Over the years, I have received some very thoughtful and generous gifts. When you are on the receiving end of a gift like that, it is so encouraging to realize that the gift-giver just wants to give generously and quietly and finds joy in meeting the needs of others. When they give in private, they may not be seen by men, but Jesus assures such people that their Father who sees in secret will himself reward them (Matt. 6:4). Paul was encouraged by the generosity of the Macedonian churches, and he told the Corinthians about the example that the Macedonian churches had set: “We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us” (2 Cor. 8:1-5). 

Paul was in the process of taking up a collection from the churches in Greece to take back to the churches in Jerusalem who were suffering from a severe famine. He praised the Macedonian Christians for the way they gave generously to the cause in the midst of their poverty. But their greatest act of giving was not financial and it happened before they had given any money at all: “they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.” There is no amount of money we could give that could substitute for giving ourselves—our heart, our affections, our entire lives—to the Lord. But once we have given him our lives, then we find it easy to give in other ways too.

While he was on the topic of generosity, Paul did not miss the opportunity to point his readers to the greatest act of generosity ever: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). Christ left the glories of heaven for a time to come and suffer on our behalf so that we could be co-inheiritors with him. This is the greatest act of love, the greatest act of grace. Our giving is just one more way to be like Jesus, who gave us so much.