What Pleases God: 2 Corinthians 9:12-10:7, especially vs. 12:
"for the rendering of this service not only supplies the wants of the saints but also overflows in many thanksgivings."
God the Word became Incarnate. This is astounding, ineffable, and glorious beyond imagining! As we sing at the Orthros of the Day after Christmas: "the boundless Essence [was] wrapped in swaddling clothes in Bethlehem." Our hearts plead with Him, "save our souls." What is more, we have been "buried with Him through baptism into death that...we should walk in newness of life...that we should no longer be slaves to sin" (Rom. 6:4,6).
To express our gratitude for the Lord Jesus' Incarnation, what among all of mankind's actions, thoughts, feelings, accomplishments, and deeds pleases God most of all? Reaching the starving and homeless in His Name? Building and filling a beautiful temple with men and women who worship Him? Gently carrying an injured man to safety or nursing him back to life in the Lord's Name? He Who assumed our flesh, twice said the following: "I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth" (Lk.15:7,10).
St. Paul was immensely pleased when the Corinthian Christians ministered to the relief of the real, physical needs of their fellow Christians desperate with famine in Jerusalem (Acts 11:28-30). Surely their actions gave great joy to God, for our heavenly Father is ever pleased to see His children fed when stricken with famine, sheltered when homeless, and healed when sick.
Let us not minimize such acts and their importance in the eyes of God. Nevertheless, the greatest joy for God in the Corinthians was their longing to fulfill their "confession to the gospel of Christ" (2 Cor. 9:13). God seeks inner change in His People. Consider again our plea to the Incarnate, that "He saves our souls." The feeding of the hungry and healing of the sick follow naturally from the healing of our souls, when, deeply within, we are transformed. When our bondage to sin is broken in the grace of repentance, we walk in newness of life.
The Apostle understood that the inner condition of God's people was God's priority, whether in Corinth, Jerusalem, or Los Angeles. God's priority applies to us. Therefore, St. Paul sought evidence "of the exceeding grace of God" (vs. 14). Evidence of grace is what he held up as the gleaming beacon to those sending the relief. The abundance in food pleases God, but even greater is the overflowing "in many thanksgivings [in many Eucharists] to God" (vs.12).
The Jerusalem Christians, like the Apostle, saw tangible proof' of inner change in the Corinthians' generous acts, and they glorified God (vs. 13). Why? Because they saw what God had achieved in hearts and minds. The Apostle rejoiced because the brethren in Judea were praying for their brothers and sisters in Greece, more "evidence of the heart," confirmation of renewal and blessing from God in the lives of men and women. St. Paul understood that these actions evinced the "indescribable gift" of God, and was a cause for deep thanksgiving (vs. 15).
When the Apostle established the renewal of men's souls as the highest Christian value, he then addressed those who mistakenly saw his Christ-like "meekness and gentleness" as a character fault (vss.10:1-7). Some believed he ought to be "bold with confidence" rather than "lowly among [them]" (vss. 1,2). "Do you look at things according to the outward appearance?" he asks (vs. 7). "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh" (vs.3). Spiritual warfare has different rules than common war, but requires no less strength, for men of the Spirit can destroy "arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God" (vs. 5). Beloved, above all things let the quality of our hearts be pleasing to God
Cleanse our hearts by Thy Holy Spirit, that we may worthily magnify Thy Name, O Lord.