2Cor 8:1-2, 1 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
Paul opens this section with the phrase “the grace of God”. This is the quality that gave the Macedonian’s the drive for their living and giving. Their liberality was not of themselves, however of God’s elegance given to them, empowering them to be instrument of God’s “grace ” to other people (2Co 8:6, 2Co 8:19).
Paul calls to attention that their giving was not an aftereffect of extraordinary wealth or surplus to save. They were under extraordinary persecution, oppression, and destitution, nonetheless, they had bounty of joy that flooded in an abundance of liberality. You would be unable to connect abundance and wealth with poor people, yet Paul paints them with this brush to show that they had a few things more significant and desirable than natural wealth. The more noteworthy the depth of their poverty, then the more noteworthy was the abundance of their joy. What they needed genuinely disabled them not for they exchanged it for joy. They turned their trials into joy and poverty into generosity. To be continued…