<p>9:13 <i>By their approval of this service-</i> &quot;Their approval&quot; is an attempt to grapple with what seems an awkward phrase, rendered correctly by AV &quot;By the experiment of this&quot; service. Paul rather likes the idea of things being an experiment; for he has written earlier using the same word about his command for them to separate from the immoral brother (2:9). This was a test or experiment of their loyalty, rather than being necessary for the sake of that brother or those whom he had wronged (7:12). There must be divisions within the church so that the tested / experimented with / approved might be made manifest (1 Cor. 11:19). In these kinds of issues- division in the church, a case of an immoral brother or a project to support poor believers of a different ethnicity-&nbsp; the crucial issue is how we respond to the test or &quot;experiment&quot; which the situations provide. The apparently central issues (e.g. the poor at Jerusalem or the immoral brother) are in this sense the furniture of the scene. It is how we respond to the tests or experiments which is so critical. </p><p><i>They glorify God for your loyalty which you confess to the gospel of Christ, and for the generosity of your contribution to them and to all</i>- As noted above, Paul is speaking of his hopes as if they had actually happened. The Jerusalem Christians were not glorifying God for Corinthian generosity at that time; and there is no evidence they ever did, or that Corinth gave anything. The use of the word &quot;loyalty&quot; is unfortunate because the careful reader is already suspicious that Paul is too concerned with Corinthian loyalty to him and his pet project. It is also simply not the case that by not supporting a particular welfare initiative, we are being disloyal to the Gospel. Again the argument is high pressure and not completely sound. Here at the very end of the section about the Poor Fund, Paul perhaps betrays the way that what he hopes for in the Corinthians is what he wishes to see and states as having happened. He says that the Jerusalem poor are praising God for the way the Corinthians are generous to them &quot;and to all&quot;. But this was surely the fantasy of love. There was no evidence the Corinthians were donating &quot;to all&quot;, and all the other evidence in the letters reveals their serious immorality and spiritual weakness.</p><p>Initially, the Corinthians agreed to take up a collection for their poor Jewish brethren. Paul later encouraged them in this when their will to carry it out flagged, but the initial inspiration was from &quot;the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ&quot; (2 Cor. 9:13 NIV). That Gospel doesn't state that to obey it, one must give money to the poor believers in Jerusalem. But Paul perceived that <i>effectively</i> it did; this was, in their context, part and parcel of confessing the Gospel. We learn from this that the Gospel has abiding power to transform lives after conversion as well as before.</p>