Prove the Sincerity of Your Love

2Cor 8:7-15

 

1. Today, I am so glad to have Terri Thomas, the Executive Director of Kalamazoo Deacons’ Conference in our church. In our 24 years of history, God has used our church primarily to serve the Korean community in Kalamazoo area. Now, we are grown and mature enough to expand our ministry beyond our Korean community toward the Kalamazoo community in general. It is God’s calling to serve the weak and needy among our neighbors as much as God gave us. Our possession and talent, our time and energy are not ours but God’s gift to share for our neighbors.

2. Paul challenged the Corinthian church with the example of the Macedonian church, which “Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity… even beyond their ability.”(2-3a) On the other hand, the Corinthian church was hesitant and stingy in giving, though they were excellent “in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us.”(7) Paul challenges for them to prove the sincerity of their love by this ministry of giving (8).

3. Loving our neighbors, especially who need our love and help, is the most important and crucial task of the church and Christians who received “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”(9) Therefore, in the process of salvation and liberation from selfish avarice, the grace of giving was essential and powerful.

4. So, when early Christians received the Holy Spirit in the Pentecost, they immediately responded by sharing their possessions with neighbors. The early church made offering totally for this ministry of giving and created the office of deacons to handle and distribute this fund to the needy. As church was secularized to care its own glory, this ministry of giving was seriously weakened. However, we have to remember that the command of our Lord to love God and our neighbor is the central, essential and ultimate task of the church in any time and any situation.

5. The Bible teaches that we are saved by faith, but the saving faith is neither mental agreement with some theoretical propositions nor emotional sympathy with church culture. James challenged that the so-called faith of such Christians is not genuine faith and therefore they are not saved: “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”(2:14-17) To be saved, we need the faith to act, especially to love our needy neighbors not only by word or prayer but also by giving and caring. Why? It is the process of healing and saving our soul from sinful desires of self-destruction, as well as the process of healing and saving the world from sinful desires of selfish glory.

6. The Bible teaches two principles of giving in this text. First, we need willingness to share whatever we have: “if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.”(12) The Corinthian church was relatively richer than the Macedonian church, but the matter was not richness but willingness to love and share. Do you know that the most generous state in USA is Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation, while the richest state New Jersey of almost double income than Mississippi is one of the stingiest states (48^th) in the nation. Our church has no billionaire, but we are so blessed enough to give. Asian Americans have the highest income (61094) in USA, higher than white (50784), Hispanic (35967) and black (30858).

7. Second, we need willingness to cut down our over-consumption to share the rest. Paul said that “Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality.”(13) The standard of equality in material possession is non-sense in our capitalistic society. It seems quite similar with the Marxist demand. But the difference is the voluntary willingness to share out of Christian love. FAO reported that world produces enough food for whole global population. And why are almost one billion people not fed enough to survive and dying because of hunger? Why are 3 billion people, the half of world population barely living with less than 2 dollars a day? It is because the rich 30% of world population consumes almost 60% of world food. USA is the most over-consuming people in the world. Is it a blessing? Not necessarily! In the last 4 decades, American obesity has grown 8 times, from less than 4% to 30%, resulting in so many problems and health cost as well as spiritual corruption and moral decadence. We are over-consuming not only food but also everything. We have to save not for ourselves but for others, the needy neighbors around us and around the globe.

8. This ministry of free giving is the proof of the sincerity of our love both to inside and outside, ourselves and our community, God and Satan. Only this will prove that we are really free from our sinful past of material addiction, collective egoism, and self-glory. Over-consumption is sin, but free giving is grace. We have to remember “the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.”(Acts 20:35) Giving is blessing! It seems contradictory, but it is how God works: “One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”(Proverbs 11:24-25) God will count our every giving: “if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”(Matt 10:42)

9. Our possession and our time do not stay forever. It will run away from us if we miss the opportunity to use them properly. Life is too fast and materials decay too quickly. If we misuse our time and possession, it will corrupt our soul and destroy our life. May the Holy Spirit move us and our church to obey this crucial command of free giving our materials, talents, time and whatever we can share!