Gilbert West and Lord Lyttleton were two cynical young students who lived in the eighteenth century. They set out to disprove Christianity. They agreed that the two strongest evidences for Christianity were the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the conversion of Saint Paul. So Lyttleton offered to disprove the conversion of Paul to Christianity, and West offered to disprove the resurrection. When they met again sometime after they had begun their two projects, both were shamefaced. West said, “As I have investigated the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, I have come to believe that there is something to it, and I am going to write my book from that perspective.”
Verse 5 adds a further explanation of the remarkable giving of the Macedonian Christians: “And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will.” I call this a further explanation of the grace of giving because, as we well know, trials and poverty do not in themselves produce great giving, not even among Christians necessarily. In fact, they sometimes do the opposite. They sometimes produce bitterness in people who thereby become self-centered, mean, tight-fisted, and greedy. In this verse Paul explains that the Macedonian Christians had: 1.) first given themselves to the Lord; and 2.) then given themselves to Paul and the missionary team that came with him.
Anyone who has ever tried to get someone else to give to religious or charitable causes knows how difficult motivating another person can be. So we are wise to ask: How does Paul move the Corinthians to be faithful in this area? It is noteworthy that he does not nag, scold, beg, or plead. But neither is he against using some very direct motivation. If we read the chapters carefully, we will find him appealing to the need for personal consecration on the Corinthians' part, the example of Christ, the love and grace of God for us, and even to a bit of proper pride and self-interest.
