| Chapter 8 1
Now we are making known to you, brethren, the grace of God which has been bestowed in the
ecclesias of Macedonia,
2 for, in a test of much affliction, the superabundance
of their joy and the corresponding depth of their poverty superabounds to the riches of
their generosity,
3 for, according to their ability, I am testifying, and
beyond their ability, of their own accord,
4 with much entreaty beseeching of us the grace and the
fellowship of the service for the saints;
5 and not according as we expect, but themselves they
give first to the Lord, and to us through the will of God.
6 So that we entreat Titus that, according as he
undertakes before, thus also should he be completing in you this grace also.
7 But, even as you are superabounding in everything -- in
faith and word and knowledge and all diligence and the love that flows out of you into us
-- that you may be superabounding in this grace also.
8 I am not saying this as an injunction, but, through the
diligence of others, testing also the genuineness of this love of yours.
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that,
being rich, because of you He became poor, that you, by His poverty, should be rich.
10 And in this I am giving an opinion, for this is
expedient for you, who, for a year past, undertake before, not only the doing but the
willing also.
11 Yet now complete the doing also, so that, even as the
eagerness to will, thus also may be the completion, out of what you have.
12 For if eagerness lies before, it is most acceptable
according to whatever one may have, not according to what he has not.
13 For it is not, that, to others ease, yet to you
affliction,
14 but by an equality, in the current occasion, your
superabundance is for their want, that their superabundance also may be coming to be for
your want, so that there may be coming to be an equality,
15 According as it is written: the one with much
increases not, and the one with few lessens not.
16 Now thanks be to God, Who is imparting the same
diligence for you to the heart of Titus,
17 for he, indeed, receives the entreaty, yet being
inherenty more diligent, of his own accord he came out to you.
18 Now we send together with him the brother whose
applause in the evangel is through all the ecclesias,
19 yet not only so, but who was selected also by the
ecclesias to be our fellow traveler with this grace which is being dispensed by us to the
glory of the Lord Himself; our eagerness,
20 also, putting this so that no one should find flaws in
us in this exuberance which is being dispensed by us,
21 for we are providing the ideal, not only in the sight
of the Lord, but in the sight of men also.
22 Now we send together with them our brother, whom we
test in many things, often, being diligent, yet now much more diligent, yet with much
confidence in you,
23 whether for the sake of Titus, my mate and fellow
worker for you, or our brethren, the apostles of the ecclesias, the glory of Christ.
24 Then the display of your love and our boasting over
you to them is being displayed in the face of the ecclesias. |