Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 9:12

"For the ministration of this service not only filleth up the measure of the wants of the saints, but aboundeth also through many thanksgivings unto God;" — 2 Corinthians 9:12 (ASV)

For the administration of this service.—The latter word (leitourgia) has, like that for “ministering” in 2 Corinthians 9:10, an interesting history. In classical Greek it stands for any public service rendered to the State. In the Septuagint version it, and its cognate verb and adjective, are used almost exclusively of the ritual and sacrificial services of the Tabernacle and the Temple, as, for example, in Numbers 4:25; 1 Chronicles 11:13; 1 Chronicles 26:30. In this sense it also appears in Luke 1:23; Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 9:21; and with the same shade of meaning, used figuratively, in Philippians 2:17.

That meaning survives in the ecclesiastical term “liturgy,” which was applied at first exclusively to the service of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Here, probably, the thought is implied that a large and liberal gift to Christ’s poor, and for His sake, is the most acceptable of all forms of “service” in the liturgical sense of that word. So understood, it implies the same truth as that stated in James 1:27.

Not only supplies the need of the saints.—Literally, fills up the things that were lacking. The needs of the “saints,” that is, the disciples of Jerusalem, were, we must remember, very urgent. They had never quite recovered from the pressure of the famine foretold by Agabus (Acts 11:28), and the lavish generosity of the first days of the Church (Acts 2:44–45; Acts 4:32) had naturally exhausted its resources.

But is abundant also by many thanksgivings to God.—More accurately, overflows, by means of many thanksgivings, to God: the latter noun standing in a closer connection with the verb than the English version suggests. Some of the better manuscripts give, to Christ.