Knowing The Word in 2 Corinthians 8:8-9, Genuine Love

8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Paul is using rhetoric to gently twist the Corinthians’ arms into giving for the collections for the suffering Christians in Jerusalem. While these men and woman could leave the land where they were being persecuted, they stayed for the sake of the gospel and because many could not afford to leave. It reminds me of the Christians in Pakistan today, who stay for the sake of the gospel and the impact it will have in a dark nation and because of their poverty, they cannot leave. Can who are rich give in response to the grace we know if Jesus, who by his poverty (his passion) made us rich?

O Jesus, King of the poor,

shield this night those who are imprisoned without charge,

those who have “disappeared”.

Cast a halo of your presence around those

Who groan in sorrow or pain.

Protect those whose livelihoods are threatened.

Encourage those forbidden to worship.

Encompass your little ones

gone hungry to sleep,

cold and fitfully waking.

Guide your witnesses for peace.

Safeguard your workers for justice.

Encircle us with your power,

compass us with your grace,

embrace your dying ones,

support your weary ones,

calm your frightened ones—

and as the sun scatters the mist on the hills,

bring us to a new dawn,

when all shall freely

sit at table in your kingdom,

rejoicing in a God who saves them.

Kate McIlhagga