2 Corinthians 9:8

The All-ability of God.

I. God is able to make all grace abound. Then surely He is able to rule the world He has created and still creates. He is the God of creation, and not its servant. He can get behind all the points that are visible to us, and without altering the order of nature, He can produce what change He desires. We may therefore ask Him to give us what we think would be good for us. This will be one of the practical results of the full belief in the all-ability of God. If I may not ask my daily bread from God, if I may not tell Him what I wish about the weather and what the country needs, then what may I speak to Him about? "About spiritual blessings," does any one say? Then are they not also given according to law? If God is bound to act invariably in the material sphere, He is equally and even more bound to act invariably in the spiritual sphere; and if we may not reasonably pray to Him as to the one, still less may we reasonably pray to Him about the other. It is God or no God. God is able to make all grace abound, to give blessing in every sphere, and will answer in some way every sincere prayer that is offered to Him.

II. Prayer is asking. It is not dictation. If it were, it would be liable to the objections which have been urged against it. It is telling the Father what we believe to be our real needs, leaving Him to judge what and how much to give and what to withhold. We may leave Him to maintain the laws. He will take care that there is no infringement of anything that ought to be observed, and that no injustice is done to some by answering the prayer of others; He will be true and faithful to Himself and to His great perfections; He will be attentive and compassionate to every child who speaks to Him; He will be the Hearer and Answerer of prayer to the end.

A. Raleigh, The Way to the City, p. 252.

Reference: 2 Corinthians 9:11.—R. Maguire, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 236.

2 Corinthians 9:15In order to arrive at the full meaning of the words "His unspeakable gift" we should inquire what it is, of all the blessings of redemption by Christ, that most perfectly answers to this description, that is so full, so inexhaustible, as best to satisfy this epithet "unspeakable," far beyond our words to describe and our powers to grasp by their conceptions, that is most entirely and properly God's gift—His one great bestowal over and above all others. And I hesitate not to say at once, it is God's gift of the Holy Spirit. Consider how the Spirit is properly and finally the gift of God.

I. A guardian angel might dwell with the believer—and such, we hold, do dwell with us, and minister around us—but a guardian angel can never dwell in the believer, can never be to him an indweller and enlightener, an inseparable friend and comforter, a mighty advocate and unfailing champion. Go then even to the throne of the Godhead, and ask who shall do this. The Father dwelleth in light inaccessible; Him no man hath seen, nor can see; He ruleth all things after the counsel of His own will. The Son is gone up from us, and is waiting in our manhood at the right hand of the Father, till all things be put under His feet. Where then shall we find this ever-present help in God? where but in the Holy Spirit, whose especial glory it is that He works and energises in creation, in the material and the immaterial ranks of being, who first brought light out of darkness, who is the Source and Upholder of all life and joy?

II. Very various and very wonderful are the ways in which God's Spirit originates and carries on the new life in men. One man speaks with the Spirit in the lofty cathedral, resonant with studied praise; and another comes from his week-long toil to the mean and crowded conventicle, and in the illiterate accents of his brother-mechanic the same blessed Spirit speaks to his heart, in his heart's own way, and he too hears and follows. Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift. For wherever He is found, however He works, He is this one crowning gift of our God, without which no man can live unto Him, with whom we have Christ in all His fulness, and the Father in all His love.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. iv., p. 274.

References: 2 Corinthians 9:15.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi., No. 1550. 2 Corinthians 10:1.—H. Wonnacott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 138; A. Rowland, Ibid.,\o\. xxxvi., p. 282; H. W. Beecher, Sermons, 1870, p. 54. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5.—Homilist, 3rd series, vol. vi., p. 216; R. Whittington, Church Sermons, vol. i., p. 203. 2 Corinthians 10:4.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 132; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 381. 2 Corinthians 10:4, 2 Corinthians 10:5.—Homilist, vol. iv., p. 32; W. J. Woods, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 282; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 378.