Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 8

Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit . . .—Better, we declare, or make known to you. There is no adequate reason for retaining a phrase which is now obsolete. The topic on which the Epistle now touches, and which is carried on through this and the following chapter, was one very dear to the Apostle’s heart. (See Note on 1 Corinthians 16:1.) When he wrote before he had simply given directions as to what the Corinthians were to do.

Now he has something to tell them. The churches of Macedonia—Philippi, we must believe, prominent among them—had been true to their old generosity (2 Corinthians 11:8–9; Philippians 4:15), and were now showing it, not, as before, in personal kindness to their teacher, but in the truer way of acting as he wished them to act; and he sees in this a means of stirring up his friends at Corinth to an honourable emulation. There is something intensely characteristic in the way in which he opens his statement. He traces the generosity of the Macedonians to its true source. He is going to tell the Corinthians of the grace of God that has enabled them to do so much.

In a great trial of affliction.—We do not know what is specifically referred to, but a community of Christians in a pagan city was always exposed to trials of this kind. The temper previously shown by the rulers at Philippi and the Jews of Thessalonica (Acts 16:19–20; Acts 17:5–6; 1 Thessalonians 2:14) makes it almost certain that they would carry on at least a petty persecution with more or less persistence.

The “poverty” at Philippi may possibly be connected with the preponderance of women in the Church there, as indicated in Acts 16:13. In the absence of the breadwinners of a household, Christian women in a Greco-Roman city would find only scanty means of subsistence. In part, however, the churches were also sharers in a widespread distress. Macedonia and Achaia never recovered from the three wars between Caesar and Pompey, between the Triumvirs and Brutus and Cassius, and between Augustus and Antony. Under Tiberius, they petitioned for a reduction of their burdens and were accordingly transferred for a time from the jurisdiction of the senate to that of the emperor, as this involved less heavy taxation.

To the riches of their liberality.—The primary meaning of the word, as in 2 Corinthians 1:12 (see the Note on that verse), is simplicity, or singleness of purpose. That singleness, when shown in gifts, leads to “liberality,” and so the word had acquired the secondary sense in which it seems to be used here. Tyndale and Cranmer, however, give “singleness,” and the Rheims version “simplicity.” “Liberality” first appears in that of Geneva.

They were willing of themselves.—Literally, spontaneously. This was the point of excellence which he wished to indicate as an example to the Corinthians. Those of Macedonia needed no appeal or counsel such as he had given to the Corinthians and to others.

Praying us with much intreaty...—The words “that we would receive” are not in the Greek, which literally runs: asking of us the grace (or favour) and fellowship in the ministry of the saints, i.e., asking to be allowed to share in it.

Not as we hoped . . .—This means, of course, that they had done what was far beyond his hopes; and here the point lies in the fact that they gave, not their money only, but themselves, their time, thought, energy, primarily to Christ as their Lord, and then to the Apostle as His minister. And this they had done because they allowed the will of God to work upon their will.