Philippians 2:5–11

We will certainly reach the 'one mind' of verse 2 if the lowly mind of verse 3 takes shape in us all. But we would still find it hard if that lowly mind were only an abstract idea to us. We want it to be a living reality before our eyes, and we have it in Christ Jesus. If there is to be only one mind, whose mind is that one mind to be? — 'Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus' (v. 5).

'Let this mind be in you' or, Have this for your mind — your principle of thought and feeling — 'which (was, and is,) also in Christ Jesus'. There is no verb in the second half of the verse, but English needs one. We usually use the word 'was'. Yet nothing in the Greek limits the meaning to past or present. Even now, exalted to the highest glory, He is 'this same Jesus' (Acts 1:11)… And what was 'this mind'? Was it not an utter and absolute self-forgetfulness? Here is the cure for all our quarrels and divisions, our misunderstandings and difficulties with one another.

In chapter 2 you do not get Christ in glory as the One the believer runs after. You get Christ coming down, not Christ gone up. He is the One I am to be like in the grace of the walk He showed. And that walk is always going down — from the form of God down to death… Paul is taking up the truth of lowliness, but the moment he begins he must bring out Christ.

He has been urging them to humility and self-denial. Now he sets before them, and before us, the pattern of what we are called to copy — though not the measure of it. The pattern: as children of the Father we are to aim at nothing short of His perfection, and since we share the Spirit of Christ His ways should be ours too. Not the measure: the very first step of His humility was one that only His equal by nature could have taken, if such a person existed.

We know how we feel when someone says an unkind word to us. We know how we feel when someone denies us our rights, tramples on us, or will not treat us fairly. We know how upset our spirits get at such times, do we not? But it was never so with the Son of God's love. The apostle says, let His mind be in you. Do not let the sun go down on your anger; do not quarrel among yourselves; do not let your angry feelings rise.

The Apostle goes on to urge lowliness in love, by setting the way of the Lord Himself before their eyes. Since Christ appeared, this is the true "rule of life" for the believer. It is not even the whole written Word by itself, but that Word seen alive in Christ. And the Holy Spirit makes Christ a spring of power to the soul that stays occupied with Him.

Christ was in the form of God. That was not mere appearance: He had that form, and not a creature's. The form of God means that He has God's own form and no other. He was in that nature of being, and nothing else. He had no created nature at all. He was God the Son, and nothing besides.

Three words in this passage express the general idea of resemblance: Form (morphē), Fashion (schēma), Likeness (homoiōma). Only the first applies to God. It alone means essential quality, not outward appearance.

This passage has three words for existence: to be (einai), to exist beforehand (huparchein), and to begin to be (ginesthai). The second one is the word the Spirit uses here: "who subsisting in the form of God." It tells us that Christ Jesus was "in the form of God" before He came to this earth as Man. It may not say as much as the first verse of John's Gospel — "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" — but it fully agrees with it. It states plainly that He existed beforehand in the form of God, though it does not say in so many words that He existed from eternity. Other Scriptures bring that out, such as Psalm 90:2: "from everlasting to everlasting You are God."

He was in the form of God. Our first parents were tempted to grasp at something far above them — at becoming as gods, as Genesis 3:5 shows. That place was not for them, and their grasping at it was sheer robbery. But there was nothing of that with our Lord. In His case equality with God was not something to be grasped at. It was His to start with, for He was God. He could not be higher than He was. Only two paths lay before Him: to stay as He was and where He was, or to come down into humiliation.

Self-assertion is unnecessary to any being who is conscious of an undisputed right by nature… To be equal with God — in other words, to act as God only and always — was no lawless or aggressive thought in the Son, who dwelt in equal glory with the Father from eternity. It was simply the unbroken continuance of the communion of the Godhead with itself, which no words can express.

The first clause means that although He existed in the form of God, He did not use it to exalt Himself… It is surely a contrast to Adam, who fell into Satan's trap of trying to exalt himself, to be "like God, knowing good and evil." Adam being a man sought to exalt himself; Christ being God humbled Himself. How blessed the contrast!

Here is One existing in the form of God — plainly God Himself, so that there could be no question about Him at all. Yet He gave up this form of God. He did not give up the divine reality, which was necessarily His at all times, but the outward display of it. He did not treat this equality with God as "an object to be grasped."

The Apostle shows that this happens only when "lowliness of mind" marks us. To have the lowly mind, he says, "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus." His was the lowly mind that led Him to make Himself nothing so that He could serve others in love. Self likes to be served, and thinks it is exalted when others serve it; but love delights to serve.

This revelation by the Spirit of God about the Son of God becoming man shows one outstanding feature. It was His making Himself of no reputation, or emptying Himself. The second is the better translation of the Greek text. The apostle teaches that Christ Jesus, who was in "the form of God," freely took on Himself "the form of a servant (or bond-slave)," and in this way He "emptied Himself." Being "in the likeness of men," He did not use the rights of His deity apart from the will of the One who sent Him. This act of self-denial expressed "the mind which was in Christ Jesus" — the mind the apostle wanted believers to have too.

How do you think He made Himself of no reputation? By taking a form He never had before. In Darby's translation, "Taking a bondman's form." He gave up nothing. He gave up nothing that belonged to Him as God, but He emptied Himself by taking a form He never had before.

He set aside all His glory. He did not stoop to become a servant in angelic majesty, but in the likeness of men. Here we have the form of a servant as well as the form of God, but that does not in any way mean that He was not really both. Just as He was truly God, so He became the truest servant that God or man ever saw.

He was to serve for six years, but in the seventh year "he shall go out free for nothing." But the Hebrew servant (and the word means a slave) might say: "I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free." Then his master shall bring him to the judges, and to the door or the doorpost, and shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever. That pierced ear was the pledge and the proof that he would be his slave forever. And those pierced hands and feet and side tell the same story of "Christ Jesus: who … emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a slave."

The word "form" refers to His body, but the One who was in that body had every feeling and sensibility of a Man. He was not just God in a body… People saw Him in that body, but there was more. The word "likeness" in verse 7 carries the thought of moral qualities. The word "fashion" or "figure" in verse 8 shows that He was in the actual physical likeness of a Man. Both of these matter greatly… We read of Him weeping and hungering. If we miss this truth, we may read these verses as describing a kind of Manhood we could never reach. He was in every respect a real Man.

Kenosis is a word coined from the Greek word used in this passage. It literally means "emptied," though the older translation reads "made … of no reputation." The theory pictures Christ as emptying Himself so completely of all that was divine that He became a Jew, as ignorant as most Jews of His day. So the critic who puts this theory forward, armed with modern learning, feels quite able to contradict or correct the Son of God.

He always was God, but He laid aside the form of God, the outward glory, and "took the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." He will never stop being a servant, though He is Lord of all. He will never give up this service of love that blesses us… Adam was in the form of man, and he grasped by robbery at being equal with God. He was the first example of "everyone who exalts himself will be humbled." The last Adam humbles Himself and is exalted. He lays aside His glory and takes a servant's form.

Emptying Himself as God, He humbled Himself as man, instead of making Himself anything.

This is a further step downward than being found in human form. As we said, He could have been found in human form and yet chosen to be an emperor or a mighty king. He could have chosen honour and wealth. But no: "He made Himself low." "He humbled Himself."

There never had been, and never could have been, such obedience on earth, or even in heaven... The surpassing dignity of His Person is what lifted this obedience beyond compare. And that is before we mention the harsh and painful circumstances in which He gave it, right up to death — and what a death! As the eternal Son, He ruled over all. From the lowest creature on earth to the archangel on high, nothing moved except at His command.

The older English translation might be misread to mean that He was obedient to death itself. But it was obedience to His Father's will, all the way to death... And His death at Golgotha showed not only His matchless love, but also His devoted obedience.

"Being found in human form," He did not have to die. He died because of the purposes of grace: He "humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." He died for our sins. So, for Him, death rested on a completely different basis and served purposes that were supremely divine. Adam, the man who failed, disobeyed and died; Christ became obedient as far as that point of death, the death of the cross.

The death on the cross showed in fullest measure what our sin and disobedience deserved. It was also the crowning act of a life of perfect obedience. The letters of the New Testament dwell on this: "For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:19). Many have thought this means our Lord's law keeping during His life. It does not. It means His obedience "to the point of death, even death on a cross."

He did not only become obedient to the point of death. That death was death on a cross. That last step tells out the awfulness, the horror, the shame and the anguish of the death He became obedient to... Perhaps no death makes a person shrink back like "death on a cross." The Lord of Glory went down to this, the lowest step anyone could take.

People dwell on the disgrace He suffered: the insults, the injustice, the abuse and the rejection He received from men. All of this wounded His heart deeply. Yet the suffering and sorrow of His holy soul went far deeper, when He bore the wrath of God until it was spent in the righteous judgment He endured for our sins.

We cannot follow all His steps. We were never in the height from which He came, and we are not asked to travel into the depths He went. But we are urged to have His mind as He took these steps.

"Wherefore" is the word with which His exaltation begins. It reminds us of our Lord's own words, repeated twice: "He that humbles himself shall be exalted" (Luke 14:11 and 18:14). And none ever humbled Himself as the Lord of glory: it is well indeed that He should be supremely exalted! "HE humbled Himself" — but notice, it does not say "He exalted Himself." No, "GOD supremely exalted Him." And we must not pass over that little word "also"… In Greek it stands in a very emphatic position. It is as if to contrast God's thoughts of His Son with man's treatment of Him.

"Supremely exalted" is one word in the Greek. The Spirit of God through Paul loves to add the little word "huper" to many words. It matches our word "super." So we read "super-intercede" in Romans 8:26 and "super-conqueror" in Romans 8:37… How well this word of "supreme exaltation" fits the position due to such supreme humiliation! It appears nowhere else in the New Testament, as though the Spirit of God had reserved it for this special passage.

We are only in new wonders when we read these words. For what, we may ask, could exalt Him? Before He began His path of sufferings and glories, He was in Himself infinitely great and blessed. Nothing could personally exalt Him, being, as He was, "the Son." His glory was divine, unspeakable and infinite. No other honours could ever increase His personal glory. Yet we still see Him walking a path that leads Him on to honour and glory.

Here God gives glory to Jesus, not because He was equal with God, but because He humbled Himself, appeared as a man, and became obedient to death. As God, all dominion and glory were His own; nor could anything be given Him. But as man He had voluntarily emptied Himself, taking the lowest place, and bowing even to the power of death, to carry out God's purposes of grace. God's righteous response, then, to this obedience and devotedness was to exalt Him in the same character in which He had humbled Himself.

"Bestowed" translates a Greek word formed from the word always used for Grace… The better reading is not "given him a name," but "the Name." It is a special Name, "the (Name) supreme above every name."… We may ask, what is "the Name"? Some think it to be the mystic Name JEHOVAH; others, that it may be "My new Name" in Revelation 3:12. But from what follows, "That in the Name JESUS every knee should bow," I cannot but think that JESUS is "the Name." And let us remember that the Name JESUS means JEHOVAH-the-SAVIOUR.

We cannot decide what "the name" is, or whether it is the name of Jesus… and indeed the Spirit of God would point us to the thing it stands for. The meaning, to say it again, is this: whatever exalted beings may surround the heavenly throne, the glorified Jesus is above and beyond them all. The name given to Him, because He humbled Himself, speaks of a dignity far above the highest ranks of heaven, and tells us more: He is supreme in every world of God's universe.

He made Himself nothing in becoming a man. Death to Him was the highest, fullest act of obedience and of confidence in His Father, as man. And therefore God highly exalted Him. Sinful man had sought to exalt himself and to be like God, and his disobedience cast him down. In this, then, we have the great doctrine of the exaltation of Jesus as the new man, the Second Adam, the Head of a new race.

The Name of Jesus expresses the fame of this lowly Man. It means, as we know, Saviour, and as such it is a Name that is above every name. May we not say it is the one Name that the Lord had to come down from the glory to a cross of shame to secure? Over the cross it was written, "This is JESUS". Men in their scorn said, "Let Him now come down from the cross." Had He done so, He would have left the Name of JESUS behind Him. He would still have been the Creator, the mighty God, but never more would He have been JESUS — the Saviour. Blessed be His Name! His lowly mind led Him to be obedient to the death of the cross, and as a result every knee will bow to the Name of Jesus, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

In the Authorised Version and others, Philippians 2:10 is, as we all know, rendered "at" the name of Jesus. That rendering became the basis of a well known and widespread superstitious practice. The Revisers here say "in" (ἐν). If that is right, it means, as usual, that all creatures will bow because of His name.

It is not just a question of saints or of Israel. Every knee shall bow. This takes in angels and saints, and even those who are forever under the judgment of God, because "under the earth" carries the worst possible sense. So the lost, those in hell, come in here. The verse includes those who have rejected salvation, just as much as those who confess the Saviour. It is the universal subjection of all to Christ. Jesus has won the title even as man. If unbelievers despised Him as man, as Son of man He will judge them.

One sphere is excluded — the sphere of judgment. Yet even this — "the things under the earth" — is to bow at the name of Jesus according to Philippians 2:10. It must acknowledge Him, though cut off from Him and under the frown of God.

In the second chapter of Philippians it is a beautiful thing to see that what is due to God is going to be given to a Man. We read in the Old Testament: "By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: 'To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance'" (Isaiah 45:23). Oh, but you say, that is God speaking, and He has a divine right to claim this subjection. Quite true, and He will have it. But notice, it is all going to be given to a Man — and that Man is the Man of sorrows, the lowly Nazarene. What He can claim as God, He is worthy of as Man.

It is a solemn thing to think that every knee must bow to Jesus in the day of His coming. But is it not a joy that when people bow now to Christ and accept His gospel, they are saved? When forced to bow in the day of God by power, they will not be saved. When divine power compels them, before the judgment seat of Christ, there will be no salvation.

Then comes the solemn declaration, backed by a divine oath: "To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance." Jehovah, the Creator-God, has decreed it. Now turn to Philippians 2. There these words apply to the One who humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Two notable explanations are added. No one could have discovered them unless God had given them. The first is that "every knee" covers all in heaven, all on earth, and all under the earth. It means every intelligent being, whether in heaven, on earth, or in hell — demons as well as angels, saints, and men. Second, "every tongue shall swear allegiance" means the confession, to the glory of God the Father, that Jesus is Lord.

Jesus has won the title even as man. If unbelievers despised Him as man, as Son of man He will judge them. As man they must bow to Him. The lowly name that was His as Nazarene on the earth must be honoured everywhere; God's glory is concerned in it.

And the Spirit of God divides these into three classes: "The heavenly, the earthly, and the infernal" (or, those under the earth). Angels and demons, living and dead, saved and lost will all then acknowledge Him as LORD — and openly, for that is what the word suggests. The word "LORD" is in an emphatic position, so the emphasis falls on it: "JESUS CHRIST (is) LORD."

The Christian now confesses by the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ is Lord. Later this homage will be given on a far larger scale. But then it will be too late for salvation... No one confesses Him as Lord by the Holy Spirit unless he is a saved person. One day the time of grace will be past. God will no longer be only gathering out a chosen body, the Church; He will be putting down every opposing authority. Then the whole universe will own the name of Jesus — even those who do it under compulsion, and who by that very confession admit their own eternal misery.

No one speaking under the influence of the Holy Spirit would call Jesus accursed... No demon would confess that Jesus is Lord. So if someone calls Jesus Lord under the influence of a spirit, that shows the Holy Spirit controls him. When Jesus was on earth, the evil spirits confessed that He was Son of God, but they never called Him Lord. The day is coming when they will be forced to own Him Lord. So will every tongue in the vast universe, to the glory of God the Father.

Our passage began, "God supremely exalted Him." It ends by telling us that this supreme exaltation of the Son is "to the glory of God the Father." He could say of all His earthly path of humiliation: "I have glorified You on the earth." How blessed to see the same thing in His path of exaltation. We know well that this is just as He would have it.

...the aim is practical. It is pressed home from One who came down from infinite glory and made Himself nothing. He is now exalted and made Lord of all, so that every creature must bow. This is put before the Philippians as the most powerful of motives and the weightiest of examples for self-denial, in love, to God's glory.