The third blessing Paul mentions in 2 Corinthians 9:8 has to do with the example of God in his giving and our motivation. The very fact that God multiplies back our gifts is to motivate us. We spoke about these three marks of giving - generous, willing, and cheerful. When you begin to think of that in terms of God, it obviously applies. We speak of generous giving, but God is generous - abundantly generous. We talk of willingness - God does not give reluctantly or under compulsion. We talk of cheerfulness - God gives cheerfully.

The second characteristic of Christian giving is willingness. "Every man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion." Some years ago, I was preaching from Genesis chapter 22, about the obedience of Abraham. One of my points was that the obedience of Abraham was a willing obedience. I recall asking the question at that point - the same kind of question we might ask here: "How would it be possible for Abraham to obey and not be willing, because the argument would go: if he was not willing, he would not obey; and if he obeyed, he must be willing.

What Paul is really talking about is the character of Christ. In the brothers was found the love of Jesus, the peace of Jesus, the joy of Jesus, the kindness of Jesus, and so on for all the other fruits of the Spirit. Now, that is what he says about these brothers, these three men whom he trusted with this commission involving this large sum of money from the churches at Corinth.

It is significant that when Paul established leadership in the churches, he always established a plurality of ministry. The Church of Jesus Christ is not a democracy. It is not a monarchy either in the sense of one individual assuming the right of king and ruling. If anybody is king, it is Jesus. And under Jesus, there is this plurality of leadership, the eldership in the church. It is the way Paul established it and the way Jesus set the pattern. Titus is an example of that.

2 Corinthians falls into three sections. The middle section - chapters 8 and 9 - forms a whole section, because those two chapters deal with a collection that Paul was trying to receive from the church in Corinth. In addition to the church in Corinth, the collection involved the surrounding churches, as well as churches in Macedonia, Achaia, and other parts of the world that he had evangelized.