Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
2 Corinthians 9:1o-11 (NIV)

I confessed in yesterday’s post/podcast that I wasn’t very generous when I was young. I explained my generosity has increased with my spiritual growth and maturity. If you actually read the chapter today, you’ll notice that there is no textual separation between the end of yesterday’s chapter and the beginning of today’s. It’s like those who determined where the chapters and verses should be (btw, that happened in the early 1200s) put the chapter break smack dab in the middle of Paul’s discussion about generosity and the Corinthian believers making a financial offering to the believers in Jerusalem. So, as today’s chapter continues his discussion of generosity, I’d like to continue and dig a little deeper into my own experience of generosity growing with spiritual maturity.

I have a tat on my right bicep referencing Psalm 112. Many years ago as a young adult, husband, father, and businessman I happened upon Psalm 112 in my reading. I was at point in my life journey in which I wanted God’s blessing. I wanted to do things right, and be who God created and called me to be. Psalm 112 begins: “Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who finds great delight in his commands.” It goes on to describe a blessed man of God and it penetrated my soul as I read. This described the man I wanted to be – the man I was striving to be.

I memorized Psalm 112. I quietly began using it as a personal guidebook. Twice in the lyrics of the ancient Hebrew song it references generosity:

Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely,
    who conducts his affairs with justice.

…and few lines later…

He scatters abroad his gifts to the poor,
    his righteousness endures forever;
    his horn will be lifted high in honor.

(Note: I read and memorized Psalm 112 in an older version of the NIV translation that used masculine rather than gender neutral language. For the sake illustrating its impact on me personally at that time, I’ve quoted the older, masculine version.)

As I recited, meditated upon, and sought to live out the description of Psalm 112, I continued to run headlong into the theme of generosity not just once but twice. It was at that point in my life that I began to seriously think about and address my family heritage of Dutch frugality (and well-hidden greed), my own deep seated patterns of financial irresponsibility, and my complete lack of generosity.

Wouldn’t you know it, as Paul addresses the subject of generosity as a spiritual matter with the believers in Corinth in today’s chapter, he references Psalm 112. I love the way God connects everything.

Two observations about generosity from my meditations on the chapter this morning:

First, Paul references what I had to learn along my life journey. Generosity is a spiritual matter of the heart first and foremost. God’s Word and Spirit had to sprout and take root inside me and force me into some much needed personal cultivation and pruning. Only then, through time and process did the fruit of generosity begin to emerge consistently and with increasing abundance. Paul is referencing this same spiritual process within both the Corinthian and Macedonian believers.

Second, generosity follows a clear spiritual pattern that is rooted all the way back with the freed Hebrew slaves in Exodus when He provided for them “daily bread” in the form of a miracle food called Manna.

Here’s the pattern:

God provides me with what I need daily —>

I spiritually learn to be content with what I need (not want) —>

What I have beyond my needs, I “scatter abroad” to others —>

Note that the metaphor here of “scattering abroad” is that of a sower sowing seed. This connects to Jesus’ parable of the sower sowing the seed of the Word of God. Now, hold that thought.

My generosity produces a crop of gratitude, thanks, and praise in others that both returns to me as a gift of righteousness and spreads through the others as they grow spiritually and are inspired to become generous themselves. Their gratitude, praise, and growth is righteous spiritual fertilizer that comes back to me and boosts the yield of generosity in my own life.

Paul repeats that the result of generosity is spiritual abundance in both the giver and the receiver that then spreads to others.

I can’t help but once again contrast this with what I’ve always heard spewed by televangelists and prosperity gospel preachers. They preach that if you give (them and their ministry) money then God will bless the giver financially as if generosity is an affluent financial investment strategy. Give ME your money, and God will give YOU MORE MONEY. The focus is on the money, especially the money going into their pockets.

In the quiet this morning, I come back to Psalm 112 that I had placed as a tattoo on my right bicep because the right arm is a metaphor of blessing, and the bicep is a metaphor of strength. It reminds me daily that my strength is in being a man blessed by God; The blessed man God created and called me to be is increasingly and perpetually content, generous, grateful, and fruitful.

That is what Paul is trying to teach his friends in Corinth.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.