2 Corinthians 8:12

GOD’S ESTIMATE OF A WILLING MIND

‘If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.’

2 Corinthians 8:12

It might seem to a superficial reader of the Holy Scriptures—and are there not too many such?—that the matter which the Apostle has here in hand is of very little general interest. The topic seems at first sight to be something purely local—the success of a collection which St. Paul was making for ‘the poor saints at Jerusalem.’ But when we consider that he devotes two Chapter s (8 and 9) to this one subject, and that he deals with the question of almsgiving as he deals with other definite Christian duties, enforcing it as such with a variety of unanswerable arguments, we feel that what seemed at first a purely local matter assumes at the touch of inspiration vaster proportions, and must become an important element of Christian teaching in every age of the world’s history.

I. The Apostle’s argument for Christian liberality is based partly upon lower grounds and partly upon higher; partly upon what we may call material considerations and partly upon spiritual.

(a) None felt more than St. Paul the value of Christian liberality as creating and developing a bond of sympathy between the Jew and the Gentile. Consequently it was his invariable habit to stir up the spirit of liberality amongst his converts. (See 1 Corinthians 16:1, and Acts 24:17) Gloriously prominent in his teaching and in his actions did St. Paul keep the doctrine of Christian membership. ‘As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ’ (1 Corinthians 12:12).

(b) But in addition to the general consideration of the development of a bond of sympathy, comes the particular consideration, and a very material one it is, of the example already exhibited by the Churches of Macedonia (2 Corinthians 8:1).

(c) The Apostle had made some boast of their forwardness and zeal, and now was not unnaturally anxious that his words concerning them and their liberality should be proved true. These were the three leading material considerations upon which the Apostle of the Gentiles based his appeal for Christian liberality. There were other and more weighty considerations. The spiritual considerations are one by one advanced.

(d) First there stands in all its attractive loveliness the example of Him Who ‘though He was rich,’ etc. (2 Corinthians 8:9).

(e) With the thought of the blessed Saviour still in his mind, and perhaps recalling his commendation of the widow who offered her mite (St. Mark 12:41), St. Paul emphasises the standard of Divine approval, viz. ‘the willing mind’ (2 Corinthians 8:12).

(f) There is presented the marvellous analogy of the natural world, the sowing and the reaping being not disproportionate but proportionate (chap. 2 Corinthians 9:6).

(g) The Apostle enumerates in a few choice words an entire group of collateral considerations—the awaking of thanksgivings to God, the promptings of persistent prayer, the manifestation of the ‘professed subjection unto the Gospel of Christ,’ etc., summing all up with a final outbreak of holy gratitude for God’s unmerited mercy to our ruined race—‘Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift’ (chap. 2 Corinthians 9:12).

II. An unchanging principle of the Divine economy.—We shall see that our text, besides being a part of an important whole, is the whole of several important parts of that Divine scheme and system of things in which our lot is cast and with which our faith is concerned.

(a) The fact that God’s estimate of a gift is in relation to the mind of the giver, is a fact for the knowledge of which we cannot be too thankful. The ‘willing mind’ and not the money’s worth is that upon which God sets highest value. It is within the power of the poorest to match with a penny the gold of a millionaire!

(b) The doctrine is true of other things besides money. It is true of life and the service which God looks for from His people. To an aged Christian, whose ‘strength is to sit still,’ the doctrine of the ‘willing mind’ is very full of comfort. It tells him that the Master he serves is no Egyptian task-master, demanding ‘the tale of bricks as when there was straw.’ It certifies him of the truth of the Psalmist’s words: ‘He knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust’ (Psalms 103:14).

(c) And if to the aged Christian the text utters a whisper of welcome solace, to the youthful warrior, bending it may be under sometimes irksome restraint, it offers a word of needful encouragement. ‘Under other conditions’—how often earnest-minded youth has fancied—‘I could effect great things and produce grand results.’ The text steps in with a wonderful power to soothe a chafed and irritated mind. Dreamland is forsaken, and circumstances are accepted and made the best of, as God’s estimate of a willing mind is taken into due account.

—Rev. G. T. Harding.