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•10我在这事上把我的意见告诉你们，是对你们有益，因为你们开始办这事，而且起此心意已经有一年了。11如今就当办成这事，既然有愿做的心，也当照你们所有的去办成。12因为人只要有愿做的心，必照他所有的蒙悦纳，并不是照他所没有的。
我们永远不应该出于内疚而奉献，也不应该试图让别人出于内疚而奉献。我喜欢把这种让人感到内疚而去做事的动机称为“病态的小狗”动机。你经常在电视上看到这样的广告，每天花不到一美元，你就可以给生病的小狗带去安慰。他们会向你展示一张画面，一只非常可爱的小狗在一个肮脏的笼子里瑟瑟发抖（如果你不花那点钱去帮助就让你有内疚感）。或者你是否听过有人说你应该奉献一直到“你感到受伤”？如果够不到“受伤”这个标准就算不上“真正的奉献”。这种花言巧语实际是在利用你的内疚感。
保罗并没有用这种让哥林多教会的圣徒感到内疚的手段，来达到他募集捐助的目标。他并没有要求他们奉献，直到他们感到受伤。保罗告诉他们当照他们所有的去奉献。换句话说，要按照上帝给你的祝福来奉献。圣殿里的寡妇奉献了两个小钱，但耶稣说这寡妇奉献的比众人都多，因为她把一切养生的都投上了。当我们说：“如果我们每人再奉献100美元，我们就完成今年的奉献预算目标了，”这个奉献的动机是错误的。这实际是让那些拿不出100美元的人感到内疚。而对那些领受了上帝丰盛祝福的人，这个数额对他们却没有任何挑战。另外，如果奉献只是为了达到预算目标，那这算不上是充满恩典的动机。
不要奉献直到你感到受伤。而是一直在真正的喜乐之中奉献。在我的服事生涯中，我见到许多被上帝祝福拥有属世财富的人，他们愿意非常慷慨的向主奉献。他们没有抱怨。他们不自夸。他们欢喜。他们很高兴把上帝给他们的东西还给上帝。这才是充满恩典的奉献。这种奉献是照上帝所给我们的，是发自内心的，出于正确理由的奉献。
祷告：主耶稣，你已经在很多方面祝福了我!最重要的，你赐给我对你的信心。主啊，现在请让我也成为别人的祝福。阿们。
2 Corinthians 8: 10 And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. 11 Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. 12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. (NIV)
We should never give out of a sense of guilt, or try to move others to give out of a sense of guilt. I like to call that the “sick puppy” motivation. You see ads like that on television all the time. For less than a dollar a day, you can bring relief to sick puppies. And they show you a picture of a cute little dog, shivering in a dirty cage. Or have you ever heard someone say that you should “give till it hurts?” That anything less than that is not a “true sacrifice?” Again, that kind of rhetoric is playing on your sense of guilt.
Paul does not lay a guilt trip on the saints in Corinth. He doesn’t tell them to give until it hurts. He tells them to give according to their means. In other words, give in proportion to how God has blessed you. The widow in the temple gave two small copper coins, yet Jesus said she gave more than all the others because it was all she had to live on. We use wrong motivation when we say, “If we all gave just a hundred dollars more, we can meet our budget for this year.” That will lay a guilt trip on those who can’t afford a hundred dollars. And it will not challenge those who are blessed. Besides, giving to meet our budget is hardly a grace-filled motivation!
Don’t give until it hurts. Give until you are really having fun! In my ministry I have had opportunities to see people who were blessed with worldly wealth give very generous gifts to the Lord. They didn’t complain. They didn’t brag. They rejoiced. They had so much fun giving back to the Lord what the Lord had given them. That’s what grace-filled giving is all about. It’s giving from the heart for the right reasons according to the means that God has given us.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, you have blessed me in so many ways! Above all, you blessed me with faith in you. Now, Lord, make me a blessing to others as well. Amen.