I really don’t need to write to you about this ministry of giving for the believers in Jerusalem. 2 For I know how eager you are to help, and I have been boasting to the churches in Macedonia that you in Greece were ready to send an offering a year ago. In fact, it was your enthusiasm that stirred up many of the Macedonian believers to begin giving.

3 But I am sending these brothers to be sure you really are ready, as I have been telling them, and that your money is all collected. I don’t want to be wrong in my boasting about you. 4 We would be embarrassed—not to mention your own embarrassment—if some Macedonian believers came with me and found that you weren’t ready after all I had told them! 5 So I thought I should send these brothers ahead of me to make sure the gift you promised is ready. But I want it to be a willing gift, not one given grudgingly. NLT

Although Paul fundamentally believed that the Corinthians would make good on their previous desire and intention to give, it appears that he was not totally confident. So we see him treading a diplomatic line, or so it seems to me, between saying, ‘I really believe in your good intentions’, and ‘Don’t let me – or yourselves-down!’

The key thing is that whatever they (or we) give should be ”willing” and not grudging. It is important to stress that Paul wasn’t asking them to do anything new, but just complete what they had already expressed they wished to do. So he wanted them to get the money together before his arrival, so that there could be no suggestion that they were giving with one arm twisted up their backs: only giving because the apostle was standing over them.