2 Corinthians
Chapter 9
Overview
Paul is organizing financial help for God’s people in need. The believers in Achaia, the Roman province that included Corinth, had promised to contribute, and Paul has been telling the Macedonians about their eagerness. Now he sends trusted fellow believers ahead to make sure the contribution is ready before he arrives. His concern is not merely avoiding embarrassment. He wants their gift to be freely chosen, not squeezed out of them. From there, he considers a simple pattern: generosity spreads like seed, meeting practical needs while also producing gratitude, trust, and stronger bonds between people.
1I hardly need to write to you about this service of helping God’s people.
2I know how eager you are to help. I have been boasting about you to the Macedonians, telling them, “The people of Achaia have been ready since last year.” Your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to take action.
3Still, I have sent these fellow believers so that our boasting about you in this matter will not prove empty. I want you to be ready, just as I said you would be.
4Otherwise, some Macedonians might come with me and find you unprepared. Then we would be ashamed for having been so confident—not to mention how ashamed you would be.
5So I thought it necessary to urge these fellow believers to visit you before I do and arrange in advance the generous contribution you already promised. Then it will be ready as a freely given blessing, not something taken from you under pressure.
6Remember this: someone who plants only a little seed will also harvest only a little. Someone who plants generously will also harvest generously.
7Each person should give what they have decided in their own heart—not with regret or because they are being pressured. God loves someone who gives cheerfully.
8God has the power to pour every kind of generous care upon you. Then you will always have enough of everything you need and will have plenty for every good work.
9As Scripture says, “They have freely scattered their gifts and given to the poor. Their faithful generosity lasts forever.”
10God supplies seed to the person who plants and bread for food. He will also supply and multiply your resources for giving, and he will increase the results produced by your faithful generosity.
11You will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. Through us, your generosity will lead people to thank God.
12This service you are providing does more than supply what God’s people lack. It also overflows into many expressions of thanks to God.
13This service proves the sincerity of your commitment. The people who receive it will praise God because you live in obedience to your declared commitment to the good news about the Messiah, and because you generously share with them and with everyone.
14They will also pray for you and long to see you because of the extraordinary kindness God has shown you.
15Thanks be to God for his gift, which is too wonderful for words.