II Corinthians 9-10

II Corinthians 9

¹Now about the service to the saints, there is no need for me to write to you.

²For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting to the Macedonians that since last year you in Achaia were prepared to give. And your zeal has stirred most of them to do likewise.

³But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove empty, but that you will be prepared, just as I said.

⁴Otherwise, if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—to say nothing of you—would be ashamed of having been so confident.

⁵So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you beforehand and make arrangements for the bountiful gift you had promised. This way, your gift will be prepared generously and not begrudgingly.

⁶Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

⁷Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver.

⁸And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

⁹As it is written: “He has scattered abroad His gifts to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.”

¹⁰Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your store of seed and will increase the harvest of your righteousness.

¹¹You will be enriched in every way to be generous on every occasion, so that through us your giving will produce thanksgiving to God.

¹²For this ministry of service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanksgiving to God.

¹³Because of the proof this ministry provides, the saints will glorify God for your obedient confession of the gospel of Christ, and for the generosity of your contribution to them and to all the others.

¹⁴And their prayers for you will express their affection for you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you.

¹⁵Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

II Corinthians 10

¹Now by the mildness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am humble when face to face with you, but bold when away.

²I beg you that when I come I may not need to be as bold as I expect toward those who presume that we live according to the flesh.

³For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh.

⁴The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

⁵We tear down arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

⁶And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, as soon as your obedience is complete.

⁷You are looking at outward appearances. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should remind himself that we belong to Christ just as much as he does.

⁸For even if I boast somewhat excessively about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed.

⁹I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you by my letters.

¹⁰For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but his physical presence is unimpressive, and his speaking is of no account.”

¹¹Such people should consider that what we are in our letters when absent, we will be in our actions when present.

¹²We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they show their ignorance.

¹³We, however, will not boast beyond our limits, but only within the field of influence that God has assigned to us—a field that reaches even to you.

¹⁴We are not overstepping our bounds, as if we had not come to you. Indeed, we were the first to reach you with the gospel of Christ.

¹⁵Neither do we boast beyond our limits in the labors of others. But we hope that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you will greatly increase as well,

¹⁶so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. Then we will not be boasting in the work already done in another man’s territory.

¹⁷Rather, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

¹⁸For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.