2 Corinthians 8:16-24 - How The Church Should Handle Finances

Therefore, show the proof of your love to them before the Assemblies and of our boasting on your behalf. So last week we talked about finances and giving and how giving is actually considered to be a, uh, grace. When you give financially to somebody, you are giving them grace because God has blessed you with that grace, and you are now sharing this grace with other people. So giving is

a grace. And Paul encourages the Corinthian Church to follow through on their giving, because apparently there was a collection being taken up for the Christians in Jerusalem who were going through Something, we don't know what it was, but they were going through something. They needed some money, some extra, uh, supplies. And Paul was going around to all of the different churches in the area and

collecting, uh, supplies. And so he talked about northern Greece to the Corinthians, because the Corinthians were in southern Greece, and they were in a pretty rich city, but in northern Greece, people were pretty poor. And Paul's like, they were able to give so much in spite of being so poor. So you Corinthians, who have a lot more should follow through on this gift that you already said you would give. So now Paul is encouraging the Corinthians to finish that gift to the Jerusalem Christians.

So now in verse 16, he talks about putting somebody at the head of, of this gift giving. But thanks be to God, who puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus. Don't forget, Titus had just visited the Corinthian church. And it sounds like Titus had never been there before. You know, Paul had, uh, boasted a lot about the Corinthians. He said a lot of good things about them to Titus. And then when he sent Titus down to

Corinth with that letter, he was kind of nervous. He's like, oh, man, I really hope the Corinthians live up to how much boasting I do about them. And it turns out they did. The Corinthians were awesome to Titus. And so Titus ended up getting this heart for the Corinthian church, so much so that he wanted to visit the Corinthians again and become the administrator

of these funds. So Titus was going to go to the Corinthians and help them put a collection together and then take these finances, this gift, this donation from the Corinthians to Jerusalem, verse 17. For Titus indeed accepted our exhortation, but being himself very earnest, he went out to you on his own accord. So Titus definitely had this in his heart. He really wanted to do this with the Corinthians. And this just shows how kind the

Corinthians really were to Titus. They must have truly accepted him with open arms in order for Titus to actually want to go back and, uh, finish out this giving that the Corinthians said they would do. So verse 18 says, we have sent together with him the brother whose praise in the Good News is known throughout all the assemblies. And we have no clue who Paul is talking about there. Paul maybe could be referring to

himself. Possibly he could also be referring to Timothy, who was a very good friend of Paul's and Titus's. He could also be referring to Silas or Barnabas even, or Luke, who we know traveled with Paul on occasion. So we don't know who Paul is referring to here when he says this brother is going with Titus. But, uh, it was definitely somebody that all of the Assemblies knew about.

Verse 19. Not only so, but he was also appointed by the Assemblies to travel with us in this grace which is served by us to the glory of the LORD himself and to show our readiness. So, yeah, Paul was most likely not talking about himself here because this brother, whoever it is, Paul specifically says traveled with me. So obviously Paul couldn't be talking about himself. So, yeah, we don't know who this brother is, but he wanted to go with Titus to Corinth to help

with this collection that they were doing. And by the way, when you see, uh, the word brother or sister being used in this context in Scripture, it's not talking about like a sibling. Like, this isn't Paul's brother. This would be a brother or sister in Christ. Even to this day, many churches actually still do that. They will call their church members brother or sister. So for example, somebody would be like, oh, sister Jen, how are you today?

And that would be like your name in that church is like Sister Jen, if your name happened to be Jen. So. So, yeah, that is the context of brother or sister in Scripture. But anyway, this is an unknown brother traveling with Titus. It says in verse 20, we are avoiding this, that any man should blame us concerning this abundance which is administered by us. So in other words, Paul wants everything to be as out in the open as possible. He does not want anything being

hidden. He does not want people potentially blaming him, as if, you know, Paul and his fellow apostles are just taking this collection for themselves. He wants to be very transparent with everything. And that is something, I think that is very healthy in a church, is to be transparent with finances. Even Paul right here says that the reason he is being transparent with these finances is to avoid any blame

concerning the abundance. So he is being very clear who he is sending, what they are doing, and how much they are taking to these Christians in, uh, Jerusalem. They're being very transparent about everything. And unfortunately, there are a lot of churches nowadays that are not very transparent with their finances. And you can kind of know if a, uh, church is unhealthy, if they are hiding what they are doing

financially. Even Paul right here says it is good to be transparent with finances because that will help avoid any kind of blame. And it will also keep the Titus and This other brother. It'll keep the people overseeing these finances also on guard so that they don't do anything silly with those finances, so they aren't tempted to steal or to do something that they shouldn't do with other

people's money. So transparency in a church when it comes to finances is very healthy, and it's very good as well, just for the sake of the people giving and also for the people handling the finances that they don't do something silly with those finances. The more transparent everything is, the less they're going to be able to

hide, if that makes sense. And not to mention, transparency also helps to avoid confusion, because even if, you know, somebody is not doing something illegal or wrong with finances, that could open, uh, up a lot of problems in the future, like if finances accidentally go missing or something along those lines. People could get blamed for something they did not do because they weren't being transparent with where

that money was going. Now, that being said, does the church have to write down every single thing that they do and where every single penny goes? Not necessarily, but I do think that there should at least be openness with the congregation as to where the congregation's money is, in fact, going. So much of this fund is going to missionaries. So much of this fund is going to help, uh, build a different part of our church. So much of this fund is going to children's ministry or something like that.

That's very helpful. And that helps the people in the congregation feel more confident and comfortable when they give that. Their money is not just going into somebody's pocket, though, of course, pastors and leaders should be paid in the church. But people also want to know that their money isn't just going into pockets. It's going into something beneficial and something helpful that they really, uh, feel connected to. So that is why transparency in the church is good.

Verse 21. Having regard for honorable things, not only in sight of the LORD, but also in the sight of men. So Paul actually considers these gifts to be honorable things. They are something to be treated with care, not just in the sight of men, but also in the sight of God. Because Paul ultimately knows that every single thing that they do, God sees. Every single thing that we do, God sees. God says, He tells us, if you are faithful with the little things, you're going to be faithful with bigger

things. So God actually tests our faith with the little things that He gives us, very small, menial things. And if we can't be faithful in those little things, why would God give us more? We have to be faithful in those little things as well. And even Paul understands that, that he's not just being blameless for the sake of other people, but he wants to be blameless in the eyes of God mainly.

We have sent with them verse 22 our, uh, brother, whom we have many times proved earnest in many things, but now much more earnest by reason of the great confidence which he has in you. So once again, I think Paul is talking about this brother that we don't know who he is. For some reason Paul did not mention his name. And it is not important, I suppose, in the grand scheme of things. But for some reason it is important to know that Titus also

participated in this collection. As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for you. As for our brothers, they are the apostles of the assemblies, the glory of Christ. Therefore show the proof of your love to them before the assemblies and of our boasting on your behalf. So these apostles work side by side with Paul throughout all the different assemblies. And I love that Paul calls the assemblies the glory of Christ. That is ultimately what the church is. The church is the glory of

Christ. The church is supposed to express God's glory to the earth. If you guys have been following along with me in the Old Testament side of stuff, you'll know that Israel was supposed to be the glory of God back in the Old Testament. They were supposed to show God's glory to the entire earth. And Israel did such a poor job, such a poor job at, ah, showing God's glory

to the rest of the earth. And now the church has that same task where we are supposed to spread God's glory to the earth so we can be like the Israelites, not spreading God's glory, sinning, doing terrible things, accepting, um, worldly stuff to come in to corrupt us. We can do that or we can actually express the glory of God the way we are supposed to. And one way we can do that is by being more honest with our finances and giving as well. Though there is no command in the New Testament

to specifically give. There is an interesting thing that Jesus says to a ah, Pharisee. This is Matthew 23:23. Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You give a tenth of your spices, mint, dill and cumin, but you have neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former. In other words, Jesus himself told the Pharisees, yes, you should tithe, because what

is he talking about? Here he's saying, yeah, you guys tithe to the, to the tiniest little degree, all of your spices and everything in your herb garden, but you don't even do the important things of the law like showing justice or showing mercy or love or faithfulness to other people. Jesus tells them, practice the latter, show love, show mercy, and show faithfulness without neglecting the former. In other words, without

neglecting the tithes. I think a lot of people nowadays are kind of the opposite of the Pharisees in a sense where they kind of want to just go to church to hear a message about love or mercy or tolerance or something like that, but then they forget the whole tithing aspect. It's almost like they're the opposite of the Pharisees. When push comes to shove, they won't give, they won't give their time, they won't give their finances, they won't give anything. And Jesus tells the Pharisees, you must

do both. You must show mercy, you must show kindness, show faithfulness, but don't neglect the tithes either. But going back to 2 Corinthians, this entire chapter is talking about how giving shows grace to people, shows God's grace to people, and how it is actually healthy for us to give. Alright, faithful listeners. Well, my voice is absolutely killing me again. Uh, so I am going to let you guys go with a happy listening and God bless. I will see you guys actually tomorrow

morning. I don't plan unless I get, like, really sick. I don't plan on not doing an episode tomorrow, but, uh, hopefully my voice sounds a little bit better. All right, faithful listeners, once again, happy listening and God bless.