In verse 6 Paul continues, “So that we entreated Titus that, even as he began before, so also he would complete in you this grace also.” Grace here denotes the act of giving. The word “also” indicates that besides this grace, the grace of giving, there were other graces completed by Titus among the Macedonian believers.
In verse 7 Paul says, “But just as you abound in everything, in faith, and in word, and in knowledge, and in all earnestness, and in the love which is in you from us, see that you may abound in this grace also.” Here Paul speaks of “the love which is in you from us.” This indicates that the love which was in the believers was infused into them from the apostles.
In verse 7 grace is the act of love shown in the giving of material things to the needy saints. This grace of the believers is the issue of the grace of God motivating them. In the fellowship concerning the ministry to the saints, the apostle refers to the grace of God given to the Macedonian believers to motivate and enable them to give with liberality, the grace of the apostles allowing the believers to participate in the ministry to the needy saints, and the grace of the believers to minister the material things to the needy ones. This indicates that the believers’ offering of material possessions to the Lord for any purpose should be absolutely a matter of grace, not of maneuvering.
In verses 8 and 9 Paul goes on to say, “I am not speaking by way of command, but proving through the earnestness of others the genuineness also of your love; for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, being rich, for your sakes He became poor, in order that you by His poverty might become rich.” It is a grace to us that the Lord Jesus, being rich, became poor for our sakes. In the same principle, it is a grace to others that we would sacrifice our material riches for their sakes.
Apparently the Lord Jesus becoming poor has nothing to do with the ministry of material supply to needy saints. Actually, if the Lord Jesus had not become poor, we could not have Him as our grace. Suppose the Lord Jesus had never come into humanity. How, then, could He be our life? How could He be the grace working within us, motivating, strengthening, and supplying us to carry on a ministry to the needy saints? This would be impossible. It is crucial for us to realize that Christ can work in us today because He became poor. His becoming poor for our sakes should be an example. On the one hand, He is the life within us; on the other hand, He is the pattern, the example, outwardly. The life of the Lord within us is the life of the One who, being rich, became poor. As such a One who is both our life and our pattern, Christ is grace to us. We need to receive grace from the Lord Jesus. Then this grace will enable us to do what the Lord Jesus did: to become poor for others. Even though we may be in deep poverty, we still have something to share with needy saints. We have the life within to become poor for others, and we have the outward pattern to follow. Let us receive this grace.
If we give by such a grace, what we give will become grace to others. We give material things to help them, but these material things are accompanied by a spiritual grace. When we supply needy saints with material things in the proper way, in spirit and with life, life and spirit go with this supply. As a result, the needy ones are supplied not only with material things, but also with the riches of life.
In this message we have pointed out that to have a ministry to needy saints we need to receive grace from God, from the apostles, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Receiving this threefold grace, we can then supply others with a material gift in grace. Whatever we do in giving to others will not simply be a ministry of material things to take care of the needs of the saints, but will also be a supply of life to them. In this way, we communicate spiritual riches to those needy saints. This kind of giving is needed among us today.
Our material gifts should be spiritual, full of life, and able to edify the saints and build up the Body of Christ. This requires that when we give some material things to the Lord, we should have the assurance that we are doing it in spirit, with life, and for the building up of the church. This kind of giving is the issue, the result, of being fully reconciled to God. Only those who have been reconciled to God in full can have a ministry of material things that brings to the needy saints a supply of life for spiritual edification and for the building up of the Body of Christ.