2 Corinthians 8:1 Commentary and Bible Study

And this is quite an extraordinary passage about the graces of the Christian. In the first half of the chapter the apostle gives six virtues or graces, gifts of God to believers. He sets alongside them seven features which apply to all or most of them. It is almost a little manual itself on a certain aspect of Christian living. The six virtues or gifts that the apostle particularly wants to deal with are listed in verse 7. ‘Therefore, as ye abound in every thing,’ except one, and that is the gift of stewardship of their goods. That they were a little behind on, it appears. But they abounded in the others. They were conspicuous in five of these graces and they manifested them to a very marked degree. The little word ‘abound’ is really quite strong but it does not quite register the force of the original. ‘Therefore, as ye abound, or super-abound, in every thing,’ and then he lists them.‘Moreover, brethren,’ we put you in mind ‘of the grace of God,’ it was a gift, ‘bestowed on the churches of Macedonia.’ Notice that this gift was given to the churches of Macedonia. That is very interesting. We might expect this gift to be given to individual Christians, and so they are obviously, but they are mediated to them through the church, and in this case, the churches of Macedonia. There were three churches referred to: the church of the Philippians, the church of the Thessalonians, and the church of the Bereans, the three Macedonian churches. And in that region, the members of those churches seem to be particularly alerted and alive to the gift of stewardship, the need to support the people of God and the work.How was it done? Well, verse 6 tells us – ‘Insomuch,’ as far as the Corinthians were concerned, ‘we desired Titus, that as he begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also.’ So it was Titus, the preacher whom Paul had assigned to the Corinthians who would teach them of these things. This grace was stirred in their hearts by means of the teaching of the word. The preacher appealed to the people. And in Macedonia, whoever taught it there saw this tremendous response: that the Macedonians recognised the importance of and received the gift of stewardship.