Re:Verse passage – 2 Corinthians 9:6-12 (day five)
Last week, we read about the early church and how they lived in community with one another. That blissful picture of the church devoting themselves to fellowship and meeting each other’s needs almost sounds like a utopian society, out of reach to us. But I think our passage this week sheds light on how they managed to live together in this way. They were generous.
This image Paul paints of sowing and reaping shows us that generosity is meant to be proactive, not reactive. Planting a seed is a proactive act, you sow the seed in faith that it will grow into a harvest. The same is true with generosity, we proactively sow generously into our relationships, and we have faith that God will turn that into abundant, life-giving community.
Paul is talking about finances here, and we certainly must be proactive in giving financially, but the rule also applies to our relationships.
We can sow generously into a relationship by giving that person our time, our attention, our prayers, giving encouraging words, and sharing our lives in a way that might feel vulnerable. If we want the kind of life-giving fellowship, unity, and joy that we see in the early church, we have to be proactive and sow generously into our relationships, knowing that God is faithful to turn that into a plentiful harvest, just like He did in the early church.