9 There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the Lord’s people. 2 For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. 3 But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be. 4 For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to say anything about you—would be ashamed of having been so confident. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.
Generosity Encouraged
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:
“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.”[Psalm 112:9 ]
10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
NOTES:
9:1–15 Quite possibly this was originally an independent
letter, though it deals with the same subject and continues many of the same
themes. In that case, it may have been written a few weeks later than 2 Cor 8,
while the delegation there mentioned was still on its way.
9:2 Achaia: see note on Rom 15:26.
9:3 I sent the brothers: the Greek aorist tense here could
be epistolary, referring to the present; in that case Paul would be sending
them now, and 2 Cor 9 would merely conclude the letter of recommendation begun
in 2 Cor 8. But the aorist may also refer to a sending that is past as Paul
writes; then 2 Cor 9, with its apparently fresh beginning, is a follow-up
message entrusted to another carrier.
9:8–10 The behavior to which he exhorts them is grounded in
God’s own pattern of behavior. God is capable of overwhelming generosity, as
scripture itself attests (2 Cor 9:9), so that they need not fear being short.
He will provide in abundance, both supplying their natural needs and increasing
their righteousness. Paul challenges them to godlike generosity and reminds
them of the fundamental motive for encouragement: God himself cannot be
outdone.
9:11–15 Paul’s vision broadens to take in all the interested
parties in one dynamic picture. His language becomes liturgically colored and
conveys a sense of fullness. With a final play on the words charis and
eucharistia (see note on 2 Cor 8:1), he describes a circle that closes on
itself: the movement of grace overflowing from God to them and handed on from
them through Paul to others is completed by the prayer of praise and
thanksgiving raised on their behalf to God.
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