2 Corinthians 8:1–15

Generosity in Giving

8Now we make known to you, brothers, the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, ²that with a great ordeal of affliction, the abundance of their joy and the extreme depth of their poverty have overflowed to the wealth of their generosity. ³I testify that they gave^* according to their ability, and beyond their ability, by their own choice, ⁴requesting of us with much exhortation the favor and the fellowship of the ministry to the saints, ⁵and not just as we had hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us, by the will of God. ⁶So we urged Titus that, just as he had previously begun it, thus he would also complete for you this act of grace. ⁷But just as you excel in everything—in faith and in speaking and in knowledge and with all diligence and in the love from us that is in you—so may you excel in this grace also. ⁸I am not saying this as a command, but proving the genuineness of your love by means of the diligence of others. ⁹For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although he^* was rich, for your sake he became poor, in order that you, by his poverty, may become rich. ¹⁰And I am giving an opinion in this matter, because this is profitable for you who not only began previously, a year ago, to do something, but also to want to do it. ¹¹So now also complete the doing of it, in order that just as you have the eagerness to want to do it, thus also you may complete it from what you have. ¹²For if the eagerness is present according to what one has^a, it is acceptable not according to what one does not have^b. ¹³For this is not that for others there may be relief, and for you difficult circumstances, but as a matter of equality. ¹⁴At the present time your abundance will be for their need, in order that their abundance may also be for your need, so that there may be equality, ¹⁵just as it is written, “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”^c