NOTES for Php 2:5-11

⁵Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

⁶Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

⁷But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

⁸And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

⁹Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

¹⁰That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

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

We are accustomed to thinking that “Man—that has a proud sound,” that man is the crown of creation, the most beautiful thing on earth. In today’s apostolic reading, always read on feasts of the Most Holy Mother of God, the apostle Paul tells us that for Christ, who is the Son of God, God by nature, to become human is a humiliation. Christ took the form of a servant. The apostle says this so that we might sense what it would be like for a free person voluntarily to become a slave and lose his dignity. Who among us could do this? Who among us, out of love for our lesser brothers, would agree to become a kitten? Yet the distance between us and God is far greater. It is precisely in the fact that He crosses this distance and humbles Himself (the Greek ταπεινόω means to abase, to humble) that the greatness of His mercy is revealed to us.

Other notes

For Php 2:6-11

⁶Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

⁷But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

⁸And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

⁹Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

¹⁰That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

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

What are we capable of for the sake of love? Oh, various feats. Let us remember the knights. We can do many different good deeds, defeat many enemies, win great glory for ourselves... Read more

What are we capable of for the sake of love? Oh, various feats. Let us remember the knights. We can do many different good deeds, defeat many enemies, win great glory for ourselves... But all this will be not for love's sake, but for our own sake: to exalt ourselves, draw attention, earn love in return.

Christ, however, reveals His love not so much by feats as by self-renunciation. Not by exaltation, but by self-emptying, abasement, kenosis. This is how God poses the question: what of your own can you give up for the sake of the one you love, what can you give for him? And the ultimate love of Christ is revealed in the fact that He gives truly everything. First He exchanges what He possesses as the Son of God for what is available to the Son of Man: life in eternity for life in time and space; omnipotence for the weakness of an infant; the ability to create the world for the craft of a carpenter.

But even this is not all. His love seeks a greater giving. First He becomes a slave for His own disciples and washes their feet. Then He, immortal in His divine nature, gives up His whole life, taking upon Himself the full horror of human suffering and death. Who else could give everything in this way out of love for me, simply in order to be with me both in life and in death?

For Php 2:1-11

¹If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,

²Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

³Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

⁴Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

⁵Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

⁶Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

⁷But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

⁸And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

⁹Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

¹⁰That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

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

In the passage from the letter to the Philippians that we read today, the apostle Paul speaks of the greatest of miracles... Read more

In the passage from the letter to the Philippians that we read today, the apostle Paul speaks of the greatest of miracles: God, the Creator, became man. He, the Lord, not only lived an ordinary human life, but accepted death, a death by no means ordinary, but the most shameful. We know that both for Israel and for the Roman Empire, execution on a cross was the most terrible and humiliating possible. In the Law of Moses it was said that everyone hanged on a tree is cursed (Deut. 21:23); the Romans did not subject citizens of the Empire to such an execution. But almighty God, by His own will, accepted precisely such a death, because sin is so strong and terrible that redemption was possible only at the highest price. And precisely because He agreed to the most terrible pain and the most terrible humiliation, heaven and earth bow before His name.

Notes

NOTES for Php 2:5-11

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