II Corinthians 8:1-6:
8:1But we make-known to you, brothers, the grace of God, the (grace) having been given2 in the churches of Macedonia, .2that in much proof of pressure the excess of their joy and their poverty according to depth exceeded into the wealth of their singleness .3because, I witness, self-choosingly according to ability and against ability .4with much encouragement (they were) supplicating us (to allow them to help with) the grace and the sharing-in-common of the ministry, the (ministry) into the holy-people, .5but not according as we hoped but they firstly gave themselves to God and to us by means of (the) intention of God .6with-a-view-for us to encourage Titus in order that according as he began-in (this) beforehand thus also he may fully-complete this grace also into you;
Paul again addresses these holy-people (sanctified-people, Christians, saints, children of the only true God) who were in Corinth and the surrounding area of Achaia as "brothers"! Were all of them the natural/biological brothers of Paul and those with him having the same mother and/or father? No. Or was he referring to his "race" or "nationality"? No. This brotherhood was not based on their fleshly genealogy, nor because of what color of skin they had, nor because they were all male or all female, not even because they lived in the same part of the earth. The reason they were brothers was because all of them had believed what God says regarding Himself and His son, the Lord Jesus Christ (refer to Romans 10:8-13), and therefore they received the gift of holy spirit. All of them had the same spirit of Christ within them and they all had the same hope of glory to come. Paul is referring to the truth in the holy spirit category of their being brothers because God was their Father. This is also true of all holy-people today.
Grace is what is freely bestowed without any merit on the recipient's part; it includes reference to the attitude and quality of the one giving something favorable to another. Grace is not bestowed because somebody deserves a wage that is owed for something they said or did, nor because they begged so hard, nor because they forced the giver to give! Grace is bestowed because the giver wants to give by his own freedom of will to the recipient - it is completely unmerited favor from the giver to the recipient.
Here in Second Corinthians 8:1, Paul writes: we (myself and those with me) make personally known to you Corinthian and Achaian holy-people, brothers, the grace of God (God's grace) which has been given and is still given in the churches of Macedonia (among the assemblies of people called out from other people because they belong to God, they are His children living in the area of Macedonia):
Why? Because – I (Paul) bear witness (attest with the information that I personally have about these people and therefore I state with authority) that:
…they were at that time supplicating us (expressing their lack of something specific and their need of help from us, communicating their needful-request to us, which was) to allow them to help with…
…of the ministry into the holy-people. The ministry into the holy-people is the duty of service to benefit other holy-people, not 'being-subject' to them but doing work to bring profit to them, the day-by-day ministerial-duties, the functions of service for God and the Lord Jesus Christ directed to other Christians.
The grace that these Macedonian holy-people wanted to help with was to freely bestow material/physical things to other holy-people. The sharing-in-common of the ministry into the holy-people was not a sharing whereby the giver of what is shared is cut-off from that-which is shared as soon as he gives it, and then the recipient has it all – but, sharing-in-common is whereby the giver and the recipient share the same thing, even though the giver actually gives from what he has available to himself to give to the recipient.
This occurred, not according as Paul and those with him had expected to come to pass at some future time-period, but on the contrary, it happened because the Macedonian holy-people firstly (first in place or sequence) gave themselves to God. Some Greek texts have the word “Lord” here instead of “God”.
The Macedonian holy-people did what? They firstly willingly presented themselves, their whole beings, everything they were, to God in the service category. They recognized that God is number one, not themselves, nor was Paul nor any of those in company with him to be thought of as being in first place. God was to Whom they gave themselves first. After that they gave themselves to Paul and those with him – how? By means of the intention of God (through God's will). It was God's will (His active volition and desire) that they would give themselves to Paul and those with him.
Firstly they gave themselves to God in the service category and then they found out what the will of God was, which was that they ought to give themselves to Paul and those with him. This truly is the correct way that Christians ought to live: firstly give ourselves to our Father Who is the only true God, and we find out what God's will is regarding giving ourselves (which includes our things, our abilities, our time, etc) to others. There is not to be a certain dogma of activity which someone or some committee decides as to how everybody else ought to do it, as though it must be done in such-and-such a way, or that they ought to give to such-and-such a person or organization, or to keep everything for themselves, or to give everything they have away so they are left with nothing!
Paul writes that the Macedonian holy-people: …firstly give themselves to God, and to myself and those with me by means of the intention of God with a view that we would encourage Titus (exhort him) for the purpose and result that, according as he has already started within the grace of giving into you, in this manner also he would fully complete this grace also into you (he would bring this grace from the Macedonian holy-people to its ultimate ending-issue, which is to give it to you).
At the time when Titus would bring this second letter which Paul was writing to the Corinthian and Achaian holy-people, he would also bring with him what the Macedonian holy-people gave to Paul and those with him to be given to those in Corinth and Achaia. What a wonderful example the Macedonian Christians were to all: God first, then hear what He says, believe what He says, and then do what He says!
[Reference: Acts 2:44 and 45, 4:32-37, 11:29 and 30; Romans 12:7, 8, 13, and 15:26-28; I Corinthians 16:1-4; Hebrews 13:16.]
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True Bible Study - Second Corinthians
