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I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others.
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For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
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And in this I give advice: It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago;
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but now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have.
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For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.
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For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened;
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but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your lack--that there may be equality.
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As it is written, "He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack."
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But thanks be to God who puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus.
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For he not only accepted the exhortation, but being more diligent, he went to you of his own accord.
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And we have sent with him the brother whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches,