John Calvin Commentary 2 Corinthians 9:5

"I thought it necessary therefore to entreat the brethren, that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your aforepromised bounty, that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty, and not of extortion." — 2 Corinthians 9:5 (ASV)

As a blessing, not in the way of stinginess. In place of blessing, some render it collection. I have preferred, however, to render it literally, as the Greeks employed the term εὐλογίας to express the Hebrew word ברכה (beracah), which is used in the sense of a blessing—that is, an invoking of prosperity—as well as in the sense of beneficence. I judge the reason to be this: in the first instance, it is ascribed to God. Now, we know how God blesses us efficiently by his simple nod. When this is transferred to men, it retains the same meaning—improperly, indeed, since men do not have the same efficacy in blessing, yet not unsuitably by transference.

To blessing Paul opposes πλεονεξίαν (grudging), which term the Greeks employ to denote excessive greediness, as well as fraud and stinginess. I have rather preferred the term stinginess in this contrast; for Paul would have them give, not grudgingly, but with a liberal spirit, as will appear still more clearly from what follows.