nor is such preexistence crucial to our understanding of the hymn. One can compare the verse from 2 Corinthians, where in soliciting the offering for the Jerusalem church, Paul writes, “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” (2 Cor 8:9). In Phil 2:6 Jesus was “in the form of God,” which is the same as “being equal to God,” and yet he did not consider “equality with God” a thing to