Imitating CHRIST! Part 3

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you, through His poverty might become rich.” 2 Corinthians 8-9

Paul is addressing the Corinthians on the subject of giving. Many of the people in the Church were pilgrims and were converted to Christ. Those pilgrims who stayed, had to be cared for by the Jerusalem Christians. Once they identified with Christ, they lost their jobs and were put out of their family.

The early Christians sold what they had and gave the money to the poor. The Churches of Macedonia’s giving was initiated by grace, they weren’t hindered by their difficulties. Their giving was out of poverty – even though they had little, they gave much. Their giving was generous, sacrificial and voluntary.

When you talk about love that gives, Jesus Christ is the greatest love and the greatest gift. Christ came down and gave His life. He became poor that we might be made rich. And that should be the single greatest motivation. It teaches us how to give, in the example of Christ. 

St. Augustine, tells us to imitate Christ. Augustine listed the graces of Christ’s life, “Among them,” he said, “is the grace of poverty,” and then urged Christians to live lives of poverty in this world.

And Jesus said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” 

It is that God had to become man. The poverty of Jesus was when the Word became flesh; when He was made for a little while lower than the Angels and when He was manifested in the flesh. He was born of a woman. He left being face to face with the Father, taking on human form and He had to die on the Cross.

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:6-7 – He was, in the Trinity, in perfect equality with God, but He didn’t hold onto it. He emptied Himself–that’s the poverty of Jesus. He suffered all that men suffer. He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. He has been touched with all the feelings of our infirmities. He went all the way to death.

That’s what Paul means when He says, “He was rich, and He became poor.” His riches was the glory He had before the world was made. His riches was being in the form of God and being equal with God, being God. His becoming poor was emptying Himself. The poverty of Christ is His incarnation. And He came all the way down to the most horrific death on the Cross.

God, humbled Himself into human flesh, killed at the Cross. That’s His poverty. Although Sovereign over all the created powers of the universe, He Himself comes under the powers, tastes the full measure of their thrust, even to the Cross. And for our sake, He did it. 1 Corinthians 11:24, “This is my body which is for you.”

And “for your sake” means Spiritually rich. We are called joint heirs with Christ. We are promised an inheritance, that fades not away, but is laid up for us in Heaven.

1 Corinthians 3:22-23 For all things are yours….…. or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours; and you are Christ's; and Christ is God's.

This self-emptying, self-sacrificing love by which we are blessed and for which we are thankful. As He stooped to be poor to make others rich, so must we.
Paul saw an expression that Christ made Himself poor to make somebody else rich. And this is what we need to imitate from Christ, how to treat those around us, who also are poor. Are we willing as He was-is?

Abide in us Oh Lord, teach us to walk in Your ways. Give us a tender heart toward those in need. We pray in the name of Christ, Amen.