II Corinthians 9: 7-8
These verses about being a cheerful giver come from the Amplified Bible. The words in parentheses give the Greek meaning of the passage.
Every man according as he purposeth (to choose for oneself before another thing)
in his heart (thoughts or feelings, mind,)
so let him give; not grudgingly (stingily, with sadness, not of grief, sorrow, heaviness)
or of necessity (distress, must, needs, constraint:)
for God loveth a cheerful (merry, prompt, willing)
giver.
And God is able to make all grace abound (all manner of, the whole – to superabound in quantity or quality, be in excess, be superfluous, be more abundant, enough and to spare, excel, increase the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in the life;)
that ye, always having all (any, every, the whole)
sufficiency (contentedness, competence)
in all things, may abound (see above)
to every good work (toil, as an effort or occupation, act or deed.)
The Jews had in the temple two chests for alms; the one was for what the law required, the other was for free-will offerings. They were all expected to contribute what the law required, but the Bible talks here of having a cheerful attitude that came from the abundance of God.
The benefit of sharing with others is lost when it is done with a grumbling heart.
“not grudgingly” means not as if he were sorry to part with his money; Not as if he were constrained to do a thing that was extremely painful to him. “Or of necessity” means as if he were compelled to do it. Let him do it cheerfully. (Henry)
The sense of verse 8 is, “If you contribute liberally you are to expect that God will furnish you with the means, so that you will be able to abound more and more in it.” You are to expect that he will abundantly qualify you for doing good in every way, and that he will furnish you with all that is needful for this. You should expect that God will bless you in it; and the experience of the Christian world may be appealed to in proof that people are not made poor by liberality. (Barnes)
We have no reason to distrust the goodness of God, and surely we have no reason to question his power; he is able to make all grace abound towards us, and abound in us so that we can have a large increase. He can cause us to have a sufficiency in all things, to be content with what we have, and have a wonderful attitude about sharing with others.
