NOTES for Co2 9:1-15

The Apostle Paul, like a loving father, is concerned for the Corinthian community that he founded. With touching paternal affection, he boasts to the Macedonians of their zeal in helping the Jerusalem church, yet at the same time he worries that this praise might prove empty. He earnestly asks the brothers who assist him to go to Corinth in advance and prepare everything, “so that your previously announced blessing may be ready as a blessing, not as an exaction”—this is how the Apostle explains the brothers’ early arrival in Corinth (5). To encourage the Corinthians, Paul writes how necessary this ministry is: it “not only supplies the needs of the saints [members of the Christian community in Jerusalem—I.Sh.], but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God” (12).

The Apostle Paul also wants the ministry in which they are actively participating to become God’s blessing for the givers themselves. The more generously you give, the richer you become. A free and unforced gift, according to the Apostle, is like a seed that will bear fruit in its time. And “whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (6). Through this simple paradox, Paul reminds the Corinthians of the mystery of the presence of God, who is powerful enough to enrich everyone with grace (8).

We always think that before we can give, we must first receive something. The apostle Paul reverses this logic: it is given only to the one who gives. In this he follows Christ perfectly: in the Gospel of John, Jesus says very similar things. Do you want eternal life? Give up the life you have. Do you want the Father's reward? Begin by serving.

The Christian charity is well known in the world. However, not only Christian: such a practice is familiar to the Jews and to the Muslims also. But there is between the Christian charity and the charity of the Jews or the Muslims an essential difference: unlike the Jewish or Islamic charity, the Christian charity is a purely voluntary thing. Certainly not the slightest, it is understandable by the fact that Christianity, as it is sometimes called, is "a religion of love", and love supports no constraint, no "obligation". But the problem is not apparently all the same only in the relations of mutual love binding Christians between themselves. The problem probably is that Christianity is not at all a religion, but just a life in the Kingdom. Life, which is not regulated by any rules and rituals, but the commandments given by God. And the commandments in the long run should become not an external regulation, even if they are voluntarily accepted, but rather this spiritual rod, which will organize the whole life of man from the inside, and not from the outside. With such a life, of course one can’t speak about any compulsory charity, because to regulate the charity would mean, in fact, regulating the help to the neighbor, and life in the Kingdom not only doesn’t need such regulations: they are simply impossible inside it. It is not accidentally that the apostle quotes the psalm about "the giver with pleasure", who "God loves". Indeed, joy for the good, done for the neighbor, is only possible in the Kingdom and by the laws of the Kingdom, by the laws of the not transformed world the genuine joy is possible only when you are being helped. Of course, the helper, even in the not transformed world can receive from his help a famous moral satisfaction, but not for the good he did to the neighbor, but the secondary circumstances accompanying such an action (the feeling of gratitude deeply expressed by the person swamped with benefactions of the help, the approval of the society, even the pleasure caused by the feeling of the fulfillment of the religious duty). But if the helper of the next neighbor feels in addition to that a real joy, then he has been touched by the breath of the Kingdom. And Paul, understanding very well that, calls to the charity not as a tiring religious duty, but as the demonstration of the relations of the Kingdom. Relations, without which there is no Christianity.

Paul presents arguments traditional in Judaism, rooted in the equally traditional understanding of poverty—first and foremost as a spiritual condition rather than a material situation. At first glance, it may seem that he is speaking of exchanging material goods for certain spiritual ones, even for salvation. The Savior Himself sometimes said things that appeared similar at first glance, as when He proposed that the rich young man who came to Him should distribute his earthly wealth and receive another, heavenly treasure in return. But in reality it is not so simple. This is not a straightforward exchange of one kind of wealth for another; it is rather a refusal to acknowledge as one's own what belongs to one. Nor is the issue merely the relative nature of property rights as such—something that has no place when speaking of the Kingdom. It is about a person's attitude toward what they consider their own.

What do we put into the concept of “our own”? Do we use it for something that belongs to us by right, something deserved, earned, and lawfully acquired? Or are we speaking of something given to us for our use, perhaps even for life, but only for our use? With regard to property, we all understand perfectly well—if, of course, we take the trouble to think about it even briefly—that it has been given to us for our use, if only because we will not take it with us when we leave this world. With things such as knowledge, talents, or abilities, the situation is often less obvious, at least at first glance, because much or all of what has been listed seems to belong to us inseparably. With regard to knowledge, for example, many are convinced that they achieved everything themselves.

But a person who has become poor in the spiritual sense understands that this does not belong to them either—at least not until they have become their true self, and one can become one's true self only in God's presence, which certainly does not depend on the person at all. A person truly possesses only themselves; everything else is given to them only for a time and can never replace what matters most, what God alone can give. In such a situation, owning or possessing anything is no more than an illusion. When a person parts with this illusion, they cease to regard their riches—whatever those riches may consist of—as their own. They have been given to the person for use and can easily be passed on to others if that is better for everyone. Shared. Donated. In short, relinquished in one way or another: given away completely when material goods are concerned, or made the possession of others to the same degree as one's own when knowledge, talents, or abilities are concerned.

And every church community, insofar as it lives as people are meant to live in the Church with a capital C, must likewise be ready to share everything it has with those in need. Not because one “must” or because it is “required,” but because otherwise God's breath, the breath of the Kingdom, will not be able to breathe freely in that community—just as it cannot breathe freely in the heart of a person who is not ready to share. This is what Paul is reminding the recipients of his letter.

What is God's regard towards the human wealth? It would seem according to the Old Testament, that everything is clear: God blesses the wealth of people, desirable to Him. That is the rich are desirable to God. However Jesus, turns rather to the side of poor people (" a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven."), this is especially visible in several parables. But here Apostle Paul speaks again about wealth as being a gift of God. What’s it? Maybe it is necessary to understand these words in a figurative, spiritual sense? But no, Paul speaks exactly about material things, and we should not spiritualize this sentence at once.

Let's analyze. The prophets of the Old Testament already rebuked rich people in Israel for their unmercifulness. And Jesus opposes not against wealth itself, but against the way people behave towards it and how they use it. Apostle Paul continues on the same line: wealth, granted by God, always has a purpose - good works, and The Gospel invites us especially to such works.