Paul isn’t completely sure that the Corinthians are ready to give. He has been talking them up, bragging about them to the people in the Macedonian churches, but in truth, he does have a little doubt in his mind that the Corinthians are ready to follow through, ready to actually give to see through the collection for the church in Jerusalem.

So he is writing to the Corinthians to prepare them. He is also sending Titus and at least one other person to them to prepare them. He wants to make sure that they will be ready and that the Macedonians will continue to be encouraged by their brothers in sisters in Christ in Corinth, encouraged that they are doing this together as one body and not just on their own.

So Paul encourages the Corinthians that they can be like the one who supplies seed to the sower in the field:

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 9:10-11

This got me thinking this morning: What is Paul’s real goal in speaking this way to the Corinthians?

I believe, of course, Paul wants to motivate the Corinthians to give. He wants them to understand how their giving can be like sowing seed in a field with the goal of reaping a harvest.

Then I thought: How do Paul’s words get twisted in our day today?

Reading small portions of even that which I have quoted above, and taking those words out of context, you could easily read him to say that if you give money, you will get even more money.

And this is exactly how many of our “prosperity gospel” preachers or televangelist-types today will preach, saying that those who are listening to them will, in the end, receive more and more money. They tell people that if they just give…and if they just keep giving…God promises that they will receive. Their “harvest”, which they interpret as their own personal bank account, will increase. They make people believe that God wants to give them more money.

But that is not what Paul is saying. He says that their righteousness will increase. He is not talking about a harvest that necessarily includes a bigger bank account. He is talking about investment and return in the kingdom of God. He is talking about sowing and reaping righteousness. He is ultimately talking about living for God’s glory. Not the glory of the one who is sowing. Not even the one who is providing the seed. No, instead, he is talking about the one who is the Lord of the harvest, God himself. He is the one who will receive the glory. It is for him, not for us.

So, do you wish to enlarge the harvest? The harvest of the kingdom of God? If so, then you must give from which you have been given. From that which you have received, you must sow again. Your funds. Your time. Your life. That is what Jesus did. He took the life that he was given and he gave it for us. The return on his investment, the harvest, were the souls of the people for whom he died, that would then be given to the Father. The harvest of the Jews and the Gentiles. And now that is what Paul is calling the Corinthians, and each of us, to do as well. Not to enlarge our own harvest, but to enlarge the harvest for the Lord of the harvest because it all belongs to him.