• Here are some tools to help you with the devotionals:
  • A Guide to Journaling & Prayer
  • A Guide to Self-Reflection
  • A Chart to help articulate feelings

2 CORINTHIANS 8 – COMMENTARY

Bible Text: 2 Corinthians 8:8-12 (ESV)

⁸ I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. ⁹ For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ 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. ¹² For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. 

Reflection & Application 

2 Corinthians 8:8-9

• Apostle Paul says that the genuineness of the Corinthians’ love will be proved by comparison to the earnestness of other churches.  What are some objective criteria I can examine to gauge the authenticity of my devotion to Christ?
• Meditate on the fact that “for [my sake Christ] became poor, so that [I] by his poverty might become rich.”  
• Who are the people in my life I can enrich through my sacrifices?

2 Corinthians 8:10-12 

• Think about some past commitments to God, or some work of love or giving I once had a desire to do.  In what ways do I need to heed the challenge in v. 11 to “finish doing” what I started, or to complete something I once had a “readiness in desiring” to do?