In 2 Corinthians 9, Paul writes, “He who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. … [The God] who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness [as you give]. You will be enriched in every way …” (vv. 6, 10–11 ESV). Obedience in giving is one means by which God grows and multiplies the richness of grace in our lives. Giving is like a seed, Paul says, that you put into the ground and it multiplies into enrichment.
You say, “Well, what kind of enrichment are you talking about?” Paul says when we’re generous, we’ll be enriched “in every way.” Every is a big, expansive word, and it’s a promise repeated throughout Scripture.
In Malachi 3:10, for instance, God says to test him, to put him first and see if he won’t make you overflow with blessing! It’s what I call “God Math”: 90 percent with his blessing goes further than 100 percent without it! As my fellow pastor, Bryan Loritts, has said, if he had to list out a short explanation of why he believed in God, God’s faithfulness to this promise would be in that list—how God multiplied and blessed him when he put God first in his giving.
So does Paul mean financial enrichment here? I have to think so. That’s part of “every,” isn’t it? But does he only mean financial? Definitely not. “In every way” implies there are other ways God blesses you through your generosity.
What might that look like?
I love the image of sowing a seed. The fruit of many seeds looks wildly different from the seed itself. For example, have you ever seen a peach seed? It’s this hard, ugly thing you’d never want to eat—it looks like a little rat brain—but from it come these luscious fruits. Money is like a seed you plant that harvests in multiple fruits much better than itself.
What are some of those other things?
How about greater contentment? Would “every way” mean greater contentment? Yes. Many have said that the secret to a happy life is not having all you want, but wanting what you have. And one of the things God does in your life as you give is he works contentment in your heart. That’s part of being enriched in every way.
My family has seen that. When my wife and I give, we find that we grow really content with what we have left. On the contrary, it’s when we don’t give generously that we always find ourselves wanting more. Every study ever done on this, secular or Christian, shows that the happiest people in the world are generous people. It’s why I say you can be poor and yet rich, or rich and still poor.
For some of you who are wealthy, maybe the reason you’re unhappy is not because you don’t have enough, but because you haven’t allowed generosity to produce contentment in you. You think, Oh, if I could just get a little bit more! If we could just afford the lake house, or to go on this vacation. But that’s not why you’re not happy. You think the reason you’re unhappy is because you need new shoes or a new job or a new house, but what you really need is an enlarged heart. A God-like heart. And God uses generosity to produce that in you.
What about spiritual anointing? Is that included in “every way”? Yes. If you’re a connoisseur of the biographies of great Christian leaders, you’ll know that some of the most anointed people in the world throughout Christian history became that way through extravagant generosity. For example, Count Zinzendorf, who launched the modern missionary movement, only experienced that power when he began to liquidate his estate so he could send out missionaries. And when John Calvin, one of the fathers of the Protestant Reformation, died, Pope Pius groused in disgust about him: “The strength of that heretic was his utter disregard for money.”
God uses generosity to enrich you in every way. And when you realize that, Paul says, you’ll go from “What do I have to give?” to “What do I get to give?” because you’ll be asking: “Where do I want to experience the blessing of God?”
Let me predict what heaven is going to be like for some of you. I heard this great little story about Alexander the Great. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it goes like this: Alexander the Great was riding back into Athens after one of his big victories, and as part of the celebration, he was giving out baskets of rice. There was a poor, crippled Athenian man on the side of the road, and when he was given his basket of rice, Alexander the Great saw him and felt compassion, and said to him, “Give me that back.” The poor man looked alarmed. This would feed him for a month! And now he was supposed to give it back?
Not wanting to disobey Alexander’s orders, he reached in the basket and gave back two kernels; Alexander then signaled to his treasurer, and the treasurer gave the poor man two silver coins—one for each kernel. At which point, of course, the poor man tried to give the whole basket back, but it was too late. Alexander had moved on.
That’s going to be some of you in heaven. You’ll say, “Look at what God could have done in and through my life!” But it will be too late, and you will have forfeited all the spiritual blessing that could have been yours, had you trusted.
So the question remains … how can you be generous today?
J.D. Greear is the pastor of The Summit Church, in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. He leads the Summit in a bold vision to plant one thousand new churches by the year 2050. Pastor J.D. completed his Ph.D. in Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Chick-fil-A since January 2022 and recently served as the 62nd president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Pastor J.D. and his wife Veronica are raising four awesome kids: Kharis, Alethia, Ryah, and Adon.
This article has been republished from the J.D. Greear website and is under copyright law. It may not be republished without express written consent by J.D. Greear Ministries Team. J.D. Greear is the author of 27 Books including 12 Truths & a Lie
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Well and good, just to support that fruits of giving are spiritual blessings, including an abundance of God’s goodness, and the joy and peace that come from expressing love for creation. True giving is seen as a spiritual act, not a sacrifice of personal goods, and results in a sense of eternal abundance and limitless capacity to give. The outward results of this spiritual giving include healing the sick, reforming sinners, and preaching with power.
When one realizes the source of that which he has to give, he thereby opens the door to eternal abundance. Many valuable gifts, such as loving-kindness, good will, friendliness, courtesy, and mercy, cost no money. These qualities expressed individually by the members of a church constitute true building—a healing church, which brings a rich blessing to the community and to the world.
Do we give our church that which is left over in our budget, or do we do as Elijah admonished? The widow at Zarephath said she had only a handful of meal and a little oil which she was going to use in preparing a last meal for her son and herself. Elijah turned the thought of the widow from herself and helped to break the mesmerism of limitation when he said to her (I Kings 17:13), “Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.” She was obedient, and the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail.
A certain Christian was heard to express her gratitude in this manner: “This church does not depend upon me for its income; I depend upon it for my income. Everything I have I owe to it.)
Your Friend -His servant,
Isaac Otieno