the Second Week after Easter
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!
Read the Bible
King James Version
2 Corinthians 12:15
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- BridgewayDevotionals:
- MyParallel Translations
I will most gladly spend and be spent for you. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
And I wil very gladly spend and bee spent for you, though the more abundantly I loue you, the lesse I bee loued.
I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
So I am happy to give everything I have for you, even myself. If I love you more, will you love me less?
But I will very gladly spend [my own resources] and be utterly spent for your souls. If I love you greatly, am I to be loved less [by you]?
I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
So I will most gladly spend and be fully spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
And for the sake of your souls, I will most gladly spend my money and myself. If I love you more, will you love me less?
So I will gladly give all that I have and all that I am. Will you love me less for loving you too much?
And as for me, I will most gladly spend everything I have and be spent myself too for your sakes. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
Now *I* shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved.
So I am happy to give everything I have for you. I will even give myself for you. If I love you more, will you love me less?
And I will most gladly bestow, and will be bestowed for your soules: though the more I loue you, the lesse I am loued.
I will gladly pay my expenses, and I will even give myself for the sake of your souls; though the more I love you, the less you love me.
I will be glad to spend all I have, and myself as well, in order to help you. Will you love me less because I love you so much?
But I will spend and be expended most gladly for your lives. If I love you much more, am I to be loved less?
But I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls, even if loving you more and more, I am loved the less.
And I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less?
And I will gladly give all I have for your souls. If I have the more love for you, am I to be loved the less?
I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less?
I will be very glad to spend my money and myself for you. Do you love me less because I love you so much?John 10:11; 2 Corinthians 1:6; 6:12-13; Philippians 2:17; Colossians 1:24; 1 Thessalonians 2:8; 2 Timothy 2:10;">[xr]
But I gladly the expenses will spend, and also myself will I give for the sake of your souls: though, while the more I love you, you the less love me.
15 And cheerfully will I both pay [fn] expenses, and also give myself for your souls; although the more I love you, the less ye love me.
I wyll very gladly bestowe, & wylbe bestowed for your sakes, though the more aboundauntly I loue you, the lesse I am loued agayne.
And I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less?
I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less?
And I will most gladly spend, and be spent for your souls, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.
And as for me, most gladly will I spend all I have and be utterly spent for your salvation.
For Y schal yyue moost wilfuli, and Y my silf schal be youun aboue for youre soulis; thouy Y more loue you, and be lesse louyd.
And I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less?
And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.
Now I will most gladly spend and be spent for your lives! If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.
I will gladly spend myself and all I have for you, even though it seems that the more I love you, the less you love me.
I am glad to give anything I have, even myself, to help you. When I love you more, it looks as if you love me less.
I will most gladly spend and be spent for you. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
And, I, most gladly, will spend, and be fully spent, for your souls: - If I, exceedingly, love you, am I, the less, loved?
But I most gladly will spend and be spent myself for your souls: although loving you more, I be loved less.
I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you the more, am I to be loved the less?
I will very gladly bestowe and wilbe bestowed for youre soules: though the moare I love you ye lesse I am loved agayne.
and I most gladly will spend and be entirely spent for your souls, even if, more abundantly loving you, less I am loved.
I wil very gladly bestowe, and wyl be bestowed for youre soules: though ye more I loue you, the lesse am I loued agayne.
I shall be glad to sacrifice myself and all I have for your service, even tho' it should happen that the more I love you, the less I should be beloved.
I'll give everything I have for y'all. But I'll be honest, it seems like the more I care for y'all, the less you care about me.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
will: 2 Corinthians 12:9, 2 Corinthians 1:6, 2 Corinthians 1:14, 2 Corinthians 2:3, 2 Corinthians 7:3, John 10:10, John 10:11, Galatians 4:10, Philippians 2:17, Colossians 1:24, 1 Thessalonians 2:8, 2 Timothy 2:10
you: Gr. your souls, 2 Corinthians 12:14, Hebrews 13:17
though: 2 Corinthians 6:12, 2 Corinthians 6:13, 2 Samuel 13:39, 2 Samuel 17:1-4, 2 Samuel 18:33, 1 Corinthians 4:8-18
Reciprocal: Exodus 18:18 - Thou wilt surely wear away Exodus 28:30 - upon his heart Deuteronomy 22:4 - thou shalt surely Psalms 109:4 - For my Isaiah 49:4 - spent Matthew 20:27 - whosoever Mark 10:21 - loved 1 Corinthians 4:14 - my 1 Corinthians 10:14 - my 1 Corinthians 16:24 - love 2 Corinthians 1:12 - not 2 Corinthians 2:4 - not 2 Corinthians 3:2 - in 2 Corinthians 4:12 - death 2 Corinthians 4:16 - though 2 Corinthians 6:6 - love 2 Corinthians 6:11 - our heart 2 Corinthians 11:11 - because 2 Corinthians 12:19 - dearly Galatians 5:13 - but Philippians 2:30 - nigh 1 Peter 5:2 - not for
Cross-References
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.
And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.
And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers.
And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.
And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.
Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.
And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord , and the wall of Jerusalem round about.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And I will gladly spend,.... Meaning all his time, talents, and strength, which God had bestowed upon him for their spiritual profit and advantage; yea, all that small pittance of worldly goods that he enjoyed: he not only determined to take nothing from them, but was willing to communicate his little substance to them, or spend it in their service; and not only so, but be spent for them:
and be spent for you, or "for your souls": for the good of them; his sense is, either that he was willing to have his whole substance expended, if it would be of any use to them; or his whole strength exhausted, in laborious preaching to them; or even his life to be laid down for them, was it necessary; which sense is favoured by the Syriac and Arabic versions; all which expressed his tender affection as a spiritual father for them: adding,
though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved; though he loved them more than he did other churches, or than the false apostles loved them, and yet were loved by them less than he was by other churches; or by them, than the false apostles were; or rather the meaning is, that though he increased in his love, and in the expressions of it to them, and they grew colder and more indifferent to him, yet this should not hinder his warmest desires and most earnest endeavours after their spiritual and eternal welfare. This way of speaking strongly expresses his love to them, and tacitly implies the lukewarmness of theirs to him; and yet that it should be no discouragement to him to proceed in doing them all the service he was capable of.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
And I will very gladly spend - I am willing to spend my strength, and time, and life, and all that I have, for your welfare, as a father cheerfully does for his children. Any expense which may be necessary to promote your salvation I am willing to submit to. The labor of a father for his children is cheerful and pleasant. Such is his love for them that he delights in toil for their sake, and that he may make them happy. The toil of a pastor for his flock should be cheerful. He should be willing to engage in unremitted efforts for their welfare; and if he has any right feeling he will find a pleasure in that toil He will not grudge the time demanded; he will not be grieved that it exhausts his strength, or his life, anymore than a father will who toils for his family. And as the pleasures of a father who is laboring for his children are among the purest and most pleasant which people ever enjoy, so it is with a pastor. Perhaps, on the whole, the pleasantest employment in life is that connected with the pastoral office; the happiest moments known on earth are the duties, arduous as they are, of the pastoral relation. God thus, as in the relation of a father, tempers toil and pleasure together; and accompanies most arduous labors with present and abundant reward.
Be spent - Be exhausted and worn out in my labors. So the Greek word means. Paul was willing that his powers should be entirely exhausted and his life consumed in this service.
For you - Margin, as in the Greek, for your souls. So it should have been rendered. So Tyndale renders it. The sense is, that he was willing to become wholly exhausted if by it he might secure the salvation of their souls.
Though the more abundantly I love you ... - This is designed doubtless as a gentle reproof. It refers to the fact that notwithstanding the tender attachment which he had evinced for them, they had not manifested the love in return which he had a right to expect. It is possible that there may be an allusion to the case of a fond, doting parent. It sometimes happens that a parent fixes his affections with undue degree on some one of his children; and in such cases it is not uncommon that the child evinces special ingratitude and lack of love. Such may be the allusion here - that Paul had fixed his affections on them like a fond, doting father, and that he had met with a return by no means corresponding with the fervour of his attachment; yet still he was willing, like such a father, to exhaust his time and strength for their welfare. The doctrine is, that we should be willing to labor and toil for the good of others, even when they evince great ingratitude. The proper end of laboring for their welfare is not to excite their gratitude, but to obey the will of God; and no matter whether others are grateful or not; whether they love us or not; whether we can promote our popularity with them or not, let us do them good always. It better shows the firmness of our Christian principle to endeavor to benefit others when they love us the less for all our attempts, than it does to attempt to do good on the swelling tide of popular favor.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you — I will continue to act as a loving father, who spends all he has upon his children, and expends his own strength and life in providing for them the things necessary for their preservation and comfort.
Though the more abundantly I love you — I will even act towards you with the most affectionate tenderness, though it happen to me, as it often does to loving fathers, that their disobedient children love them less, in proportion as their love to them is increased. Does it not frequently happen that the most disobedient child in the family is that one on which the parents' tenderness is more especially placed? See the parable of the prodigal son. It is in the order of God that it should be so, else the case of every prodigal would be utterly deplorable. The shepherd feels more for the lost sheep than for the ninety-nine that have not gone astray.
If I be asked, "Should Christian parents lay up money for their children?" I answer: It is the duty of every parent who can, to lay up what is necessary to put every child in a condition to earn its bread. If he neglect this, he undoubtedly sins against God and nature. "But should not a man lay up, besides this, a fortune for his children, if he can honestly?" I answer: Yes, if there be no poor within his reach; no good work which he can assist; no heathen region on the earth to which he can contribute to send the Gospel of Jesus; but not otherwise. God shows, in the course of his providence, that this laying up of fortunes for children is not right; for there is scarcely ever a case where money has been saved up to make the children independent and gentlemen, in which God has not cursed the blessing. It was saved from the poor, from the ignorant, from the cause of God; and the canker of his displeasure consumed this ill-saved property.
