2 Corinthians 9:1-5
Expanded Bible
Help for Fellow Christians
9 I really do not need to write you about this ·help [service; ministry] for ·God’s people [T the saints]. 2 [L For; Because] I know ·you want [your eagerness/willingness] to help. I have been ·bragging [boasting] about this to the ·believers in Macedonia [L Macedonians; 8:1], telling them that you in Achaia [C southern Greece; 1:1] have been ready to give since last year. And your ·desire to give [L zeal; enthusiasm] has ·made most of them ready to give also [L aroused/provoked the majority]. 3 But I am sending the brothers to you so that our ·bragging [boasting] about you in this matter will not be empty words. I want you to be ready, as I said you would be. 4 If any of the ·believers from Macedonia [L Macedonians] come with me and find that you are not ready, we will be ·ashamed [embarrassed; dishonored] that we were so sure of you. (And you will be ·ashamed [embarrassed; dishonored], too!) 5 So I thought I should ·ask [urge; encourage] these brothers to go to you before we do. They will finish getting in order the ·generous gift [blessing] you promised so it will be ready when we come. And it will be a ·generous gift [blessing]—not one ·that you did not want to give [required from you; grudgingly given].
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2 Corinthians 9:1-5
Amplified Bible
God Gives Most
9 Now it is unnecessary for me to write to you about the offering [that is to be made] for the saints [in Jerusalem]; 2 for I know your eagerness [to promote this cause], and I have [proudly] boasted to the people of Macedonia about it, telling them that [a]Achaia has been prepared since last year [for this contribution], and your enthusiasm has inspired the majority of them [to respond]. 3 Still, I am sending the brothers [on to you], so that our pride in you may not be an empty boast in this case, and so that you may be prepared, just as I told them you would be; 4 otherwise, if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—to say nothing of yourselves—will be humiliated for being so confident. 5 That is why I thought it necessary to urge these brothers to go to you [before I come] and make arrangements in advance for this generous, previously promised gift of yours, so that it would be ready, not as something extorted [or wrung out of you], but as a [voluntary and] generous gift.
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- 2 Corinthians 9:2 Corinth, the capital city of the Roman province of Achaia, was located in the NW part of the Peloponnesus (southern Greece), about 50 miles from Athens. Paul mentions their positive response to this request in Rom 15:26.
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