2 Corinthians 8:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

By wealth he here means the knowledge of piety, the cleansing of sins, justification, sanctification, and the countless other blessings that Christ has given and promised to give us. All this was acquired for us through poverty. What poverty? That He took flesh, became man, and endured sufferings. Though He owed you nothing, you owe Him.

Hear a little concerning riches, in answer to the next question in your letter. You wrote that some say a rich man who continues to live in wealth cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven until he sells his possessions. They also say that keeping the commandments is of no benefit to him while he clings to his riches.

Yet such arguments do not take account of our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who long ago departed this life. All of them possessed no small estates, as Scripture most surely testifies.

But He Who, being rich, became poor for us, has declared to us in a most certain promise that many will come from east and west. They will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 8:11), not above them, not without them, but with them.

It is true that the proud rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and feasted sumptuously every day, died and entered the torments of Hades (Lk 16:19-31). Yet if he had shown mercy to the poor man who lay covered with sores at his gate and was despised, he would have merited mercy.

And if the poor man's merit had been his poverty, and not righteousness, the angels surely would not have carried him to the bosom of Abraham, who himself was rich in this life.

All this is meant to show us that poverty in itself has no value before God, and that wealth in itself is not condemned. Rather, the piety of the one and the impiety of the other have different consequences.

We cannot attain possession of them unless a calm and strong love leads us to seek them and lightens the labor for their sake. Therefore, as is clear from what has been said, renunciation of the world is a release from the bonds of this material and temporal life.

It is freedom from human obligations, making us more able to begin the path toward God. It is an unhindered opportunity to acquire and use what is more precious than much gold and precious stones (Ps 18:11, LXX).

In short, it is the removal of the human heart into heavenly citizenship, so that one may say: "Our citizenship is in heaven" (Phil 3:20).

Most importantly, it is the beginning of likeness to Christ, Who, being rich, became poor for your sake. If we do not advance in this, we cannot approach life according to the Gospel of Christ.

For how can contrition of heart, humility of mind, and the soul's freedom from anger, grief, cares, and, in short, destructive passions exist amid wealth, worldly anxieties, attachment, and habit toward other things?

Do not judge by what you see, but recognize the redemption prepared for you. You see Him in rags, but you do not see Him in heaven. You hear the cry of the infant, but you do not hear the lowing of the ox that recognizes its Lord. For "the ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger" (Is 1:3).

Through the action of the passions we were possessed by the enemy. Thus, when we were in such fierce captivity and were possessed by invisible and bitter death, the Master of all visible and invisible creation was not ashamed.

Rather, He humbled Himself and took upon Himself man condemned by the passions of dishonor, by the prohibition, and by the Master’s sentence against him. He became like us in all things except sin, that is, except the passions of dishonor.

For what came upon man as punishment for the sin of transgression by the Master’s sentence, namely death, labors, hunger, thirst, and all such things, He took upon Himself. He became what we are, that we might become what He is.

“The Word became flesh, that the flesh might become Word. Being rich, He became poor for our sake, that by His poverty we might become rich.” In His great love for mankind He became like us, that through every virtue we might become like Him.

For since Christ came, the new man is truly renewed according to the image and likeness by the grace and power of the Spirit. He reaches the measure of perfect love, which casts out fear and is no longer subject to falling.

For “love never fails” (1 Cor 13:8), because, as John says, “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God” (1 Jn 4:16).

The apostles were deemed worthy of this measure. So were those who, like them, were trained in virtue, presented themselves perfect to the Lord, and followed Christ with perfect desire throughout their whole life.

Therefore, if you always contemplate unforgettably this humility which the Lord accepted in His ineffable love for mankind, out of love for us, consider the indwelling of God the Word in the womb.

Consider His taking on of man, His birth from a Woman, the gradual growth of His body, His dishonor, insults, reproaches, mockery, revilings, beatings, spitting, derision, abuse, the scarlet robe, the crown of thorns.

Consider the sentence of the rulers against Him, the cries against Him from the lawless Jews, His kinsmen: “Take Him away, take Him away, crucify Him” (Jn 19:15). Consider the Cross, the nails, the spear, the drink of vinegar and gall.

Consider the triumphing of the Gentiles and the mockery of those passing by, who said to Him, “If Thou art the Son of God, come down from the Cross, and we will believe in Thee” (Mt 27:40).

Consider the other sufferings which He endured for our sake: the Crucifixion, death, three-day burial in the tomb, and descent into Hades. Then consider the fruits of the sufferings, what they are and how great.

These are the Resurrection from the dead, the captivity of Hades and death, the souls that came forth from there with the Lord, the Ascension into the heavens, and His sitting at the right hand of the Father.

He is “far above every Principality and Power, and every name that is named” (Eph 1:21). Consider the honor and glory, and the worship of all the Angels toward the Firstborn from the dead, because of His sufferings.

This accords with the apostolic word: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Being in the form of God, He did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped.

“But He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

“Therefore God also highly exalted Him and gave Him the name which is above every name. At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,” and so forth (Phil 2:5-10).

Do you see, then, the consequences of the sufferings described above, according to the righteousness of God? Do you see to what glory and height they raised the humanity of the Lord?

Thus in one and the same Christ the truth of human nature shone forth, while the eternal immutability of the divine nature remained. Nothing was lessened in Him. Nothing that He had in His nature from eternity was changed by what He received in time.

Outwardly He became a servant, yet He did not cease to be Lord of all by nature. According to the flesh He became poor, yet according to His divinity He remained rich. Therefore the blessed Apostle says that Christians became rich through His poverty: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that by His poverty you might become rich."

He could by no means have made us rich by His poverty, if, in becoming poor, He had not possessed within Himself the riches of His divine nature. He became poor according to the form of a servant. He remained rich according to the form of God.

He, 'being rich, as God, ineffable, inconceivable, invisible, incomprehensible, possessing indescribable glory, unutterable light, and incomparable majesty, became poor' (Oecumenius). He emptied His glory, that you might be enriched, not by His riches, but by His poverty. If you do not believe that poverty produces wealth, remember your Lord, and you will no longer doubt. For if He had not become poor, you would not have become rich. Truly it is marvelous that poverty found riches. By riches here the Apostle means the knowledge of piety, the cleansing of sins, justification, sanctification, and the countless other blessings that Christ has given and has promised still to give us. 'And all this was acquired for us through poverty. What poverty? That He took flesh, became man, and endured sufferings. Though He owed you nothing, you owe Him'" (St. Chrysostom).

The Apostle does not spell out what follows, in the present matter, from our being enriched by the poverty of the Lord, Who became poor for our sake. He leaves the Corinthians to draw this conclusion themselves. Therefore he seems to limit the whole work of the Lord to them alone: He became poor for your sake, that you might become rich. Yet the Lord became poor for all and enriched all.

It is as though he says to them: "Behold whom you must imitate: the Lord. He emptied Himself. You too should empty, if not yourselves, then your treasuries for His sake, through the needy. By this you will prove that you sincerely love the Lord." One cannot fail to see that St. Paul had in mind the word of the Lord: "As you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." The Lord enriched you. The law of righteousness commands you to repay Him in the same way. Enrich the lesser brethren, for the Lord graciously accepts what is done for them as though it had been done to Himself. The Lord has enriched you spiritually. Is it so great a thing if you repay Him materially in the person of the needy? The first is so exalted that the latter cannot be compared with it, whatever sacrifices you make.