Humility of Christ
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· 7 viewsExhortation of Philippians and reminder of Christ's humility for us and subsequent exaltation
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One of the first things we are regularly told is that we are unique and beautiful. This uniqueness is a gift from God, having given each of us our own interests, ideas, and way of thinking. This concept of uniqueness can be both a blessing and a curse. Instead some of us search out others with our same ‘unique’ ideas and form groups for mutual support. Eventually these groups turn against those who are different. We see all around how divisive celebrating this ‘uniqueness’ can be when it becomes a rallying cry, at the expense of coming together and enjoying each other as Jesus instructed during his time with us. A perfect example is sports. We get involved with our favorite teams and whoever does not follow our favorites is castigated, mocked, even beaten and killed.
Throughout history there have been clashes over differences in beliefs and religious dogma since time began. This was also the case with Christianity as soon as Jesus ascended. The apostles worked together to maintain the integrity of the gospel amidst opposition and expansion. As the years turned into decades after Jesus died, the word was spreading throughout the Roman Empire and with it came the inevitable mutation of the message. However along came Paul, the former Pharisee and persecutor, proclaiming the gospel as given him by Jesus and reconciled with Peter. What we are looking at today is one of Paul’s epistles to Philippians, where he addresses the differences of thought in the Philippian church. In his attempt to bring their beliefs back in line with the true gospel. He also went to remind the church of Christ Jesus’s voluntary sacrifice for our benefit and Jesus’s request that we be servants to others.
Philippi in the 1st century BC was a prosperous, important city in the Roman Empire. Philippi had recently been elevated in status to a colony city of Rome which gave the population numerous legal and financial benefits and a growing civic pride. Paul first visited Philippi on his second missionary trip around 50 A.D., after receiving his ‘Macedonian vision’ which is mentioned in . Paul and his traveling companions, Luke and Timothy, soon arrived at Philippi. There he found a small, poor Jewish population with no synagogue, meeting only at a gathering place near a river. This weak Jewish influence in the area allowed him to establish his church with little outside distractions or opposition. However, soon after the church started to grows, false teachers and Judaizers started to cause dissension in the church. Furthermore, as the church grew in a decidedly pro-Roman environment, the inevitable bias and persecution began to take hold. The Jewish population was poor but stayed dedicated to Paul and his word. It is to these situations that the epistle was addressed.
READING OF THE TEXT
The section we will be looking over in regards to Paul’s plea to the Philippians is . This can be broken into three parts, , and . The first part is Paul’s plea to the Philippians to change their heart from inward to outward and serve others. Here is what says:
2. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
{EXPLANATION} This is Paul’s call to the Philippians to look inward and find the qualities that show they have the same frame of mind as Christ Jesus and the mindset that Jesus tried to impart upon his believers. Those qualities of encouragement, love, participation/partnership with the Spirit, affection and sympathy all have a positive spin to them.
Paul is also implying that by if the Philippians fulfill his wishes and achieve this objective, it would fill him with joy and happiness. More than that, he adds that this would also put everyone on the same sheet of music and moving in the same direction. This uniformity of attitude is compared to Jesus’s mindset and lovingkindness, a benchmark to make sure that everybody is achieving the same level of love as the supreme instrument of love, Christ Jesus.
In verse three, Paul now challenges the Philippians to take their attitude of love and add service to others. He implores them to exchange their selfish ambitions and self-centered focus and turn it outwards. Now he is asking them to look to others and serve them selflessly and without reserve. This, Paul implies, can be done by looking at others as more significant than themselves. He reiterates this in verse 4, giving this idea additional emphasis.
{ARGUMENT} But what is the encouragement in Christ that we are talking about? This can also be seen in the Greek as ‘comfort’ which would turn that opening segment into ‘comfort in Christ’. This comfort would be from knowing Jesus as the Christ and the joy of being a part of his flock. At the same time this point of knowing Christ might also serve as a litmus test where the believer, if truly filled with the Holy Spirit, would also want model the type of love and selfishness that Jesus showed while working through his ministry. Along the same lines, the comfort from love sounds like being the recipient of Jesus’ love, which with receiving the Holy Spirit, should fill us with affection and sympathy as well. One would expect this of true believers of Christ Jesus and the message that he brought and the mission that he served. This laundry list that Paul compiled should make us think about these qualities we all should have at the forefront of our lives.
Paul next beseeches the Philippians to again model their behavior to that of Christ Jesus and place others above themselves. This can be accomplished by showing a servant’s attitude and selflessness like Jesus did. This can be plainly seen in the Gospels during the last supper. says:
26 But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. 27 For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.
{ILLUSTRATION} This subservient servant is also addressed in with Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. In the time of the Bible, people made their way around primarily by walking. Whether they had sandals or barefoot, their feet became dirty, smelly and generally nasty. When someone arrived at another’s house, it was customary for the owner of the house to have the feet washed, mostly by a slave. This was generally viewed by the Jews as near the bottom of the list of nasty things to do. But Jesus did so as a teaching point where he showed them that their behavior should duplicate his, performing an otherwise humiliating task as a means to serve others.
{ARGUMENT} This servile posture by Jesus is what I see as second only to Jesus’ sacrifice. In doing this for his disciples he demonstrates that in order to mimic Jesus’s actions and behaviors, you have to put others ahead of yourself. Jesus reiterates the submissive servant in , where he tells the disciples that the leader is one who serves and that the servant is not greater than the master.
READING OF THE TEXT
In the second section, Paul takes that mentality of Christ’s lovingkindness and extends that further. He reminds the Philippians that Jesus voluntarily came down in human form, having set aside his glory so he could take up the mission that God had given him as the sacrifice for our benefit. says:
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
{EXPLANATION} Paul is now asking the Philippians to put themselves in Jesus’s head and see what he was thinking. We know that Jesus was part of the Trinity and had all of the powers God and the Holy Spirit had, but the difference is that Jesus saw this glory as a hindrance to his mission. Thus, Jesus willfully ‘emptied himself’ so he could take on the mantle of human and perform the task that he was given and coexist with us. So, Jesus was born and took on the likeness of man, humbling himself and starting a string of events that he knew would end in his torture and death on the cross. This was all so that we would benefit from his death and resurrection.
{ARGUMENT} But what was this part about ‘a thing to be grasped’? There are a few different ways to determine what Paul meant. In this context it can best be known that Jesus knew his glory would be best held on to, keeping him on par with God and the Holy Spirit in terms of glory, but he also knew he could not accomplish the mission if he held tight. He had to undergo this great transformation. But this ‘emptying’ was not depriving himself of his glory, leaving it in a box in heaven to be grabbed later, but only concealing it from others. This way he could make his way through his ministry.
Since Jesus was part of the Trinity with all of the properties of God and his holiness, it would be impossible for us to interact with him if he did not take on human qualities. There are numerous examples where God spoke with someone and told them or advised them that if they saw God in all of his glory, they would die. Even then there are also numerous mentions of mere angels speaking with people who fell to the ground terrified when they saw them.
With Jesus now in human form, it was possible for him to perform his final task. Jesus came to the earth because we were not capable of being with God on our own accord. Jesus knew that and accordingly volunteered himself as the sacrifice without blemish.
{ILLUSTRATION} When God passed the Law to Moses, the part that covered sacrifice was pretty detailed on what would suffice for the atonement of the sinner. In looking over , the law specifies that the sin offering for a commoner is a female goat or lamb for an unintentional sin. At the time, the cost of a sheep or goat would run about three days wages. Also lost is that the female goat could birth and raise young, so in actuality, the loss of a female goat would be deep, adding in the lost young that could be sold in the future. This is just one example of the value placed on atoning for sin. Looking back at Leviticus, the greater the sin, the greater the cost.
{ARGUMENT} But what about the sin of the nation and all mankind? How can you calculate this sacrifice? You can’t but God can. He determined the cost of absolving the world of sin as his only son, Jesus of Nazareth. Who else would be a sufficient sacrifice? He was sinless, thus unblemished. Spotless always held a greater value as they were harder to find, and since Jesus was the only one on earth to be without sin, his one of a kind status would be priceless. This was the cost of washing away our sins, a priceless sacrifice.
READING OF THE TEXT
In this last section, Paul reminds the Philippians of the greatness of Jesus and God’s response to Jesus’s completed mission:
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
{EXPLANATION} God validates Christ’s mission completion and honors him by exalting Jesus and bestowing on him a moniker of unsurpassed magnitude. He does this so that everyone will know that Jesus succeeded in performing his task as sacrifice for all of mankind and that his actions are without equal. The implied message of his exaltation is transmitted to every element of our universe, so that whoever hears the message knows without a doubt that Jesus has scaled the pinnacle and that no other can or will surpass him.