1. For concerning the ministry that is done towards the saints, it is superfluous for me to write unto you.
2. For I know your forward mind: for which I boast of you to the Macedonians. That Achaia also is ready from the year past, and your emulation hath provoked very many.
3. Now I have sent the brethren, that the thing which we boast of concerning you, be not made void in this behalf, that (as I have said) you may be ready:
4. Lest, when the Macedonians shall come with me, and find you unprepared, we (not to say ye) should be ashamed in this matter.
5. Therefore I thought it necessary to desire the brethren that they would go to you before, and prepare this blessing before promised, to be ready, so as a blessing, not as covetousness.
6. Now this I say: He who soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly: and he who soweth in blessings, shall also reap blessings.
7. Every one as he hath determined in his heart, not with sadness, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
8. And God is able to make all grace abound in 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 justice remaineth for ever.