The Macedonians were severely tested but their response to affliction was abundance of joy. Their response to extreme poverty was overflowing generosity.

Their heart was to give beyond their means. They considered it a gift, God’s grace on them, to be able to give to others.

Paul says he’s not commanding them to give, but he is strongly encouraging them in giving generously. He had instructed them in his previous letter to lay aside something each week to save up for a gift to give other believers. He says that was a year ago. Now, they are going to be collecting that gift, and it’s sounding like Paul wants to make sure they don’t fail at the task.

He reminds them of Christ’s gift to them and that giving is according to what you have, not based on what you don’t have.

Any one of us can look at others and see what they have that we don’t. The majority of people in the world don’t own cars or homes. Yet, those with cars and homes look at those with bigger homes and newer cars and can think as if they are lacking.

We need to see what we have and see it as what we have to share. It’s actually the poorest who are the most generous and the wealthy who are the least generous when you think about giving out of what you have. Jesus points out the generosity and faith of the widow putting in her pennies. That was the heart that blessed God and that woman’s faith was recorded to bless millions for centuries. And she had no idea.

Paul also points out that giving is not meant to be one-sided. Believers in poor countries should be just as eager to give as believers in rich countries.

Finally, they take great care that the money will be watched over by an appointed and approved team so everyone will trust what will happen with the money. They want to appear honorable to man and not have any appearance of evil.