2 Corinthians 9:15

The Gift of all Gifts.

2 Corinthians 9:15. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. This exquisite and resistless outburst of thanksgiving for that gift, which not only transcends all our givings, but originates them all, is as sublime as it is suitable in closing the whole subject of this collection on which the observations of Stanley are so admirable, that, long as they are, they will be acceptable to the reader:

Note “the great stress laid by the apostle on the contribution of the Corinthian Church. He had warned them to have it ready (1 Corinthians 16:1-4); he had ‘boasted' of their preparations, making the most of it that he could to the churches of Macedonia; by that boast the Macedonian churches had chiefly been stimulated to make exertions, which by the time that he wrote this Epistle had been very great, almost beyond their means. He now devotes a whole section of a very important Epistle solely to this subject; he sends Titus, the most energetic and fervent of his companions, with the express view of urging the completion of the collection; he joins with him two Christians, distinguished for their zeal, known through all the congregations through which he passed, tried by himself in many difficulties, messengers of many churches, ‘the glory of Christ Himself.' He heaps entreaty upon entreaty that they will be ready, that they will be bountiful. He promises the fulness of God's blessing upon them if they persevere. He anticipates a general thanksgiving to God and Christ, and an ardent affection for them from those whom they relieve; he compares the contribution to no less than the gifts of God Himself, as though it were itself an especial gift of God, and could only be expressed by the same word (‘grace,' ‘blessing'); he utters solemn thanksgivings to God for the teal which Titus showed in the matter, and for the unspeakable gift' itself. Finally, when, on arriving at Corinth, he found the gift completed (Romans 15:26), it determined his course to Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:3-4), in spite of his ardent desire to visit Rome and Spain (Romans 15:23-24; Romans 1:10-11), and in spite of the many dangers and difficulties of which he was warned upon his road; for the sake of taking this contribution, he was ‘bound in spirit,' he was ‘ready to die for the name of the Lord Jesus' (Acts 20:22-23; Acts 21:4; Acts 21:10-13); and if he should succeed in finding it ‘acceptable,' then, and not before, he could ‘come with joy,' and ‘report himself' with the Christians of the west (Romans 15:32). With so little information as we possess, it is perhaps impossible to arrive at any certain knowledge of the reason which invested this contribution, especially the Corinthians' part of it, with such importance. The most probable conjecture is, that having been expressly charged as a condition of his separate apostleship to the Gentiles with making this collection for the Jewish Christians (Galatians 2:10), he was doubly anxious to present it, especially that part of it which came from the capital of Greece, from his own chief and favourite church, especially converted by him, and the place of his longest residence in Europe. He regarded it both as a proof of his influence over them, and their real conversion to Christianity by him (Acts 21:19), not less than as a peace-offering (Romans 15:31 Gr.) from the greatest of the Gentile churches to the greatest of the Jewish, as a recognition of the spiritual blessings which had proceeded from Jerusalem (Romans 15:27). His ardour in the cause thus belongs to the same impassioned love for his country and people, which shows itself with hardly less vehemence, though in a more general form, in the Epistle to the Romans: ‘I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren's suites' (Romans 9:7); ‘My heart's desire and prayer to God is, that they might be saved' (Romans 10:1); ‘Hath God cast away His people? God forbid; for I also am an Israelite' (Romans 11:1-2).”