And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:8)
The Corinthian Christians had promised to gather a collection for needy believers in Judea, and they had yet to gather the money and give it to Paul so he could take it to those who needed it. Paul gave the Corinthian Christians many reasons to follow through in their generosity.
In this verse, Paul reminds all believers that God is the ultimate giver, who is able to make all grace abound toward His people. As believers give, they must be persuaded that God is able to reward their giving. Just as God is able to make the sowing of seed abound to a great harvest, so God is able to bless the generosity of His people.
In rewarding our giving, God does it with all grace. Our giving is rewarded in many ways, including both the material and the spiritual. Materially, God may bless our giving by job promotions with better pay, by unexpected gifts of money, or by making things last so we don’t suffer the cost of replacing them. Spiritually, God may bless our giving by freeing our hearts from the tyranny of greed and materialism, by giving us a sense of blessing and happiness, and by storing up rich reward in heaven. There is no end to the ways we can be blessed when God is able to make all grace abound toward us.
Part of God’s blessing to the giver is for their always having all sufficiency in all things. That word sufficiency may also be translated contentment and is so in 1 Timothy 6:6. God gives a special gift to the giving heart: always having all contentment in all things. That is a lot of all!
It’s easy for many Christians to say they have this contentment; but whether they have it or not is often more truthfully known by their spending and shopping habits. How much of a place does shopping and buying have in your life? How much does material loss affect your happiness? How happy do you get from having some material thing?
With this contentment, believers can be the richest people in the world. A man might have the wealth of the richest man in the world yet lack contentment. But if we have this contentment, it really does make us better off than the wealthiest people who don’t have it.
Also notice that God blesses His people materially and spiritually so that they will have an abundance for every good work. We are blessed so that we can be a blessing to others. God wants us to be channels of blessing, not reservoirs of blessing.
Dear believer, learn to live in the generosity that is fitting for the people of God. It’s an important step in the path of God’s great gift of contentment.
