Giving Freely to the Lord’s People

8 Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given to the churches in Macedonia. ² They have suffered a great deal. But in their suffering, their joy was more than full. Even though they were very poor, they gave very freely. ³ I tell you that they gave as much as they could. In fact, they gave even more than they could. Completely on their own, ⁴ they begged us for the chance to share in serving the Lord’s people in that way. ⁵ They did more than we expected. First they gave themselves to the Lord. Then they gave themselves to us because that was what God wanted. ⁶ Titus had already started collecting money from you. So we asked him to help you finish making your kind gift. ⁷ You do well in everything else. You do well in faith and in speaking. You do well in knowledge and in complete commitment. And you do well in the love we have helped to start in you. So make sure that you also do well in the grace of giving to others.

⁸ I am not commanding you to do it. But I want to test you. I want to find out if you really love God. I want to compare your love with that of others. ⁹ You know the grace shown by our Lord Jesus Christ. Even though he was rich, he became poor to help you. Because he became poor, you can become rich.

¹⁰ Here is my opinion about what is best for you in that matter. Last year you were the first to give. You were also the first to want to give. ¹¹ So finish the work. Then your desire to do it will be matched by your finishing it. Give on the basis of what you have. ¹² Do you really want to give? Then the gift is measured by what someone has. It is not measured by what they don’t have.

¹³ We don’t want others to have it easy at your expense. We want things to be equal. ¹⁴ Right now you have plenty in order to take care of what they need. Then they will have plenty to take care of what you need. The goal is to even things out.