8. I say this not by way of command, but to test the genuineness of your love by your concern for others.
9. For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich.
10. And I am giving counsel in this matter, for it is appropriate for you who began not only to act but to act willingly last year:
11. complete it now, so that your eager willingness may be matched by your completion of it out of what you have.
12. For if the eagerness is there, it is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have;
13. not that others should have relief while you are burdened, but that as a matter of equality
14. your surplus at the present time should supply their needs, so that their surplus may also supply your needs, that there may be equality.
15. As it is written:“Whoever had much did not have more,and whoever had little did not have less.”
16. But thanks be to God who put the same concern for you into the heart of Titus,
17. for he not only welcomed our appeal but, since he is very concerned, he has gone to you of his own accord.
18. With him we have sent the brother who is praised in all the churches for his preaching of the gospel.