2 Corinthians 9:1-15
1 For as touching the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you:
2 For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal hath provoked very many.
3 Yet have I sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf; that, as I said, ye may be ready:
4 Lest haply if they of Macedonia come with me, and find you unprepared, we (that we say not, ye) should be ashamed in this same confident boasting.
5 Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty,a whereof ye had notice before, that the same might be ready, as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness.
6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
9 (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever.
10 Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;)
11 Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness,b which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.
12 For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God;
13 Whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men;
14 And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you.
15 Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
In concluding this subject of the collection for the saints the apostle declares that he desires that their giving should be glad and spontaneous. He excludes two methods of giving, "grudgingly," that is, very literally, sorrowfully. It is the giving of those who have not first given themselves, and consequently are conscious of the loss of that which is given. "Or of necessity," that is, giving as simply an act of duty, and not from an impulse of delight. On the contrary, he says, "God loveth a cheerful giver."
He then recites the advantages of giving. The first of these is that giving will fill the wants of the saints. That in itself is good, but the outcome is even better. Through such ministry gifts will cause glory to God.
And yet again, they will bring the intercession of those they have helped, a harvest of precious value. The final word concerning this whole subject is an expression of thanks to God for His unspeakable gift, for the apostle knows that the remembrance of it will do more than all his argument to stimulate the generosity of those who have received the inestimable blessing.