An Apostle pleading for Liberality in Giving.
If you will glance at the context, two things appear on the surface of it: first that St. Paul is very anxious to obtain a handsome contribution from the Church at Corinth; and secondly, that he is just a little doubtful about succeeding in his endeavour. When we find him dwelling on the subject for two whole Chapter s together, placing it in a variety of lights and making his appeal to every conceivable motive, the very accumulation of arguments inclines us to suspect that a great effort was required in order to evoke the generosity of the Corinthian Church. We do not usually waste our strength where there is no obstacle to be overcome. And there is some confirmation of this view in the fact that the Apostle declined to be indebted for his own personal maintenance, or for any part of it, to this particular Church. To some of his converts to the Philippians, for instance he was not too proud to be beholden. But from the Church at Corinth he would accept nothing, and the reason probably lay in the difference of temper and character between the two Christian communities.
I. Let us now see how St. Paul sets about accomplishing his object. He begins by informing the Corinthians of what the Churches of Macedonia had done in the matter. He does not hesitate for a moment to stimulate the sluggish benevolence of the wealthier Church by narrating to them what the poorer Churches have done. He proposes an example of liberality worthy of imitation.
II. He points out that there ought to be a proportion maintained among what may be called the component parts of the Christian character. The inner and the outer should keep pace with each other. "See that ye abound in this grace also."
III. He disclaims all intention of exerting anything like compulsory power. There is in Christians a deep, underlying love to their Master, and love to those for whom their Master died; and if you can succeed in touching this spring in setting this motive free to act you have more than half accomplished what you are attempting to do.
IV. In the last place, the Apostle speaks of an equalisation in the material condition of Christian people. Inequality in the present condition of being enters into the Divine plan respecting the people of Christ. But it is the object of Christian benevolence to counteract this inequality as far as possible. The Corinthians had fulness, the Hebrew Christians had emptiness. It was the duty of the Corinthians, then, to restore the balance.
G. Calthrop, Penny Pulpit,new series, No. 840.