What does 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verses 1-12 mean?

Answer 1

God is saying that He loves it when people give, but you should give with what your heart decides to give. He doesn't want to make you give something away and make you sad or to force you to give it away. God wants you to give happily and He loves people that give happily because God gives happily. It says, in simple terms, that God can give you more blessings than you need, and then you will always have plenty of everything.

Answer 2

We can see from Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians and Romans that Paul was collecting for the 'poor' of Jerusalem:

In Galatians 2:10, 'Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do', Paul seems to be passing on and supporting a request by the Jerusalem brethren to send relief to the Christians of Judea.

1 Corinthians 16:1-4 refers to the support of the Galatians for a collection to assist the poor of Judea, and asks very directly that the Corinthians contribute as well. The Corinthians may have needed some prompting, since the request was repeated at some length in 2Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians 9:2-4, Paul appeals to the Corinthian sense of pride. In verse 9:5, Paul says that he would exhort the brethren to go before him to help the Corinthians make up their bounty. Verses 5-8 encourages them not to sow sparingly, so that they will reap bountifully (in grace).


He mentioned the collection in Romans, listing only Macedonia and Achaia (the Corinthians) as contributing, to the obvious exclusion of the Galatians, as well as other churches with which he must have been in contact.

One inference is that Judea faced an economic crisis, and that the crisis affected all of the world in which Paul worked. Such a crisis was the famine that occurred between 44 and 48 CE. This famine would explain the Jerusalem brethren seeking assistance, the importance Paul placed on the collection and his comparative lack of success, particularly in Galatia.

Acts 11:28‑29, supports that proposition, although the author of Acts seems to have believed that Paul had not begun his mission at the time of the famine.