² On the first day of every week, each of you is to put aside and save whatever extra you earn, so that collections need not be taken when I come.^(A)

³ But I am sending^[a] the brothers in order that our boasting about you may not prove to have been empty in this case, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be;^{(A) 4} otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be put to shame—to say nothing of you—in this undertaking.^{[b] 5} So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for this bountiful gift that you have promised, so that it may be ready as a bountiful gift and not as an extortion.

Paul’s Farewell Visit to Troas

⁷ On the first day of the week, when we met to break bread, Paul was holding a discussion with them; since he intended to leave the next day, he continued speaking until midnight.^(A)

⁹ You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me—the whole nation of you! ¹⁰ Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.^(A)

¹⁰ “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.^(A)

¹¹ Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’^(A)

¹² “If a member of your community, whether a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold^[a] to you and works for you six years, in the seventh year you shall set that person free.^{(B) 13} And when you send a male slave^[b] out from you a free person, you shall not send him out empty-handed. ¹⁴ Provide for him liberally out of your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress, thus giving to him some of the bounty with which the Lord your God has blessed you.

¹⁸ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.^(A)

¹⁰ I was in the spirit^[a] on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet^(A)

Encouragement to Be Generous

8 We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia, ² for during a severe ordeal of affliction their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. ³ For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means and even beyond their means,

Jesus Appears to the Disciples

¹⁹ When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”^(A)