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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+!