2 Corinthians 9
Golden Nugget:
The Lord loves a cheerful giver.
The church in Corinth was known for its generosity, yet there was a problem. False teachers had come in and spread around a lot of lies which lead to the Christians there not trusting anyone and thus giving reluctantly. Earlier in both the First and Second letter to the Corinthians, Paul encourages them to make the distinction between true and false teachers. Then Paul continues on to tell them that the Lord loves a cheerful giver.
I’ve always looked at these passages – in particular “cheerful giver” – as more than just monetary giving. I’ve never had much money growing up – mom and dad were both in the ministry and money was just not there. I grew up in hand-me-downs and going out to eat was a twice a year treat. Life was not the easiest, it was simple to say the least! As I strive to give my kids more than I had when I grew up, I find myself in the same situation: life is simple. Not a lot of money – especially right now with my hubby out of work and the recession looming ugly in our future. There isn’t a lot of hope in our lives.
Yet Paul, in his letters to the Corinthians always speaks of hope and joy. And no matter what his circumstances, he is still joyful due to the fact that he continually looks up to our Lord Jesus Christ.
As preachers now a days preach that “You need to give money to my church, you’re spiritual maturity depends on how much money you give to my church”, I have to stop and wonder what Paul would say about these preachers and their methods and their motives. Money is the root of all evil. Unfortunately, that evil has found its way into our churches and that is sad.
Why are churches of today so much different than the first churches? Or are they really? The first churches have lots of examples of how NOT to do things. Just as they have examples of how the Lord would want them to be, Satan got into those churches and corrupted them just as he’s getting into our churches now a day’s and corrupting them too. It starts out just a little bit off. Not much – just a half truth here and a half truth there.
What does Paul preach on? When he goes into the synagogues at the new city he goes into, he preaches on the scriptures – the books of the Bible. So why is it so important that preachers today preach on Topics? Why must we follow the “flow of today” and why do we have to be the “church of today”? Why is the blueprint that the Lord gave us in the New Testament not good enough for the “church of today”? Yes, we have the internet and we can use it to our advantage. But let’s keep to the basics. Let’s teach the meat of the Bible and not the fluff of the world.