1.

For as touching the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you:

2 Corinthians 9
2 Corinthians 9:1. The ministering to the saints; the contribution of which he had been speaking.--It is superfluous; that is, perhaps it is superfluous; I might consider it so.

2.

For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal hath provoked very many.

Verse 2
The forwardness of your mind; our readiness and liberality.--Achaia. Paul often uses the term Achaia, instead of Corinth, in these Epistles, as if he intended to address the Christians of the province, as well as those of the city. Perhaps he designed particularly to include the church in Cenchrea, a seaport near Corinth, which is repeatedly alluded to. (Romans 16:1; Acts 18:18.)--A year ago. Paul had written to them on this subject in his former Epistle. Some have supposed that there was an interval of about a year between the two communications.--Provoked,--incited, stimulated; that is, to imitation.

3.

Yet have I sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf; that, as I said, ye may be ready:

Verse 3
The brethren; those referred to in the last chapter. (2 Corinthians 8:16-18,2 Corinthians 8:22.)--In this behalf; in this respect.

4.

Lest haply if they of Macedonia come with me, and find you unprepared, we (that we say not, ye) should be ashamed in this same confident boasting.

Verse 4
Confident boasting; the confident assurances which he had given the Macedonians that the churches of Achaia were ready to contribute liberally.

5.

Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof ye had notice before, that the same might be ready, as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness.

Verse 5
Make up beforehand; have it collected beforehand.--As a matter of bounty, &c.; that is, made in a liberal, not in a covetous spirit.

6.

But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

7.

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

Verse 7
As he purposeth in his heart; as he himself, of his own accord, desires and intends.--Or of necessity; under any species of compulsion.

8.

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

9.

(As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever.

Verse 9
This language, descriptive of the character of the benevolent man, is quoted from Psalms 112:9.

10.

Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;)

Verse 10
He that ministereth seed to the sower; he who is the Fountain and Source of all human supplies.

11.

Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.

12.

For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God;

Verse 12
Of this service; that is, the contribution.--But is abundant also, &c.; that is, it promotes the giving of glory to God by thanksgiving and praise in the manner specified in the 2 Corinthians 9:13-15.

13.

Whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men;

Verse 13
By the experiment; the experience; that is, by being the objects of it, and enjoying the relief which it affords.

14.

And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you.

Verse 14
Which long after you; with feelings of affection and gratitude.

15.

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

Verse 15
We shall not be surprised at the indications of great interest and solicitude, on the part of the apostle, manifest in all that he says in this and in the preceding chapter, in respect to this contribution, when we consider that, in endeavoring to accomplish such a measure, he was carrying out the principles of Christianity into an entirely new and untried field. At the present age of the world, and in Christian lands, we cannot well appreciate the novelty and boldness of such an undertaking as the attempt, at that day, to induce an extended and continued contribution of money, from the middle and lower classes of society, to raise a fund for the relief of sufferers perhaps a thousand miles remote from them, and whom they had never seen; and to combine, too, for this purpose, two distant provinces, having no connection with each other whatever, except the bonds of a spiritual sympathy. These contributions for the distressed Christians at Jerusalem (compare Acts 11:29,Acts 11:30) were demonstrating the power of Christianity to produce results which the world had never witnessed before, and successful as they were, they became the germ and the beginning of the great principle of organized and combined benevolence, which has since, in every age, been one of the most marked and striking characteristics of Christianity.