2 Corinthians 9:8

Read the last clause first, because it changes everything before it.

That you may abound to every good work. That is the purpose. Everything in the sentence — the grace abounding, the all sufficiency, the everything — is aimed at an outcome that is not your comfort. Paul is raising money from one church to feed another, and this verse is his theology of why that is safe to do.

The repetition is almost excessive in the Greek and it is not accidental. All grace, always, all sufficiency, everything, every good work. Five totalities stacked in one sentence. He is answering the unspoken objection of every person asked to give: if I let go of this, will there be enough?

And the answer is sufficiency, not surplus. That word again — enough, the amount that meets the need. Paul is not promising the Corinthians that generosity will make them rich. He is promising that it will not leave them short, which is the actual fear.

The grammar is worth one more look. God is able. Not God will, in every case, on your timetable. Able — the emphasis is on capacity, on there being no ceiling at the supply end. What Paul removes is not uncertainty about outcomes but the idea that the supply might run out before your generosity does.