{"id":6285,"date":"2020-12-09T00:00:21","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T14:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=6285"},"modified":"2020-12-07T08:03:58","modified_gmt":"2020-12-06T22:03:58","slug":"6285","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2020\/12\/09\/6285\/","title":{"rendered":"Give for God’s Glory"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Corinthians 8:18-19 With him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel.<\/span> 19\u00a0<\/sup>And not only that, but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us, for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our good will.<\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Paul does not name the “brother” whom he is sending with Titus. It is ironic that this brother is “famous among all the churches” yet Paul does not name him here. Perhaps Paul forgot his name or assumes the Corinthians know who this is. What is strange about this is that Paul lists so many names in his letters yet does not name this brother here. It is also possible that the name is not as important as what this brother has been and will be doing in this situation. This brother is famous for his preaching of the gospel. There are people like that today who are good preachers. They explain the gospel well and people respond. The danger such people face is when they let it “go to their head” and begin to think that they are great because of how people respond to them. It takes great humility when given this great gift of good preaching.<\/p>\n

This brother was appointed to assist Paul and his companions with this offering. Paul knew the need for accountability with this large of funds. There was also safety in numbers, so traveling together would help assure that the money arrived in Jerusalem. By having someone famous like this as part of the group, Paul also would keep a strong connection with various churches, in particular, with the Corinthians.<\/p>\n

Significantly, Paul repeats again the word “grace” and calls this collection for the churches in Jerusalem an “ministry of grace.” The word “ministry” is related to the English “deacon” and refers to helping, taking care of, or serving. This offering was a great ministry to those in need in Israel. Many ministries become easier and more effective with more people involved in them.<\/p>\n

This ministry would bring glory to God, not to the givers or messengers. All of our giving should be done to bring God glory and not to make ourselves look good before others. Jesus gave us this principle in Matthew 6:3-4, “3\u00a0<\/sup>But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,<\/span><\/span> 4\u00a0<\/sup>so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Giving to others also shows our goodwill and willingness to be partners with them. We join them on their journey. Even when people are far away on the other side of the world, our giving joins us to them. This is a significant principle in giving to various needs and ministries around the world. There are so many needs. We need to pray and ask God for how we can join with certain people or ministries. Whatever we do or how ever much we give, it must be done for God’s glory and not our own.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For older posts, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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2 Corinthians 8:18-19 With him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel. 19\u00a0And not only that, but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us, for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6285"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6299,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6285\/revisions\/6299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}