1. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Today is the third and final week of our stewardship emphasis, “Stewards Engaged in God’s Work.” Our theme is “Stewards Engaged in Faithful Giving,” from 2 Cor. 8:1–15. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Imagine sitting after church, enjoying a cup of coffee, when an elder walks up and asks, “So, how much money did you make last month?” Most of us would be surprised and respond, “That’s really none of your business!” We tend to consider our income and giving private matters. And while we may not need to share those details with everyone, Scripture teaches us that our money and our giving are not merely financial matters; they are spiritual matters.
3. The Bible has much to say about money and giving because God cares about our whole lives. From the beginning, God has entrusted His creation to our care (Genesis 1:26–28). Everything we have—including our time, talents, and possessions—is a gift from Him. We are not owners, we are stewards of what belongs to God. But here is something to remember: God does not make us His children because we are faithful stewards. He makes us faithful stewards because, through Christ, He has made us His children. Our giving doesn’t earn God’s favor, purchase His forgiveness, or secure our salvation. We are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8–10). Good works, including our giving, are the fruit of faith. The question is not whether we will be stewards, but how we will faithfully respond to the grace God has first given us in Jesus Christ.
4. In 2 Corinthians 8–9, Paul encourages the Christians in Corinth to complete a collection for struggling believers in Jerusalem. He points to the Macedonian churches, including Philippi and Thessalonica, as examples. Though they experienced extreme poverty, they gave generously and joyfully to help their fellow Christians (2 Corinthians 8:1–5). But Paul does not merely point to their generosity. He points to Jesus, the source and foundation of all Christian giving. He writes, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Jesus, the eternal Son of God, possessed all the riches of heaven. But He humbled Himself, took on our human flesh, and became obedient to death—even death on a cross (Philippians 2:5–8). He bore our sins, endured God’s judgment in our place, and rose again victorious over sin, death, and the devil (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). Jesus gives us riches far greater than anything money can buy: the forgiveness of sins, peace with God, and eternal life (Romans 5:1; John 3:16). This is the Gospel at the heart of Christian stewardship: Jesus gave Himself completely for us, and now we give ourselves and our possessions in grateful response to His grace.
5. Paul teaches us four principles of faithful giving. First, faithful stewards give cheerfully. Paul describes the Macedonians as giving with joy and of their own accord (2 Corinthians 8:2–4). They did not view giving as a burdensome. They considered it a privilege to participate in helping fellow Christians. 2 Corinthians 9:7 reminds us that “God loves a cheerful giver.” Think of a glacier covered in ice. You could spend hours trying to chip away at it with a hammer, but you would make little progress. But when the sun warms the glacier, the ice begins to melt, and the water flows freely. That is a picture of how God’s grace works in our hearts. The Law of God shows us what He commands, our responsibility to love and serve our neighbor. It also exposes our selfishness and our failure to give as we ought (Romans 3:20). We can’t simply command our hearts to become generous. But the Gospel does what the Law can’t. Through the forgiveness of sins won by Jesus and delivered to us through His Word and Sacraments, the Holy Spirit creates and strengthens faith. He warms our hearts with the love of Christ and produces the fruits of faith in our lives (Romans 10:17; Galatians 5:22–23). We don’t give cheerfully to make God love us. We give because, in Christ, God has already loved us (1 John 4:19).
6. Second, faithful stewards give generously and proportionately. Paul writes that the Macedonians’ “extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity” (2 Corinthians 8:2). Their generosity didn’t depend on how much they possessed, but on their trust in God and their love for others. Paul encourages believers to give according to what God has entrusted to them (2 Corinthians 8:11–12). In the Old Testament, God commanded His people to bring their tithes and offerings (Malachi 3:10). In the New Testament, Christian giving isn’t a means of earning God’s favor or purchasing His forgiveness. Rather, we are freed in Christ to give willingly, thoughtfully, and generously (2 Corinthians 9:6–8). We all have expenses: mortgages, cars, groceries, and family responsibilities. God knows. But He also calls us to examine our priorities. Sometimes we say the cost of living prevents us from giving generously. But we should also ask ourselves whether it is the cost of living—or the cost of our preferred lifestyle—that keeps us from giving. As stewards, we manage our resources wisely, remembering that they ultimately belong to God. We support the preaching of the Gospel, the ministry of His Church, and the needs of our neighbors because we have received so much from Him. Our generosity doesn’t put God in our debt. Instead, it acknowledges that we already live by His abundant grace.
7. Third, faithful stewards give sacrificially. Paul says of the Macedonians that “they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability” (2 Corinthians 8:3). Though they were experiencing hardship, they shared what they had. Their example reminds us that faithful giving sometimes costs us something. God deserves our first fruits, not merely our leftovers. This applies not only to our money, but also to our time and talents. Sacrificial giving means that we also make giving to the Lord a priority. We set aside our gifts for His Church and the needs of others before spending everything on ourselves. Maybe that means keeping an older car instead of buying a new one, or choosing hamburger instead of steak. We must be clear: our sacrifices do not atone for our sins. Only the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross does that (Hebrews 10:10–14). We can’t repay Him for our salvation. Instead, because Jesus gave His all for us, we are freed to give of ourselves for the good of others. Our sacrifices aren’t payments to God, but fruits of faith and acts of love toward our neighbor (Ephesians 2:10).
8. Fourth, faithful stewards give selflessly. Paul writes that the Macedonians “gave themselves first to the Lord” (2 Corinthians 8:5). Here we discover the heart of faithful giving. We can’t purchase God’s favor. Our giving flows from the faith God has created in our hearts through the Gospel. Paul expresses this beautifully in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Through Baptism, God joined us to Christ’s death and resurrection (Romans 6:3–5). Through His Word, He continually delivers the forgiveness Christ won for us (Romans 10:17). Through the Lord’s Supper, He gives us Christ’s true body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins (Matthew 26:26–28). They are gifts of God’s grace, given to needy sinners who can’t save themselves. From these gifts flows a new life. The Holy Spirit works through the Gospel to turn our hearts away from selfishness and toward love for God and our neighbor. We give ourselves to the Lord because He has first claimed us as His own. We serve because Christ first served us (Mark 10:45). We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). Our giving is not about earning God’s approval. It is about living in the freedom of those whose sins are forgiven and whose future is secure in Christ.
9. Remember these four principles of giving: cheerful, generous, sacrificial, and selfless giving. But, remember the foundation beneath them: the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We will not always give as cheerfully as we should. We will sometimes be selfish, or more concerned about our own comforts than the needs of others. When God’s Law exposes these sins, we have no excuse. We confess them honestly and turn to Christ for forgiveness (1 John 1:8–9). Jesus does not abandon us because our stewardship is imperfect. He went to the cross for sinners like us. His blood cleanses us from all sin, His resurrection assures us of our victory over death, and His Gospel continually comforts and restores us. Our salvation does not rest on the size of our offerings, the strength of our faith, or the quality of our service. It rests on Jesus, who has done everything necessary to save us (Ephesians 2:8–9).
10. As Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 8:9, though Christ was rich, He became poor for our sake, so that through His poverty we might become rich. In Christ, we possess riches that money can’t buy: the forgiveness of sins, peace with God, and the promise of everlasting life. So maybe our income and giving remain private matters among people. But they are always matters of our relationship with God, who has entrusted His gifts to us. May we faithfully manage all that He has given us, giving cheerfully, generously, sacrificially, and selflessly—not to earn His love, but because His love has already been poured out upon us in Jesus. We are saved by grace alone. We live by grace alone. And by that same grace, we are freed to give and serve our neighbor in love. His grace has been given to us in Christ Jesus, and by His grace, His love flows through us to others. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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