one which they were bound to fulfill. Paul was the minister of that sacrifice, but the term ministry, or service, may also be viewed as referring to the Corinthians. It is, however, of no particular importance.

⁷²⁹ “Or yci il nous remonstre et donne a entendre;” — “Now here he shows us and gives us to understand.”

⁷³⁰ The term λειτουργία is very frequently made use of in the Septuagint, in connection with the sacrifices and other services of the priests and Levites. (See Exodus 38:21; Numbers 4:24, and Numbers 8:22.) It is commonly employed by the Greek writers to denote a public service, more especially at Athens, discharged by the richer citizens at their own expense, and usually in rotation. The λειτουργοὶ, says Potter, in his Grecian Antiquities, (volume 1,) were “persons of considerable estates, who, by their own tribe, or the whole people, were ordered to perform some public duty, or supply the commonwealth with necessaries at their own expenses. Of these there were diverse sorts, all of which were elected out of twelve hundred of the richest citizens, who were appointed by the people to undergo, when they should be required, all the burdensome and chargeable offices in the commonwealth, every tribe electing an hundred and twenty out of their own body, though this was contrary to Solon’s constitution, by which every man, of what quality soever, was obliged to serve the public according to his ability, with this exception only, that two offices should not be imposed on the same person at once, as we are informed by Demosthenes, in his oration against Leptines, where he likewise mentions an ancient law, requiring every man to undergo some λειτουργία every second year.” — Ed.

⁷³¹ “Les charges estans distribuees, en vne ville entre les citoyens d’icelle;” — “Offices being distributed in a town among the citizens of it.”

⁷³² “Ainsi en l’Eglise la communication consiste en ce que chacun s’acquitte enuers ses prochains de ce qu’il leur doit en charite;” — “So in the Church, imparting to others consists in every one’s discharging to his neighbours, what he owes them, in love.”