I am not speaking this as a command, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also.I tend to get nervous when someone starts talking this way. I've seen too many occasions where some leader starts telling the congregation to be generous for some worthy cause, only to it to be revealed that the cause wasn't so worthy. My hackles automatically go up when someone tells me I'm supposed to be generous.
However, this of course wasn't the case here, as Paul is completely legit. The suggestion is that there has been a famine in Jerusalem, and the donations are for the believers there to get by. However I may be aware of that and accept it, it always seems like Paul's buttering the bread quite a bit, trying to ego-stroke them into helping rather than trusting that they will be moved by the Spirit.
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