Philippians 2:5-11
He Emptied Himself
5Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus:
6Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross.
9Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above all names,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Berean Standard Bible
He has just asked them to count other people more important than themselves, and now he shows them somebody doing it. Let the mind be in you, he says, that was also in Christ Jesus. Then the writing changes. The sentences shorten, the rhythm tightens, and what follows sounds less like an argument being made and more like something being recited.
Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Grasped means clutched, gripped, kept in the fist. He had it and he did not close his hand. Emptied is a heavy word, readers have argued about how far it reaches for a very long time, and this sentence does not resolve it. What it does tell us is where he was headed. Whatever he had, he did not spend it on himself, and what he took up instead was not a smaller grade of glory. It was the form of a servant.
Being found in appearance as a man, the passage goes on, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, and then it adds a phrase: even death on a cross. The sentence had already arrived at death and then it went one word further. Israel's own law puts a particular weight on that ending, since Deuteronomy 21:23 says that anyone hung on a tree is under God's curse.
So the descent runs the whole way down: the form of God, then a servant, then death, then that death. And the next sentence turns on the word Therefore. God lifted him to the highest place because of the going down rather than in spite of it, and gave him the name above all names.
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Every knee and every tongue, with nobody left out and nowhere left out. And that last line keeps the whole of it from being a story about status, because all of it arrives at the glory of God the Father.
How We Know
Verses 10 and 11 are not new words. Isaiah 45:23 has God swearing by himself that every knee will bow before him and every tongue swear allegiance, in a passage where he says there is no other God. The correspondence is close: the same two body parts and the same reach.
Philippians applies that to Jesus, and then ends by saying it is to the glory of God the Father, so the writer is not swapping one for the other.
Questions
1 What would you find hardest to hand over: your place in this family, being the one who turns out to be right, the last word in an argument?
AnswerThe honest answer is usually whatever we defend quickest. Christ had equality with God and did not treat it as something to clutch, which makes anything on our list look small by comparison.
2 Why does Paul tell them about Jesus straight after asking them to prefer each other?
AnswerBecause he is showing them somebody doing it. He asks that the mind which was in Christ Jesus be in them, so this is not a hero held up to be admired. It is the pattern they have just been told to copy.
3 He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. What does grasped mean?
AnswerHeld tight, clutched, kept in the fist. He had it and did not close his hand on it. What he did instead was empty himself and take the form of a servant, which is the opposite of the way any of us would move.
4 Why add those last words about a cross?
AnswerBecause the sentence had already said obedient to death, and then it went one word further. Israel's own law in Deuteronomy 21:23 says anyone hung on a tree is under God's curse. The descent goes all the way to the bottom before the word Therefore turns it around.
What This Means for Us
Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place. That is what the passage does with all the going down, and it is not a moral drawn afterward. The emptying and the exalting are one movement with God at the end of it, and the last line puts the whole of it down to the glory of God the Father.
So the mind Paul asks for is not a technique for being humble. He asks that the mind which was in Christ Jesus be in us, which means it arrives from somewhere other than our own supply, and he is asking it of people whose knees are going to bow at that name in any case.
Find one thing you have a grip on here. A role, a right, a version of events. Loosen your fingers on it once before the week is out, and do it as somebody who has already been told how this ends: the one who refused to clutch what was his is the one God put highest.
Prayer
Father, we hold tight to small things and call it fairness. Thank you for a Lord who had everything and did not clutch it, who went all the way down for people who would not have done it for him. Give us hands that open. And let every knee here bow gladly rather than late. Amen.