Today it is common for Christians to engage in fund raising to meet the need for material supply. Often, fund-raising letters are sent out to encourage Christians to give. If you compare these fund-raising letters with what Paul has written in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, those letters will be exposed as being worthless. Compared to what Paul has written, they are altogether lacking in value, life, and spirit. For the most part, they do nothing more than urge others to give money. In a sense, in these chapters Paul is engaged in fund raising. But his way of handling material needs is absolutely in the Spirit and full of life, altogether different from the practice of today’s Christian organizations. Paul does not merely talk about money; he speaks concerning the grace of God in a way that is full of life and the Spirit. Paul’s writing in these chapters has considerable spiritual weight.
If we read 8:1-15 carefully, we shall see that grace here involves four parties: God, the giving ones, the apostles, and Christ. Thus, we may speak of a fourfold grace—the grace of God, the grace of the givers, the grace of the apostles, and the grace of Christ. Actually, Paul is not merely raising funds. Much more, he is seeking to stir up the saints to participate in the ministry to the needy ones. In order to participate in such a ministry to supply the needy saints, we need a fourfold grace.
In 8:1 Paul mentions the grace of God given in the churches of Macedonia. This grace is the resurrected Christ becoming the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) to bring the processed God in resurrection into us to be our life and life supply. Grace is actually the Triune God becoming life and everything to us. By this grace the Macedonian believers overcame the usurpation of temporal and uncertain riches and became generous in ministering to the needy saints.
On the day of Pentecost the believers put all their possessions together and had all things common. Acts 2:44 and 45 say, “And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.” They practiced what may be called a communal life. This practice continued in Acts 4: “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common” (v. 32). Throughout the centuries many believers have appreciated the communal life in Acts 2 and 4 and have also tried to have all things common. A certain group in north China practiced this kind of communal life. Anyone who joined that group had to agree to give up his material possessions and have everything in common. However, the communal life in Acts did not last very long. Even as early as chapter six, problems began to arise, and not too long afterward that communal life was discontinued. In the writings of Paul we can see that the communal life described in Acts 2 and 4 was no longer in practice. From Paul’s Epistles we see that the proper Christian living is not a communal living, a living of having all things common; it is a living by grace. This grace comes from four directions; from God, from Christ, from the apostles, and from the saints.
Continuing his word about the grace of God given in the churches of Macedonia, in verse 2 Paul says, “That in much approvedness of affliction the abundance of their joy and the depth of their poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.” The Macedonians were in affliction, in suffering. That affliction was a test to them of how much they could be approved by God. This is what Paul means by approvedness in affliction. Whenever we are in affliction or suffering, we should realize that God is testing us to prove where we are and what we are. The result of that testing in affliction, in suffering, is approvedness. If we are able to withstand the test and are approved by God, the result will be the approvedness of affliction. The Macedonians were in that kind of situation.