What is the meaning of Philippians 2:5, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus"?

Verses 5 to 11 are one of those amazing portions of the Scripture. It sets before us the amazing pathway of our Saviour from heaven’s highest glory down to Calvary’s depth of woe. The passage is so sublime that it seems to defy the human spirit to comprehend what is found in it. ‘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’ — the principle of thought and feeling which was in Him.There is no verb in the latter part of the verse, but we must use one in English. We generally use the word ‘was’, but there is nothing in the Greek to limit the meaning to either past or present: and even though exalted to the highest glory, He is ‘this same Jesus’ (Acts 1:11), so we have inserted, ‘was, and is’. ‘Have this mind in you which (was and is) also in Christ Jesus.’ And what was ‘this mind’? Was it not an utter and absolute self-forgetfulness? Oh, my brethren, here is the cure for all our quarrels and divisions, our misunderstandings and difficulties with one another: ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus’.

What then was the mind that was in Christ Jesus? We may reply in the three words that occur in verse 8, "He humbled Himself." The fact is that the mind that was in Christ is the exact opposite of the mind that was in Adam. The Lord's own words in Matthew 23:12 illustrate it. There was found in Adam the self-exalting mind, and as a consequence he fell into the depths. In Christ there was found the self-sacrificing, self-humbling mind, and, as we see in this passage, He is exalted to the supreme place.

We start from the supreme heights in verse 6. 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, bears witness. 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. Before Him there lay but the alternative of staying as and where He was, or of coming down in humiliation.

Verse 5. 'Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.' What that mind was is set forth with impressive distinctness in the verses immediately following, wherein the great mystery of godliness is enunciated with more fulness and precision perhaps than in any other part of the record which God has given of His Son. He has been exhorting them to humility and self-renunciation, and he now sets before both them and us the pattern, but not the measure, of that which we are called to emulate. The pattern; for as children of the Father we are to aim at nothing short of His perfection,4 and as partakers of the Spirit of Christ His ways should be also ours. Not the measure; for the very first step of His humility was one which none but His natural equal, if such there were, could possibly have taken. This presently appears.

In his Epistle to the Philippians Paul exhorts the saints to avoid all self-exaltation and to cultivate a spirit of humility (Phil. 2:1-4). The apostle does not press humility of disposition as a virtue in an abstract sense, but as a unique excellence perfectly exemplified by Christ Jesus. He writes, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus; Who, being in the form of God … emptied Himself, taking a bondman's form " (Phil. 2:5-7).

From this revelation by the Spirit of God concerning the incarnation of the Son of God we learn that its outstanding feature lay in His making Himself of no reputation, or emptying Himself, the latter being a preferable rendering of the Greek text.* The apostle teaches that Christ Jesus Who was in "the form of God" voluntarily took upon Himself "the form of a servant (or bond-slave)," whereby He "emptied Himself." Being "in the likeness of men," He abstained from using the prerogatives of His deity apart from the will of Him that sent Him. This act of self-abnegation expressed "the mind which was in Christ Jesus," which "mind" the apostle desired should be in His saints also.

How, then, can we "be of the same mind in the Lord"? The Apostle clearly shows that this can only be as we are marked by "lowliness of mind," and, to have the lowly mind, he says, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." His was the lowly mind that led Him to make Himself of no reputation in order to serve others in love. Self likes to be served, and thinks it is exalted when being served by others; but love delights to serve.

If, then, we each forget self, refuse to seek a reputation for ourselves, and seek only to serve others in love, according to the lowly mind of Christ, we shall have the mind of the Lord, and "be of the same mind in the Lord."

Let us return to the verses read in chapter 2. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation". How do you think He made Himself of no reputation? By taking the form that He never had before: in J.N.D.'s translation, "Taking a bondman's form". He gave up nothing. If there was anything external to the presence of God, He left that for a moment. As for what was properly Deity, He gave up nothing. He gave up nothing attaching to Himself in Deity, but He emptied Himself by taking a form that He never had before. He took the servant's form, and He "was made [became] in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself". How did He humble Himself? By becoming "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross". Seven steps down have been seen in these verses; I can only see three — two steps down and one up. The first step was taking the bondman's form, and the second was humbling Himself in this way, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. That does not mean that He obeyed death. Death had no claim on Him. It means He obeyed all the way — all the way to the cross. It is not the story of our redemption that is being given to us here. It is that self-humbling, that demonstration livingly in our blessed Lord Whose right it was ever to command — a demonstration of self-abasement. If it were known more by us, even in feeble measure, it would give us the power morally, livingly, spritually, in every way. It would give us more fellowship practically, because dike answers to like, and there is nothing so good for drawing saints together as likeness to Christ. It is the unlikeness and the fleshly characteristics in each one of us that put us out-at-elbows with each other. In like-mindedness to Christ we will be drawn together.

442 In chapter 2 you do not get Christ in glory as the one he is running after; not Christ gone up, but Christ coming down. One whom I am to be like in this, the graciousness of the walk that He displayed; and that is always going - down - going from the form of Godhead down to death. Where do I find what God is fully displayed - righteousness and love perfectly displayed? In death. It is a wonderful riddle that has come out, the Holy One going down - the Prince of Life going into death. We never completely learn, till we see it there - the things that the angels desire to look into. No one knows the Son but the Father. We know the Father, but no one knows the Son; the divinity of Christ is maintained by the inscrutability of the incarnation: God becoming a man - that is unfathomable - and the meekest, lowliest man that ever walked this earth. Paul is taking up the truth of lowliness, etc., but the moment he begins he must bring out Christ. The motive of all exhortations is nothing less than the whole scope of Christianity. God come down and bringing salvation, and gone back again as man. Take the commonest exhortations, the spring and motive is nothing short of obedience to the word of God Himself. Eating and drinking even is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. I am merely eating like a beast if it is not. He exhorts them to walk in lowliness and love (there had been some little squabbling, I suppose, among them). These Philippians had been sending help to the apostle from a long way off, and he will not reproach them, but says, Now I see how you love me; I see how you care for me and my being happy. Now, if you want to make me perfectly happy, walk in love among yourselves. It is a reproach so delicately brought in that their hearts could not resist it. "And let each esteem other better than themselves." It sounds unpractical and impossible; but if I think of myself with the mind of God, I see the evil, the sin in myself. If I think of another, and I am full of Christ, I shall see all the value of Christ upon him, I shall see with Christ's heart, and I can esteem him better than myself, for I see evil in myself, and I see Christ in him. "Let this mind be in you," etc., that is, the spirit in which Christ was, always going down; first, being in the form of Godhead, and in the glory, He takes the place of a man, and then He humbles Himself again to death. He is the first grand example of "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted," and that is what we have to do - go down.

In Philippians 2 we are exhorted as those who believe on the Christ who has gone up, highly exalted indeed, to "let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." This was the mind to go down. He came down into the bondman's form, becoming Man, humbling Himself, becoming "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." This was self-effacement to the last degree.

Here, then, we have the lowly mind of Christ expressed in His down stooping. The object of this great passage is not to prove that Christ is God, or that He became a true and perfect man, though both truths are involved. It has been truly said, "His humiliation is a proof that He is God. God only could leave His first 'estate in the sovereign rights of His love; it is sin for any creature to do so." On the other hand, if it was not true manhood that He assumed there would be no expression of true lowliness of mind. Thus, while the passage guards the glory of His Godhead and maintains the reality of His manhood, yet the immediate object is to present, as one has said, "the mind of One who from a height of glory beyond possible apprehension could come down, moved by His love, into the lowest possible depths where again the eye cannot follow Him, every step the giving up afresh of something that might be held."

Here indeed is the perfect pattern of the lowly mind — the mind that forgets self in thinking of others; that leads to sacrifice in order to serve; that gives up that others may gain. Evidently the life governed by this mind — the mind that was in Christ Jesus — would be a life of lowly grace.

In order that the mind of Christ may be formed in us, the apostle presents Christ before us as our perfect Pattern. We have a touching presentation of the lowliness of mind that was expressed in Him in His marvellous journey from Godhead glory to the cross of shame. Let us note, the force of the passage is to present, not simply the downward path He took, but the lowly mind which marked Him in taking the path.