We’re reading from Philippians, and have finished the first chapter. So far, Paul has written mostly to encourage the church. Although he was in prison, his confidence in God’s ability to provide was high, and he was excited to tell his friends how his imprisonment was advancing the Gospel. He was very focused on accomplishing that mission, so focused that he wrote, to live is Christ, to die is gain. The entire worldview, his reason for existence, purpose of it all is to glorify Christ. That’s the point of living and the result of dying. He said regardless of what happens, the church should conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. They should be prepared to face opposition fearlessly, and understand that God has granted us the right and opportunity to suffer for Christ. That’s where we begin Chapter 2.
2 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.
Paul is imploring the church to join him in something. Are you encouraged by being united with Christ? Do you have ANY encouragement? Do you derive ANY comfort from God’s love? Do we have any sharing in the Holy Spirit, do you notice any tenderness and compassion? These questions should be rhetorical, because of that “ANY”. They all must be answered yes. Let’s listen to the opposite. Do you believe yourself to be united with Christ, but have no encouragement from that fact whatsoever? Seems impossible to go around believing you are a Christian, if you feel no encouragement from the idea that you are united together with the perfect only begotten son of God, the creator of the universe. Can you really respond to that with a “meh” if so, you aren’t really united with Christ. You may have told yourself you are united in Christ, but responding to that with apathy means you’re missing something very important about God’s character, or your own. Apathy towards the Gospel means you missed some very important details about the depth of humanity’s sin, how your own sins confirm that fallen state, how difficult and debilitating sin has been to deal with throughout the old covenant, how perfect and necessary Jesus Christ was, how sufficient his death and resurrection were to satisfy the sins once and for all. How his resurrection confirmed all of these teachings, and placed him in the eternal role of our Great high priest Forever, our Intercessor. This should be a very encouraging truth, if it is not, you don’t understand it yet. If you already know this truth, it should still refresh you anew each time you hear it and think about it. Do you have any encouragement in being united in Christ? Do you feel like you have been the recipient of God’s love? God loves you, so much that he sacrificed his Son to give you eternal life, if you just believe in his Son, you’re forgiven of all your sin. Is that in the least bit comforting to you? Do you have a relationship with God? One that is alive and has any impact on your character. Does your relationship with God increase your tenderness and compassion to your fellow man or woman to a non zero value? These are all questions that are serving to check the pulse of the reader.
Either they honestly respond yes (and Amen if they’re in a church), or they aren’t really reading carefully, or they are dead. For anyone with a pulse, Paul is asking, complete his joy and become like minded. Share the same love that God has shown us, be one in spirit and of one mind. So what does that like-mindedness look like? I don’t think it is supposed to look like one of those cultish groups where the “leader” forces his opinions and preferences on the congregation, and now all of a sudden, colorful socks and certain holidays are from the devil and forbidden. Like minded means we value the same things, theologically, we share a common mission and purpose, our goals align with each other. Sometimes our hearts place different values on certain Godly objectives, Peace, justice, and that results In different passions or battles, but we should all be working to advance the same gospel.
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Being like-minded sometimes is more about how you think and feel instead of the particular thing you are thinking about. Paul is reminding them that their motivation matters. In the prior chapter, he had mentioned people who are preaching Jesus Christ out of envy, but now he is saying to do nothing motivated by selfish ambition or vain conceit. Our goal shouldn’t be to magnify ourselves, but to magnify Christ. There was a man in the bible who had a large following, but it was shrinking. His ministry had been popular, and all of a sudden he had seen fewer and fewer followers. He was asked, and his reply was, “Christ must increase, but I must decrease” Imagine if John the Baptist had tried to maintain his selfish ambition or vain conceit. The ministry that existed to prepare the way for the savior would have actively started fighting that same savior for attendance. When our lives are marked by humility and placing others before ourselves, we direct people toward the Son of God. Jesus’s leadership was one of servitude, and he said those who want to be first must make themselves last. Those who want to lead should serve. Anyone who has aspirations of being served and lording authority over others are acting in a way that christ taught against. Paul is reminding the church that Christ’s teachings and ministry are all about caring for others, and putting others interests above your own. He continues with a bit of relationship advice: Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. He then spends the next 6 verses writing a poetic creed. These are arranged in poetic couplets, and may be a hymn or some type of liturgy or confession or creed that was popular to recite among churches in the day. Scholars who look at the words used, the construction of words and phrases, and the content tend to think Paul is not the original author of this poem but is reciting it in his letter to Philippians.
6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
These verses are very theologically dense, and it’s worth looking at them a few ways. The amount of time I spent thinking about them, and reading them different ways, and reading different commentaries on them is much longer than I will spend writing here. But we must remember that Paul wrote this to encourage the church to share Jesus Christ’s mindset. Paul’s goal here isn’t to explain all the truths about the mystery of the trinity, and God being in three forms, the father the son and the holy spirit. The goal is to try and fathom Jesus Christ’s mindset, and foster a similar mindset in the Philippian church. So there is argument about whether the Greek word Morphe means simply form, shape, appearance, or whether it should be expanded to mean Nature, essence, character, being. This creed says that Jesus was in the morphe of God. Other times morphe is used in the Bible, it doesn’t mean nature or essence, it seems to mean simply shape or form.. If we leave it at that, it’s still sufficient to get Paul’s point across. However, in NIV it’s expanded to mean not just a shape or form or likeness, but to be his very nature. Jesus shares God’s very nature and that’s consistent with the divinity of Jesus Christ, as one of the members of the trinity. This particular verse might not be the best place to prove Christ’s divinity, with the potential dual meaning of that word Morphe. And that’s fine, because we have plenty of other places in scripture to prove that Jesus Christ is God. And we will get to them, but for right now, let’s just assume the bare minimum that Jesus Christ was in a shape or form of God. So what does that mean? What’s God’s shape or form? He’s omnipresent, He exists outside and beyond space time, He is and always was and always will be. He is unchanging. Shape and form don’t seem appropriate to capture all of these attributes, but we can say Not Human. Not physical. So Jesus Christ was like God in some if not all of those characteristics. Now, verse 6 says he didn’t consider equality with God to be something to be grasped. Old translations say equality with God wasn’t a robbery. Which means that Jesus Christ didn’t covet or envy or cling to the idea of Equality with God. Adam did, he wanted equality with God. Satan did, Humanity did and still does, to be human is to desire being God, we are a sinful race. Because we are sinners, we desire equality with God. Jesus didn’t consider equality with God to be worth coveting. Was Jesus equal with God? This verse didn’t quite say that 100%. But Jesus had a shape or form of God or shared certain attributes with God. And having equality with God wasn’t something Jesus wanted to use for his own advantage. If you offered me an attribute of God, like Dave, you could be omni present, or you can know everything, or have a time machine and exist beyond time, my first thought isn’t really to serve, it’s something stupid like buying a winning lottery ticket or some bitcoin, or to gain something or take advantage of the situation somehow. I think that’s why I enjoy superhero movies, I like to see people with extraordinary advantages use them to win. But anyway, Jesus shared a certain form, shape, likeness of God. If you could witness him in this phase, he would resemble God, but I don’t think we can really equate this to seeing something. Remember, we aren’t thinking of the actual divinity of Jesus Christ yet. In fact, we are just trying to understand the mindset of Jesus Christ. His mindset is not to use something of great power for his own advantage. He has some sort of likeness of God (whether it’s form in appearance alone or very essense and nature, we will discuss and argue later), and he didn’t want to cling to or grasp it for his advantage. Instead he made himself nothing, he emptied himself of his Godly form, nature, his divinity. The pouring out of Divinity is called Kenosis in Theology.
He took on the shape or form (or very nature) of a servant, not just any servant, A Doulos servant , Bond servant. A Slave. His purpose couldnt’ be accomplished in the form of God, he needed to be man. Being made in human likeness. This is the incarnation. We just celebrated incarnation at Christmas, and this is a time where someone Great and Godly and Divine became Small and Humble and lowly. Now. Is Jesus in the very nature God? Yes. I don’t think i’d prove it using Philippians 2:6, but in the NIV translation calling Morphe, Nature, it would defend that. But let’s read another account of the incarnation. In John 1:1 In the beginning was The Word, and the Word was with God and the Word Was God. John 1:14 The word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his Glory the glory of the one and only Son from the Father full of Grace and truth. So In Philippians 2:6 we see Jesus in the form of God, then in 2:7 we see Jesus emptying himself of his divine majesty. Now in 2:8 we see Jesus taking on the shape or form of a man, humbling himself in obedience to God. Obedience to the point of death, not just death, but shameful humble disgraceful death on a cross. In this time, Romans and Greeks would find any weakness shameful Phil 2:6-8 The transformation or metamorphosis is staggering. Jesus was in a form of God, he shared a unity with God as the Word of God. He emptied his divinity and became in the form of flesh, and dwelt among us. He had every right to dwell among us in an exalted place, worshipped and served here, but instead his ministry was spent serving others, washing feet, feeding people, healing sick people, his mindset was one of humility.
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Now Philippians 2:9-11 speaks of the God exalting Jesus Christ to the highest place. Jesus was with God before, he emptied himself of Divinity, became man, suffered and died a disgraced and shameful outcast. This creed doesn’t really describe why Jesus did what he did, and that’s one of the reasons scholars don’t think Paul was the original author of this poem, because Paul always focuses on what’s between verse 8 and 9. What’s the theology behind that. Salvation. Jesus died in our place, a substitutionary death, taking our blame and disgrace, our guilt, and nailing it to the cross. We are imputed with Jesus’ righteousness, and have been reconciled to God the Father. Jesus is the only way to God the Father, the only gate by which we can enter God’s presence. Therefore, because of Jesus humility and obedience in his life, God exalted Jesus to the highest place. He gave Jesus Christ a name that was above every name. God declared, This is my Son. Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith, Immanuel, the prince of peace, without him there’s no peace between God and man. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. Such authority means that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth – this is parallel with Revelation 5:13
13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”
There will be cosmic worship, universal among humankind and all of creation. This description includes angels, spirits, humans, animals and fish, In some way all of God’s creation will be made to worship, and that is an interesting thing to think about, and imagine what that would look like. Now this poem, or song or creed, went into some very interesting places, describing God’s character, Jesus’s glorious pre-existence, his incarnation, death, resurrection. But remember Paul is saying all this just to try to have the church remember the mindset of Christ. Try to have that same mindset, anyone worthy of honor, praise, acclaim, should not seek that praise, don’t demand credit. Instead prefer to live in a way that’s simply humble, obedient to God, and willing to serve each other! Paul continues with a therefore:
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
Because you’ve considered the Mindset of Jesus, and you sharing that mindset, continue in obedience. Paul says they have always obeyed, Not just because Paul is around, but even when he’s gone. He tells them, when you think about salvation, and consider all that God has done for you, have a heart that is reverent towards God. Don’t approach the gift of salvation as one who’s entitled or has earned something. Approach God with Humility, even awe, fear, and trembling. Even the most High son of God approached God the Father with humility, an obedient servant heart, a meekness. When Paul says to work out salvation, he isn’t saying you are working for your salvation, he’s talking about an attitude towards God and that Gift that’s been bought and paid for and given to you. This is a gift that’s so unaffordable for you that there should be an awe inspiring gratitude in your heart when considering everything.
Verse 13 explains that we don’t work for our salvation, God is working in us, he is changing our wills and causing our actions and the motivations behind those actions to change to something better than what we were. We are turning into his agents to fulfill his divine Good Purpose, not just a good purpose for us, but a good purpose for all of creation to be in a place where every knee bows, every tongue confesses, every creature proclaims worship, glorifying God the father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”[c] Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.
OK, Have the same Mindset as Jesus, be obedient, treat God as Holy, Appreciate our salvation, serve each other. But now he says to do it without Grumbling or Arguing. That part is actually hard for me. I can do the right thing for the right reasons, but Sometimes I can’t help grumbling or complaining about it. How busy I am, how much is on my plate, how someone else isn’t doing something prefectly. I find it’s really easy for me to grumble or join in others’ grumblings. I need to work on redirecting grumbling and arguments to peace and gratitude. Paul wants his Philippian church friends to be blameless and pure. He wants them to be pure children of God without fault in a corrupt generation. This is a reference to Deuteronomy 32, where Moses is telling the Israelites to listen to the word of God. Moses is telling the assembly of Israelites the same type of thing that Paul is telling the Philippians! Let God’s teaching and his word fall like a soaking rain, a nourishing dew to water tender plants. Let the Name of God be proclaimed and praised. The Israelites tended to forget God’s provision and his Goodness, they were prone to grumbling and complaints. When we grumble, we’re really saying that we can do better than God. Unlike Christ, We are saying that Equality with God is something we want, something we’d like to grasp, rob, and cling to. Instead we should Cling to the word of God! We want to be christ like, we want to reflect God’s glory and show God’s love to a fallen world. When we have Christ’s mindset and the purity and blamelessness of our hearts, and we Cling to the Word of God instead of the idea of Equality with God, we will shine like stars in the sky. Having a church that clings to the word of God is the goal of Paul’s labor, the destination of Paul’s race. His prime objective and mission, Glorify Christ in all things, and help other believers to do the same.
17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
Paul continues, even if he’s personally poured out, sacrificed, even if he’s imprisoned, seeing their sacrifices and service that comes from the faith in the Philippian church, is enough to give him joy and gladness. A drink offering looks wasted to someone who doesn’t believe. It’s perfectly good drink being poured out and spilled on something. It isn’t used for human purposes, but for holy purposes, to advance God’s kingdom, which is Paul’s goal. So they should be happy and glad and full of joy with him. We will finish chapter 2 next time.