[This is Week 5 of a 5-week preaching series on 2 Corinthians.]

Week 5 (August 9, 2020)                   

Preaching text: 2 Corinthians 8:1-15; accompanying text: John 13:31-35
Theme: Generosity 

As we have seen, Paul’s ministry was about a “word” of reconciliation that could only be authentically embodied in a life of “service” freely given for others. Thus, an important dimension of his apostolic work of spreading the gospel to the Gentiles was raising funds, in turn, from among the Gentiles for the poor among the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.¹

Central to Paul’s appeal to Corinthians to give to the Jerusalem collection is the theme of “grace” -- God’s freely given gift, which flows within and through us on to others -- although the significance of this theme is obscured by the fact that the Greek word charis is translated in a number of ways in chapters 8-9 (e.g., as grace, blessing, generous ...