Scripture

Since you excel in so many ways- in your faith, your gifted speakers, your knowledge, your enthusiasm, and your love from us- I want you to excel also in this gracious gift of giving.

Observation

Paul is encouraging the churches to raise funds to help the church in Jerusalem. He points out that the church in Corinth excels in all kinds of ways (although he might be being a little sarcastic here) and now they need to add to that list by excelling in the gracious gift of giving.

Christ was generous to us, giving up all He had for our sake. So the Corinthians should now imitate Him by finishing what they started the year before. They were eager to help in the past and should once again be eager to give.

Application

To be vibrant and growing, a church must develop a culture of giving. I know of congregations that are focused on their own needs. While they seem to thrive in the short term, they eventually grow stale and decline because they have not learned to give generously as Christ did.

The Bible teaches that there are four main responsibilities for churches to steward their finances:

• ministers, pastors and teachers must be supported

• the needs of the poor in the congregation must be met

• local mission and evangelism

• mission beyond the local area

If we fail to adequately address these responsibilities, either corporately or individually, we fail to imitate Christ.

Churches and individual believers who learn to live lives of generous giving become strong in other areas of their lives also.

It is not about the money but about the attitude that we have towards money. We must always remember that everything that we have is the Lord’s to use through us.

Prayer

Take my life and my possessions to be used entirely for you Lord. Amen.