Moreover, brethren, we want you to know of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;
All Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 8:1 Go To 2 Corinthians 8
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Having encouraged them with these encomiums, he again tries exhortation. For on this account he mingled these praises with his rebuke, that he might not by proceeding from rebuke to exhortation make what he had to say ill received; but having soothed their ears, might by this means pave the way for his exhortation. For he purposes to discourse of almsgiving; wherefore also he says beforehand, I rejoice that in everything I am of good courage concerning you; by their past good works, making them the more ready to this duty also. And he said not at once, 'Therefore give alms,' but observe his wisdom, how he draws from a distance and from on high the preparation for his discourse. For he says, I make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the Churches of Macedonia. For that they might not be uplifted he calls what they did grace; and while relating what others did he works greater zeal in them by his encomiums on others. And he mentions together two praises of the Macedonians, or rather three; namely, that they bear trials nobly; and that they know how to pity; and that, though poor, they had displayed profuseness in almsgiving, for their property had been also plundered. And when he wrote his Epistle to them, it was as signifying this that he said, For you became imitators of the Churches of God which are in Judæa, for you also suffered the same things of your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews. 1 Thessalonians 2:14 Hear what he said afterwards in writing to the Hebrews, For you took joyfully the spoiling of your possessions. Hebrews 10:34 But He calls what they did grace, not in order to keep them humble merely; but both to provoke them to emulation and to prevent what he said from proving invidious. Wherefore he also added the name of brethren so as to undermine all envious feeling; for he is about to praise them in high-flown terms. Listen, at least, to his praises. For having said, I make known to you the grace of God, he said not 'which has been given in this or that city,' but praises the entire nation, saying, in the Churches of Macedonia. Then he details also this same grace.
