³ But I have sent the brothers that our boasting on your behalf may not be in vain in this respect, that, just as I said, you may be prepared, ⁴ lest by any means, if anyone from Macedonia comes there with me and finds you unprepared, we (to say nothing of you) would be disappointed in this confident boasting. ⁵ I thought it necessary therefore to entreat the brothers that they would go before to you and arrange ahead of time the generous gift that you promised before, that the same might be ready as a matter of generosity, and not of greediness.