Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

The Collection for Christians at Jerusalem

Now it is not necessary for me to write you about the ministry to the saints, ²for I know your eagerness, which is the subject of my boasting about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year; and your zeal has stirred up most of them. ³But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you may not prove to have been empty in this case, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be; ⁴otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—in this undertaking. ⁵So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you, and arrange in advance for this bountiful gift that you have promised, so that it may be ready as a voluntary gift and not as an extortion.

⁶ The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. ⁷Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. ⁹As it is written,

“He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor;

his righteousness endures forever.”

¹⁰ He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; ¹²for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God. ¹³Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others, ¹⁴while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you. ¹⁵Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

5. As a blessing, not in the way of niggardliness In place of blessing, some render it collection. I have preferred, however, to render it literally, as the Greeks employed the term εὐλογίας to express the Hebrew word ברכה, (beracah,) which is used in the sense of a blessing, that is, an invoking of prosperity, as well as in the sense of beneficence. ⁷¹¹⁷¹¹ “Qui signifie tant benediction, c’est a dire vn souhait ou priere pour la prosperite d’autruy, que beneficence ou liberalite;” — “Which denotes blessing — that is to say, a desire or prayer for the prosperity of another, as well as beneficence, or liberality.” The reason I reckon to be this, that it is in the first instance ascribed to God. ⁷¹²⁷¹² “Ie pense que la raison de ceste derniere signification est, pource que ce mot est en premier lieu et proprement attribue a Dieu;” — “I think that the reason of this last signification is — because it is in the first place and properly ascribed to God.” Now we know how God blesses us efficiently by his simple nod. ⁷¹³⁷¹³ “Par la seule et simple volonte;” — “By a mere simple exercise of the will.” When it is from this transferred to men, it retains the same meaning, — improperly, indeed, inasmuch as men have not the same efficacy in blessing, ⁷¹⁴⁷¹⁴ “Que Dieu ha;” — “That God has.” but yet not unsuitably by transference. ⁷¹⁵⁷¹⁵ “God’s blessing of us, and our blessing of God, differ exceedingly. For God blesseth us efficiently, by exhibiting his mercies to us. We bless God, not by adding any good to him, but declaratively only. God’s betedicere is benefacere — his words are works, but our blessing (as Aquinas says) is only recognoscitium, and expressivum — an acknowledgment only and celebration of that goodness.which God hath.” — Burgesse on 2 Corinthians 1. — Ed.

To blessing Paul opposes πλεονεξίαν, (grudging,) which term the Greeks employ to denote excessive greediness, as well as fraud and niggardliness. ⁷¹⁶⁷¹⁶ “Qui signifie tant couuoitise exccssiue, ou auarice, que chichete, et quand on rogne quelque chose de ce qu’il faudroit donner;” — “Which denotes excessive covetousness or avarice, as well as niggardliness, and when one pares off something from what he should give.” I have rather preferred the term niggardliness in this contrast; for Paul would have them give, not grudgingly, but. with a liberal spirit, as will appear still more clearly from what follows.

⁷¹¹ “Qui signifie tant benediction, c’est a dire vn souhait ou priere pour la prosperite d’autruy, que beneficence ou liberalite;” — “Which denotes blessing — that is to say, a desire or prayer for the prosperity of another, as well as beneficence, or liberality.”

⁷¹² “Ie pense que la raison de ceste derniere signification est, pource que ce mot est en premier lieu et proprement attribue a Dieu;” — “I think that the reason of this last signification is — because it is in the first place and properly ascribed to God.”

⁷¹³ “Par la seule et simple volonte;” — “By a mere simple exercise of the will.”

⁷¹⁴ “Que Dieu ha;” — “That God has.”

⁷¹⁵ “God’s blessing of us, and our blessing of God, differ exceedingly. For God blesseth us efficiently, by exhibiting his mercies to us. We bless God, not by adding any good to him, but declaratively only. God’s betedicere is benefacere — his words are works, but our blessing (as Aquinas says) is only recognoscitium, and expressivum — an acknowledgment only and celebration of that goodness.which God hath.” — Burgesse on 2 Corinthians 1. — Ed.

⁷¹⁶ “Qui signifie tant couuoitise exccssiue, ou auarice, que chichete, et quand on rogne quelque chose de ce qu’il faudroit donner;” — “Which denotes excessive covetousness or avarice, as well as niggardliness, and when one pares off something from what he should give.”