Bible reading for 40.Day 2025 | 2 Corinthians 8:3-4

In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul testified to the deep generosity and hospitality of the Macedonian churches towards the needs of the church in Jerusalem. He said:

“For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.” (2 Corinthians 8:3-4)

In spite of their own affliction and poverty, the Macedonian brothers and sisters in Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea went all out to love others through the concrete expression of generosity and hospitality.

Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth that they, too, should excel in this way of loving and demonstrating hospitality.

Love, our call sign 

All too often, churches come to be known more for what we stand against than what we stand for. The goodness of the news that we proclaim is seldom as evident as the doctrines we profess, and as a result, the light of God’s love remains hidden under a basket rather than shining forth from a lampstand to illuminate our society.

Contrast this with the observation made by the hostile Roman Emperor Julian “the Apostate” concerning the behaviour of Christians whom he disliked.

In a letter to a pagan priest, he wrote: “It is disgraceful that the impious Galileans support not only their own poor but ours as well…”

Julian, though he despised Christians, could not deny that the Christians, whom he called Galileans, loved people demonstrably and generously. They were not calculative, but genuine in their love and care for people.

As we ponder how we can turn this nation Godward, it is easy to forget that the most powerful strategy we have is love. Self-denying, self-sacrificing, extravagant love, and not just for our own, but for all who cross our path, friend or enemy, Christian or not.

More than just a feeling, however, this love has to be manifested in tangible ways – that is, in hospitality and in generosity.

To go all out to love and be All In for Love, is to be intentionally kind and loving towards people – all people – and to be gracious and forgiving. It involves actively thinking of ways in which we can give of ourselves to others, to show them that they are loved.

Do we know how to be loved by God?

Now, our ability to show them this love is tied to our own experience of God’s love. Jesus, in commending the woman who poured the alabaster jar of perfume on him, said in Luke 7:47 (NKJV) –

“Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

Jesus is saying that loving people extravagantly is a natural reflection of having experienced the extravagant love of God. By that same token, our lack of extravagant love for others could possibly be traced back to a lack in our own experience or appreciation of God’s love towards us.

To go All In for love must therefore begin with fully surrendering ourselves to the unmitigated love of God, to experience Jesus’ unrestrained embrace of our whole being, despite our deepest flaws.

As we revisit the foot of the cross where Jesus died to love us, let us be reminded that God’s strategy to save the world has not changed. If anything, we are enjoined to follow in the same footsteps.

It is the heart of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. We just need to turn this kind of loving into a lifestyle, and we will find that even detractors will be drawn by this kind of love.

And it’s not the institutional church that needs to do this. It is people like you and me who get opportunities on a daily basis, beyond church walls, to do what Jesus did every day: To go All In for love and hospitality.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord, we pray that You give us the grace to love others as You have loved us. Help each one of us to daily find these opportunities, and to find ways to manifest our love in tangible forms, so that you may receive the glory.

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect:

1. What is the state of your personal Christian witness? Do people know you more for what you disapprove of than for really loving others?

2. If you feel you’re not reflecting Christ’s love, why not? How will you receive the unconditional love of God into your own heart and mind?

3. What can you actively do to go All In for love and hospitality, not just to fellow Christians, but to everyone?

Pray:

1. That we will remember the ultimate work of love Jesus did on the cross, and be filled with the love of God to overflowing, so that the love will flow out and touch others.

2. That we truly love all – family, friends, strangers – with the love of Christ, manifesting His love for them in tangible ways.

3. That as we go beyond the walls of the church to love others, they will be irresistibly drawn to the Jesus we serve.

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