Abundance Meets Needs

Values. How do you measure what is worthwhile, what you are willing to dedicate your life to attaining, expend your energies to acquire? How genuine is your love and commitment to the LORD above all?

I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. ¹

Don’t jump to that ‘you… might become rich’ part too quickly. The focus is ‘to prove the earnestness of your love is genuine’ in the same sense that Jesus proved His. ‘Though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor so that by His poverty you might become rich.’ Jesus had it all before the Incarnation but laid all aside to live without the trappings of His divine nature so you could be redeemed and have ‘riches’ in Him. Let’s take the moment to consider what ‘riches’ are to Jesus—the gates of heaven are single pearls, the streets are paved with pure gold clear as glass.² Riches are not stuff in heaven and we may want to reconsider what they are on earth. Psalms 49 and 52 both address the futility of riches as unable to ransom a life ² while Matthew 13 reminds us that the deceitfulness of riches chokes the Word sown in our lives.³ In Luke 9, Jesus talks about the consequences of going after riches rather than having higher priorities,

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? ⁴

It is not that riches are inherently evil or sinful but that they are not seen as utilitarian tokens to be used for God’s glory rather than something to be held on to, possessed, unused. Back in our daily text, Paul is encouraging the Corinthians to follow through with their intentions to use their ‘abundance’ to meet the needs of others instead of holding it tightly.

And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. ⁵

Stewardship in the LORD is using what He provides to meet purposes that glorify Him. While that often is provision for ourselves and our family, it does not appear to be selfish and ‘me’ oriented. God is open-handed and indicates this is another area where we should be Christ-like. None of us have what we did not already receive. Open-handed means we do not grasp it to ourselves.