⁴ We would be embarrassed—not to mention your own embarrassment—if some Macedonian believers came with me and found that you weren’t ready after all I had told them!

¹⁷ Such boasting is not from the Lord, but I am acting like a fool.

² For I know how eager you are to help, and I have been boasting to the churches in Macedonia that you in Greece^[a] were ready to send an offering a year ago. In fact, it was your enthusiasm that stirred up many of the Macedonian believers to begin giving.

²⁴ So show them your love, and prove to all the churches that our boasting about you is justified.

A Call to Generous Giving

8 Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters,^[a] what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. ² They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity.

³ For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. ⁴ They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem.^{[b] 5} They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do.

²⁶ For you see, the believers in Macedonia and Achaia^[a] have eagerly taken up an offering for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem.