2 Corinthians - Sowing and Reaping

For a full year, Paul had been boasting about the Corinthian church, but now it seemed that his boasting was going to turn out to be very empty and the whole thing an embarrassment. You know why? Well, the Corinthian church had promised to share in the missionary offering and they had not come through.

In 2 Corinthians 9:1-5, Paul reminded them that he had boasted of them in many places, and that his boasting about the Corinthians had encouraged other churches to give. Paul was taking up a special missionary relief offering for the poor believers in Jerusalem and Judea.

These people in the Holy Land were going through a very difficult time. And so Paul took up this offering from the Gentile churches as an evidence of spiritual unity. The Gentiles had received graciously from the Jews spiritual things, and now the Gentiles would share with the Jews in material things.

So Paul had a little committee arranged of three men. Titus was going to go, 2 Corinthians 8:16. Another brother was going to go, 2 Corinthians 8:18, apparently he was an evangelist. And then in 2 Corinthians 8:22, a third brother was going to go, a man who had been proved diligent in his work. And these three men were going to go to Corinth and make sure that the offering had been collected.

However, Paul did not want to give them the impression that he was trying to extort this money out of them. He wanted this to be a spiritual experience. This is why in 2 Corinthians 8-9, the apostle Paul uses words like grace or bounty or fellowship or abundance or service. He doesn't talk about money and so forth.

He lifts giving to a higher plane. 2 Corinthians 9:5: "I thought it necessary therefore to exhort to encourage the brethren, that they would go before unto you that is, before Paul arrived and make up beforehand your bounty your generous gift, of which ye had notice before," and of course for a year they had been preparing for this, "as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness." What he's saying is: I want your gift to be a generous sharing; I don't want to squeeze something out of you. I don't want this to be extortion, exploiting.

Now he tells us how this is possible. How is it possible for us to give with joy and with blessing, to give in such a way as God is glorified? Well, in these next verses, 2 Corinthians 9:6-15, Paul lays down four basic principles of reaping. He's using here the image from agriculture. Paul often used different images, and agriculture was one of his favorite ones. He's talking about sowing and reaping. He is comparing our money and our substance to seed, and he's telling us that each one of us is sowing in one way and reaping in another way. And he gives to us four basic principles.

2 Corinthians 9:6: the principle of increase: we reap in measure as we sow. If you sow sparingly, you'll reap sparingly. If you sow bountifully, you'll reap bountifully with blessing. By the way, we have to remember that our heavenly Father was not sparing in his giving, was he? Romans 8:32: "He who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." Now if God could give to us his very best, what does that mean for our giving? You see, you are determining your own harvest.

Don't complain, don't complain if your harvest is a meager one. I'm not talking about money now, I'm talking about fullness of life. I'm talking about the whole of life. If we are living and giving, if our living is giving, then God will bountifully bless. He'll always meet our needs and even beyond that he will give to us in our hearts the kind of Christian character and blessing that we cannot buy in the supermarket.

Listen to Proverbs 12:24: "The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute." You know what that means? That means that when you are diligent, God makes a king out of you. You reign in life. When you're lazy, you find yourself under obligation.

Now the word of God makes it very, very clear that apart from God's blessing there can be no harvest. So what you sow, you're going to reap, and how you sow, you are going to reap. The law of increase: we reap in measure as we sow.

Then in 2 Corinthians 9:7, the law of intent: we reap as we sow with right motives. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 9:7 that there are three kinds of givers: there are the sad givers and the mad givers and the glad givers. Did you know that? "So let him give, not grudgingly." That's the sad giver. That's the one who you just have to—it hurts him. It's a duty. Oh, he does it, but he does it so grudgingly. He's the sad giver.

And then there's the mad giver, "of necessity." He has to give. He—he's been forced to give. There's been pressure, there's been demand. That hurts. But then there's the glad giver: "The Lord loveth a cheerful giver."

If we give grudgingly, the sad giver, or of necessity, the mad giver, then we're not going to reap as we should. But if we give as a glad giver—the Lord loveth a cheerful giver—then God is going to bless and our giving will bring a harvest of blessing. The law of increase: we reap in measure as we sow. The law of intent: we reap as we sow with right motives.

And then 2 Corinthians 9:8-11, the law of immediacy: we reap while we are sowing. Now the farmer may reap physical benefits and psychological benefits as he sows the seed, but he certainly does not reap the harvest. He has to wait for the harvest. We don't. That's the wonderful thing about the grace of God. When your giving is involved with grace, you reap the harvest while you are sowing. Now what kind of a harvest do we reap? Well, a harvest of certainly enrichment.

"And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." Look at the universals in that verse. All grace, always, all sufficiency, all things. You see, we're reaping while we are sowing. And the beautiful thing about it is that it enriches us to be able to give more. I think what he's promising in 2 Corinthians 9:8 is this: If you are really willing to give, God will make you able to give. And the joy of giving is the ability of giving more.

Now in 2 Corinthians 9:9, he quotes Psalm 112:9. Psalm 112 is about the righteous man, the man who feareth the Lord. "As it is written, He this righteous man hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever." That's a promise from the Old Testament Scriptures and Paul lays hold of it.

He says, if you want to make your life count, if you want your righteousness to remain forever, then you share with others. This is sort of a parallel to 1 John 2:17, isn't it? "He that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." So we are enriched as we sow, spiritually and morally in our character.

Now in 2 Corinthians 9:10, he quotes from two Old Testament verses. "Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness." You see, the farmer has to take his seed and do one of two things with it: either sow it or grind it up and make food out of it. Every seed that he sows is food taken out of his mouth.

But Paul promises from the word of God now, he says, now look, the same God who gives the seed to the sower, the same God who multiplies that seed, the same God who provides the fruit from that seed, will also give bread for your food. It's a marvelous thing.

The Christian never has to worry because it is God who gives the seed, it is God who multiplies the seed, it is God who gives the seed to you to make bread out of it. In other words, what we have, part of it goes to sowing and part of it goes to maintaining our own lives. The seed is for sowing, the seed is for growing, but the seed is also for eating.

He quotes from Isaiah 55:10: "For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth." What a marvelous promise this is, that God watches over our giving, just as God watches over his seed, the word of God, he watches over our giving and he's able to multiply it and increase it and the fruit comes right back to us.

He also quotes from Hosea 10:12: "Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you." Well, we reap as we are sowing, the law of immediacy. 2 Corinthians 9:11 tells us how it all ends up being enriched in everything. Oh, that is an amazing statement. Being enriched in everything. If you want everything in your life to be enriched, then learn how to give. It will enrich your thinking, it will enrich your emotions, it will enrich your love of life, it will enrich the experiences of life.

Selfish people rob themselves. Miserly selfish people only rob themselves. But Paul says, being enriched in everything to all bountifulness. We're not only enriching ourselves, we're enriching other people, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. The law of immediacy. We have sufficiency in all things. We have enrichment. We have enlargement. And the result of all of this is glory to God, thanksgiving on the behalf of other people.

It's a marvelous thing to obey the law of increase: you reap in measure as we sow. The law of intent: you reap if you sow with right motives. The law of immediacy: you reap while you are sowing.

Now there's a fourth law, 2 Corinthians 9:12-15. We reap and others reap as we are sowing and reaping. Isn't that marvelous? We are reaping, but the law of involvement says others are reaping as we sow. Now I don't suppose many farmers would want people into their fields reaping. They guard their crop to make sure that no one steals it. But it's just the opposite with giving.

In 2 Corinthians 9:12-15, Paul says others are reaping as we are sowing: "For the administration the service, the administration of this service this offering," and that word service there is priestly service, we're giving as priests at the altar, "not only supplieth the want of the saints."

Now that's a good reason for giving, isn't it? To meet somebody's need. Here were people in Jerusalem and Judea, Christians who were hungry and naked; they needed help. Well, our giving supplieth the want of the saints, "but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God." That word abundant and abound is a favorite word of Paul's, isn't it? "While by the proving of this ministration they glorify God."

Here's a marvelous thing: others are reaping the material needs, the needs are met. Others are glorifying God and rejoicing in our giving. 2 Corinthians 9:13: "they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ." They say those Corinthians are really obedient to the word of God.

Now I have a guess—I can't prove this, but I have a suspicion that the testimony of the 2 Corinthians was not held in very high regard by these Jewish believers. And when you read 2 Corinthians and see all the problems they had, it's not hard to believe. Paul is saying, now when you give, they're going to say, praise God, praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise the Lord, those people over in Corinth are subjecting themselves to the gospel of Christ, "and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men."

In other words, Paul is saying to the Corinthians, if you want to improve your testimony with other people, be a generous, generous church. Doesn't mean you buy praise, of course not. What he's saying is by giving you are testifying your obedience to the word; in generosity you are showing you understand the grace of God.

And so you will meet the needs of others, you'll bring joy to others, you'll glorify God. And 2 Corinthians 9:14 says they'll be praying for you: "And by their prayer for you, who long after you they'll be loving you for the exceeding grace of God in you." Isn't that marvelous? One of the best ways to tie believers together is through giving and praying.

Now the Jerusalem Christians couldn't send any material help to the Corinthian church and the Corinthian church didn't even need it, but they could certainly pray for them. I recall being in a committee meeting once, we were discussing some missionary giving and one of the small-minded members of the committee said, "Well, what do these missionaries ever do for our church?" And I about fell under the table. What do they ever do for our church? Is that why you support missionaries? Is that why you give, so that they will send something back to you? I tell you, I thank God for missionaries who pray and who intercede.

Paul is saying they won't send back from Jerusalem any money to you, but they'll be praying for you and they'll be thankful for you and on top of all that, God will get the glory. 2 Corinthians 9:15: "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." Well, what is the unspeakable gift? The Lord Jesus Christ.

He talked about this back in 2 Corinthians 8:9: "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." And this closes this section on giving in which Paul has taught us that giving is a grace. Giving is an indication of our spiritual life. Giving is the thermometer that tells people what our spiritual temperature is.

Now lay hold of these four laws: the law of increase: we reap in proportion, in measure as we sow. The law of intent: we reap if we sow with right motives. The law of immediacy: we reap while we are sowing; God enriches us right now. And then the law of involvement: others reap with us as we sow.

And so our giving is the outflowing of our living. It is God-centered, not self-centered. And the great motive for giving is the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift," a gift so marvelous we've run out of words to describe it.

Well, I trust that this study has helped you in your own evaluation of life. I trust that you will from now on give because of God's grace. Don't be a mad giver who has to, or a sad giver. Be a glad giver, for the Lord loves a cheerful giver. And may the Lord help us to live by these spiritual principles so that our giving and our living will bring great glory to God.