(1) Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; (2) How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. (3) For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves; (4) Praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. (5) And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God. (6) Insomuch that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also. (7) Therefore, as ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also. (8) I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love. (9) For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
The Apostle opens the Chapter with a very high commendation of the liberality of the Churches of Macedon, which is Philippi. And to be sure, what he saith of those people, gives one a very delightful idea, how truly the grace of Jesus must have wrought upon their minds. But Paul shows the foundation of all that love, and zeal, when tracing it to the source: they first had given themselves to the Lord, and therefore, they might well give of their substance, or even if needful, the whole of their substance, to the Lord's poor family. I do entreat the Reader to attend to this, for it is in my view most interesting. Neither do I find in the whole Bible, anything which throws a clearer light, on what may be called the true spirit of the Gospel. If God the Holy Ghost, when regenerating my fallen nature, opened to my spiritual apprehension, a full sense, of the nothingness of everything out of Christ; and of the fulness, and all-sufficiency, in Christ; so as to make me out of love with all but Jesus; and Jesus, and his people, became all that was dear to me: what is there, after such views, that a child of God could count dear, or withhold from Christ; in his distressed members?
I cannot do a single act, either of praise, or of service, to shew my attachment to Christ. My praise, cannot add to his glory, no more than my tears could swell his sea. And the services of men, or angels, do not benefit God. So that Christ in his Person, is beyond the reach of all receiving. But Christ in his poor members, is capable of receiving, even the cup of cold water; and hath declared, that the act, when done with an eye to Him, is costly in his view. But it should seem, that notwithstanding everyone who reads his Bible knows this, and believes it; yet perhaps no man, from the beginning of the world to this hour, ever did, fully, and upon every occasion, act up to it. At least, I plead guilty for myself; I have not. And I would go on pilgrimage many a mile, to see the follower of Jesus who hath; and who in every circumstance of life, hath been invariably acting up to this principle!
But, when the Reader hath carried this doctrine to the highest extent the imagination can conceive; and pictured to his view some beautiful representation of a child of God, beholding Christ in everyone of his members, and acting up to that view, in taking part in all their distresses; let him call off his attention, to what the Apostle hath here said, of Jesus himself; and lose all recollection of tenderness, and compassion, in the members of Christ to one another, in contemplating the Son of God, as Paul hath represented him. Ye know (saith he) the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor; that ye, through his poverty, might be rich. Reader! pause over the wonderful account! We were before considering, the greatness of that man's mind, that in the consciousness of the love of Christ, and an interest in Christ, could give of his substance to any extent, to the relief of any of Christ's family; and take no account of his possessions, from an attention to Christ and his people. But when we look at Jesus, who though Lord of all, became servant of all: who though Lord of heaven and earth, and rich beyond all calculation of riches, yet made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant; and became poor, that his redeemed, through his poverty, might be made rich: this is a precedent unheard of, an example unparalleled; and which leaves at an infinite distance, all that can be mentioned of liberality, in the whole creation of Genesis and can be said of none but Him, who is One with the Father over all God blessed forevermore. Amen!
Reader! do not hastily pass away from the wonderful subject. Think of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was rich. Yes! so rich, that as God, all divine perfections were his, in common with the Father, and the Holy Ghost. And, as God-Man, in him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. All government His, in his Universal Empire and Dominion; through all the departments of nature, providence, grace, and glory. All things were made by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. All these were, and are, His by right, by possession, essentially and truly his own, underived, eternal, and unchangeable. Now behold his vast humiliation. Though he was thus rich, beyond the utmost imagination of riches; yet, for our sakes, he became poor. So poor, that he had not where to lay his head. He was despised and rejected of men, a man or the man of sorrows; as if, and which was in reality the case, no sorrow, nor all the sorrows of the human state, could be brought into comparison with his, Lamentations 1:12
And all this, that his people through his poverty might be made rich. And, what tends to enhance the mercy still more, is the persons for whom this love of Christ was thus shewn. Not angels, nor holy men, but sinners, and those of the deepest dye; yea, enemies of God, by wicked works, who had done no one thing to merit divine favor; but done everything to merit divine displeasure. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us! Reader! do you know this grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? Many read of it. Many talk of it. But Paul tells the Church of the Corinthians, that they knew it: that is, God the Holy Ghost had taught them to know it, in the blessed effect of it upon their souls, by regeneration: by which they knew the truth of it: and their interest in it. For having been once desperately poor, and ruined by sin; they knew themselves now immensely rich, in Christ, both my Reader know it, and from the self-same cause?