2 Corinthians 9:1-5 Study Guide: Planned and Contagious Giving

Community Group Study Guide — Planned and Contagious Giving

2 Corinthians 9:1-5

Study Information:

People can often look to others for either encouragement or comparison. God reminds us in the Bible to imitate godly examples. We are to look at how other people are living out their faith and find courage and encouragement to do the same. It is wise to acknowledge the dark side of this, like when we look at others and become competitive or filled with insecurity. Many of our sin struggles can be traced back to comparison,  including the sin of pride. But think for a moment, have you seen God at work in another person’s life and been filled with a desire to do the same or to grow more in a particular area? We can think of someone sharing a testimony about victory over sin or maybe someone who has been praying for someone to come to know the Lord and God leading that person to faith. We probably do not take issue with either of those examples, but Paul wrote that he boasted about the Corinthians giving in order to encourage other churchs. What if someone stood up on a Sunday morning and we praised them for their generous giving? You’d probably feel like they were being platformed, or that it was a dangerous situation to create pride in that person, or shame in everyone else. However, Paul tells us he did that very thing with the Corinthian church and it led to contagious giving among other churches. There is obviously a difference between praising an individual and praising a whole church, but notice the core theme, when our heart posture is to imitate godliness, we find even praise about generous giving can be contagious.

Contagious Giving

2 Corinthians 9:1-2

We find out that Paul had been talking up the Corinthians to the other churches. Our text says that he was “boasting” about them and that their zeal had stirred up other churches to give more generously! I think many of us would cringe about this kind of scenario because we often think of boasting as self-serving and cannot imagine a scenario where boasting leads to greater godliness, yet that is exactly what was happening as Paul bragged about Corinth. We know that a year before this letter, the Corinthians were zealous in their giving for the offering to the Jerusalem church and Paul started to tell everyone about that. That zealousness faded a bit over that year, but more on that later. Notice in particular the church in Achaia and Macedonia responded by joining the gift with greater generosity, so much so that the Macedonians gave beyond their means (2 Cor 8:3). Hearing about the generosity of the church towards a particular mission or project can and should be contagious. We ought to fight the tendency to read into other’s motives as self serving or to react with insecurity and instead we should think “is God calling me to be part of that too?”

A modern day equivalent to this kind of boating would be hearing about how another church community generously gives to missions, crisis pregnancy centers or church planting and having that news encourage you to be part of it as well. Maybe, local churches should lovingly “brag” more about each other and their giving so we can see how God is at work in each other.

One thing to keep in mind about this kind of boasting though is that it is meant to build up others and not ourselves. Paul wrote about boasting in 2 Corinthians more than any other letter. He often wrote about how proud he was of the Corinthians, which is shocking to us as modern readers considering how much they criticized him and how much they struggled. Likewise, Paul wrote about boasting in his own weakness because that created greater dependence on God. The danger is when we boast in our own accomplishments in order to distance ourselves from others or to make ourselves “better than.” But consider, is there a benefit in being open about generosity in order to encourage others to be zealous for the work of God as well?

Arrange in Advance

2 Corinthians 9:3-5

Which is better, being spontaneous or planned? You’d probably ask, “well in what context?” When it comes to worship, 21st century American Christians can often view spontaneity as better or more spiritual. Usually we associate it with emotion or even at times the moving of the Holy Spirit. We can even have a reaction to the idea of planning or “worship” because it can feel inauthentic. However, that can lead us to a place where we only worship, pray, or read the Bible when we “feel it.” When it comes to generosity, the scripture speaks a lot about planning for it. The ancient Israelites were had planned offerings for various occasions of their lives like the birth of a child, feast celebrations and as a response to repentance from sin. They were also commanded to give of their “first fruits” so at the beginning of their harvest and not what was left over. In the New Testament, Paul taught that we were to set aside something at the beginning of each week (1 Cor 16:1-4). Likewise, we have the example in this text, of the Corinthians planning their giving a year previously, which was the cause for Paul’s boasting. Essentially they made a pledge to the Macedonian Offering, but Paul was worried they had stalled out on what they had pledged. Paul encouraged them to “be ready” and to “arrange in advance” their gift. One one hand Paul did not want them to be embarrassed when the messengers from each church arrived to collect their gift and on the other hand Paul is giving us a principle for giving that it should be thoughtful and intentional. To be clear, spontaneous giving can be a very good thing, but worship can and should be planned. Notice Pauls desire too, it is for the gift to be willing and not an “exaction (2 Cor 9:5)” This was not “godly” extortion, it was willing worship on the part of the Corinthians.

What are your generosity goals? Have you thought of ways to arrange your generosity in advance? We typically organize our finances around what is most important to us. We all have some non-negotiable things like rent, insurance, climbing gas prices to get to work and things like that. But we can be kind of flippant or casual with many aspects of our finances. What if you prayerfully considered how God is calling you to be generous this year in your giving to your local church, to godly non-profits whom you believe in their vision and in your personal relationships? Leave room for spontaneity but also arrange in advance what you’d like to give this month or this year. Give it some prayer, talk with godly mentors in your life and put into practice what the Lord has taught and put on your heart.

At your community group:

Take 15-20 minutes to share about how God has been at work in your life, prayer concerns and pray for one another.

How did God speak to you through the scripture and the sermon this week?

Discussion Questions:

2 Corinthians 9:1-5

How did Paul use the Corinthians as an example of generosity to encourage the other churches? Do you think there is a godly aspect to boasting in this text?

What are some ways that hearing godly examples can encourage spiritual growth and make things like generosity contagious? The opposite of generosity is greed, what factors play into greed?

Paul reminded the Corinthians of their commitment during a time when it appears their giving to this specific offering had stalled out. How can planning in advance help someone to stay committed to generosity?

Imagine you have a friend who came to you for advice on how to become more generous financially. They are currently giving a little begrudgingly, but don’t want to. What kind of advice would you give them from what you’ve learned so far in our giving series?