2 Corinthians 8

₁Friends, we want you to know about the grace that God gave to the congregations in the province of Macedonia. ₂God has tested these congregations with lots of problems. They are very poor and they suffer a lot. But they are very happy and they have shown that they are really rich, because they have helped the other believers a lot. ₃These congregations gave as much money as they were able to give. No, I can tell you that they gave more than they were able to give. We did not ask them, but they came by themselves. ₄They begged us to let them help the believers in the province of Judea and to give them money. They said they would be happy to help them. ₅And they did a lot more than what we had hoped for. They first gave themselves to the Lord, and then they gave themselves to us. They did what God wanted them to do.

₆They asked us to encourage Titus and we know that he has already started to collect money from you for the believers in Judea. But the congregations in Macedonia want Titus to keep on collecting until he has finished. ₇We know that you do everything well. You believe very strongly and you can speak well. You know a lot about the real_life, you don't stop doing good things and you love each other like we taught you to. Now you must also do good and give money when Titus comes to collect from you.

₈Remember, I am not saying that you have to give money. I want to see if you also want to help like the believers in Macedonia. I want to see if you really love other people.

₉You know that our Lord Jesus Christ is merciful. He is rich, but He became poor for you. Now you can be rich because Jesus became poor.

₁₀Last year you were the first congregation who wanted to give and you started doing it. This is what I think you must do to help the believers in Judea, and it will be good for you if you do it. ₁₁You must finish the work that you have started. You were very eager to start collecting and you must now finish that work and give what you are able to give. ₁₂If someone wants to give to the Lord, then the Lord accepts what you can give. The Lord does not want you to give something that you do not have.

₁₃He does not want you to suffer because you give too much to help the believers in Jerusalem. No, one person must not have more than the other. ₁₄You now have more than enough to live on, so you can give to other people, who do not have enough. Maybe later the believers in Jerusalem will have too much, then they can help you when you have too little. Then everyone will have enough. ₁₅In the Old_Testament it is written:

₁₆I thank God that He made Titus want to go and help you collect the money. Titus also thinks it is important that you finish collecting. ₁₇When we asked Titus to go and help you, he said yes immediately. He wanted to go to you before we asked him to, because he cares so much for you. ₁₈We also sent someone with Titus. He is working with us for the Lord. All the congregations know him and they praise him for preaching the Good_News so well. ₁₉But it is not only we who send him. The congregations have also chosen him to go with us when we collect money for the believers in Jerusalem. We do this work so that everyone can see the glory of the Lord and that we really want to help them. ₂₀We are very careful because we do not want anyone to say that we are doing something wrong when we receive all this money to give to the other believers. ₂₁We only want to do what is right for the Lord and we want the people also to think that we are doing right.

₂₂We have also sent a 3rd person with Titus and this person also works for the Lord with us. He has shown us many times that he works very hard for the Lord. He is very eager to go to you because he believes that you want to help. ₂₃I want to tell you more about Titus. He works very hard with me and he wants to work with you. Remember that the congregations are sending the other 2 people and Christ is proud of them. ₂₄Now you must show everyone your love for other people and that we are right when we boast about you. You must do this so that the other congregations can see this.