2 Corinthians 8

Vida Dutton Scudder, an early 20th-century radical, points Christians to solidarity and martyrdom.

We all have needs—and abundance.

“For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” When Paul appeals to the self-emptying nature of Christ as one of the central Christian impulses for generosity, he is ringing a familiar chord. Generosity for the Corinthians is grounded in self-emptying in much the same way that joy and worship are grounded in self-emptying for the Philippians.

2 Corinthians 8 contains the only New Testament reference, outside the infancy narratives, to Jesus being poor.

Why does Paul resort to both shame and pride to raise money for the Jerusalem church?

"The past is not over,” said Odessa Woolfolk of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Speaking to my divinity school class, Woolfolk spoke of systems that continue to oppress and seriously limit access to resources that are basic to any human being. With slavery a thing of the past, with segregation banned, with the right to vote for everyone, what is the problem? It is access.