The word For introduces the statement that indicates why Paul is able to speak of Titus as he does in verse 16. In some languages it may be left implicit, as in Good News Translation.

Our appeal: that is, “our urging” (New Jerusalem Bible) or “what we asked him to do” (New Century Version). Note that Moffatt, An American Translation, and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente take the plural pronoun here as referring only to Paul, and thus translate using the singular “my.” The expression accepted our appeal may be better rendered “he agreed to do what we asked him to do.”

Being himself very earnest: as Good News Translation makes explicit, Titus was eager “to help” with the collection.

He is going to you is literally “he went to you.” This use of the past tense, in which the writer expresses himself from the time perspective of the readers as they read the letter, is called an epistolary aorist (see 7.14; 9.5). 8.24 seems to indicate that Paul’s letter was to arrive in Corinth at the same time as Titus and the two other companions. The present tense, he is going, correctly expresses the sense in English.

Of his own accord: this comment seems to contradict Paul’s earlier statement in this same verse that he had urged Titus to go to Corinth. The sense must be that Titus was already wishing to make the trip even before Paul urged him to go.

A good model for this verse as a whole is found in Translator’s New Testament, which reads “We asked him to come to you and he agreed, but he was all ready to come to you of his own free will.” Or “When we begged Titus to visit, he said he would. He wanted to because he cared so much for you” (Contemporary English Version).

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 .