Therefore I thought it necessary... — The brethren were to go before St. Paul, so as to get all things ready for his arrival. There were to be no hurried and unsatisfactory collections then.
Your bounty, whereof ye had notice before. — Better, your bounty, announced before. He is not referring to any notice that he had given, whether in 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 or elsewhere, but to the announcement that he himself had made to the churches of Macedonia. The word for “bounty” (eulogia) has, like that for “confidence” in the preceding verse, the interest of an ecclesiastical history attaching to it. Literally, it means a “blessing;” then, as in the LXX. of Genesis 23:11; Judges 1:15, it was used for the “gift,” which is the outward token or accompaniment of a blessing. In liturgical language, as connected with the “cup of blessing,” it was applied — (1) to the consecrated bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper generally; (2) specially to those portions which were reserved to be sent to the sick and other absentees; (3) when that practice fell into disuse, to the unconsecrated remains; and (4) to gifts of bread or cake to friends or the poor, as a residuum of the old distributions at the Agapæ, or Feasts of Charity.
As a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness. — The bearing of the last word is not quite obvious. Probably what is meant is this: — “Let your gift be worthy of what you call it, a ‘blessing’ expressed in act, not the grudging gift of one who, as he gives, is intent on gaining some advantage through his seeming generosity.” So understood, it expresses the same thought as Shakespeare’s well-known lines: —
“The quality of mercy is not strained,
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.”
It is possible, however, that the word “covetousness” had been applied tauntingly to St. Paul himself, as always “asking for more,” always “having his hand” (as is sometimes said of active organising secretaries in our own time) “in people’s pockets,” and that this is his answer to that taunt. The use of the corresponding verb in 2 Corinthians 7:2; 2 Corinthians 12:17-18, is strongly in favour of this view. “Don’t look on this business,” he seems to say, “as a self-interested work of mine. Think of it as, in every sense of the word, a blessing both to givers and receivers.”