Wednesday after the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on September 25, 2024 by under
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:1-9 (NKJV)
8:1 Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia: 2 that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. 3 For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, 4 imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. 5 And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God. 6 So we urged Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also complete this grace in you as well. 7 But as you abound in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us—see that you abound in this grace also.
8 I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
Devotion
The second epistle to the Church in Corinth changes the tone of the Apostle toward that congregation. St. Paul expressed retrospective thanksgiving for all that God has given him and the Corinthians in his ministry of reconciliation in the first epistle and chapters 1-7 of this letter. Then he turns to the task which will be the expression and confirmation of the reconciliation between him and this church. To accomplish this, Paul holds up the example of the Macedonian churches, who in their poverty and affliction gave beyond their means—because the grace of God moved them to faithfully give themselves to the Lord and to His Apostle.
These Macedonian Christians are an amazing example to the Corinthian believers, and to the Church in every age, of the dynamic difference that God’s grace makes in the lives and attitudes of His people. When men give themselves, their temporal wealth is sure to follow. The Apostle will not command them, though. He reminds them of what they already know—the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, who became poor for the enrichment of men, and so provides them with the pattern and the power for their own giving.
Collect: Lord, we beseech Thee, grant Thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow Thee, the only God; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
