Sunday Devotional: Philippians 2:5-11

⁵ Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. ⁸ Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. [NASB]

This week’s passage continues the theme of unity and humility from the last couple of weeks. Paul has instructed the Philippians to strive to be “of one mind,” and to achieve this by considering others before themselves, and putting the wants and needs of others before their own. To underscore how important this is, he introduces the best example of humility and self-sacrifice for the sake of others: Jesus himself.

We could spend weeks unpacking all the theological gems in these few verses, but for devotional purposes I want us to grasp the big picture of what Paul is saying about Jesus here, and how that applies to his point. First, he wants their like-mindedness to ultimately be like-mindedness with Christ. It is his attitude that they (and we) should primarily emulate. And Christ’s example of humility is one that no-one on earth could surpass. One might, for theological reasons, want to understand Paul as saying that Jesus only appeared to be God, or was somehow not really divine. But if that were true, Paul’s point here is lost. The point is that Jesus was and is divine. Prior to the incarnation, Jesus shared in all the divine attributes. However, in order for God’s plan of salvation to come about, it was necessary for Christ to set aside the privileges that come with divine status, and become enshrined in flesh, and subject to time, hunger, temptation, and death. He did not cease being divine, but this was certainly a huge step down, in some way akin to a king being reduced to a beggar.

The language of these verses is somewhat poetic, and it is thought by many that this is a very early Christian hymn that Paul’s readers may well have known. I want us to get a sense from this hymn the depth of humility that the Son of God, the Lord of Glory was willing to show by lowering himself not just to our level, but even lower than that. Most of us don’t have to experience the kind of ill-treatment Christ did while on earth. He was beaten, mocked, and eventually crucified by those who should have worshiped him. And he did this for our salvation.

Certainly, upon his resurrection, Christ was exalted and restored to his former glory. And one day, every knee shall bow and recognize him as Lord (this doesn’t mean everyone will be saved–but that’s a discussion for another time). But even his resurrection and exaltation was part of the plan for our salvation (see Romans 5).

If Christ was willing to humble himself like that, how much more we Christians, who call ourselves after his name, should display that same kind of humility to one another. Not exalting ourselves over each other, but considering the needs of others as more important than our own.

Have a great week!