Giving Your Best

In 2 Corinthians 8-9, Paul addresses the subject of giving.  In these two chapters, Paul urges the Corinthians to be generous in their gifts to the saints in Jerusalem.  Jerusalem was suffering through a famine.  Christians, who by virtue of their faith were ostracized from the social support offered by the Temple, were particularly vulnerable to hunger.  Paul is collecting an offering from his Gentile churches to help the struggling Jewish Christians in Israel's capitol.

There was good reason to collect such an offering.  The Church was founded in Jerusalem.  It was Jewish Christians who had been persecuted and made big sacrifices so that the word of Jesus could be spread.  Taking care of the Jerusalem Christians seemed particularly appropriate given their priority in the Church.  It was also appropriate in light of the sometimes rocky relations between Jewish and Gentile Christians.  Paul himself had had several disagreements with the church leaders in Jerusalem.  A gift to the Church there would help show that Paul had a proper respect for the other Apostles.  It would demonstrate the unity of Gentile Christians with their Jewish brothers.

And so Paul urges the Corinthinan Christians to give generously.  He reminds them that some Christians much poorer than them have given far more generously.  And he assures them that the money will be properly handled and delivered to its intended audience. 

Like the Corinthians, we too need to be givers, especially to other brothers and sisters in Christ who are poor and needy.  Probably none of the Christians in Corinth (or Macedonia) had ever met a Christian from the church in Jerusalem.  Yet, they were called on to help those in need.  In the same way, there are Christians who suffer poverty that we have never met.  Yet, we have the same obligtion to assist them.  Like the Corinthians, we should give generously to the poor.