So You’re a Priest: To be Prepared is Half the Victory [1]

This is part 20 of a sermon series through 2 Corinthians. In chapter 8, Paul mentioned his plans for taking a collection for poorer churches and told the Corinthians that Titus and others would be coming to being taking the collection in Corinth. Paul spoke of the zeal of Titus and the others—a passion that translates into action (not just words and feelings). The implication was that Paul desired the Corinthians to have such zeal as well.

We tend to think of zeal as a passion that takes control of us and drives us irresistibly forward. However, most zeal can begin more simply as a commitment and a determination to live a certain way before God, neighbor, and self.

2 Corinthians 9:1-5

1 There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the saints.
2 For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were prepared to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action.
3 But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be prepared, as I said you would be.
4 For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to say anything about you—would be ashamed of having been so confident.
5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and prepare for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.

Commentary

v1 service. Humble ministry (the same word, diakonia, seen last week, translated as “administration”).

v2-5 I took the liberty of tinkering the NIV translation which translates the same word groups as “ready” (v2,3) and unprepared” (v4). (In v5, a different verb is translated in the NIV as “arrangements”—this verb means something more like “prepare in advance”.)

v5 generous gift. Literally, a blessing.

Application

“To be prepared is half the victory.” Sadly, that is not how we tend to live. We tend to wing it, flying through life by the seat of our pants, and wondering why we seem to be falling behind, failing to achieve our dreams, and fearing the growing divide between the lives we desire and the lives we live.

To be unprepared is half the defeat. To not think through one’s standards for dating and intimacy is to fall to the pressure of the moment in the back seat of a parked car. To not think through one’s standards for wholesome speech is to yield to the passion of a fiery tongue. To not think through one’s standards for forgiveness is to forever feel the pain of one’s own wounds without regard to the pain of another. To not think through generosity is to be shackled to an illusion of poverty and to lose the joy of giving to another.

One might think this passage is all about commitment to giving more to church; however, once we see that the emphasis of the passage is on preparation for giving—not the giving, per se—we see the truth of v5: we are created for the outpouring of our lives to be a blessing … not something grudgingly given.

Points to Ponder

To be prepared is half the victory—where has this been the case in your life? How does it feel when you know that you are a blessing to others? How much more likely is that to happen when you prepare for those difficult situations in life (versus encountering them without any preparation)?

To be unprepared is half the defeat—where has this been the case in your life? Most of your troubles are familiar to you. Can you now, in the peace of this moment, resolve to act differently when that trouble arises again? Can you resolve to persist in this new course of action even if you don’t immediately get the results you want?

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord (Jeremiah 29:11-14a)

End Notes

1 - Miguel De Cervantes.