READ 2 CORINTHIANS 8:1–15
Generosity doesn't start with a budget line. It starts with Jesus. His loving incarnation and sacrificial death are what shape generous habits and generous hearts in God's people.
In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul is raising money for the struggling church in Jerusalem. He holds up the churches of Macedonia as an example. They were poor and under severe pressure, yet they begged for the chance to give and gave beyond anyone's expectations. Their joy overflowed into generosity.
But Paul doesn't leave the Macedonians as the final model. As Craig Blomberg observes, the ultimate comparison in this passage is not any human generosity at all. It is the astonishing humility of Christ in becoming one of us.
THE RICH BECAME POOR
Paul puts it in a single sentence: though Jesus was rich, for our sake he became poor, so that through his poverty we might become rich. How was Jesus rich? He shared the Father's glory before the world began. Everything was made through him and for him. How did he become poor? He took on flesh, was born in a borrowed stable, lived without a home of his own, and finally gave up his very life on a Roman cross. He emptied himself, not because he lost his riches, but because he chose to spend them on us.
That is the shape of Christian generosity. We don't give to earn God's favor. We give because we have already received it, lavishly and undeservedly.
UNSETTLING DELIGHT
The early church responded to this generosity by sacrificially sharing their money and possessions. Christ is still forming those same habits in his people today.
Giving money away will probably unsettle you. It exposes what we're trusting and loosens our sense of control. But it also brings a particular kind of joy, the joy of taking part in what God is doing and discovering we were never the source of our own provision.
GIVING TO THE CHURCH AS THE CHURCH
Why give regularly to the church? Because the local church is one of the primary ways God cares for his people and his world. Giving inwardly sustains the ministry of Word, sacrament, and care among us. Giving outwardly, as a church, lets us join God's mercy and justice toward our neighbors and our city. Both share what Christ has freely given.
REFLECTION
How was Jesus "rich"? How did he become "poor"?
What generous habits is Christ shaping in you? How does giving money away unsettle you, and how does it bring you
joy?
What’s hard about giving regularly to the church, and as a church? What’s joyful about it?
FOUR DEVOTIONAL LESSONS ABOUT MONEY
“Neither Poverty, Nor Riches” is a devotional that walks through four biblical texts—from Proverbs, Luke, 2 Corinthians, and James—alongside Craig Blomberg's Neither Poverty nor Riches, built on the conviction that few things reveal the heart like money. But, there’s hope. There’s always good news! Through God's great generosity toward us in Christ, we can become "more content, generous, and just people."
Each entry follows the same arc—Scripture reading, teaching, and reflection questions.
Check out the entire devotional —> DOWNLOAD
