Paul says that they had received the grace of God because they accepted the word of faith devoutly.

Having encouraged the Corinthians with these praises, Paul now turns to exhortation once more. He wants to encourage them to give alms, but instead of saying so directly, he prepares the ground by talking about the highest things first.

By the grace of God Paul means the possession of every good thing. He is not excluding the role of free will by saying this but teaching that every good work is made possible by the help of God.

Although the Macedonians were short of material resources, their souls were rich, because they ministered to the saints with a pure conscience, trying to please God rather than men.

Some are poor in material terms but rich in their simplicity. They would rather give than receive.

The affliction of the Macedonians did not lead only to sorrow but also to great rejoicing and generosity. Paul said this in order to prepare the Corinthians to be noble and firm in their sufferings. For they were not merely to be afflicted, they were to use their afflictions as a means of growing in joy.

This is the height of praise, for in affliction they remained calm and in the depths of poverty they gave generously of what they had.

Because they gave themselves to God wholeheartedly, they wanted to offer even more than their strength allowed.

The greatness of the Macedonians can be seen from the fact that they gave voluntarily, in spite of their poverty.

Because the Macedonians were offering more than they could afford, Paul was inclined to refuse their contribution, fearing that hardship would later cause them to reconsider their good deed. But because they showed themselves to be of such character that they stood firm, with a pure mind in the confidence of faith, attaching more importance to the promises for the future than to immediate rewards in the present, in the end it seemed right for him to accept their contribution.

Not only did the Macedonians give voluntarily, they insisted that Paul take what they had to offer. Their actions prove just how much they desired spiritual gifts.

By giving themselves to God first and then to their fellow believers, the Macedonians demonstrated their sincere desire to be made perfect. Paul quoted their example in the hope of persuading the Corinthians to do likewise.

The secret of the Macedonians’ zeal was that first, they gave themselves to the Lord. Everything else flowed from that. As a result, when they showed mercy they were not filled with pride but rather displayed great humility and heavenly wisdom.

The words not as we expected refer not to the Macedonians’ willingness to give but to the amount which they gave.

Paul was sending Titus to Corinth to encourage them to imitate the Macedonians. The presence of Paul’s esteemed disciple would doubtless have been a great encouragement to them to give.

Paul is exhorting the Corinthians to take pride in these things in the sight of the other churches, for if they are keen to minister to the saints it is proof that they have mended their ways.

Paul is not ordering the Corinthians to send money to those who are suffering want but encouraging them to do so, demonstrating that they have the right attitude toward God and others. In return for their generosity they will undoubtedly receive a reward.

Notice how Paul humors them and avoids all offensiveness. He is not violent or compulsory in his tone, even though it is quite clear what he expects.

Paul is saying that Christ was made poor because God deigned to be born as man, humbling the power of his might so that he might obtain for men the riches of divinity and thus share in the divine nature, as Peter says. He was made man in order to take humanity right into the Godhead. Therefore Christ was made poor, not for his sake but for ours, but we are made poor for our own benefit.

If you do not believe that poverty is productive of great wealth, think of the case of Jesus and you will be persuaded otherwise. For if he had not become poor, you would not have become rich. By riches, Paul means the knowledge of godliness, the cleansing away of sins, justification, sanctification, the countless good things which God bestowed upon us and which he intends to bestow.

Listen, now, to something about riches in answer to the next inquiry in your letter. In it you wrote that some are saying a rich man who continues to live rich cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless he sells all he has and that it cannot do him any good to keep the commandments while he keeps his riches. Their arguments have overlooked our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who departed long ago from this life. It is a fact that all these had extensive riches, as the Scripture faithfully bears witness, yet he who became poor for our sakes, although he was truly rich,^[1] foretold in a truthful promise that many would come from the east and the west and would sit down not above them nor without them but with them in the kingdom of heaven.^[2] Yes, the haughty rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and feasted sumptuously every day, died and was tormented in hell. Nevertheless, if he had shown mercy to the poor man covered with sores who lay at his door and was treated with scorn, he himself would have deserved mercy. And if the poor man’s merit had been his poverty, not his goodness, he surely would not have been carried by angels into the bosom of Abraham who had been rich in this life. This is intended to show us that on the one hand it was not poverty in itself that was divinely honored nor that riches were condemned but that the godliness of the one and the ungodliness of the other had their own consequences.

What human being could know all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ and concealed under the poverty of his humanity? For, being rich, he became poor for our sake that by his poverty we might become rich. When he assumed our mortality and overcame death, he manifested himself in poverty, but he promised riches though they might be deferred; he did not lose them as if they were taken from him. How great is the multitude of his sweetness which he hides from those who fear him but which he reveals to those that hope in him! For we understand only in part until that which is perfect comes to us. To make us worthy of this perfect gift, he, equal to the Father in the form of God, became like to us in the form of a servant and refashions us into the likeness of God.

If, then, we keep in reserve any earthly possessions or perishable wealth, the mind sinks down as into mire and the soul inevitably becomes blind to God and insensible to the desire for the beauties of heaven and the good things laid up for us by promise. These we cannot gain possession of unless a strong and single-minded desire leads us to ask for them and lightens the labor of their attainment. This, then, is renunciation, as our discourse defines it: the severance of the bonds of this material and transient life and freedom from human concerns whereby we render ourselves more fit to set out upon the road leading to God. It is the unhindered impulse toward the possession and enjoyment of inestimable goods. . . . In short, it is the transference of the human heart to a heavenly mode of life. . . . Also—and this is the chief point—it is the first step toward the likeness to Christ, who, being rich, became poor for our sake. Unless we attain to this likeness, it is impossible for us to achieve a way of life in accord with the gospel of Christ. How, indeed, can we gain either contrition of heart or humility of mind or deliverance from anger, pain, anxieties—in a word, from all destructive movements of the soul—if we are entangled in the riches and cares of a worldly life and cling to others by affection and association?

And why does the appellation poor man disturb you? Remember your nature—that you came into the world naked and naked will leave it again. What is more destitute than a naked man? You have been called nothing that is derogatory, unless you make the terms used really applicable to yourself. Who was ever hauled to prison because he was poor? It is not being poor that is reprehensible but failing to bear poverty with nobility. Recall that the Lord, being rich, became poor for our sakes.

Therefore, it is proper to the Son alone mercifully to have received the form of a servant. That taking up of the form of a servant pertained to the person of God the Word. It did not with resulting confusion pass into the divine nature. Therefore, that taking up of the form of a servant, according to which the Son of God, who is the Lord of all things and in whom dwells all the fullness of divinity, became a true and complete human being, took away from him nothing of his divine fullness. It took away nothing of the power, because in that one person remained without confusion a divine nature and a human nature. Hence it is that in one and the same Christ both the truth of the human nature shone forth and the eternal immutability of the divine nature remained. Neither was anything diminished in him at all or changed which he had by nature from eternity, through that which he received from time. In his exterior aspect, he became a servant, but he did not cease to be by nature the Lord of all things. According to the flesh, he became poor; nonetheless, according to his divinity, he remained rich. Hence it is that the blessed apostle asserts that Christians have been enriched by his poverty, saying, For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich. He would in no way have made us rich by his poverty if, having become poor, he did not have in himself the riches of his divine nature. He became poor according to the form of a servant; he remained rich according to the form of God.

But in this the truth is also shown to be what was written, that Jesus Christ, although he was rich, became a poor man. Therefore, for this reason, he chose both a poor mother, from whom he was born, and a poor homeland, about which it is said, And you, Bethlehem, you are the least among the tribes of Judah^[1] and the rest.

Paul knows and respects their willingness to help, but the time has now come for that willingness to be translated into action.

Paul is saying that the Corinthians should give as much as they are willing and able to give. That way their conscience would become clear and not be clouded by pretense, pleasing man but not God.

Paul is exhorting the Corinthians to give what they are able but not to overdo it, because he did not want them to feel that they were acting under compulsion and thus come to be resentful.

Look at how unbelievably wise Paul is. After pointing out the need and showing them an example, Paul leaves the Corinthians to do as much as they can, letting the example of the Macedonians do its own work of persuasion. He knew that imitation was a more powerful incentive than exhortation.

Quality, not quantity, is what counts.

It is true that giving should not cause hardship to the givers. But at the same time, a person ought not to keep more than he needs for himself.

The equality Paul is speaking of consists in the fact that because they are ministering to the saints this time they will be repaid by them in the future, for they are making the saints their debtors.

Paul points out that sharing is mutual. Indeed, the Corinthians would be reaping spiritual rewards in abundance. How can they be compared with what is merely carnal?

The saints, with their hope in the world to come, have more than those who appear to be rich in this world. But both will be made equal, because those who give of their wealth to help the saints now will be helped by them at some future time, when they are in need.

This happened in the case of the manna, when those who gathered more and those who gathered less were found to have the same quantity.^[1] God did this in order to punish greed, and Paul recalls it both to alarm them by what happened then and to persuade them never to desire more than they already have or to be anxious because they have less.

Again Paul praises Titus. After talking about almsgiving, Paul goes on to speak about those who are entrusted with collecting and administering the gifts. This is important, because if we trust them, we shall be inclined to give more.

Seeing that the Corinthians are making progress in good works, Titus has become particularly concerned about their attitude and has even volunteered to go to visit them.

Who is this famous brother? Some say it is Luke because of the history which he wrote, but others say it was Barnabas because Paul also calls unwritten preaching the gospel. Why does he not mention him by name? Perhaps it was because the Corinthians did not know him personally, and Paul was content to say only enough to allay any possible suspicion of him at Corinth. Notice that the man was praised for his preaching.

This is to be understood of Luke, who was highly honored because he had written a Gospel, not to mention the Acts of the Apostles as well.

This may refer to Luke.

These words refer to Barnabas.

This verse seems to point toward Barnabas, who was commissioned along with Paul.

Since the matter had to do with administering aid, Paul makes this additional remark in order not to be thought negligent concerning the care of the poor or of the saints. For the apostles had agreed to keep the poor in mind.

The presbyters must always be compassionate and merciful toward everyone, turning back the sheep which have gone astray, visiting the sick, not neglecting a widow or an orphan or a poor man but providing always for that which is honorable in the sight of God and of men.

Paul is providing goods in the sight of God when he teaches that what God commands concerning the administering of aid to the saints or to the poor ought to be put into practice. But he also provides goods in the sight of others, because he is sending people to urge them to take part in this undertaking. Paul does not want his teaching to incur reproach because of improvident assistants.

Who is there who can be compared with Paul? For he did whatever he thought was right without ignoring those who might doubt his intentions. On the contrary, he was concerned not to appear to be doing wrong even in the eyes of the weak.

Some people think this refers to Apollos, whom Paul promised in his first epistle that he would send.^[1]

It is clear from this that Titus had a special task relating to the church at Corinth, whereas the others were unknown there.

The two as for phrases do not denote a contrast between them but rather emphasize the similarity.

Paul is urging the Corinthians to demonstrate their love by the way they treat those he is sending to them. If they received them with honor, they would be demonstrating to all the other churches how far they had progressed and that the good things which were said about them were true. He is therefore encouraging their resolve, for someone who is well thought of usually shows improvement.