2 Corinthians 8:10

Christ Our Pattern

8 ^aI speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others.

9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, ^athat though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become ^brich.

10 And in this ^aI give advice: ^bIt is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and ^cwere desiring to do a year ago;

11 but now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have.

12 For ^aif there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.

13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened;

14 but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your lack—that there may be equality.

Commentaries:

Barnes' Notes

<< 2 Corinthians 8:9

2 Corinthians 8:11 >>

2 Corinthians 8:10

And herein I give my advice - Not undertaking to command them, or to prescribe how much they should give. Advice will go much further than commands on the subject of charities.

For this is expedient for you - ( ́ sumpherei ). That is, this will be of advantage to you; it will be profitable; it will be becoming. The idea is, that they were bound by a regard to consistency and to their own welfare, to perform what they had purposed. It became them; it was proper, and was demanded; and there would have been manifest disadvantages if it had not been done.

Who have begun before - Who commenced the collection a year before; see II Corinthians 8:6. It had been commenced with fair prospects of success, but had been interrupted probably by the dissensions which arose in the church there.

Not only to do - Not merely to accomplish it as if by constraint, or as a matter of compulsion and drudgery.

But also to be forward - Margin, "Willing." So the Greek ̀ ́ to thelein . They were voluntary in this, and they set about it with vigorous and determined zeal and courage. There was a resolute determination in the thing, and a willingness and heartiness in it which showed that they were actuated by Christian principle. Consistency, and their own reputation and advantage, now demanded that they should complete what they had begun.

Other Barnes' Notes entries containing 2 Corinthians 8:10:

2 Corinthians 8:8
2 Corinthians 9:2

<< 2 Corinthians 8:9

2 Corinthians 8:11 >>

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