¹I don’t really need to write to you about giving in order to help the Lord’s people.

²I know how much you want to do that. I’ve been bragging about you to the people in Macedonia. I’ve been telling them that you who live in Achaia have been ready to give since last year. Your eagerness has stirred up most of them to give as well.

³But I’m sending the brothers so that our bragging about you will prove to be true and you’ll be ready, just as I said you’d be.

⁴If people from Macedonia come with me and discover that you’re not ready, then we’ll be embarrassed for having been so confident about you. And you’ll be even more embarrassed!

⁵So I thought I should encourage the brothers to visit you in advance and help you finish collecting the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a gift that’s freely given, not as one that’s given reluctantly.

⁶Remember this: The one who plants only a little will gather only a little, but the one who plants a lot will gather a lot.

⁷Each of you should give what you’ve decided in your heart to give. You shouldn’t give if you don’t want to. You shouldn’t give because you feel you have to. God loves it when you’re glad to give.

⁸And God is able to bless you so much that you’ll always have everything you need, and in that way, you’ll be able to do more and more good works.

⁹It is written,

“They have spread their gifts around to the poor.

Their good works continue forever.”

¹⁰God, who supplies seed for planting and bread for eating, will also supply and increase the amount of your seed and the good works that grow from it.

¹¹You’ll be made rich in every way so that you can always give freely. We will bring your generous gifts to the people who need them, and they’ll give thanks to God.

¹²Your gifts will meet the needs of the Lord’s people, but that’s not all. They will also cause many people to thank God.

¹³You will have shown that you’re dependable by what you’ve given. Other people will praise God because you’ve obeyed him and shown that you really do believe the good news about Christ. They’ll also praise God because you’ve shared so freely with them and with everyone else.

¹⁴They’ll pray for you with hearts full of gratitude because God has given you so much grace.

¹⁵Thanks be to God for his gift, which is so great that words can’t describe it!