Epistle: 2 Corinthians 9:6–11
Gospel: Luke 6:31–36
Sunday: The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Mercy of the Father
Saint Paul calls us to generous giving. Christ commands us to love our enemies, do good, and lend without expecting repayment. Neither reading permits Christian love to remain a feeling. Love becomes visible in what we release, whom we serve, and how we treat those from whom no return can reasonably be expected.
The common source of this life is God Himself. God supplies seed to the sower and makes grace abound. The Most High is kind even to the unthankful and evil. Christian generosity is therefore more than philanthropy, and love of enemies is more than an admirable ethical achievement. They are ways of becoming like our Father.
The Epistle
2 Corinthians 9:6–11
6 Remember this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
7 Let each man give according as he has determined in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that you, always having all sufficiency in everything, may abound to every good work.
9 As it is written, “He has scattered abroad. He has given to the poor. His righteousness remains forever.”
10 Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness,
11 you being enriched in everything for all generosity, which produces thanksgiving to God through us.
The Old Testament Within Paul’s Words
When Paul describes the generous person in verse 9, he directly quotes Psalm 112:9:
“He has dispersed, he has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever.”
Psalm 112 portrays one who fears the Lord and reflects God’s own goodness through generosity, justice, and steadfastness. Paul uses the verse to show that giving is not an isolated transaction but part of a righteous life shaped by God.
Paul’s language in verse 10 also clearly echoes Isaiah 55:10:
“For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it grow and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater...”
In Isaiah, the image leads to God’s word accomplishing the purpose for which He sends it. Paul applies the same confidence to generosity: the God who creates the natural cycle of seed and bread also supplies and multiplies the gifts entrusted to His people.
Sowing, Not Losing
Generosity can feel like diminishment. What is given away is no longer available for our own security or pleasure. Paul asks us to see differently: giving is sowing. The seed disappears into the earth, but it is not wasted.
Saint John Chrysostom observes that Paul “called the thing sowing; that you might at once look unto the recompense, and having in mind the harvest, might feel that you receive more than you give.”1 The harvest is not a guarantee that every gift returns as material wealth. It is the fruit of righteousness, communion, thanksgiving, and a heart freed from fear.
“Not Grudgingly or Under Compulsion”
Paul cares not only that we give, but how we give. A technically correct act may still be distorted by resentment, display, manipulation, or fear. God does not need resources extracted from unwilling hands. He desires children who learn His own delight in giving.
This does not mean waiting until generosity is effortless. Feelings often lag behind obedience. We may begin reluctantly and ask God to enlarge the heart. Cheerfulness is not superficial enthusiasm; it is the deep freedom of giving without keeping an account against God or neighbor.
God’s promise is not limitless consumption but sufficiency “for every good work.” He enriches us so that generosity may continue through us. Blessing becomes stagnant when treated as private possession; passed onward, it produces thanksgiving to God.
The Gospel
Luke 6:31–36
31 “As you would like people to do to you, do exactly so to them.
32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.
34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive back as much.
35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil.
36 Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful.”
As You Would Have Them Do
The Golden Rule requires imagination. We must leave the narrow enclosure of our own grievance and ask how we would wish to be treated if places were reversed. Saint Cyril of Alexandria explains: “Shew thyself, He says, to others such as thou wishest them to be towards thee.”2
Christ’s command is active. He does not merely forbid injury. He tells us to do good. We are not to wait for the other person to become deserving, agreeable, or useful before extending the treatment we desire for ourselves.
Beyond Reciprocity
Ordinary social life depends upon reciprocity: affection is returned, favors are repaid, and loans are recovered. Such exchanges can be good, but Christ says they do not yet reveal the distinctiveness of divine love. Even sinners love those who love them.
Three times He removes the expected return: love those who oppose you, do good without repayment, and lend without calculating what will come back. This is the Gospel’s answer to the fear beneath stinginess. We need not extract a return from every person because our reward and security rest with God.
Love of enemies is not approval of evil, surrender to abuse, or abandonment of justice. It refuses hatred and revenge. It seeks the enemy’s healing and salvation while truthfully resisting what harms. Such love is possible only because God first showed kindness to us while we were unthankful.
Children of the Most High
Christ does not offer mercy merely as a useful rule for peaceful relations. He reveals it as the family resemblance of God’s children. We become recognizable as sons and daughters of the Most High when His indiscriminate kindness begins to take form in us.
Saint John Chrysostom writes, “Be merciful, as your Father in Heaven is merciful. This is the work of God.”3 Mercy is divine work entrusted to human hands.
“Be merciful” is more comprehensive than isolated acts of mercy. Christ calls for a merciful character: eyes that notice suffering, a judgment slow to condemn, hands ready to give, and a heart that does not define another person forever by the harm he has done.
The Harvest of Mercy
Paul’s cheerful giver and Christ’s merciful child describe the same transformed life. Both give because God gives. Both act without compulsion. Both trust a harvest they cannot yet see. And both turn human attention beyond themselves toward the Father.
Our gifts differ: money, time, attention, skill, hospitality, prayer, forgiveness, or patient presence. The enemy whom we are called to love may be close to us or far away. In each case the question is the same: will grace stop with us, or pass through us?
This Sunday asks us to sow rather than clutch, to act rather than merely feel, and to give without making another person’s response the measure of our faithfulness. The Father is kind to the unthankful and evil—including us. His mercy is both the source and the pattern of ours.
“Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful.”
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB).
1 Saint John Chrysostom, Homily 19 on Second Corinthians.
2 Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of Saint Luke, Sermon 29.
3 Saint John Chrysostom, Homily 6 on Second Timothy.