But this [is true], he that sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he that sows in [the spirit of] blessing shall reap also in blessing
Paul is urging the believers in Corinth to finish the collection they promised for poor believers in Jerusalem. He backs the appeal with a law from the farm: the question is not what you can spare, but what harvest you want.
The whole verse turns on one swap. What looks like spending is planting.
For instance, giving is sowing, so the laws of sowing and reaping apply to it. If seed is scattered with a sparing hand there is a scanty harvest; if with a bountiful hand, a bountiful harvest. It cannot be otherwise, whether in nature or in connection with the things of God. In giving to others we are sowing grace.
Paul did not invent the picture. He takes it from Proverbs.
Quoting from the Proverbs, he reminds them how true it is... that the bountiful sower will be a bountiful receiver (Prov. 11:24-25; Prov. 22:9).
A thin harvest says something about the sowing that came before it.
Who can fail to understand this simple picture? It is a very pointed challenge. We might look back over our lives and say, "Well, there has not been much in my life for the Lord." Then we would need to apply this principle the apostle teaches and say, "Well, the reason is we have not sown bountifully. The reason why we have not reaped a good healthy crop is because we have not sown in a bountiful way."
Older translations render "bountifully" as sowing "with blessings." The word describes the giver's spirit before it describes the size of the gift.
He that sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; and he that sows with blessings will also reap with blessings. It is no question of correspondence in kind, but it may be spiritually also, and so much the better... God does not despise what is given to the poor believers; but the spirit of giving is far more important than the gift.
Another writer ties that same spirit to a harvest of real blessing.
As to sowing "bountifully," some have observed that this puts special stress on the generous spirit shown in giving. It marks the person who is glad to give as to the Lord. The reaping will be that of true blessing also.
The return is real. It is not a fixed rate of interest on money.
It does not mean that a man who puts a pound into the collection box is sure to reap five pounds, or indeed any pounds at all. It means this. We may be ready to sacrifice ourselves for the welfare of God's people, for the progress of God's work, for the help of God's service. Then God is ready to let us reap blessing in our own souls.
The sowing is the giver's part. The size of the harvest is not.
Sowing and reaping stand in the natural relation of cause and effect. Yet a secret moral tie also binds them together. The one is the act of man; the other is the gift of God. He watches the sowing, and assigns the measure of return. What is scattered freely by a heart that trusts in God, He gives back with overflowing increase. What leaves reluctant hands will disappoint expectant hands.
This verse states one half of a larger law. Another passage carries the other half.
It is, of course, true that we reap as we sow as to quantity. 2 Corinthians 9:6 emphasises this side of the question... That other passage enforces the truth that as surely as God is God, we reap as we sow as to character or kind. We cannot sow one kind and reap another kind... Men cannot sow thistles and reap wheat.
- Sowing. Money you give away is not money gone. It is seed planted, and the law of the harvest applies.
- Measure. The size of the sowing sets the size of the harvest. A bare life may point back to a closed hand.
- Spirit. "Bountifully" carries the idea of blessing. The heart behind the gift counts for more than the amount.
- Return. The harvest is often spiritual, not financial. This is no promise of pounds for pounds.
- God. Sowing is your act, reaping is His gift — He watches the scattering and fixes the increase Himself.
each according as he is purposed in his heart; not grievingly, or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.
Paul is writing to the Corinthians about a collection for poor believers, and he tells them how to give: not under pressure, but by a decision each person makes in his own heart. So the verse answers two questions — who fixes the amount, and what God looks at when the gift comes.
No apostle and no church fixes the amount. Each giver settles it beforehand, in private, and the way he gives matters more than the sum.
God does not despise what is given to the poor saints; but the spirit of giving is far more important than the gift. So the apostle follows up the saying he had just applied: each one gives just as he has decided beforehand in his heart, not out of sorrow or out of necessity. For God loves a cheerful giver… To grudge and grieve over a gift is unworthy of one of His saints. To demand it is no less unworthy of His servant.
Paul practised what he wrote. He even planned the timing of the collection with this in mind.
He told them that each one should give "as he has decided in his heart." He also took care to send some brothers ahead of his own arrival, to collect what they had planned to give. That way their gift would be ready as a willing blessing, not as something squeezed out of them… He did not want them to give under pressure — not in appearance, and not in fact. He had no wish to force out unwilling gifts, or to work them up into a generosity beyond the faith and grace they had, which they might later regret.
Rule out sorrow and compulsion, and giving stops being a duty.
Neither sorrow nor constraint must have any place here. God is the centre and the final aim of all true kindness. As He has given, let each true child of His give. Believers should see giving not as a necessity, but as a privilege. For giving is God's own delight. We know Him only by His indescribable gift, and His heart is always toward those who copy Him in His ways. In a time of pure grace, no one is obliged to give, except by the sweet compulsion of His love. There are no task-masters in the house of God.
The Greek word behind "cheerful" is the root of an English word we still use.
Note the joy we have here: the very opposite of giving grudgingly or of necessity. It reminds us of 2 Cor. 9:7, "God loves a cheerful giver." The word translated 'cheerful' is hilaros, and from it we get our word 'hilarious.' But of course it carries none of the bad sense that word has picked up in our day.
Someone is watching every gift.
It is worth thinking about this every time we are asked to give to the Lord's cause. Remember, as the box or the basket comes into my hand, that "Jesus is sitting opposite the treasury." His holy eye rests, not on the purse, but on the heart. He weighs, not the amount, but the motive. If the heart is right, the amount will be right, according to His judgment. Where the heart beats true to His person, the hand will be open to His cause.
Cheerful giving copies God's own character. And it grows from the state of the heart, not from effort.
Every man will purpose in his heart according to the state of his heart. If our hearts are right, and enlarged by living in the love of God, we shall give generously and cheerfully too. We shall give in the style of God Himself; and God loves those who are like Himself.
- Heart — the giver settles the sum inside, "as he has decided in his heart," before any basket comes round; the spirit of the gift matters more to God than its size.
- Free — two things spoil a gift: grief at parting with it, and pressure from outside. Paul collected the money in advance so that no one would feel pushed.
- Privilege — giving is not a bill to pay. There are no task-masters in God's house; the only compulsion is His love.
- Joy — the word for "cheerful" is hilaros, the root of our word "hilarious." Giving is meant to be glad, the very opposite of grudging.
- Likeness — a heart enlarged by God's love gives in God's own style, and God loves those who are like Himself.