Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect

2 Corinthians 8

The Grace of Giving

Now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace of God given among the churches of Macedonia. In a severe test of affliction, their overflowing joy and their deep poverty overflowed into a wealth of generosity.

For I testify that they gave according to their ability and even beyond their ability, entirely of their own accord, pleading with us insistently for the grace and fellowship of serving the saints. And not merely as we expected: they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us through God's will.

So we urged Titus that, just as he had begun earlier, he should also bring this gracious work among you to completion. But just as you overflow in everything—in faith, speech, knowledge, every kind of earnestness, and the love from us that is among you—see that you also overflow in this grace.

The Example of Christ

I am not saying this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love through the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich.

And in this matter I give my judgment, for this benefits you: last year you were the first not only to do this, but also to desire it. Now also complete the doing, so that your completion from what you have may match your eager desire.

For if the eagerness is present, the gift is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what the person does not have. I do not mean that others should have relief while you have affliction, but that there should be equality. At the present time, your abundance should meet their need, so that their abundance may also meet your need, and in this way there may be equality.

As it is written, “The one who gathered much had no excess, and the one who gathered little had no lack.”