Day 5 of 6 — Glow in the Dark. About 3 minutes.
For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
2 Corinthians 8:9
Chuck Feeney made his money selling duty free goods in airports. In 1984 he quietly signed almost all of it over to a foundation, a stake worth more than five hundred million dollars, and kept under five million for himself. Then he spent three decades giving the rest away, something like eight billion dollars, and for more than twenty years of that he gave anonymously, so the universities and hospitals he was funding did not know whose money had arrived. In September of 2020 he signed the papers that shut the foundation down with nothing left inside it. He died three years later at ninety two, having set aside about two million dollars for his and his wife’s retirement and parted with the rest.
Paul hands the Corinthians no rule at all. He says in verse 8 that he is not speaking by commandment. Instead he points them at one sentence and leaves it standing there. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
The words are chosen carefully. The phrase became poor means to be reduced to beggary, and in the whole New Testament it is used exactly once, here. The noun under it is the same word Paul used back in verse 2 for the Macedonians’ deep poverty. They gave out of theirs. He chose His. Born where there was no room, preaching from a borrowed boat, riding a borrowed colt, laid in a borrowed grave, with nowhere of His own to lay His head.
A man who gives away eight billion dollars is still giving out of what he had spare, and that is not a criticism of him. It is the measure of the distance. Christ did not give from a surplus. He gave until there was nothing left, and He did it for your sakes, which is the phrase to stop on rather than read past. Not for the sake of a cause or a continent. For yours. Before you settle what you can manage this year, spend five quiet minutes on what He managed. Whatever number you were considering will look different afterwards.
Growth principle: The Macedonians gave out of their poverty. Christ chose His, and He chose it for you.
Take it with you: Spend five quiet minutes today on what Christ gave up, before you decide what you can manage.
Pause and pray: Lord Jesus, You were rich and became poor, and You did it for my sake. I have never measured anything against that. Let it change what I hold on to. Amen.
From Sunday’s message: A Faith That Promises (2 Corinthians 8) · Sunday, October 18, 2026
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