Luke Timothy Johnson: The Alternation of Attentive Care

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For if the readiness is present, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For this is not for the ease of others and for your affliction, but by way of equality — at this present time your abundance being a supply for their need, so that their abundance also may become a supply for your need, that there may be equality. 2 Corinthians 8:12-14

“Equality here is not the erasing of differences but the alternation of attentive care. The manner of giving, therefore, should not be by exaction, but by a response to the gift of God. Thus, the motivation Paul gives his Corinthian congregation is not based on the ideas of friendship or egalitarianism, but on the gift of God. They are to give because God has given to them. They are able to give because they have first received. It is not only that God loves a cheerful giver, or that God will sustain them in life and given them even greater prosperity when they give generously. No, their gift, ultimately, must be based on the gift given to them.”

Luke Timothy Johnson in Sharing Possessions: What Faith Demands, second edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011) 103.

The interaction with Northern Seminary students has been warm this weekend despite the frigid cold outside in Chicago (pictured above). One student talked at length about how “sharing is caring” which made me think about how sharing our abundance becomes their supply and also our way of showing care to others in need. This led me to read an excerpt from Johnson’s classic scholarly work on the topic.

People get intimidated by the word “equality” in Paul’s correspondence with the Corinthian church regarding the function of their sharing with the starving saints in Jerusalem. Some mistake it for socialism or communism dictated by exaction. Johnson, however, unpacks how equality portrays Christianity in it’s purest form. “The alternation of attentive care” reflects the “love one another” generosity aspect of our faith.

Some days we get to give. Other days we receive. Thus, “the alternation of attentive care” is not about taking care of friends, but about showing the world we are eager to share with others in the family of God in gratitude for God’s care for us. As you think with me about “abundance” this year, ask yourself what you possess in abundance that could be shared attentively with fellow believers in need.

Share with them how you’d like them to share with you if you were in need.