2 Corinthians 8 (7)

Pray Psalm 128.1, 2.
Blessed is every one who fears the LORD,
Who walks in His ways.
When you eat the labor of your hands,
You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.

Sing Psalm 128.1, 2.
(Fountain: There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood)
How blessed are they who fear You, LORD, who walk within Your ways!
Rejoicing in Your bounteous Word, they prosper all their days!
They prosper all their days, they prosper all their days!
Rejoicing in Your bounteous Word, they prosper all their days!

Review 2 Corinthians 8.1-24; meditate on verse 24.

Preparation
1. What were the Corinthians to show?

2. What would that prove?

Meditation
Paul’s epistles to the Corinthians are important for many reasons, not the least of which is how they teach us to think about grace. We rightly think about grace as being a mighty work of God whereby lost sinners are converted to Him:
Grace, grace, God’s grace
grace that can pardon and cleanse within;
grace, grace, God’s grace,
grace that is greater than all our sin.

Certainly this is true, as far as it goes. But the grace of God is much vaster and simpler than this. The grace that God extends to His Church, by His indwelling Spirit and according to His Word, is holy spiritual power to do the will of God, thus making His Presence and glory known wherever it flows. This is why, in 2 Corinthians 4.15, Paul could rejoice that “grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.” Grace spreads in countless ways, most of them unspectacular.

Unspectacular, but plainly out of this world. It took the grace of God for the Corinthians to receive Paul’s difficult first letter, accept his instructions, and get busy getting back on the Yes Path with Jesus. It took grace for them to receive Titus when he came to follow-up Paul’s letter. So gracious were they toward him that his soul was greatly refreshed. By the grace of God Titus reported their progress to Paul, and he was so encouraged and so refreshed in his own soul that he wrote a second epistle to encourage and urge them on. It would take grace for the Corinthians to push ahead in their faith by fulfilling their commitment to help the churches in Judea. And only by the grace of God would they gladly accept Titus and the two others who came bearing Paul’s letter and were appointed to receive their gift.

Grace can abound in the small stuff of our lives, and the more it does, the more it creates a fragrance of life and hope. People will notice this constant aroma of grace, especially as they are touched by it, and some will ask a reason for the hope they see us (1 Pet. 3.15). Grace is proof positive, not only of our faith, but of the rule of King Jesus, advancing His Kingdom of grace on earth as it is in heaven.

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
Showering has a twofold bonus: we are clean; and our essence is an olfactory blessing to others.

Grace well-shown creates the same win/win. Everyone is blessed.

But as with everything else in the Christian walk, it demands hard work, and utmost faith in the work of the Holy Spirit in and through us, that we “may offer sacrifices of sweet aroma to the God of heaven…” (Ezra 6.10). “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12.1, 2). Do it, prove it.

“Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Eph. 5.1, 2).

“Surely” if I am a grace-spreader and love-prover like Jesus, “goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (Ps. 23.6). Surely Lord, let that be true of me.

“For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2 Cor. 2.15). Either way there is an aroma that follows us.

“Grace can abound in the small stuff of our lives, and the more it does, the more it creates a fragrance of life and hope.”

What we do remains, and it is pleasant, or it is not. Our choice. But we know for certain that the same powerful Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will dwell in us and enable us to be grace-spreaders if we ask Him to do so (Rom. 8.11, Lk. 11.13). He, too, would like to be pleased by our essence.

John wrote of a blessing God chooses to bestow on His children: “Then I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them” (Rev. 14.13). Grace-works, we pray.

Exuding, till the end, a pleasing, proof positive, aroma to God and others.

For reflection
1. What are some things that can keep you from be a grace-spreader in your Personal Mission Field?

2. When others spread the grace of God to you, do you acknowledge this by thanking them and Him?

3. What opportunities will you have today for proving the love of Jesus to the world? Are you prepared?

Paul is urging the Corinthians to demonstrate their love by the way they treat those he is sending to them. If they received them with honor, they would be demonstrating to all the other churches how far they had progressed and that the good things which were said about them were true. He is therefore encouraging their resolve, for someone who is well thought of usually shows improvement. Ambrosiaster (fl. 366-384), Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

Pray Psalm 128.3-6.
Pray that the grace of God will abound to you, through you, throughout your church, overflowing into your community, and issuing in thanks and praise to Him.

Sing Psalm 128.3-6.
(Fountain: There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood)
Their homes with happy children bloom who fear Your holy Name;
their tables and their every room declare Your glorious fame!
Declare Your glorious fame, declare Your glorious fame!
Their tables and their every room declare Your glorious fame!

O LORD, from Zion send Your peace, and prosp’rous make our ways;
thus may Your blessings e’er increase upon us all our days!
Upon us all our days, upon us all our days!
Thus may Your blessings e’er increase upon all us all our days!

T. M. and Susie Moore 

We need to pay more attention to the everyday ways grace flows through us to the world. Our book, Small Stuff, can help you realize more of God’s grace at work in you day by day. Order your copy by clicking here, or download a free PDF to put on your e-reader by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter, available by clicking here.