16-17 This principle goes so deep that in our faith what you have in abundance will minister to that where-with they are less well provided, whilst that which fills them to overflowing will supply all that you can want in the same direction. So wonderful is the spiritual manna of the word.
18-19 I thank God that Titus has the same feeling with me about this fund. My invitation to him to go to you about it chimed in with the plans and wishes he had already formulated in his own mind. So I am sending him, and with him that brother whose name has become famous throughout the churches for his service to the gospel. This brother was elected by the churches to travel with me in connection with this fund.
20 I praise God for this arrangement which met my own wishes in the matter.
21 I seek “favour and a good understanding in the sight of God and man” (Prov. iii. 4), and I am glad the churches have elected so well-known a man to help me, for the outsiders are sure to criticise my administration of this bounty.
22 This man then and Titus I am sending to receive the collection, and along with them a third brother who has so often served me with the utmost willingness, and is now more than ever eager to do so because of the confidence he has in you. Thus then I recommend this mission of three who are coming to you to receive the fund.
23 As regards Titus, he is my own special representative, and your own fellow-worker; the other two are commissioned by the churches, they show forth the Christ in their great works.
24 Then show these three your love, and show them that what I have told them of you is but the truth, and let your work be known to all the other churches.