Lecture 2 — Exhortation to almsgiving

And in this matter I give my advice: it is best for you now to complete what a year ago you began not only to do but to desire,

so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have.

For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a man has, not according to what he has not.

I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened,

but that as a matter of equality your abundance at the present time should supply their want, so that their abundance may supply your want, that there may be equality.

As it is written, "He who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack."

But thanks be to God who puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus.