Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Corinthians · About this commentary
Ready, Not Grudgingly
2 Corinthians 9:1-5
1 It is indeed unnecessary for me to write to you concerning the service to the saints, · WEB
Paul admits he has already told other congregations that this one was ready, and sends men ahead so the money will not be collected under pressure.
It is indeed unnecessary for me to write to you concerning the service to the saints — and he then writes another fifteen verses about it. The disclaimer is a courtesy, and everything after it shows why the subject could not be left alone.
Verse 2 discloses what he has been saying elsewhere: I know your readiness, of which I boast on your behalf to those of Macedonia, that Achaia has been prepared for the past year.
That is an awkward admission and he makes it plainly. He used Corinth's early enthusiasm to move the Macedonians, and it worked — your zeal has stirred up very many of them. The poorer congregations gave beyond their power 2 Corinthians 8:3 partly on the strength of a report about a wealthier one that has not yet finished.
So verse 3 states the practical problem: I have sent the brothers so that our boasting on your behalf may not be in vain.
And verse 4 names the scene he is trying to avoid, with an aside that is almost funny: lest by any means, if anyone from Macedonia comes there with me and finds you unprepared, we (to say nothing of you) would be disappointed. He puts his own embarrassment first and theirs in a parenthesis, which is the polite order and not the honest one — their humiliation would be the greater.
Then the reason for sending the delegation early, and it is about the manner of the giving rather than the amount: arrange ahead of time the generous gift that you promised before, that the same might be ready as a matter of generosity, and not of greediness.
The contrast is between two ways the same sum can be produced. Money gathered in advance, deliberately, is a gift. The same money extracted in a rush while visitors wait is something else, and the word he uses for it carries the sense of grasping — the pressure of the moment turns a donation into an exaction, and the donor feels it as one.
Which is why the safeguard is a schedule. Paul's remedy for the risk of squeezing them is to arrive after the collecting is over.
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