9
1 Concerning this gift being organized to help the Lord’s holy people, there isn’t really any need for me to write to you,
2 because I know how eager you are to help, a fact about which, in regard to you, I keep speaking in praise to the believers in Macedonia. “The believers in Achaia,” I tell them, “have been ready to give since last year.” Your own eagerness has stirred most of them to action.
3 All the same, I am sending these brothers to help make sure that our praises about you don’t turn out to be hollow in this matter, to make sure that, just as I said you would be, you are, in fact, ready.
4 Otherwise, if some Macedonian believers were to arrive with me and discover you not ready, we would be humiliated (not to mention you) in this undertaking.
5 I thought it necessary, therefore, to urge the brothers to visit you ahead of me and set in order, prior to my arrival, the generous gift previously promised by you, the gift being in this way ready as a genuine gift and not as something you feel like you have to do.
6 Here’s my point: If someone sows sparingly, sparingly he will also reap; if someone sows bountifully, bountifully he will also reap.
7 Each person should give that to which he has committed himself in his heart, not reluctantly or because he feels forced, since God loves a “giver who gives cheerfully.”+
8 God, moreover, is able to richly pour out on you all gracious provision, so that in all respects having all you need, indeed at all times, you may be rich in all kinds of good deeds.
9 As it is written:
“He distributes generously, he gives to those who are in need;
his righteous deeds will be remembered forever into the ages.”+
10 Now the one who provides “seed to the sower and bread for food”+ will provide and multiply your seed and increase the harvest from your righteous acts of generosity;
11 you will be enriched in indeed every way, so that you can be generous on every occasion. And your generosity, when we deliver your gift, will result in people giving thanks to God,
12 because this help you are giving will not only fully provide for the needs of the Lord’s holy people, but will also produce a rich outpouring of thanksgiving to God.
13 On account of this kind act that will demonstrate your genuineness, they will glorify God for the obedience that accompanies your profession of the gospel of the Messiah and for the generous sign of your fellowship with them and with believers everywhere else.
14 And when they pray for you, their hearts will go out to you on account of the truly extraordinary generosity that God has graciously brought about among you.
15 Thanks be to God for his gift indescribable!