But we make known to you, brethren, the grace of God bestowed in the assemblies of Macedonia;
Paul turns to a practical matter: money collected for believers in need. Rather than order Corinth to give, he first reports what God had done in the churches of Macedonia, and files it all under one word: grace.
The verse does not begin with Macedonian generosity. It begins with something given to them. One writer asks where their readiness came from. He rules out the obvious answer.
Where did this readiness come from? Was it the natural kindness of the human heart bubbling up? The apostle traces it all back to its right source — God. It was the grace of God given to the churches of Macedonia.
Corinth was a wealthy city. Macedonia was not. The first response came from the poorer region. One writer sees God's hand in that.
God took care that the first to respond would not be saints in the wealthy city of Corinth. They were saints in the long-ruined and poor district of Macedonia instead. In this way the work would be of God's grace, and in no way a matter of worldly circumstances… They gave no gifts out of their surplus. It was faith working by love, while they were going through a great trial of affliction.
Their poverty was deep, yet their giving was rich. That pairing shows how God weighs a gift.
The Lord has shown us that the size of the gift is in no way the test of what is good in God's sight. He showed how the two small coins of a poor widow, worth next to nothing, can be more to Him than all the treasure piled up by the wealthy. In fact, out of their deep poverty, those the apostle speaks of here were showing the riches of their open-handed generosity. This is what makes generosity worth noticing. It is not so much what is given as what remains to the giver.
Paul is dealing with money here, and he calls it grace. That word transforms whatever it touches.
How wonderfully "the grace of God" changes everything it takes up! And what can it not reach in its wide embrace?… See here what happens to money. Among people it is only "dirty money," a special target of the covetousness which is idolatry. Here it becomes the means of exercising faith in love, to the glory of God and the great blessing of His children.
"We want you to know" reads like a report meant to travel. One writer meets an objection to that kind of telling.
The grace of God has been on remarkable display in the assemblies of Macedonia. It stands on record for all time, so that not only the Corinthians but we ourselves might be stirred up by it. Some of us might think that retelling the devotion of others, in order to stir up slow believers, appeals to low motives and is not a worthy thing to do. Here, though, we find the Spirit leading the apostle to do that very thing. So we never need be afraid of telling how the grace of God has worked in others. Such accounts show us the grace of God as something real and practical. They also convict us of our own shortcomings. Both results are well worth having.
Rivalry and party spirit had torn Corinth apart. Praise of another region could have deepened that. Paul uses it the other way.
The praise he gives here to the Macedonian churches is meant to stir his brothers in Achaia to a loving jealousy. And the way he words that praise shows them how the honour now granted to Macedonia may rest on them just as much. For if the Macedonians had done well, it was by "the grace of God," who gives yet "more grace."
If giving is grace, is it then optional? One writer answers plainly.
Grace — the way this word is used here has the same meaning as giving. It does not make giving optional. Giving is a privilege and at the same time a responsibility. It is a visible expression of our love for God. It also expresses our fellowship with Christians who are suffering distress.
- Grace given — Their generosity did not spring from natural kindness. Paul names God as the giver before he names a single Macedonian gift.
- Grace tested — God let the poorest and hardest-hit believers respond first. No one could put it down to easy circumstances.
- Grace measured — God weighs what is left with the giver, not the size of the gift. Deep poverty produced rich generosity.
- Grace reported — What God works in one group goes on record, to stir others and to convict them.
- Grace multiplied — Paul wanted Corinth to catch the same fire. The God who gave grace in Macedonia gives yet more grace.
that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty has abounded to the riches of their [free-hearted] liberality.
Paul is collecting money for poor believers in Judea, and he points wealthy Corinth to an unlikely model: the poor churches of Macedonia. Their giving overflowed anyway, joining three things that rarely go together — deep trouble, deep joy, and deep poverty.
Paul does not point to the Macedonian character or to a good year in their economy. He points to what God did among them, and one writer notes that even the choice of Macedonia was deliberate.
God took care that the first to respond should be believers not in the wealthy city of Corinth, but in the long-ruined and poor region of Macedonia. In this way the work would be of God's grace, and in no way a matter of worldly circumstances… Scripture tells us plainly here of their poverty right down into the depths. They gave no gifts out of surplus. It was faith working by love, while they were going through a great trial of affliction. Their joy overflowed in the face of trouble, and their deep poverty, instead of appealing to others for help, overflowed into the riches of their open-hearted generosity.
Where the ESV reads "generosity," older translations have "liberality." One writer says the word points to the state of the heart, not the size of the gift.
In 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, where Paul encourages his readers to do good works, we find a special kind of simplicity of heart. The word "liberality" appears three times here, and the literal reading is "simplicity."
By totals, the Macedonians would rank near the bottom of any list of givers. Paul calls their gift a wealth of generosity instead. One commentator explains how so small a sum earns that word, and what crisis prompted the collection.
While suffering a great trial of affliction, they had abundance of joy alongside abundance of poverty. This resulted in "the riches of their liberality." Whatever the depth of their poverty, and however little they could give, their willingness to give what they could was "riches of liberality" in the sight of God. The occasion was that of a famine in Judea (Acts 11:27-30), and Gentile believers wanted to send help to the believers there.
The verse stacks up three conditions that cancel each other out in ordinary life.
Several circumstances combined to make the giving of the Macedonians very noteworthy. First, they were very poor. The apostle speaks of their "deep poverty." Second, they were very persecuted, for they were in "a great trial of affliction." Third, they were very joyful, since he refers to "the abundance of their joy."
The same writer names the claim behind all giving, and then points to what loosened their hands.
God does not merely claim what we can spare, but all that we have, because He claims us… What moved them to their liberality was the abundance of their spiritual joy. They had by faith so real and joyful a grasp of the things of heaven that they could afford to be generous with the things of earth.
Nothing outside them squeezed this offering out. One writer contrasts their giving with the machinery people use to raise money.
Love does not calculate what it can spare, nor what it can achieve. The heart moved by love thinks not of its own trials or deep poverty, but of those it hears are suffering in some special way, and it acts at once… There were no earthly incentives here. There was no pressure from agents, no rivalry of donations, no moving appeals to crowds, no published lists to shame or to stimulate, no personal or party aims of any kind.
One writer applies this verse to the believers at Philippi. He turns their poverty and their joy into a diagnosis of our own tight-fistedness.
The devotion of the Philippians here was all the greater because they were very poor. We learn this from 2 Corinthians 8:2. They also had been in much affliction themselves, and they had experienced much joy in the Lord. All this is very instructive for us. Often we are unsympathetic and stingy. The reason is that our own experiences of suffering and of spiritual refreshment are so very shallow.
- Grace first. The overflow started with God. He chose the poorest region, not the richest city. Nobody could mistake this giving for good fortune.
- Grace as joy. Affliction did not empty them. Joy in heavenly things filled them, and that fullness made them free with earthly things.
- Grace as simplicity. Older translations say "liberality," but the literal sense is simplicity — an undivided heart, not a big bank balance.
- Grace reaching outward. Love did not calculate what it could spare. Nothing pressured them: no agents, no rivalry, no published lists.
- Grace measured by God. However little they could give, God counted it wealth. The measure of a gift is the heart behind it. Shallow giving points to shallow experience of both suffering and joy.