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2 Corinthians 9
1It is indeed unnecessary for me to write to you concerning the service to the saints,
2for I know your readiness, of which I boast on your behalf to those of Macedonia, that Achaia has been prepared for the past year. Your zeal has stirred up very many of them.
3But I have sent the brothers so that our boasting on your behalf may not be in vain in this respect, that, just as I said, you may be prepared,
4lest by any means, if anyone from Macedonia comes there with me and finds you unprepared, we (to say nothing of you) would be disappointed in this confident boasting.
5I thought it necessary therefore to entreat the brothers that they would go before to you and arrange ahead of time the generous gift that you promised before, that the same might be ready as a matter of generosity, and not of greediness.
6Remember this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
7Let each man give according as he has determined in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
8And God is able to make all abound to you, that you, always having all sufficiency in everything, may abound to every good work.
9As it is written, “He has scattered abroad. He has given to the poor. His remains forever.”
10Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your ,
11you being enriched in everything for all generosity, which produces thanksgiving to God through us.
12For this service of giving that you perform not only makes up for lack among the saints, but abounds also through much giving of thanks to God,
13seeing that through the proof given by this service, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the Good News of and for the generosity of your contribution to them and to all,
14while they themselves also, with supplication on your behalf, yearn for you by reason of the exceeding of God in you.
15Now thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!
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Questions this passage answers
What is repentance in the Bible?
Scripture describes repentance as turning: a change of mind about sin and about God that turns a person away from sin and toward God, and shows itself in what follows. It is more than regret, since Scripture distinguishes godly sorrow that leads to repentance from worldly sorrow that only produces death, and it is God's gift as well as our act.
What does the Bible say about money?
Scripture treats money as a real good that God provides and as a rival master that can own a person. It never calls money evil; it calls the love of money a root of all kinds of evil, warns that no one can serve both God and wealth, and directs the rich to generosity and everyone to contentment. Its main question about money is not how much you have but who you are serving with it.
Why does God allow suffering?
Scripture never gives one tidy reason for all suffering. It says that pain entered a good world through sin, that God is neither its author nor its prisoner, that he uses it without approving of it, and that he entered it himself in Christ rather than explaining it from a distance. The Bible answers the question with a person before it answers it with an argument.
What is the Gospel?
The Gospel is news, not advice. It is the announcement that God became man in Jesus Christ, lived the life we owed, died the death we deserved, rose bodily from the dead, and now freely forgives and reconciles everyone who turns from sin and trusts him. It is something done, reported to us, before it is anything asked of us.