What You Have

 

2 Corinthians 8:9-12

I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He become poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich. And in this matter, I give my judgment this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.

 

In this passage Paul is not giving a command but he is giving godly counsel.

 

Paul gives three things we should do as followers of Jesus.

 

The first is that we are to complete what we started.

 

It does not glorify God when we start a work for God and then we fail to complete it.

 

First it is not what God wants because it leaves something God directed you to do unfinished and leaves people who need what God told you to do hanging.

 

Also, it is not what God wants because it does not accurately show God’s character. Paul says in Philippians 1:6, “And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

 

God always finishes what He starts and we as followers of Jesus are to do the same.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God to use us to finish what He directs us to start.   

 

The second is that we genuinely love others.

 

God sees love as a verb, not a noun. The proof of real love is our actions, not just our words.

In John 3:16 John says that God loved the world and so He gave His one and only Son. We as followers of Jesus are to love in that same way by giving.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving others like Jesus did by giving of ourselves to others.

 

The third is serving God with what we have, not what we don’t have.

 

I cannot serve God in ways that others do because I don’t have their gifts or abilities or resources. So, I focus on serving God with I do have.

 

Many people use the excuse of what they do have to not obey God. Moses, when God told him that he was to go back to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of slavery, began making excuses. God’s answer to all Moses’ excuses was Himself. Moses didn’t have some things just as we don’t have some things, but as followers of Jesus we all have Jesus and that is really all we need.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is taking what we have and serving God with that and not worrying about what we don’t have.

 

Paul shares two things that God provides so we can obey Him.

 

Jesus gave up His riches to us and took our poverty upon Himself.

 

Jesus took our sin, our trespasses, our iniquities, our failures, our weaknesses, and our diseases and gave us His righteousness, His perfection, His strength, and His healing.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trading our sin for Jesus’ righteousness.

 

We have received God’s grace so that we can obey and serve Him.

 

God’s grace, His undeserved love and favor toward us just because we exist, empowers us to desire and do what pleases Him.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending on God’s grace to empower us to do His will.

 

God never calls us to do anything that He does not resource us to do, and the resource is always Him.

 

Focused and Resourced by God

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe