This is yet another degree of praise, and the highest one. Surrendering oneself to the Lord is the summit of Christian spiritual perfection. It arises after the cutting off of all earthly and merely human feelings and dispositions.
“See,” says Chrysostom, “how by the words ‘they gave themselves to the Lord’ the Apostle shows their extraordinary zeal for God. They did not submit to God in part, while serving the world with another part.
“Rather, they wholly gave themselves, their entire selves, to Him alone. They dedicated themselves to Him, showing themselves tested in faith. In misfortunes they manifested great courage, good order, meekness, love, readiness, and zeal for every other virtue.
“For while helping the poor, they were not puffed up. On the contrary, with great humility, obedience, reverence, and love of wisdom, they practiced almsgiving.”
“They gave themselves to the Lord, and to us.” First to the Lord, and for the Lord’s sake to us also, “as His servants” (Theodoret). They did not separate our concerns from their own, and they considered the labor laid upon us to be their own.
“They were obedient to us, loved us, and submitted to us, both by fulfilling the laws of God and by being united to us in love” (Chrysostom).
“What does ‘by the will of God’ mean? It means that, in giving themselves to us, they did so not according to human calculations. They did even this by the will of God” (Chrysostom).
“By the will of God” means through the will of God, by the power of the will of God. The will of God was the governing principle. They acted according to their awareness of it.
This is the distinctive mark of truly Christian activity: to take no step except after being assured that the will of God is for it.
Reviewing all that the Apostle said about the Macedonians’ almsgiving, blessed Photius says in Oecumenius: “In this little section the Apostle pointed out six good traits in the Macedonians.
“First, they were willing according to their ability. For it is already great when someone gives alms as much as he can. But he says something greater about them: they were willing even beyond their ability.
“This means that they even deprived themselves of what was necessary. Third, they were willingly eager. That is, they had no need of persuasion from elsewhere, but of themselves became zealous for this good work.
“Fourth, with much entreaty they begged that the gift be accepted. This proves a warm and overflowing disposition toward almsgiving, gushing like a spring of water.
“For they did not beg as though bestowing grace on others. Rather, as though acquiring something great for themselves, they begged, implored, and did not cease entreating until they obtained what they asked, namely, that their gift be accepted.
“Fifth, in their gift they exceeded Saint Paul’s expectations. See to what height he raised their virtue. He says that they proved more magnanimous than I myself.
“For if he did not expect it, he seems to imply that he himself, in similar circumstances, would have proved less generous. But he is not content with these indications alone.
“He increases his praise by something incomparably higher than all that has been said. He says, it is not yet so great that they gave according to their ability, beyond their ability, willingly, with much entreaty, begging, and not as we had hoped.
“What then is this special thing they did? ‘They gave themselves,’ he says, ‘first to the Lord, and to us by the will of God.’ They did not give one part away and keep another part for themselves.
“Rather, they surrendered their whole selves to the Lord. He speaks as if to say: they did not even leave themselves the means of life. Having given everything, they placed every care and provision for themselves upon the Lord.
“Therefore Saint Paul, presenting the height of such a disposition, finally added, ‘by the will of God.’ By this he said, as it were: Do not wonder at this, O man. They had God as their fellow worker, having drawn Him by their good disposition.
“Where God works together, nothing is impossible.”
THEOSIS