Philippians 2:1 - Meaning and Application

The apostle goes on in this chapter where he left off in the last, giving more commands about Christian duty. He urges believers strongly toward being of one mind and humble in spirit, following the example of the Lord Jesus, the great model of humility and love.

We can first notice the great gospel command laid on us, which is to love one another. This is the law of Christ’s kingdom, the lesson in his school, and the mark of his family. Paul describes it in Philippians 2:2 as being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, and of one mind. We are like-minded when we have the same love. Christians should be one in affection, even if they cannot agree in every judgment. That kind of love is always in our power and always our duty, and it is the best way to bring us closer in understanding.

Having the same love means the love we are required to show others, others are also to show us. Christian love should go both ways. Love, and you will be loved. Being of one accord and one mind means not working against one another or chasing separate interests, but agreeing together in the great things of God and keeping the unity of the Spirit despite smaller differences.

Paul presses this duty in a very earnest way, because he knows how clearly it shows whether our faith is real, and how much it helps preserve and build up the body of Christ. He gives several reasons for brotherly love.

First, if there is any comfort in Christ, then our experience of that comfort should show itself in love for one another. The sweetness we have found in Christ’s teaching should sweeten our spirits. If we expect comfort in Christ, we must love one another, or else we will be disappointed. And if we do not have comfort in Christ, where else can we look for it? Those who belong to Christ have strong and lasting comfort in him (Hebrews 6:18; 2 Thessalonians 2:16), and so they ought to love one another.

Second, if there is any comfort in love, whether in God’s love to us, our love to God, or our brothers’ love to us, then we should be like-minded. If we have ever known that comfort, or want to know it, and if we truly believe love is a comforting grace, then we should grow in it.

Third, if there is fellowship of the Spirit, meaning real communion with God and Christ through the Spirit, and real fellowship among believers because they are moved by the same Spirit, then we should be like-minded. Christian love and agreement help keep our communion with God and with one another.

Fourth, if there are any tender mercies in God and Christ toward us, then we should be merciful toward one another. If we expect God’s compassion for ourselves, we must show compassion to each other. If mercy truly belongs among Christ’s followers, if all who are made holy have a spirit of holy pity, then we should show it clearly.

These are strong arguments. They should be enough to soften the hardest heart and calm the fiercest one.

Paul adds another reason, namely the comfort it would give him personally: “Fulfill my joy.” It is a joy to ministers when they see people living in love and unity. Paul had helped bring these believers to the grace of Christ and the love of God. So he says, in effect, if you have gained anything from sharing in the gospel, and if it has brought you comfort or benefit, then fill up the joy of your poor minister who preached it to you.

He also gives some practical ways to promote this unity. We should do nothing out of selfish rivalry or empty pride, as in Philippians 2:3. There is no greater enemy of Christian love than pride and passion. When we do things in order to oppose our brothers, that is strife. When we do them to show off ourselves, that is vain glory. Both destroy love and stir up unchristian anger. Christ came to end hostility, so Christians should not live in a spirit of opposition. Christ came to humble us, so we should not live in pride.

We must also think of others as better than ourselves in lowliness of mind. That means we should be strict with our own faults and generous in judging others. We should notice our own failings quickly, but be ready to overlook the failings of others and make fair allowances for them. We should value the good in others above what we see in ourselves, because we know our own weakness and sin best.

We are also to care about the concerns of others, not by being nosy or judgmental, or by meddling in other people’s affairs, but through Christian love and sympathy. “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others” (Philippians 2:4). A selfish spirit ruins Christian love. We should care not only about our own honor, comfort, and safety, but also about those of others. We should rejoice in other people’s success as truly as in our own. We must love our neighbor as ourselves and treat his situation as our own.

Paul then turns to the gospel pattern we are to follow, the example of the Lord Jesus Christ: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). Christians must have Christ’s mind. If we want the benefit of his death, we must resemble his life. If we do not have the Spirit of Christ, we do not belong to him (Romans 8:9). And what was Christ’s mind? He was deeply humble, and that is what we especially need to learn from him. “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29). If we were humble, we would also be united. And if we were like Christ, we would be humble.

We must walk in the same spirit and the same steps as the Lord Jesus. He humbled himself to suffer and die for us, not only to satisfy God’s justice and pay the price of our redemption, but also to set an example for us to follow. Here the apostle opens up both the two natures and the two states of our Lord Jesus. It is fitting that when he mentions Christ and the mind that was in him, he expands into a fuller description of his person. This is a precious subject, and a gospel minister is not out of place when he speaks of it.

We first see Christ’s two natures, his divine nature and his human nature. His divine nature is described this way: “Who, being in the form of God” (Philippians 2:6), meaning that he shared the divine nature as the eternal and only-begotten Son of God. This agrees with John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” It is the same idea as being the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), and the brightness of God’s glory and the exact image of his being (Hebrews 1:3). He did not think it robbery to be equal with God, meaning he did not consider himself guilty of taking what did not belong to him or seizing another’s right. He said, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30).

It is the highest kind of robbery for any mere person or creature to claim equality with God, or to say he is one with the Father. That would be to rob God, not of tithes and offerings, but of the rights that belong to his divine nature (Malachi 3:8).

Some understand “being in the form of God” to mean that Christ appeared in divine majesty and glory to the patriarchs and to the Jews under the Old Testament. That glorious appearance was often called the glory, or the Shechinah, God’s special presence. The word is used in a similar way in the Septuagint and in the New Testament. He appeared to the two disciples “in another form” (Mark 16:12), and he was transfigured before them (Matthew 17:2).

“He thought it no robbery to be equal with God” means that he did not greedily seize that glory or try to cling to it in pride. He set aside the outward majesty of his former appearance while he was on earth. That is likely the meaning of the special expression used here, though some disagree about the exact wording.

His human nature is next. He was made in the likeness of men, and found in appearance as a man. He was truly and really man, sharing our flesh and blood, and he appeared in the nature and life of a man. He took human nature willingly, by his own act and consent. We cannot say that about our own human nature, because we did not choose to receive it. In this way he emptied himself, laying aside the honors and glory of the upper world and his former appearance, and clothing himself with the lowly condition of human life. He was in all things like us (Hebrews 2:17).

Here we see his two states, humiliation and exaltation. In his humiliation, he not only took the likeness and appearance of a man, but also the form of a servant, that is, the place of a lowly man. He was not only God’s servant, whom the Father had chosen, but he came to serve people and lived among them as one who serves in a humble and needy place. One might think that if the Lord Jesus became a man, he would have come as a prince and appeared in splendor. But the opposite was true. He took the form of a servant.

He was brought up in a poor home, and likely worked with Joseph, his supposed father, in his trade. His whole life was marked by humility, low status, poverty, and shame. He had nowhere to lay his head, lived on gifts from others, was a man of sorrows and familiar with grief, and did not appear with outward glory or any special mark that set him apart from other men. This was the humiliation of his life.

But the lowest point of his humiliation was his death on the cross. He became obedient to death, even death on a cross. He did not merely suffer, but willingly obeyed. He obeyed the law he had placed himself under as Mediator, meaning the one who stands between God and people, and by that law he was bound to die. “I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again. This command I received from my Father” (John 10:18). “God sent his Son, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4).

Special weight is given to the way he died, because everything about it was humiliating. It was the death of the cross, a cursed, painful, and shameful death. The law called cursed anyone who hung on a tree. It was full of pain, with the body nailed through the hands and feet and hanging with all its weight on the cross. It was also the death of a criminal and a slave, not of a free man, and it was made public for all to see. Such was the humble condescension of the blessed Jesus.

His exaltation follows: “God also has highly exalted him.” His exaltation was the reward of his humiliation. Because he humbled himself, God lifted him up, and lifted him up greatly. This exalted his whole person, his human nature as well as his divine nature, since Paul speaks of him as being in the form of God as well as in the fashion of a man. As to the divine nature, this could only mean the open recognition of his rights, or the display of the glory he had with the Father before the world was (John 17:5), not the gaining of new glory. In that sense, even the Father is said to be exalted.

But the proper exaltation was of his human nature, which seems to be the part capable of exaltation, though always joined with the divine. Here his exaltation is shown in honor and power. In honor, he has a name above every name, a title of dignity above all creatures, both men and angels. In power, every knee must bow to him. The whole creation must be subject to him, things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, meaning the inhabitants of heaven and earth, the living and the dead.

At the name of Jesus, this does not mean merely the sound of the word, but the authority of Jesus. All should offer him solemn honor. And every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Every nation and language should openly acknowledge the universal rule of the exalted Redeemer, and that all power in heaven and on earth has been given to him (Matthew 28:18). Notice how wide the kingdom of Christ is. It reaches heaven and earth, and all creatures in both, angels as well as people, and the dead as well as the living.

This is all to the glory of God the Father. It glorifies the Father when people confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, because it is the Father’s will that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father (John 5:23). Whatever honor is given to Christ brings honor to the Father. “Whoever receives me receives him who sent me” (Matthew 10:40).