2 Corinthians 9:15

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

Thanks be unto God - Whitby supposes that this refers to the charitable disposition which they had manifested, and that the sense is, that God was to be adored for the liberal spirit which they were disposed to manifest, and the aid which they were disposed to render to others. But this, it is believed, falls far below the design of the apostle.

PAUL had spoken of the liberality of the Corinthian Believers and he had endeavored to stir them up to a prudent preparation for displaying it. "Now, therefore," he said, "perform the doing of it, that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance, also, out of that which you have." He closes his exhortation by this remarkable sentence—"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!"—intending, no doubt, to thereby give expression to his own hearty thankfulness and also to deliver a master stroke of argument for Christian liberality.

IN the chapter from which my text is taken, Paul is stirring up the Christians at Corinth to be ready with liberal gifts for the poor saints at Jerusalem. He finishes by reminding them of a greater gift than any they could bring and, by this one short word of praise, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift," he sets all their hearts a-singing! Let men give as liberally as they may, you can always proclaim the value of their gift. You can cast it up and reckon its worth, but God's gift is unspeakable, unreckonable!

his unspeakable gift--the gift of His own Son, which includes all other inferior gifts (2Co 8:9; If we have received from God "His unspeakable gift," what great thing is it, if we give a few perishing gifts for His sake?

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens

IN the chapter from which my text is taken, Paul is stirring up the Christians at Corinth to be ready with liberal gifts for the poor saints at Jerusalem. He finishes by reminding them of a greater gift than any they could bring and, by this one short word of praise, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift," he sets all their hearts a-singing! Let men give as liberally as they may, you can always proclaim the value of their gift. You can cast it up and reckon its worth, but God's gift is unspeakable, unreckonable! You cannot fully estimate the value of what God gives. The Gospel is a Gospel of giving and forgiving. We may sum it up in those two words and, therefore, when the true spirit of it works upon the Christian, he forgives freely and he also gives freely. The large heart of God breeds large hearts in men and they who live upon His bounty are led by His Spirit to imitate that bounty according to their power. However, I am not going, on the present occasion, to say anything upon the subject of liberality. I must get straight away to the text, hoping that we may really drink in the spirit of it and, out of full hearts, use the Apostle's language with a more intense meaning than ever as we repeat his words—"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." I shall commence by saying that salvation is altogether the gift of God and, as such, is to be received by us freely. Then I shall try to show that this gift is unspeakable. And, in the third place, that for this gift, thanks should be rendered to God. Though it is unspeakable, yet we should speak our praise of it. In this way you will see, as of old, preachers used to say, the text naturally falls apart. I. We begin with the thought that SALVATION IS ALTOGETHER THE GIFT OF GOD.

IF you will read, at home, the chapter from which our text is taken, you will find that Paul was stirring up the Corinthians to an act of liberality. He had boasted of what they would do, but he had just a little fear that they might fall behind and not quite come up to what he had promised on their behalf. He stirred them up to liberal giving, telling them that they who sowed liberally, should reap liberally, and they who sowed sparingly would reap sparingly.

IF you will read, at home, the chapter from which our text is taken, you will find that Paul was stirring up the Corinthians to an act of liberality. He had boasted of what they would do, but he had just a little fear that they might fall behind and not quite come up to what he had promised on their behalf. He stirred them up to liberal giving, telling them that they who sowed liberally, should reap liberally, and they who sowed sparingly would reap sparingly. Once upon that theme of giving, the Apostle could not help speaking of another gift. He saw a track just off the main road and he felt that it led him straight away to his God and to his Savior. And so, while the ink was yet flowing in his pen, he began to write about it as though he would say, "I am not thinking now, my Brethren, so much of your gifts as I am of another gift—not so much of your gifts to the Lord's poor people as of the Lord's great Gift to you—His poor people. "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift." A person, who was collecting for some good objective, called upon a friend one day and, as he needed him to be very generous, pleaded hard with him. After a while, he seemed to quit the subject altogether, and he said, "I knew your father." "Did you?" "Yes, and I called upon him about a certain business, just as I do upon you, and your father did not need any prompting. He said, 'State the case,' and as soon as the case was stated, he pulled out his purse and gave me ten times as much as I had expected to obtain from him." You see, our friend was not exactly pleading with the son when he told that story, and yet I do not know how he could have pleaded better, for reverence for his father's name and the desire not to seem to fall off from his father's standard, were the very best arguments that could have been used with him! So I admire the wisdom of Paul.

PAUL had spoken of the liberality of the Corinthian Believers and he had endeavored to stir them up to a prudent preparation for displaying it. "Now, therefore," he said, "perform the doing of it, that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance, also, out of that which you have." He closes his exhortation by this remarkable sentence—"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!"—intending, no doubt, to thereby give expression to his own hearty thankfulness and also to deliver a master stroke of argument for Christian liberality. Nothing can so excite God's people as to give to Him, as the remembrance of what God has given to them. "Freely you have received, freely give," is our Lord's own argument. Gospel Graces are best stimulated by Gospel motives. It is wrong to appeal to Believers by reasons drawn from the Law of Works, for they are not under it. Children are to be ruled as children, not as oxen. Appeal should be made to renewed hearts by arguments distilled from the Law of love under which they live! Seeing God has loved them with an infinite love, this love has become the most mighty of forces within them—"The love of Christ constrains us." Nothing can move a man to complete consecration to God like the fact that He so loved us that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The Gospel is founded upon giving and its spirit is giving. Buying and selling are unknown in spiritual things, unless we buy without money and without price. Payment is for the Law. Under the Gospel, everything is a gift. God gives us Jesus, gives us eternal life, gives us Grace and glory, gives us everything, in fact, and then, moved by love to Him, we give ourselves back to Him and to His people.

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift - Some contend that Christ only is here intended; others, that the almsgiving is meant. After all the difference of commentators and preachers, it is most evident that the ανεκδιηγητος δωρεα, unspeakable gift, is precisely the same with the ὑπερβαλλουση χαρις, superabounding grace or benefit, of the preceding verse. If therefore Jesus Christ, the gift of God s unbounded love to man, be the meaning of the unspeakable gift in this verse, he is also intended by the superabounding grace in the preceding. But it is most evident that it is the work of Christ in them, and not Christ himself, which is intended in the 14th verse (2Co 9:14); and consequently, that it is the same work, not the operator, which is referred to in this last verse. A Few farther observations may be necessary on the conclusion of this chapter. 1. Jesus Christ, the gift of God’s love to mankind, is an unspeakable blessing; no man can conceive, much less declare, how great this gift is; for these things the angels desire to look into. Therefore he may be well called the unspeakable gift, as he is the highest God ever gave or can give to man; though this is not the meaning of the last verse. 2. The conversion of a soul from darkness to light, from sin to holiness, from Satan to God, is not less inconceivable. It is called a new creation, and creative energy cannot be comprehended. To have the grace of God to rule the heart, subduing all things to itself and filling the soul with the Divine nature, is an unspeakable blessing; and the energy that produced it is an unspeakable gift. I conclude, therefore, that it is the work of Christ in the soul, and not Christ himself, that the apostle terms the superabounding or exceeding great grace, and the unspeakable gift; and Dr. Whitby’s paraphrase may be safely admitted as giving the true sense of the passage. […]