2 Corinthians 8:1

2 Corinthians 8:1. Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God which hath been bestowed on the churches of Macedonia. That celebrated peninsula which lies between the Adriatic Sea on the west and the Ægean Sea on the east, was divided into two parts, of which the southern and narrower portion was Achaia or Greece, and the northern and wider portion was Macedonia proper, or what constituted the ancient kingdom of that name. To the former division belonged Corinth, whose Christian Church owed its existence to our apostle, with Athens, where he failed to establish one. To the Macedonian division belonged Philippi, where the first European church was established; and Thessalonica, the seat of the second church; and Berea, where there certainly were “noble” Christians (Acts 17:11), and in all probability an organized church, with, no doubt, smaller groups of Christians lying between those places, or scattered up and down the province, and considered as belonging to “the churches” just named. These are “the churches of Macedonia,” whose Christian liberality is here so admiringly described and held up for imitation.