Second Letter to the Corinthians 9

¹ There is really no need for me to write to you on the subject of offering your services to the saints,

² since I know how anxious you are to help; in fact, I boast about you to the Macedonians, telling them, ‘Achaia has been ready since last year’. So your zeal has been a spur to many more.

³ I am sending the brothers all the same, to make sure that our boasting about you does not prove to have been empty this time, and that you really are ready as I said you would be.

⁴ If some of the Macedonians who are coming with me found you unprepared, we should be humiliated – to say nothing of yourselves – after being so confident.

⁵ That is why I have thought it necessary to ask these brothers to go on to you ahead of us, and make sure in advance that the gift you promised is all ready, and that it all comes as a gift out of your generosity and not by being extorted from you.

⁶ Do not forget: thin sowing means thin reaping; the more you sow, the more you reap.

⁷ Each one should give what he has decided in his own mind, not grudgingly or because he is made to, for God loves a cheerful giver.[*a]

⁸ And there is no limit to the blessings which God can send you – he will make sure that you will always have all you need for yourselves in every possible circumstance, and still have something to spare for all sorts of good works.

⁹ As scripture says: He was free in almsgiving, and gave to the poor: his good deeds will never be forgotten.[*b]

¹⁰ The one who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide you with all the seed you want and make the harvest of your good deeds a larger one,

¹¹ and, made richer in every way, you will be able to do all the generous things which, through us, are the cause of thanksgiving to God.

¹² For doing this holy service is not only supplying all the needs of the saints, but it is also increasing the amount of thanksgiving that God receives.

¹³ By offering this service, you show them what you are, and that makes them give glory to God for the way you accept and profess the gospel of Christ, and for your sympathetic generosity to them and to all.

¹⁴ And their prayers for you, too, show how they are drawn to you on account of all the grace that God has given you.

¹⁵ Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!