Read verse in KJV Bible Reader
John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO 2 CORINTHIANS 8 In this chapter the apostle stirs up the Corinthians, to make a collection for the poor saints at Jerusalem, by a variety of arguments, and gives a commendation of Titus and some other brethren, who were appointed messengers to them on that account. He first sets before them the example of the Macedonian churches, who had made a liberal collection for the above...
John Gill
And this they did not as we hoped,.... All this was unexpected by the apostles, who knew their great affliction and deep poverty, and therefore could not have hoped for such a collection from them; or that they would have desired the apostle to have ministered it for them: but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God; the sense of which is not barely, or only, that...
Matthew Henry
In this and the following chapter Paul is exhorting and directing the Corinthians about a particular work of charity—to relieve the necessities of the poor saints at Jerusalem and in Judea, according to the good example of the churches in Macedonia, Rom. xv. 26. The Christians at Jerusalem, through war, famine, and persecution, had become poor, many of them had fallen into decay, and perhaps most...
Charles H. Spurgeon
And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God. Insomuch that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also. Paul said, “Titus, do not let the Corinthians be behind the Macedonians in this matter. Go and show them how they may receive similar grace.”
Charles H. Spurgeon
And this they did, not as we hoped, That is, “according to our hopes.”