Growing God's church God's way means dying so others can live. Death operates in us but life in you, Paul wrote (2 Cor. 4:12). Serving others is God's model for church growth. Sacrificial service for others produces greater glory for God. All things are for your sakes so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God (2 Cor. 4:15).
We do all that we do as leaders on behalf of you, Paul asserts. The preposition (διά) with the accusative (ὑμᾶς) indicates the reason why something happens and can be translated "because of" or "for the sake of" someone (BAGD, p.181). Paul is saying that because of you or for your sakes we are serving - dying that you might live.
The purpose of the service is found in the clause introduced by "so that" (ἵνα). Paul serves so that grace might grow the gratitude of the believers. Grace is the subject of the clause. The main verb is "might grow" (περισσεύσει). The verb means to cause to abound or to make extremely rich (BAGD, p.651). The object of the verb is gratitude (τὴν εὐχαριστίαν). We get our English word "Eucharist" from this word. It means to give thanks or to praise someone. Our service to others causes thanksgiving to grow. Expressions of praise abound toward God because our sacrificial service exhibits His grace.
How?
The intervening clause explains how grace grows thanksgiving. Grace is described as increasing or multiplying. The nominative feminine participle modifies and explains the grace which is nominative feminine. The word means to have more than is necessary or even to have too much (BAGD, p.667). God's grace is multiplying by means of more and more people experiencing the grace. Here the preposition (διά) is used with the genitive translated "more and more" (τῶν πλειόνων) to indicate the means or the instrument by which something happens. How does grace grow thanksgiving? Grace grows thanksgiving by multiplying the number of people who experience God's grace.
The comparative translated "more and more" (τῶν πλειόνων) combined with the double verbs for increasing stresses quantity. It is a numerical term, so "more and more people" is a good translation, but it also could mean "majority" (Moule, Idiom Book, p.108). It is possible that Paul is alluding to the majority of the church as opposed to the minority who were against him in the conflict at Corinth. Not everybody in Corinth experienced the growing grace of God in their lives, so not everyone was abounding in thanksgiving. The same clause is used in 2 Cor. 2:6 to refer to the majority of the church that exercised church discipline. The church in Corinth was divided in conflict (Witherington, Conflict and Community, p.389). God's grace increased in most of them but not all of them. The majority, however, in Corinth were so zealous for the Lord that their zeal stirred up the majority (τοὺς πλείονας) of the church in Achaia (2 Cor. 9:2) to give themselves sacrificially!
Numbers matter but only as more people, truly changed by God's grace, are motivated to give more thanks to God. Numbers matter but only as the greater numbers produce greater glory to God. We do not serve for self. We serve for Him. All of our thanksgiving abounds to the glory of God (εὶς τὴν δόξαν τοῦ θεοῦ). It all comes because of sacrifice. Dying is God's method of growing the church, so He gets the glory for the undeserved grace.
To the glory of God!
εὶς τὴν δόξαν τοῦ θεοῦ
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