2 Corinthians 9
v.2-4
For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. 3But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be. 4For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to say anything about you—would be ashamed of having been so confident.
v.6
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
v.7
Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
v.8
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
Specifically, as an expression of his grace, God is able to provide for his people whatever it is they need in order to provide for others. Giving to others is simply what trusting in God’s promises looks like in a different dress. As a consequence of these promises, believers will always have “all that you need” (autarkia; lit., “contentment”; cf. 1 Tim. 6:6 and a related adjective in Phil. 4:11), a virtue that the Cynics and Stoics of Paul’s day prized as well.
Since our giving is an expression of God’s having already given all things to us, we must follow Paul’s lead by focusing on God’s grace as the basis for giving. This entails Paul’s lead by focusing on God’s grace as the basis for giving. This entails resisting the cultural temptation to turn the necessity of giving into a voluntary opportunity “to do something great for God.” Giving to others should not become yet another way of contributing back to God for what he has done for us. God does not need our money to further his causes. He is not dependent on us. God gives out of his sovereign self-sufficiency and love, not in order to receive back, as if he needed anything (Acts 17:24-25). Nor should we give “in order to show God how thankful we are.” Our job is not to prove our sincerity to God… Giving is an act of faith in response to God’s grace. As such, our giving is not a decision to participate in the projects of the church, but an expression of the fact that we are the church—that is, that we belong to God and hence to one another.