6So we urged Titus that as he had previously made a beginning, so he would also complete in you this gracious work as well. 7But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also.
Paul dispatched Titus (possibly the one to hand-deliver this letter) to help the Corinthians prepare for the apostle’s coming and the collection project he was promoting. As noted previously, Titus had been there before (2 Cor. 7:13), and now will “complete … this gracious work.” Presumably Titus had previously brought up the idea of financial giving to help the poor, suffering believers in Jerusalem. Now was the time to move beyond talk and into action.
The contrast would not have gone unnoticed: the Macedonians, in the midst of great trials and persecutions, were quite generous in their giving. How would the Corinthians, who enjoyed a certain amount of prosperity, respond to the need? Paul, being the master appellant, weaves a persuasive case for generosity. Rather than flatly commanding generosity in a legalistic sort of way, he appeals to them to live up to the standard to which they had already attained! We have no reason to believe Paul is inflating his estimation of them, but he is certainly focusing on the positive in them, despite all their failings.
Building on what he wrote to them in his first letter (“…in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge” 1 Cor. 1:5), Paul affirms that they “abound in everything.” In particular, he prefaces their “utterance and knowledge” with faith. Despite their carnal failings, they are a faithful people, and they responded wholeheartedly to Paul’s love for them. It seems that the Corinthians became quite effusive in their responsive love to Paul. So, then, the apostle tells them to abound effusively in their giving.
Twice, giving is called a “gracious work” (see also 2 Corinthians 8:1, where the giving of the Macedonians was termed a “grace of God”). Nowhere in the NT are Christians called to give a tithe, the 10 percent standard of the OT. The Macedonians may have given more than that—is that what Paul meant when he said they gave “not as we had expected” (vs. 5a)? Rather, giving comes from the context of a complete, 100 percent giving of ourselves to the Lord (vs. 5b), with an attitude of giving of our “own accord” (vs. 3), in other words, because of inner motivation rather than out of external pressure. A “gracious work” can only flow from a life filled with the knowledge, understanding, and experience of God’s grace. Anything else falls far short of the glory of God.
Lord, help me be a channel of Your grace as reflected in generosity to others.
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