Sermon Thoughts: Compelled to Give

So I thought that I'd start doing a (brief) post every Monday or so that talks about the previous Sunday's sermon at church. I admit to selfish motives; doing this will hopefully make me absorb more than I normally do on a Sunday night by lazily drifting through the sermon and doing the odd bit of thought about bits that draw my attention. If other people get something out of it as well, that would be very encouraging (not to mention helpful for justifying my time expenditure in blogging!)



Rather than summarise the whole sermon (not very useful for anyone), what I'll do is pick up a particular thread and talk about it. So, without further ado:

24 July 2011: 2 Corinthians 9 - 'Sowing and Reaping'

2 Corinthians 9 is one of those passages that can be much maligned. If it's not being used to drum up support for the annual church fundraising drive ("we're not asking you for your money, but it is our God-given joy to give cheerfully, and we are several thousand dollars behind budget..."), it's being hijacked to sell prosperity gospel. I'm not sure that any of the people who may be reading this blog give much credence to that particular Western theology-myth, and there are no end of fairly devastating critiques of it around courtesy of [insert favourite Reformed pastor/theologian here], so I won't say any more about it. What I would like to talk about is the point made in the sermon that generosity cannot be compelled.

This idea comes from verse 7: "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." So we're not legalists; we don't set giving targets for Christians, and the strength of one's faith isn't determined according to the amount of money one gives away.

However, the rest of the passage, along with the general bent of Scripture, indicates a strong endorsement of generous giving. So what we've got is the idea that as a Christian the content of your decision in this area isn't prescribed - you should do 'what you have decided in your heart' - but it's also indicated that a particular kind of content (generous giving) is better than other kinds of content (selfishness). That is, it's better to decide in your heart to give generously than it is to decide in your heart to be selfish. It's not so much that you should give generously (that would be compulsion), but that you should want to give generously.

The weird thing about this idea is that it's a command not to do differently but to desire differently. By saying that you should want to do something, you're being told not to reform your actions (relatively easy) but reform your attitudes (way harder). After all, any rich, selfish mean guy can try to buy absolution with a big gift to the poor, while still remaining a rich, selfish mean guy. You don't need God for that, and God knows it. But in the end, isn't the directive to desire to give generously really a compulsion to give?

Well, I think the 'should want' idea is what Scripture is getting at when it tells us that we're being made into the likeness of Christ (Rom. 8:29, 1 Cor. 15:49, 2 Cor. 3:18). When we're told to desire certain things, it's because they're exemplified in Christ. He, after all, was generous even with his life. And Scripture also makes it clear that it's not us that does the transforming - it's God (Romans 8:29 again). So the command to desire certain things and ways of doing things is really just a function of God transforming us into the likeness of His Son.

I think this means that being commanded to desire to give isn't a form of compulsion. In fact, it doesn't make much sense to talk about compulsion to give at all. Yes, in one sense we have to be generous as Christians. But that's not because of a law or a command. It's because part of God's work in us is transforming us into the kind of people for whom being 'compelled' to give just doesn't make any sense. Generosity is just a natural function of God's transformative work.