2 Corinthians 9 (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 9.1-15; meditate on verse 8.

Preparation
1. What is God able to do?

2. What does that do for us?

Meditation
As we have seen from the beginning of this study of 1 and 2 Corinthians, the Corinthians had misunderstood what it means to be saved. No sooner had Paul moved on from them, after nearly two years of ministry, than false teachers arrived, drawing followers to themselves, promoting the primacy of their “tribe”, splitting the churches in Corinth into competing groups, and unleashing a blight of self-interest into the Christian community. This had led to various other problems—compromises with the world, winking at scandalous sin, taking advantage of one another, abusing the Lord’s Supper, making a circus out of worship, and more.

The grace that flowed through Paul’s preaching and teaching became like spoiled manna in the souls of the Corinthian Christians. Things got so bad that they knew they had to do something. So they sent a team to Paul, seeking his counsel.

In 1 Corinthians he addressed their issues firmly but lovingly, calling them to repent and be renewed in the grace of God. They sorrowed at his rebuke, but they received it and immediately began to set matters in order, so that grace began flowing through them once again. In 2 Corinthians, having heard a good report from Titus, Paul celebrated their progress and called them to press on, specifically, in fulfilling a promise they had made to take a collection for the relief of Judean believers.

In so doing, Paul neither threatened nor cajoled. He wrote as if he knew they would do what they had promised. Grace was once again abounding in Corinth, and Paul sought to channel some of it to meet an urgent need. The Corinthians had returned to the Yes Path in Jesus, and Paul encouraged them to keep on it, looking to God to supply a sufficiency of grace for all their needs. God, He assured them, has all the grace they will ever need, and will cause it to abound to them if only they believe and obey. No good work will be denied them as they take every next step along the Yes Path with Jesus.

And that same grace is available to us every day.

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
And God is able
(even when we are profusely giving:
goods, care, concern, love, and
words of comfort and encouragement)
to make all grace,
as much as we need,
abound to us,
so that we,
always having
all sufficiency
(always having just enough—
we cannot outgive God)
in all things,
so that we may have an abundance
for every good work—
to continue giving—
because we will never run out of God’s amazing,
abounding grace.
(2 Cor. 9.8)

During a time of drought and famine, God sent Elijah to the home of a widow who, God said, would provide for him. When he got to her house, he found that she was in dire straits. She said to him, “As the LORD your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

But Elijah knew the LORD his God, and believed God, that this woman could show him grace and hospitality. So, Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD God of Israel; ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.’”

She trusted what God said to her through Elijah, and she obediently did what she was told to do. And sure enough, “The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke by Elijah” (1 Kgs. 17.9-16). Grace miraculously abounding.

“There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and
there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty.
The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself” (Prov. 11.24, 25).

“Give, and it will be given to you:
Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom.
For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you” (Lk. 6.38).

Best, then, to err on the side of abundance.
For God “has all the grace we will ever need, and will cause it to abound to us if we only believe and obey.”
Just like the obedient widow of Zarephath—abounding grace to her, in her, and through her.

For reflection
1. The more you show grace, the more you know grace. Explain:

2. What opportunities will you have today to draw on the boundless sufficiency of God’s grace?

3. We must not take the grace of God for granted. How should you acknowledge God’s grace to and through you?

If we had more faith and love, we should waste less on ourselves, and sow more in hope of a plentiful increase. Can a man lose by doing that with which God is pleased? Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Commentary on 2 Corinthians 9.6-15

Pray Psalm 128.3-6.
Thank God for the grace He abounds to you daily, in your walk with Him, your family, your church, and throughout your community. Ask Him to use you to spread His grace throughout your Personal Mission Field today.

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.