⁷ But as ^(A)you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you^[a]—^(B)see that you excel in this act of grace also.

^8 (C)I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. ⁹ For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ^(D)though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

¹¹ So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. ¹² For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable ^(A)according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.