2Cor 9:3-5 | Barnes | STEP | Verse 3. Yet have I sent the brethren . The brethren referred to in . Lest our boasting of you . That you were disposed to contribute, and that you were already prepared, and that the contribution was ready. Should be in vain . Lest anything should have occurred to prevent the collection. I have sent them that they may facilitate it, and that it may be secure and certain. In this behalf . In this respect. That is, lest our boasting of you, in regard to your readiness to contribute to relieve the wants of others, should be found to have been ill-grounded.

2 Corinthians 9:3-5

Verse 3. Yet have I sent the brethren. The brethren referred to in 2Cor 8:18,22,23.

Lest our boasting of you. That you were disposed to contribute, and that you were already prepared, and that the contribution was ready.

Should be in vain. Lest anything should have occurred to prevent the collection. I have sent them that they may facilitate it, and that it may be secure and certain.

In this behalf. In this respect. That is, lest our boasting of you, in regard to your readiness to contribute to relieve the wants of others, should be found to have been ill-grounded. Verse 4. Lest haply if they of Macedonia. If any of the Macedonians should happen to come with me, and should find that you had done nothing. He does not say that they would come with him, but it was by no means improbable that they would. It was customary for some of the members of the churches to travel with Paul from place to place, and the intercourse was constant between Macedonia and Achaia. Paul had, therefore, every reason to suppose that some of the Macedonians would accompany him when he should go to Corinth. At all events it was probable that the Macedonians would learn from some quarter whether the Corinthians were or were not ready when Paul should go to them.

We (that we say not, ye) should be ashamed, etc., In this," says Bloomfield, "one cannot but recognise a most refined and delicate turn, inferior to none of the best classical writers." Paul had boasted confidently that the Corinthians would be ready with their collection. He had excited and stimulated the Macedonians by this consideration, he had induced them in this way to give liberally, 2Cor 8:1-4. If now it should turn out after all that the Corinthians had given nothing, or had given stintedly, the character of Paul would suffer. His veracity and his judgment would be called in question, and he would be accused of trick, and artifice, and fraud, in inducing them to give. Or if he should not be charged with dishonesty, yet he would be humbled and mortified himself that he had made representations which had proved to be so unfounded. But this was not all. The character of the Corinthians was also at stake. They had purposed to make the collection. They had left the impression in the mind of Paul that it would be done. They had hitherto evinced such a character as to make Paul confident that the collection would be made. If now by any means this should fail, their character would suffer, and they would have occasion to be ashamed that they had excited so confident expectations of what they would do.

(b) "boasting" 2Cor 8:24 Verse 5. Therefore I thought it necessary, etc. In order to secure the collection, and to avoid all unpleasant feeling on all hands.

That they would go before unto you. Before I should come.

And make up beforehand your bounty. Prepare it before I come. The word "bounty" is in the Marg. rendered "blessing." The Greek (ευλογιαν) means, properly, commendation, eulogy. Then it means blessing, praise applied to God. Then that which blesses--a gift, donation, favour, bounty--whether of God to men, or of one man to another. Here it refers to their contribution as that which would be adapted to confer a blessing on others, or fitted to produce happiness.

That the same might be ready, as a matter of bounty. That it may truly appear as a liberal and voluntary offering, as an act of generosity, and not as wrung or extorted from you. That it may be truly a blessing--a thank offering to God, and adapted to do good to men.

And not as of covetousness. "And not like a sort of extortion, wrung from you by mere dint of importunity."--Doddridge. The word here used (πλεονεξιαν) means usually covetousness, greediness of gain which leads a person to defraud others. The idea here is, that Paul would have them give this as an act of bounty or liberality on their part, and not as an act of covetousness on his part, not as extorted by him from them.

(1) "bounty" "blessing" (2) "whereof ye had notice" "which hath been so much spoken of before"