5. Christian giving contributes to equality (8:13–15)
5. Christian giving contributes to equality (8:13–15)
13Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, 15as it is written: ‘He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.’
Paul’s desire, as he goes on to explain, is not that others may be relieved while they are hard pressed, for that would merely reverse the situation, solving one problem by creating another, but rather ‘that there might be equality’ (v13). At present, Corinthian plenty will supply the needs of others, so that in turn, at a later stage, the plenty of others will supply Corinthian need. ‘Then there will be equality’ (v14). Paul illustrates the principle from the supply of manna in the desert. God provided enough for everybody. Larger families gathered a lot, but not too much. Smaller families gathered less, but not too little, and they had no lack (v15).
Paul is putting the affluence of some alongside the need of others, and calling for an adjustment, that is, an easing of need by affluence.
This was with a view to isotes, the Greek word which can mean either ‘equality’ or ‘justice’.
What is this ‘equality’ for which Paul calls? It has three aspects.
First, it is not egalitarianism. God’s purpose is not that everybody receives an identical wage, lives in an identical house, equipped with identical furniture, wears identical clothing and eats identical food—as if we had all been mass-produced in some celestial factory! No. Our doctrine of creation should protect us from any vision of colourless uniformity. For God the Creator has not cloned us. True, we are equal in worth and dignity, equally made in God’s image. True, God gives rain and sunshine indiscriminately to both the evil and the good. But God has made us different, and has given his creation a colourful diversity in physique, appearance, temperament, personality and capacities.
Secondly, it begins with equality of educational opportunity. Christians have always been in the forefront of those urging literacy and education for all. For to educate (educare) is literally to lead people out into their fullest created potential, so that they may become everything God intends them to be. For example, equal educational opportunity does not mean that every child is sent to university, but that every child capable of benefiting from a university education will be able to have one. No child should be disadvantaged. It is a question of justice.
Thirdly, equality sees an end to extreme social disparity. Julius Nyerere, former President of Tanzania, said in his Arusha Declaration that he wanted to build a nation in which ‘no man is ashamed of his poverty in the light of another’s affluence, and no man has to be ashamed of his affluence in the light of another’s poverty’.
The same dilemma confronts missionaries. Should they ‘go native’, becoming in all things like the nationals they work among? Or should they continue to enjoy western affluence without any modification of their lifestyle? Probably neither. The Willowbank Report on ‘Gospel and Culture’ suggests that they should rather develop a standard of living ‘which finds it natural to exchange hospitality with others on a basis of reciprocity, without embarrassment’ [The Lausanne Legacy (Hendrickson/Lausanne 2016)].
If we are embarrassed either to visit other people in their home, or to invite them into ours because of the disparity of our economic lifestyles, something is wrong; the inequality is too great, for it has broken the fellowship. There needs to be a measure of equalization in one or other direction, or in both. And Christian giving contributes to this equality.