Open hearts and open hands: reconciliation and the collection in 2 Corinthians 6-9

These chapters belong to the first, warmer section of 2 Corinthians (chapters 1 to 9), written from Macedonia in about AD 55 or 56. Paul had written a severe letter after a painful visit, and had waited anxiously for Titus to bring news. When Titus arrived, he reported that the Corinthians had repented and were eager to restore their relationship with Paul (7:5-7). Chapters 6 and 7 are Paul's reply to that good news.

Chapters 8 and 9 deal with the collection for the believers in Jerusalem, which Paul raised in several letters (1 Corinthians 16:1-4; Romans 15:25-27; Galatians 2:10). Jerusalem Christians had suffered poverty, and Acts 11:28-30 records an earlier famine relief. At the Jerusalem meeting, the leaders asked only that Paul remember the poor, which he was eager to do (Galatians 2:10). Paul saw the collection as more than charity: Gentile churches would share their material goods with Jewish believers from whom they had received spiritual blessings (Romans 15:27), and the gift would bind the two parts of the church together.

The Corinthians had begun the collection a year earlier (8:10; 9:2) but had let it lapse during the quarrel with Paul. He now sends Titus and two brothers to finish it before he arrives with Macedonian delegates. Whether chapters 8 and 9 were originally one letter or two, and whether 6:14-7:1 was inserted by Paul or an editor, are matters on which scholars differ, and this class reads the text as it stands.

Chapters 6 to 9 are practical, but they are tied to the theology of the earlier chapters by the word 'grace' (charis), which appears about ten times in chapters 8 and 9 and means at once the gift, God's undeserved favour and thanks. Paul's appeal for giving is not a request for money but a gospel appeal: the Corinthians have received grace, and so they are to do likewise.

Two cautions help. First, 6:14-7:1 is difficult. It interrupts the flow between 6:13 and 7:2, and it uses Old Testament quotations from Leviticus 26:12, Isaiah 52:11 and 2 Samuel 7:14 to command separation. Some scholars think Paul inserted an earlier fragment, others that it belongs here and warns against sharing in pagan cult worship, as 1 Corinthians 10:14-22 does. The context of idolatry in Corinth makes the second view reasonable, and it does not require a ban on all contact with unbelievers, which Paul rejected in 1 Corinthians 5:9-10.

Second, the promises in 9:6-8 about reaping and sufficiency were spoken in a particular setting, to a church asked to give for the relief of poor believers. They are statements about God's care of the generous, not a formula for personal wealth. The class reads the verses in the light of the whole letter, where the apostle is poor, afflicted and content.

Chapter 6

Having called himself an ambassador in 5:20, Paul now appeals as God's fellow worker not to receive God's grace in vain (6:1). He quotes Isaiah 49:8, a promise of help to the Servant, and says that 'now is the day of salvation' (6:2). He gives no cause for offence in anything, and commends himself in a great list: endurance, afflictions, hardships, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger (6:4-5); then by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech and the power of God (6:6-7); and in a series of paradoxes: as unknown yet well known, dying yet alive, sorrowful yet always rejoicing, poor yet making many rich (6:8-10). His heart is open to them, and he asks for their hearts in return (6:11-13).

In 6:14-7:1 he commands: do not be yoked unequally with unbelievers. The image comes from Deuteronomy 22:10, which forbids yoking an ox with a donkey. Five questions follow, setting righteousness against lawlessness, light against darkness, Christ against Belial, believer against unbeliever, and the temple of God against idols. We are the temple of the living God, and God's promise to dwell and walk among his people comes from Leviticus 26:11-12. The command is to come out and be separate (Isaiah 52:11), and the promise is that God will be a Father to them (2 Samuel 7:14). The chapter division is misplaced, since 7:1 belongs to this section and speaks of cleansing every defilement.

Chapter 7

The thread of 6:13 resumes with Paul's plea that they make room for him in their hearts. Paul has wronged no one. When he came to Macedonia he was afflicted, with fighting outside and fears within, but God comforted him by the coming of Titus (7:5-7). Even if his letter grieved them, he does not regret it now, because they grieved in a godly way. Godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret, while worldly grief produces death (7:8-10). Paul lists the fruits of their repentance: earnestness, eagerness to clear themselves, indignation, alarm, longing, zeal, and readiness to punish wrong (7:11). His boasting about them to Titus has proved true (7:14).

Chapter 8

Paul moves to the collection by pointing to the churches of Macedonia. In a severe test of affliction their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity (8:1-2). They gave beyond their means, begging for the favour of taking part in the relief of the saints, and first gave themselves to the Lord (8:3-5). He urges the Corinthians to excel in this act of grace as they excel in faith, speech, knowledge and love. It is not a command, but a test of the sincerity of their love. The reason is given in 8:9: 'For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.'

He gives advice, not a command (8:10-12). The gift should match what one has, not what one lacks. The aim is fairness, a balance, so that their abundance now supplies the need of others, as written in Exodus 16:18 about the manna: whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack (8:13-15). Titus, with a brother praised by all the churches and another, will carry the gift, so that no one may blame Paul for how the large sum is handled; he is concerned to do what is honourable not only before the Lord but before people (8:16-24).

Chapter 9

Paul has boasted to the Macedonians that Achaia was ready since last year, and sends the brothers so that his boast will not prove empty (9:1-5). Then the principle: 'whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously' (9:6). Each should give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver (9:7; compare Proverbs 22:8 in the Greek Old Testament). God is able to make all grace abound, so that having enough in everything they may abound in every good work (9:8). Paul quotes Psalm 112:9 of the righteous man: he has scattered abroad, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures for ever (9:9). The result is a harvest of righteousness, enrichment for generosity, and thanksgiving to God from those who receive. The gift supplies the needs of the saints and overflows in many thanksgivings, and those receiving it will long for and pray for the givers because of God's surpassing grace (9:12-14). 'Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!' (9:15).

The central theme is grace, which Paul presents as God's gift in Christ that awakens a gift in return. The model is 8:9, the self-giving of Christ, which stands with Philippians 2:5-8. The Macedonians show how grace works in the poor: they give themselves first to the Lord and then to Paul by the will of God (8:5).

The collection also expresses the unity of the church across Jew and Gentile. In Romans 15:27 the Gentiles are in debt to the Jews for spiritual things, and in Ephesians 2 the two are made one in Christ. The passage sets out a theology of material goods: wealth is given by God for sharing, according to the manna principle of Exodus 16, so that no one has too much or too little (8:15).

The call to holiness in 6:14-7:1 builds on the Old Testament idea of God dwelling among a separate people. The church is the temple of the living God (compare 1 Corinthians 3:16 and Ephesians 2:21-22), so holiness is the fitting response to God's presence. God's promise to be a Father to his people (2 Samuel 7:14) is applied to all believers, sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty.

The clearest verse is 8:9. Christ was rich, in the sense of his pre-existent glory with the Father, and became poor by his incarnation and death, so that by his poverty believers might become rich. The language of rich and poor describes the incarnation and the cross, and it is the same movement as Philippians 2:6-8. Paul uses it to ground the practical command: the giving of the Corinthians is a copy of the giving of Christ.

In 6:15 Paul asks what harmony there is between Christ and Belial, and in 6:16 the church is the temple of the living God in which God dwells. This takes up the promise of Leviticus 26:11-12 and Ezekiel 37:27 and says it has come true in the church. The pattern of God dwelling among his people is fulfilled in Christ (John 1:14; 2:19-21) and in his body.

The 'indescribable gift' (9:15) is most naturally Christ himself, or God's saving grace in him, which stands behind all giving. Isaiah 49:8, quoted in 6:2, is spoken to the Servant, and Paul reads its day of salvation as the present time of the gospel. In 7:6 comfort comes through Titus, which echoes God's comfort in the afflictions of Christ (1:5).