for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the Macedonians, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year; and your zeal has stirred up most of them.

But I am sending the brethren so that our boasting about you may not prove vain in this case, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be;

So I thought it necessary to urge the brethren to go on to you before me, and arrange in advance for this gift you have promised, so that it may be ready not as an exaction but as a willing gift.

and we are ready to punish every disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.

Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden to you, for I seek not what is yours but you; for children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children.