I mean not that other men Those who are now in want; should be eased Plentifully supplied; and ye be burdened Straitened to relieve them; that is, that ease should be to the brethren in Judea, through distress to you. But by (εξ, on account of) an equality That a distribution should be made according to their necessity and your ability; that at the present time your abundance may be a supply for the wants of the brethren in Judea, and that at another time, if God, in the course of his providence, should hereafter change your conditions, and you should stand in need of it; their abundance may be a supply for your wants, so as that there may be an equality That there may be no want on the one side, nor superfluity on the other. The words may likewise have a further meaning: that as the temporal bounty of the Corinthians supplied the temporal wants of their poor brethren in Judea, so the prayers of these might be a means of bringing down many spiritual blessings on their benefactors. So that all the spiritual wants of the one might be amply supplied; all the temporal of the other. As it is written As it was in the gathering of the manna; He that gathered much had nothing over, &c. Had only his proportion. For what any person gathered more than a homer, was put into a common stock, to make up that quantity to the aged and infirm, who gathered little.
Related Commentaries of 2 Corinthians 8:13
2 Corinthians 8:13-15
13 For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened:
14 But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality:
15 As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack.