Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 2 Corinthians 9:6-11
“The discussion of the use of 2 Corinthians 8-9 by the prosperity gospel teachers in Africa has revealed to me that this text is essentially adduced to motivate Christians to give one’s possessions in expectation of financial prosperity. In this context, material goods are seen as a right to be claimed and enjoyed by believers providing that they remain willing to give them out for the advancement of God’s work on earth.
The principle of seed sowing and reaping is largely involved in the above hermeneutics. Laws are formulated and backed up by quotations from 2 Corinthians 8-9 to teach the believer how to activate this general principles of reaping and harvesting drawn from Paul’s farming imagery in 2 Corinthians 9:6-11. In most cases, the concept of seed refers to money…it is emphasized that one must sow one’s seed in order to have a harvest, which means financial prosperity and other opportunities of success and promotion in one’s life…
The centrality of the concept of grace unanimously emphasized throughout the history of the church is badly missing in the prosperity gospel discourses… we must conceptualize Christian giving in terms of responsibility, gratefulness, and trust that God is faithful to His promise to take care of His children however the circumstances might be…the Christian is constantly challenged to appropriate Christ’s mind in his propensity to self-giving in order to serve and save humans.”
Viateur Habarurema in Christian Generosity according to 2 Corinthians 8-9: It’s Exegesis, Reception, and Interpretation Today in Dialogue with the Prosperity Gospel in Sub-Saharan Africa (Carlisle, UK: Langham Monographs, 2017) 317-318.
Habarurema lectures full-time at Protestant University of Rwanda and pastors part-time. I would love to try to meet him when my travels take me to that part of the world to collaborate on contextualizing biblical generosity materials for Africa.
This was a thought-provoking book. Habarurema started with the biblical text, looked at how it was understood in antiquity and through church history and then determined that grace was the missing piece in prosperity theology. Brilliant work!
Those who are looking for hope and help latch on prosperity theology because they are trying to do something to change their situation. It offers them an answer: give money to God and your change write a new future for yourself.
Before pointing fingers at the Africans or any others in the majority world for adopting such thinking, we must look in the mirror. We must consider, in the words of Habarurema, if our giving is “transactional” at all, which is giving to get.
All people wrestle with this. Sometimes people give to get accolades. Other times they expect some return from God for their giving. But the key point to notice is that as soon as giving becomes transactional for us, grace goes out the window.
I learned last week that my book, The Sower: Redefining the Ministry of Raising Kingdom Resources is being translated into Kinyarwanda, the native language of Rwanda. Only now do I understand the excitement about this.
The Sower addresses a core challenge there, namely, that the aim of Christian workers is to move beyond raising up gifts and instead to focus on growing sacrificial and generous givers. This is about moving beyond transactions to transformation.
From this study we have learned that “grace” must remain the key ingredient in our own lives to grow as a cheerful giver and to help others grow too. Also, to avoid the trappings of our situations we must fix our eyes on the self-giving example of Jesus.
If you would like a copy of The Sower in English, Chinese, Spanish, or Romanian in PDF form, reply to this email, and I will freely share it with you. It will help you discern the calling and work of the sower and equip you to grow givers with grace.
You will notice the header photo changed. Our faithful friend of 13+ years, Joy St. Clare, has been slowing down. I had no idea when I was having my daily office yesterday morning and writing this post that she was in the last hours of her life.
She passed away peacefully in our presence at 10:45am. Since “grace” was my key takeaway yesterday and what we will need to navigate a time of grief, I will turn the focus of the next series of posts to giving thanks for God’s grace and for Joy.