1 There is no need for me to write to you about this ministry of giving to the saints in Jerusalem. 2 For I know how eager you are to help, and I keep boasting about you to the Macedonians, saying that Achaia has been prepared to give since last year; and your zeal has stirred up most of them. 3 But I have sent the brothers so that our boasting about you in this matter may not prove to be empty, but that you may be prepared, just as I said you would be. 4 Otherwise, if any of the Macedonians were to come with me and find you unprepared, we (not to mention you) would be ashamed [a]of this confident boasting. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance your previously [b]announced blessing, so that this gift of yours may be ready as a blessing and not as something you feel forced to do.

6 My point is this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each person should give as he [c]decides in his heart, not with sadness or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance so that you will always have everything you need to abound in every good work. 9 As it is written,