² On the first day of every week,^(A) each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.^(B)

³ But I am sending the brothers^(A) in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be.^{(B) 4} For if any Macedonians^(C) come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to say anything about you—would be ashamed of having been so confident. ⁵ So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers^(D) to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift,^(E) not as one grudgingly given.^(F)

Eutychus Raised From the Dead at Troas

⁷ On the first day of the week^(A) we came together to break bread.^(B) Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.

⁹ You are under a curse^(A)—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe^(B) into the storehouse,^(C) that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates^(D) of heaven and pour out^(E) so much blessing^(F) that there will not be room enough to store it.^(G)

¹⁰ “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much,^(A) and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

¹¹ There will always be poor people^(A) in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.^(B)

Freeing Servants^(C)(D)

¹² If any of your people—Hebrew men or women—sell themselves to you and serve you six years, in the seventh year you must let them go free.^{(E) 13} And when you release them, do not send them away empty-handed. ¹⁴ Supply them liberally from your flock, your threshing floor^(F) and your winepress. Give to them as the Lord your God has blessed you.

¹⁸ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth,^(A) and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

¹⁰ On the Lord’s Day^(A) I was in the Spirit,^(B) and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,^(C)

The Collection for the Lord’s People

8 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian^(A) churches. ² In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.^{(B) 3} For I testify that they gave as much as they were able,^(C) and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own,