2 Corinthians 9
9
1Now about this service to the kedoshim, it is indeed unnecessary for me to write to you—
2for I know your eagerness. I boast about it to the Macedonians, that Achaia has been preparing for a year already; and your zeal has stirred up most of them.
3But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you may not be in vain in this case, so that you may be prepared, just as I kept saying.
4Otherwise, if any Macedonians were to come and find you unprepared, we—not to mention you—would be put to shame in this undertaking.
5So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on to you and arrange ahead of time your generous gift that had been promised beforehand, so that it would be ready as a gift and not as an extortion.
Sowing and Reaping Generosity
6The point is this: whoever sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully.
7Let each one give as he has decided in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion—for God loves a cheerful giver.
8And God is able to make all grace overflow to you, so that by always having enough of everything, you may overflow in every good work.
9As it is written, “He scattered widely, He gave to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.”
10Now the One who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
11You will be enriched in everything for all generosity, which through us brings about thanksgiving to God.
12For this service of giving is not only supplying the needs of the kedoshim, but is also overflowing with many thanksgivings to God.
13Because of the evidence of this service, they praise God for the obedience of your affirmation of the Good News of Messiah and for the generosity of your contribution to them and to everyone.
14And in their prayer for you, they long for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.
15Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
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Copyright © 2014 - Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society
2 Corinthians 9
9
The fund is not a requisition but a blessing
1I do not think there is any need for me to say more about your part in this fund. 2I have told many of your own readiness to give. I have told the churches in Asia that Achaia has long been laying by for it, and for some time past your example has stimulated them. 3Now I send the committee of three brethren whom I have mentioned to complete the matter. 4You will see to it that what I have spoken about you has not been spoken in vain, that when they come, I may not be found to have boasted of you to no purpose, and that I, not to say yourselves, may have no reason to be ashamed. 5I told them they would find you ready, and that there was no idea in your minds that this fund was a requisition, but that it stood for a blessing. These were the words with which I sped them on their way.
6I will say but this, that to sow plentifully is to reap plentifully, and that a niggard spirit will never receive a blessing for that which was not given as a blessing. 7“God loveth a cheerful giver” (Prov. 22:8). He can make you abound in everything that is good. 8He can give you that self-reliance and competency within and without which will accomplish everything good. 9“He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever” (Ps. 112:9). 10It is He who supplies “the seed to the sower, and the bread to the eater” (Is. 55:10). 11-13He shall multiply what you have in Him, your seed and your fruit, and the perfection from which they flow. Those riches grow for those who are simple and honest in heart, and the greatest possession is that gratitude which we feel to God, and that is the secret of this fund which I have organised. It does not merely fill the want of churches elsewhere, it is the sure and abounding fruit of great gratitude to God in our midst. Those receiving it will praise God the more joyfully when they realise the test which this contribution has put you to, when they see your obedience and common acknowledgement of the gospel of the Christ, when they feel the simplicity of heart with which the gift is made to themselves and which is present also in all your dealings towards others, 14and will pray for you, and long after you in the gospel of God, because of the divine manifestation in your midst. 15God be praised for His gift which passes all utterance, all power of expression.
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Translated in 1916, published in 1937.