5 Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus,

6 who, even though He existed in the form of God, regarded being equal with God as something not to be held onto,

7 but divested himself by taking the form of a slave, by being born in the likeness of men.

8 And since He was found to be as a man in appearance, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

9 Therefore, God also highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,

10 that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Paul's letter to the Philippians is often criticized by some as being disjointed. This is because he seems to say one thing one minute and go off in another direction, and then go off in another direction again. But the reason for this is that Paul is writing this letter as a "family letter." That is, he is writing to the Philippians as you or I may write home to our families. In our family letters, we may talk about many things because there are many facets to our relationship. So it is with Paul and the Philippians. (Klein, 357)

So in this "family letter" Paul first gives his address and greeting (1:1-2). Second, he prays for the Philippians (1:3-11). Third, he assures them of his welfare in prison (1:12-26). Fourth, he encourages and asks for reassurance about the Philippians (1:27-2:18). Fifth, he commends and shares information about two brothers (2:19-30). Sixth, he warns them about false teachers (3:1-4:1). Seventh, he exhorts them in their difficulties and thanks them for their gifts (4:2-20). Eighth, he exchanges greetings with third parties (4:21-22). Finally, he closes wishing them well-being (4:23). These are clearly the elements that one would expect to find in a family letter. (Klein, 357)

So where does Philippians 2:5-11 fit in to all of this? This passage is located in the fourth section of the letter where Paul is encouraging the Philippians to live with a humble attitude. The reason he sees it as necessary to exhort them in this manner is that, apparently, there were at least the beginnings of a faction in the church. We see this in Philippians 4:2 where Paul says, "I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord." Whatever the bickering was about, it is evident that there was a lack of unity that needed to be addressed. So Paul tries to foster unity among the Philippians by exhorting them to have humble attitudes toward one another. (Pfeiffer, 1332)

In this passage, Paul seems to be following the standard rhetorical approach. First, he gives his theme. This theme, found in the first half of verse 5, is that the Philippians should have an attitude of humility within themselves. Literally, tou/to fronei/te can be rendered "think this" or "think this way." We know that when Paul says "tou/to fronei/te" he is referring to an attitude of humility because, in this passage, "tou/to" refers back to what Paul says in verses three and four: th/| tapeinofrosu,nh| avllh,louj h`gou,menoi u`pere,contaj e`autw/n (in humility, think of one another as better than yourselves). So when Paul says in verse 5, "think this way," he is referring back to the humility which he had just mentioned, thus establishing his theme that the Philippians should have an attitude of humility within themselves.

After presenting the theme, he immediately gives the principle reason for the theme. His principle reason, found in the last half of verse five, is that Jesus also had an attitude of humility within Himself. He says in verse five, tou/to fronei/te evn u`mi/n o] kai. evn Cristw/| Vihsou/, that is, "have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus" (o] refers back to tou/to). Paul is setting the humility of Christ before the eyes of the Philippians as an example for them to follow. This fact is substantiated further by the fact that Paul gives three other examples of humility, namely his own (2:17-18), Timothy's (2:19-24), and Epaphroditus's (2:25-30). (New Open Bible, 1364) So Paul's reason for telling the Philippians that they should have an attitude of humility within themselves is that it was the example of Christ.

Finally, Paul gives confirmation of the principle reason for his theme by illustrating how it was that Christ had the attitude of humility within himself. This illustration takes up the bulk of the passage and is found in verses 6-11. It turns out that this part of the passage was apparently a song written by someone not long after the resurrection of Christ. This song neatly divides into two stanzas, the first dealing with Christ's self-humiliation, the second dealing with Christ's resulting exaltation. Each stanza contains three lines, each of which contains three stressed syllables. The only oddity in this orderly construction is the out-of-step phrase qana,tou de. staurou/ (even death on a cross). (Klein, 361)

Before talking about how Jesus humbled himself, Paul first sets the stage by looking at who this Jesus was who humbled himself. In the first half of verse six, Paul says that Jesus "existed in the form of God" (evn morfh/| qeou/ u`pa,rcwn). In saying this, Paul is assuming that Jesus is God. We see this Pauline presentation of the deity of Christ in several places. This theme appears in Romans 9:5, where Paul refers to "the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever" (o` Cristo.j to. kata. sa,rka, o` w'n evpi. pa,ntwn qeo.j euvloghto.j eivj tou.j aivw/naj). As can be seen from the Greek, qeo.j refers to Cristo.j. This theme is repeated in Titus 2:13, where Paul refers to "our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ" (tou/ mega,lou qeou/ kai. swth/roj h`mw/n VIhsou/ Cristou/). According to Sharp's Rule, when two substantives are separated by kai, and an article appears before the first substantive only, then both substantives refer to the same person. (Yarbrough) Since this rule clearly applies to this verse, we see that qeou/ and swth/roj both refer the same person, Jesus Christ. A final example of this theme in Paul's letters is Colossians 2:9, which says that "in [Christ] all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form" (evn auvtw/| katoikei/ pa/n to. plh,rwma th/j qeo,thtoj swmatikw/j). From these examples and more, Paul's doctrine of the deity of Christ is clearly evident.

So what does Paul mean when he says that Jesus existed evn morfh/| qeou? The word morfh/| is a word that refers to the external appearance of something, to that which can be seen. (Kittel, 746) So Paul here is not referring here to the internal essence of Christ, that is, his divinity. But, in assuming his divinity, Paul refers to that which could be externally seen if one could see the pre-incarnate Christ. What one would see is not his divinity, but the glories of his divinity. So what Paul in saying here is that, since the pre-incarnate Christ was divine, he had the same glories of divinity that God the Father had.

This fact is significant in light of the construction we see in verse six. The second half of verse six reads, "[He] regarded being equal with God as something not to be held onto" (ouvc a`rpagmo.n h`gh,sato to. ei=nai i;sa qew/|). In light of the first half of verse six (evn morfh/| qeou/ u`pa,rcwn), the participle should be translated concessively. So the verse would be rendered, "Even though he existed in the form of God, [he] regarded being equal with God as something not to be grasped." Additionally, it has been argued that there are two possible connotations of a`rpagmo.n. The first is that of forcefully grasping something one does not have. The second is that of forcefully retaining something one does have. Friberg indicates that the second connotation is the most usual. (Friberg) The second connotation is definitely the one Paul has in mind here, for in light of his doctrine of the deity of Christ, Paul certainly would not think that being equal to God (having the same glories as God) is something that Jesus would have to grasp for. So we see here a pre-incarnate Christ who, despite the fact that he was vested with all the glories that came with being divine, did not see those glories as something to be selfishly held onto. We see here a Christ whose attitude is permeated with humility.

Not only did Christ have the attitude of humility, but he acted on that humility as well. Paul says in verse seven, "[He] divested himself" (e`auto.n evke,nwsen). What did he divest himself of? his divinity? No. This would not be possible theologically. Kittel explains that the verb evke,nwsen has to have an object, for Jesus had to have divested himself of something. Kittel goes on to explain that we are to supply tou/ ei=nai i;sa qew as the omitted object. This is for the sake of parallelism, given that this is a structured song. (Kittel, 661) So Jesus divested himself of being equal with God, that is, of the glories of his divinity.

But not only did Jesus humble himself by divesting himself of the glories of his divinity, but he humbled himself even further by dying on the cross. As we mentioned before, the phrase qana,tou de. staurou is an "out-of-step" phrase in this highly orderly song. Some say that this phrase was added by Paul; others say that it was a part of the original song. Regardless of which is true, the fact remains that, because it is not in step with the rest of the song, great emphasis rests upon it. (Klein, 361) The reason there is so much emphasis on qana,tou de. staurou is that this phrase reveals the true depth of Christ's humility (Klein, 361), which is Paul's goal in giving the Philippians this illustration. Christ not only humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, but even to the point of death on a cross. Paul reveals the significance of this when he says to the Galatians, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us -- for it is written, ‘cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.'" So by dying on the cross (a tree), Christ was cursed by God on our behalf. This is extreme humility!

So, to summarize this first stanza of the song (verses 6-8), we see that Christ humbled himself from the heights of the glories of deity all the way down to the depths of the curse of the cross. This is the ultimate humility!

In terms of an example of humility for the Philippians, which is Paul's main reason for giving this illustration, there is no need to belabor the second stanza of this song (verses 9-11). There is, however, one key logical connector in this second stanza that pertains to humility a great deal. That connector is the very first word of the stanza, dio.. As we mentioned earlier, the first stanza deals with Christ's self-humiliation, and the second stanza deals with Christ's resulting exaltation. The first part of verse nine reads, dio. kai. o` qeo.j auvto.n u`peru,ywsen (Therefore, God also highly exalted him). The word dio means "therefore" or "because of this." So Paul is saying that, because Christ humbled himself as he did, God highly exalted him as a result. Christ's self-humiliation directly resulted in his exaltation. Among other reasons, Paul includes this portion of the song to encourage the Philippians to have an attitude of humility, by showing them that God exalts the humble.

So how are we to apply this passage of Scripture? Put simply, we are to have the same attitude of humility in us that Christ had in him. Because of the great depth of humility we see in Christ (from the glories of divinity to the curse of the cross), there should be no limit to our humility. Of course, we are sinful and we will fall, but we need to continue to foster this attitude of radical humility within us.

How is this humility to work out in our lives? The same way in which Paul expected it to work out in the lives of the Philippians. We mentioned before that the reason Paul wrote this passage was because there were divisions among the Philippians (whether great or small). Paul was trying to foster unity within the church by urging them to have humble attitudes toward one another. Paul was telling them not to "demand their rights," but to divest themselves of their rights as did Christ. We should do the same. "Demanding our rights" tends to divide people. Divesting our rights for the sake of others tends to unite. As Paul says before he gives the example of Christ, we must regard one another as better than ourselves. We must look out, not only for our own interests (or "rights"), but also for the interests and rights of others. This is how we should think. This is how we should treat each other.

To summarize, the main point of this passage is that we should have an attitude of humility as Christ did. It should permeate our lives as it did his. The humility of Christ is a central theme in the Bible and is brought out beautifully here. We see here in this passage that Jesus, though he is and always has been divine, did not hold onto the glories of his divinity, but divested himself of those glories and took on the curse of God on our behalf. As a result of this awesome humility, God highly exalted him. We should have confidence that, as we humble ourselves in our daily lives, God will exalt us as well.

Friberg Dictionary. BibleWorks for Windows, by Michael S. Bushell. Version 3.5.004 NT/95.

Hurst, L. D. "Re-enter the Pre-existent Christ in Philippians 2:5-11?" New Testament Studies 32 (1986): 449-457.

Kittel, Gerhard., ed. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Vol 3. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965. 661-662.

Kittel, Gerhard., ed. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Vol 4. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1967. 742-752.

Kittel, Gerhard and Friedrich, Gerhard., eds. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Abridged in One Volume. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985. 607-609.

Klein, William W. Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. Ed. Robert L. Hubbard, Jr. and Craig L. Blomberg and Kermit L. Ecklebarger. Dallas: Word, 1993. 352-366.

New Open Bible. Study Edition. Nashville: Nelson, 1972. 1362-1368.

Pfeiffer, Charles F. and Vos, Howard F. and Rea, John., eds. Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia. Vol 2. Chicago: Moody, 1975. 1331-1332.

Yarbrough, Robert. "Beginning Greek", a class at Covenant Theological Seminary. Fall, 1995.

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