Once again, Paul speaks to the topic of giving. The people of Corinth were intimately familiar with the principles of an agricultural economy. Planting, weeding, and harvesting were common, everyday tasks. Keeping more seeds in storage might appear to be wise, a way to ensure against future disasters. But the farmer who scattered his seed meagerly inevitably would have a small harvest.A farmer who refused to risk his grain on the next year’s harvest would lose. This piece of agricultural wisdom contains a profound truth about Christian giving. Like the foolish farmer, he who plants only a few seeds—who refuses to trust God with their future financial security—will inevitably lose out on God’s rich blessings. He who sows generously will get a generous crop. The eternal harvest will exceed their expectations.
The biggest obstacle that people have to overcome in order to give is worry. What if I will not have enough money next year for my retirement? What if some emergency comes up? What if I lose my job? Paul reassures the Corinthians that God is able to generously provide all their needs. The purpose of God’s overwhelming blessing is always to equip his people to have plenty left over to share with others.
God gives both the seed and the bread, both the surplus to invest and the resources to support one’s family every day. The resources that God gives Christians are not to be hoarded, foolishly devoured, or thrown away. God gives gifts to his people for their own use and for investing back into God’s work. Instead of squandering these gifts, Christians need to cultivate them in order to produce more good works.
Giving generously causes two good things to happen. First, through those gifts given to those who need them, God meets their needs (here, specifically, the needs of the Christians in Jerusalem). Second, the recipients of these generous gifts will joyfully express their thanksgiving to God. Their celebration over these gifts will lead to heartfelt praise to God, for they will know that it is God who enables the giver to give in the first place.
Paul ended his appeal for giving with fervent praise to God. The source of all this—the ability to give, the desire to give, even the reconciliation that would occur between Jewish and Gentile believers—was solely from God’s hands. God is the ultimate Giver. He gave a gift too wonderful for words—the gift of his Son. God’s extraordinary gift of salvation should motivate you to give generously to others. Spend time meditating on how much God has given you. Then evaluate your generosity in light of God’s generosity to you.
In chapter 10, Paul shifts the focus of the letter. Paul equated the Christian life to a war. This war isn’t against “flesh and blood, but against the . . . authorities of the unseen world”. The Christian life is a spiritual battle against spiritual forces aligned against Christ. Fighting this spiritual battle with weapons of the world—with physical strength, worldly strategies, and material wealth—would be foolish. A spiritual battle requires spiritual weapons that can only come from God.
According to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, God’s mighty weapons are faith, truth, righteousness, the gospel message, and the word of God. The Holy Spirit equips Christians for the struggle, providing the weapons they need. Worldly weapons—wealth, fame, and political might—may wield some power on this earth, but they are useless in spiritual battles.
The Devil’s strongholds included every proud argument that keeps people from knowing God and rebellious ideas. The world of ideas is the real battleground for God and the Devil. Many complex theories and philosophies try to block people from knowing the truth about God and worshiping him. These false philosophies that divert glory from God and hide the truth are the Devil’s strongholds. In Corinth, where advances in Greek philosophy were held in high esteem, the believers were tempted to evaluate the gospel with the various tools of Greek philosophy.
Paul had already told the Corinthians that the Gospel would appear as foolishness to those who saw the world through the lenses of secular Greek philosophy. Just as an army would attack a fortress, so Christians must take apart and defeat these false and evil arguments.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
God, give me a greater and stronger heart - day after day - to do battle against evil. God, help me and protect me from living a compromised Christian life. What does God want us to do with evil? When it comes to evil, don’t deny or ignore evil exists, face evil head on.
Folks, you know this - So many times, when it comes to evil, we choose to close our eyes, change the channel. If you’re watching a TV show late at night and there’s an ad for a relief agency that shows a child starving – change the channel as fast as you can. You’re watching something else and there come a news report of a tragedy – change that channel as fast as you can.
Why do we do this? What I’ve noticed in myself and I imagine it’s probably true of many of you - I think we ignore it, because if we acknowledge that it exists then there is in us at least a sense of responsibility that maybe we should do something about it.
And to do something about it would mean I’d have to change my schedule, my agenda, my hopes, my dreams, what I’m doing today. It would be uncomfortable for me to do that. So we choose apathy.
But the Bible tells us that is not the appropriate response to evil. James 4:17 says, “Anyone who knows the right thing to do but doesn’t do it is sinning.” So here’s the hard reality right out of the shoot today - if you know there’s evil in the world – and let’s face it; you do know there’s evil in the world. All of us know it. If we choose to do nothing about evil, we are sinning.
Einstein said, “The world is a dangerous place. Not just because of those who do evil but because of those who look on evil and do nothing.”
There’s a story in the Old Testament, where the children of Israel, choose to follow the pagan gods of the other nations around them. This one time, they followed a god name Molech, a pagan god of the Ammonites. Molech was the god of fire. Part of the worship of Molech was to take children and burn them as a sacrifice to Molech. God said if you do that or if you see it happening and you don’t stop it that is evil – that is sin.
Listen to Leviticus 20:4-5 - “If the people of the land look the other way as if nothing had happened, when a man gives his child to the god Molech I will resolutely reject all who join him.” In our world today there is evil happening twenty-four/seven. There’s not a minute of the day that evil is not happening in the most profound, perverse, gross, painful ways.
What will you choose to do about it?
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