What people fail to see is that THEY need to give – not for God and not necessarily for the church – but for themselves. We can claim to be faithful believers, but if we refuse to give up any of our money, time, talents or possessions aren’t we being selfish? And if we are selfish then we are not truly faithful.
To illustrate this attitude Paul relates some information about some churches in Macedonia, an area north of Greece. What situation were these people apparently experiencing? What did they do? What did they plead for?
We don’t know many details about what the Macedonian churches were going through at the time of Paul. We just know that they were going through “severe trial” and “extreme poverty.” Severe. Extreme. Were they experiencing a drought? Had they been invaded by another nation? Maybe their economy had collapsed.
No matter what the problem was these people were able to give from what little they had. It may have been money. It may have been food. Whatever it was they were able to see that even though they had very little they could still be generous to others in need.
And not only that they saw the act of giving as a privilege (see verse 4). It was a gift from God that they were able to experience the joy of giving even when they were struggling.
These people put their faith in action. They lived out their faith, and we can surmise that they were able to do this because of their strong confidence in God. They knew that with God all things were possible.
We must see that even though we feel we have very little to spare God will provide for us. When we give we must see it as a privilege, a joyous thing that we can do to honor our Lord. And as we put our faith in action we must believe that God will supply us with the ability to give.
DAILY CHALLENGE: What is your attitude in giving? Do you see it as a privilege?
