Chapter 9

¹It is really unnecessary for me to write to you about this fund for your fellow-Christians, ²for I know how willing you are to help in it; I boast of you for it to the people in Macedonia, telling them that Greece has been ready since last year, and your enthusiasm has been a stimulus to most of them. ³But I send the brothers so that our pride in you may not have a fall in this matter, but you may be all ready as I have told them you will; ⁴for if some people from Macedonia come with me, and find that you are not ready, it will humiliate me—to say nothing of you—for having expressed such confidence. ⁵So I have thought it necessary to ask these brothers to go on to you ahead of me, to arrange in advance for this gift you have promised, so as to have it ready, like an expression of your good will, not of your avarice.

⁶Remember this: The man who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and the man who sows generously will reap generously. ⁷Everyone must give what he has made up his mind to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion; God loves a man who is glad to give. ⁸God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance so that you will always have enough for every situation, and ample means for every good enterprise: ⁹as the Scripture says,

“He scatters his gifts to the poor;

His uprightness will never be forgotten.”

¹⁰He who supplies the sower with seed and so with bread to eat will supply you with seed, and multiply it and enlarge the harvest of your uprightness. ¹¹You will grow rich in every way, so that through me you can show perfect liberality that will make men thank God for it. ¹²For the rendering of this service does more than supply the wants of God’s people; it results in a wealth of thanksgiving to God. ¹³The way you stand the test of this service must do honor to God, through your fidelity to what you profess as to the good news of Christ, and through the liberality of your contributions for them and for all others; ¹⁴then they will long for you and pray for you, because of the extraordinary favor God has shown you. ¹⁵Thank God for his indescribable gift!