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Now let's dive into this week's message. Amen.
Well, we're in a series called The Advent According
to Paul, and we've been looking at how Paul tells
the Christmas story? How does the apostle Paul
tell the Christmas story? And that's the question
we've been asking for the last two weeks. And
today we're coming to a text. out of 2 Corinthians
chapter 8. So if you have your Bibles, you can
start turning to 2 Corinthians chapter 8. We'll
get there in just a moment. But I wanted to give
you a little background on that section of 2
Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 8 is Paul,
the apostle, he's writing to a church, a church
that he's connected with, a church that he loves,
a church in Corinth. And Corinth is a prosperous
and a very status conscious city. It's shaped
by wealth and competition and public honor. It's
a place of great status and of great wealth.
And it's this church that's located within this
region, Corinth, that he's writing 2 Corinthians
chapter 8 to. And the backstory behind where
we're going to dive into the word is that this
church, Well, this church had eagerly begun a
collection of funds. It was going to collect
some money for poor believers who were back in
Jerusalem. And many of those believers were suffering
because of a famine and persecution. And this
church had begun this collection, but they never
completed it. They hadn't yet brought it to completion,
this collection of funds in order to support
these other believers. And so Paul is writing
to them. not to command them, not to shame them,
but to frame or reframe for them generosity around
the self -giving grace of Christ. And so we come
to verse eight in that section. And Paul says
something that actually makes me pretty uncomfortable.
And I bet it makes you uncomfortable too. He
says, I am testing the genuineness of your love.
Testing the genuineness. Now, I don't think we
like that language. Like, testing my love? Like,
test my theology, fine. Test my knowledge, fine.
But test my love? That feels intrusive, offensive
even, right? We prefer our love to be assumed,
declared, and felt internally, not examined.
But Paul isn't trying to shame Corinth. or to
exert authoritarian control over them, what he's
trying to do is he's trying to reveal something
in them. So he takes them from verse eight to
verse nine, where he says, for you know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He redirects their
focus. So in the ancient world, especially on
ships and boats, ropes were very, very important
to getting the job done, whether it's tying the
mast or hitching things down, or even the anchor
on ancient ships were made out of rope. And so
rope was an important feature of being on a boat,
but you had to trust the ropes. And ropes weren't
trusted just because they were brand new, right
off the line and clean looking. No, no, no. But
before a rope, would be used to secure a sail
or hitch down a load. It would be tested. And
the way that they would test these ropes is they
would pull them against a rope that had already
proven itself reliable. And by testing it against
a rope that had already proven itself reliable,
they could look and see whether or not it could
bear up under the strain just like the trusted
rope. The trusted rope became a sort of standard
against which other things were examined. And
before Paul, asked the church in Corinth to look
at their own generosity, he asked them to first
look at Christ's. Why? Well, because he will
examine their love against the grace and giving
of Christ. Christ will be the standard bearer.
And Advent shows us what real love looks like.
And in doing so, it quietly exposes our own love.
And so let's look at that text really quick out
of 2 Corinthians chapter 8, beginning in verse
7. It says, now as you excel in everything, in
faith, speech, knowledge, and in all diligence,
and in your love for us, excel also in this act
of grace. I am not saying this as a command,
rather by means of the diligence of others, I
am testing the genuineness of your love. For
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor
so that by his poverty you might become rich.
This is God's word. This morning I have four
fairly short points. The first one is this. We
resist having our love tested. Paul says, I am
testing the genuineness of your love. And I think
that lands, pretty hard because most of us don't
think our love needs testing. We assume it's
there. We feel it. We mean it. We mean well,
but think about it. If I said to my wife, in
a moment of the maximum height of sentimental
feeling that I had for her, I went to her and
I said, baby, I love you. Imagine if she said,
okay, prove it. You can imagine how you might
feel in a moment like that. Maybe some of you
have experienced something like that where your
love was challenged and you were asked to prove
your love. You see, a moment like that when someone
suggests that our love should be proven, most
of us would stiffen up, right? Well, it's because
testing confronts the difference between who
we think we are and how we actually live. It's
one thing to say, I feel this way toward you
because feeling and intention are all self -defined
and self -verified. I felt this way towards you
and I intended to do this for you. I intended
to do it out of my love, but see, it's all self
-defined and self -verified. But will that feeling
of love stand the test of examination? That's
the question. Because prove it, It means our
love is now subjected to someone or something
else's definition. And it's much easier to claim
love than to demonstrate love. We prefer intentions
over actions, words over cost, feelings over
sacrifice. But scripture never lets love remain
just abstract. Love in the Bible is always revealed
under pressure. 1 John says it this way, let
us not love in word or speech, but in action
and in truth. Testing doesn't create love, but
it reveals the quality of it. And that's what
makes us uncomfortable, that this discomfort
with tested love isn't something new. We've always
known that love by its very nature is risky.
C .S. Lewis once put it in this way. He said,
love anything with your heart. Love anything
and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken.
The only place outside of heaven where you can
be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love
is hell. What Lewis is saying is that untested
love isn't safe love. protected and unproven
love. And protected and unproven love is never
real love. You imagine a teen, maybe it's a boy
who caught an eye for a gal and he loves her,
right? He loves her and he's overwhelmed with
this feeling of love toward her. But he refuses
to ever talk to her out of fear of rejection.
He won't. cross the room and go and say hi. He
won't go and engage because he doesn't want rejection.
Well, that's not love. That's maybe infatuation
or maybe some sort of self -delusion, but that's
not love. If love is never exposed, never stretched,
never asked to give something up, it may feel
sincere, but it has never taken on weight. And
that's Paul's point. God doesn't test our love
to destroy it. He tests it because real love
always costs something and real love is always
willing to pay the cost. Paul isn't questioning
whether the Corinthians feel love for God. He's
asking whether that love has taken on weight.
Whether it moves beyond intention and into, Is
there love like a ship that is still in the shipyard,
still up on the stands being built, never experiencing
the pressure of the water surrounding the hole?
Or has it gone to sea? Has it triumphed over
wind and wave, proven genuine and true? Paul's
not testing their love because he doubts it.
He's testing it because love that is never tested,
is never formed. He tests to reveal, to refine.
And Advent reminds us of this because before
Christ ever asked anything of us, he reveals
what love truly looks like. And that's where
Paul takes us next. If you're taking notes, number
two, write down the incarnation is God's testimony
of love. Verse nine says, for you know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich,
for your sake he became poor, so that by his
poverty you might become rich. In other words,
before you examine your love, Paul says, look
at his. When Paul says Christ was rich, he's
not talking about money. He's talking about glory.
He's talking about status. He's talking about
what we talked about last week in Philippians
chapter two, being in the very form God, he emptied
himself of the riches of heaven itself. And yet
Paul says he emptied himself and became poor.
He took on flesh. He embraced obscurity. He entered
suffering and he walked toward the cross. This
isn't sentimental love. This is love demonstrated.
God does not merely tell us he loves us. He proves
it in history. The incarnation is God's answer
to that question, what does real love look like?
And the answer is it looks like self -giving.
It looks like dissent. It looks like sacrifice
for the sake of another. And notice the direction
of the movement. Christ doesn't give out of a
surplus. This is something that I was thinking
about this week, contemplating on after last
week's sermon and just meditating on this week's.
That the infinite God, the God abounding in love,
no end, right? If he was to say he loves us,
that's awesome, that's great. But that's a love
without cost. He's the infinite God with abounding
love. What does that tell us? It's hard to imagine
that kind of love. So what does that God do?
Instead, he says, I'm going to take my infinite
attribute, who I am, the infinity of my love,
and I'm going to limit it, put it within limitations
in flesh, a boundary that can be met and crossed.
Instead of the limitless eternality of who God
is. Humanity creates limits for the limitless
God and Jesus doesn't enter into those limits
and say, you know what, I'm gonna adjust a little
handicap, put a little margin in there, a little
me time on the sides, you know? But he pushes
all the way out to the very edge of the limits
of what it means to give himself as a human to
the point of death. And now we can see. Now we
can see a love that goes all the way. He gives
at cost. He doesn't remain distant. He draws
near. He doesn't protect his status. He lays
it down. This is God's answer of what does real
love look like. This is a love that's been tested
and proven. And the results will, so that by
his poverty, you might become rich. Not rich
in money, but rich in grace, mercy, rich in forgiveness,
rich in the very life of God. If we want to know
what love truly is, we don't look inward, we
look to Christ. And once we see his love clearly,
we begin to understand why our own love must
be more than words. So number three, if you're
taking notes, grace does not coerce, it forms.
Some of you guys who are around every week, you
know we're flying now. We're on number three
already. You feel that? You feel that momentum?
We're going places. I said four, we're on three.
You're going to get to lunch today. Just you
wait for number four. No, I was just kidding.
I'm joking. Grace does not coerce. It forms.
So after anchoring everything in Christ, Paul
returns to the Corinthians and he says this carefully.
He says, I'm not commanding you. Remember, he's
talking about them fulfilling their promise to
give this gift, to finish this gift of generosity
to the church. And that's all frontier. And he's
saying, I'm not commanding you. And that matters.
Paul has authority. He could have commanded them.
Hey, you said you're going to do this. Come on,
get it done. But he doesn't because coerced obedience
is not what grace produces. Grace doesn't work
from the outside in. It's a really good litmus
test for us, especially in a day and age of self
-help. Because a lot of self -help is, here's
a brand new book, or here's a brand new structure,
or here's a brand new system or framework that
you can put on your life and improve. And as
long as you stay within the bounds, you're going
to be a better person. And so we put that framework
on, and we stay within the bounds, and we go,
wow, look at the grace of God. Is that working
in our lives? No, that was an external, that
was outward in. The kind of work that the grace
of God does is always inside out. At a desire
level. At a will level. And that's why Paul calls
generosity an act of grace. Because giving isn't
a transaction. It flows out of transformation.
Paul's saying you excel in everything, excel
also in this act of grace. In other words, if
grace has truly taken root in your life, it won't
stop at beliefs or words. It will reshape how
you hold all your resources. How you view your
security, how tightly you cling to what you call
mine. Grace forms a new posture. Not obligation,
but joy. Not pressure, but willingness. Not out
of fear, but freedom. And this is where the test
of love becomes an invitation. It's not prove
yourself, but instead it's let grace show what
it has already begun to do in you. Let grace
be put on display. In your giving. Because when
Christ's self -giving love grips our heart, generosity
cannot be hidden. It's not a burden. It's just
simply a response of worship. Number four, we're
there. Advent is a mirror, not a sentiment. Before
Paul presses any further, it might help to name
some of the tension that we actually live in
because we are being shaped by powerful cultural
currents. Our culture doesn't tell us not to
love, but it does redefine or define love in
its own way. And some of what it says is that
love should never cost you your sense of self.
Love should never disrupt your inner peace. Love
should never threaten your margins. Love expressed
in giving. They might say, give, but only from
excess and don't forget yourself. Care for others,
but not to the point of inconvenience and don't
forget yourself. Have you noticed even as we
talk about generosity today, someone might say
something like, I decided to give myself a little
gift. I decided to give myself a little gift,
which usually means I bought something that I
wanted. I treated myself or I finally pulled
the trigger on that thing, right? And no one
finds it strange. We all know exactly what. They
mean, and what's interesting is how naturally
we've come to describe consumption as generosity.
Because if generosity is defined as out of self
-giving love, how do you self -give yourself?
How do you lay down yourself for yourself? We
don't say, I indulged myself today. Or I prioritized
my desires over every other desire. We say, I
gave myself something. And it sounds generous.
It even sounds justified. It certainly feels
justified, but that's not how Paul talks about
grace. Because grace, by definition, moves away
from the self. In the Advent, the coming of Christ
tells us the same thing. Jesus didn't give himself
comfort. Jesus didn't give himself security.
He didn't give himself what he deserved. Paul
says, though he was rich, for your sake he became
poor. And that's the difference. Our cultural
instinct is to give to ourselves. The gospel
says Christ gave himself away so that others
might become rich. Love that is costly. Faith
that is embodied. Grace that reshapes what we
cling to. Love isn't proven by what we affirm.
It's revealed by what we release. Love doesn't
stay internal. It takes shape in real, concrete
decisions. And listen, generosity shouldn't be
reckless, but it should be risky. Advent doesn't
just comfort us, it confronts us. When the grace
of Christ comes into focus, it doesn't just affirm
us, it reorders us. It doesn't just invite us
to admire Christ, but it invites us to see ourselves.
Christ, the standard. See ourselves against the
standard. And when that grace, the grace of Christ,
comes into focus, it inevitably becomes a mirror.
And Paul doesn't use all the Advent language
we're used to out of the Gospels, but this is
exactly what he's saying. He's saying, if this
is what love looks like in Christ, then Advent
asks us this question, what does love look like
in us? What does love look like in us? Not what
we intend, not what we say, but what our lives
reveal. Advent exposes our attachments. what
we rely on for security, what we protect instinctively,
what we struggle to release. And that exposure
isn't meant to shame us. It's meant to free us
because Christ didn't become poor to make us
guilty. He became poor to make us new. And so
Advent doesn't end with self -examination alone.
It ends with this sort of reorientation. we begin
to see that generosity isn't a seasonal virtue
or a financial category even. It's so much bigger
than that. I know some of you probably have thought,
he's talking about money. That pastor's talking
about money. I came to church and he's talking,
I'm talking about generosity. Oh, it certainly
includes the financial category, but it goes
so much further than that. You know there's a
lot of stingy people in this world? There are.
No. Stingy with their time. They're always too
busy for others. The stingy, only available when
it's convenient for them. Or they've scheduled
their life so tightly that any interruption feels
literally like an atomic bomb blowing up, an
offense. Like, how dare you interrupt my perfectly
curated schedule? There's people who are stingy
with attention, only half ever listening to the
person who's standing in front of them talking.
Always distracted, always blaming an acronym
for their lack of love. Sorry if you didn't get
that. Oh, I'm sorry. I lost attention there because
I'm dot, dot, dot. Letter, letter, letter. Letter,
letter, letter. Letter, letter, letter. It's
dingy because they make people feel like they're
always in competition with their phone. You know
those people? Like I'm always competing for your
attention with that thing. There are stingy people
who guard their personal space rigidly and they
will not let anyone into it. Home is a refuge
for me to go close my door and not be around
anyone. There are people who are stingy with
the truth. They avoid hard conversations at all
costs. They will not speak the truth honestly
for their own comfort. There are fathers. who
are stingy with the words, I'm proud of you.
I'll say that when he does something worthwhile.
There are folks who are stingy with their prayers.
I'll pray for you. Does that make me look good
that I said that? I'll pray for you. Does that
make me more Christian and holier? I'll pray
for you and then forget that I even had that
conversation two seconds later and never pray.
Generosity isn't just about what we give away
financially, though I will say it certainly is
central in the grace -shaped life. But generosity
is about how we hold everything God has given
us. Generosity is the shape of a life formed
by grace. It's a life that reflects the downward
movement of Christ not clinging, not hoarding,
but open -handed. And that's why Paul places
this right at the center of the Christian life,
right at the center of Christian discipleship
is generosity here in the text in 2 Corinthians
8. The grace that came down at Christmas is the
same grace that now reshapes our loves as we
look to his generosity. And so in conclusion,
the good news of the Advent is not that we passed
the test. The good news of the advent is that
Christ passed it for us, amen? Hallelujah. He
did not merely intend to love us. He did not
merely feel compassion toward us, but he entered
our poverty. He became poor so that we might
become rich, rich in mercy, rich in forgiveness,
rich in the life with God, rich in generosity.
Rich in hospitality. Rich in loving others. And
now by that same grace, our love is no longer
meant to remain theoretical. It takes on flesh.