Written by Dynamis Ministries | July 21, 2022
For anyone who received a public education in the 90’s, you probably learned all about conjunctions from the Schoolhouse Rock jingle “Conjunction Junction.” Conjunction junction, what’s your function (70’s groovy sound)? Oh sorry, back to the point. This song taught children that conjunctions are those words that join phrases together, such as “and,” “but” and “or.” Although these words are usually small, their use in a sentence can be significant. When we pay attention to conjunctions in the Bible, they can show us some pretty important things about the main point. Consider this verse on generosity:
“Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous” (2 Corinthians 9:11).
Did you catch the conjunction? “So” shows us there’s a major purpose to being enriched. God enriches us so that we can be generous. This idea goes against much of our cultural thinking today. It’s easy for us to want to be enriched so that we can live in comfort, or so that we can have our dream job or so that we can have a good reputation. None of these desires are necessarily bad in and of themselves, but they represent the false impression that our enrichment is meant to serve only ourselves. In God’s economy our enrichment is actually for a different purpose. God enriches us so that we can be generous.
Gospel artist Kirk Franklin and worship group Maverick City Music collaborated and put their own spin on this idea in the song “Bless Me.” Check out what they say in these lyrics:
Bless me, bless me
God not just for me
But so everyone around me
Can have everything they need
Let all these folks that’s with me
God, have everything they need
With this understanding of the purpose of enrichment, we can see in this song that the request to be blessed is not coming from place of selfishness but rather from a desire to be more generous. The more we are enriched, the more generous we can be. And the more generous we are, the more we’ll be able to help meet the needs of others.
Enrichment is much more than just material resources too. We can be enriched by our physical and mental health, relationships, opportunities, resources and personal abilities. This is what is meant by being enriched in every way. When we have this broader understanding of enrichment, we can begin to see that this verse has great value to everyone.
The fact of the matter is that God has blessed us already in many ways, and most of us in the West have been given more than we need. This makes us “wealthy” in comparison to the rest of the world, whether it’s with money, resources, experiences, social status or even education. God’s design for us is to use our wealth and all the ways we’ve been enriched to be generous and to do good for others. Let’s live out the purpose of our wealth today so that others can “have everything they need.”
Photo Credit: Abigail Keenan
