Though the word Each one is masculine in Greek, Paul is almost certainly addressing both men and women among the Corinthian Christians. New Revised Standard Version accordingly says “Each of you must give as you have made up your mind,” and Anchor Bible says “Let each person contribute as each has decided.”
The first part of this verse is literally “each as he has made up his mind.” Most translations add a verb to specify the action decided upon. Revised Standard Version adds must do, and Good News Translation adds “should give.”
His mind is literally “the heart,” without the possessive pronoun. On the heart as the center of one’s will, see comments on 3.3. In many languages it will be quite natural to say “as each person has decided in his or her [or, the] heart….” And in some the addition of the possessive pronoun may be unnecessary. In many languages the absence of a pronoun in such a context would mean “the heart of a person,” as is apparently the case in Greek.
The words reluctantly (literally “from sorrow” or “from pain”) and under compulsion refer to attitudes of grief or regret upon doing something that one does not want to do, and of being forced either by inner moral conviction or by outer pressure from other people to do something that one does not want to do. These words may be rendered “with no regrets and no coercion” or, using full verb phrases, “be happy to give and do not give simply because someone is pushing you to do so.”
For God loves a cheerful giver: the word order is reversed in Greek: “a cheerful giver God loves.” Knox therefore attempts to preserve the emphasis by translating “it is the cheerful giver that God loves” (similarly Translator’s New Testament). However, the emphasis in this sentence is not a contrast between whom God loves and whom he does not love. The contrast is between the cheerful giver who gives out of a desire to do so, and the giver who gives reluctantly or because he is required to give. These words are a loose quotation from Pro 22.8a in the Septuagint. Here, as frequently in the Old Testament wisdom books, the words God loves mean “God approves” (Nueva Biblia Española) or “God values.” The opposite is not that God hates the person who gives grudgingly, but rather that he disapproves. Note that Contemporary English Version translates “God loves people who love to give.” The adjective cheerful is found only here in all the New Testament, although it is used in the Greek translation of Pro 22.9. It stands in contrast with grumbling or acting only out of a sense of responsibility. Some languages will say simply “with joy” or “in an attitude of happiness.”
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellingworth, Paul. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .