Made Himself of No Reputation: An Exposition of Philippians 2:1-13
It is hard for me to think that Christmas is only three months away. The economists will be forecasting how Good a Christmas it will be. In the light of the possible strife over the election in the US, the Coronavirus lockdowns, the riots, and the challenges these things present to our economy, there is a tendency to pessimism. They see little to boast about. The children will have less to boast about when they compare their gifts to what others got. People will boast about their holiday decorations and light displays. Of course, these shall completely miss what Christmas is about.
Christians will try to remember the story of Christmas. They will put out their manger scenes. They know there is something special about Christmas and that it has something to do with the baby Jesus. Who is he that was laid in yonder stall? They realize that He represents hope for them and humanity. But after contemplating this mystery, it will soon be time to return the manger scene to the attic and get back to life as usual. Yet the Holy Spirit beckons the believers to look deeper into this mystery. The Christian life is more than sentimentalizing for a short season. It is a way of life, and a hope that should be with us at all times and seasons. The Bible beckons to us to take it up and read it. The passage we are studying today in Philippians gives us a rich look into what Christmas truly is. So let us look at Philippians 2:1-13 and see what God wants us to learn.
The people of the lectionary text for this week did not just select verses 5-11 which talks about the Incarnation. These verses are contained in another context. It is not just a means of teaching theological truths. Rather, it is meant to be applied truth. The great truths taught in these few verses are used as an example of how to deal with situations in the everyday life of the church. This is consistent to how Scripture teaches theological truth. For example, the great truths about Jesus taught in the soaring first chapter of Hebrews is used to encourage Christians who were wavering in their faith. They are shown the greatness of Jesus Christ and His Sovereignty and superiority over even Moses and angels to encourage the believers to remain firm in their faith. Here in Philippians, Paul is dealing with strife in the church which was caused by human boasting. The Philippians are not alone in this. Paul could as well be addressing us as well.
Later in the Epistle, Paul identifies a problem between two female leaders in the church who had disagreed with each other and had to be ordered to work out their differences. Paul had referred earlier that some were preaching Christ with bad motivations. Even though Paul could rejoice that Christ was at last being preached, he was also concerned that the unity of the church would be fractured.
In the first four verses of the chapter, Paul admonishes the church to be of one accord and sharing the common love for each other. Strifes and differences lead to fractures in the body. They act like a disease or injury in our earthly bodies do. They disrupt the fullness of life. We think of how it is said that on the Day of Pentecost, they were all in one place and in one accord. When we consider that many of these disciples had boasted about themselves during Jesus’ earthly ministry, each of them arguing who was the greatest, we see how great a work was wrought by the power of the Holy Spirit. We can see the exploits of that Pentecostal church. The early church in Acts were challenged externally and internally. They had to deal with events which threatened to divide them. Paul has the same concern in mind.
Paul’s approach to this division was to have them look at the Person and work of Jesus Christ. From the beginning, the Church confessed Jesus as Lord. We can see at the beginning of some of Paul’s Epistles that the majesty of the Father and the Son receive equal treatment. Even at this early stage of the Church, the full and equal divinity of Father and Son is clearly stated. One should reflect that Jesus in the Great Commission also includes the equality of the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son, as believers were to be baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. “And” joins elements of equal weight. The Church later had to deal with those who wanted to subordinate the Trinity of the Godhead.
When the church confesses “Jesus is LORD” they are using “LORD” in the sense of “Yahweh” and not simply the polite term of addressing a superior. The Old Testament uses prophecies about Yahweh and applies them to Jesus Christ. Who is it that wrote the tables of the Law on Mt. Sinai with His finger? This Jesus is no mere man or angel. It is to Him that all authority in Heaven and earth is granted by the Triune Godhead.
Paul agrees with and supports the Church’s doctrine of the person of Christ as fully and completely as elsewhere in the Scripture. Paul tells us that Jesus was in the form of God. Some have seen the lack of the article with God as a means of making Jesus a little less God than the Father. They claim that Jesus had a divine form, but that this was less than saying he was fully God. They do the same in the prologue of John’s gospel as well. But the article is not necessary in Greek to make a noun definite. Jesus was not in the form of “a” god but the very form of God. The following mention that Jesus did not consider the fact of his equality with the Father and the Spirit as a means of causing disharmony in the Godhead. It would not have been robbery for Him to have exalted Himself as an equal, for He is. It is vital for us to understand who this Jesus truly is. It makes all the difference in the world.
This makes what The Son did most amazing. He was not content to boast about His rightful glory. Instead the Scripture says that He made Himself of no reputation. I am glad Paul uses the reflexive pronoun “himself” rather than making the statement using the Aorist middle verb tense which would have said the same thing. This is because the passive shares the same form as the middle voice, and we would be arguing whether it should be translated “Made himself of no reputation” or “Was made of no reputation.” The first would be a demonstration of humility and the second, humiliation. Jesus was not humiliated. He willingly humbled Himself. And this humility was to the uttermost. He not only took the form of man, but He was born in the most humble of circumstances. He was born in a barn. His parents could only afford the turtledoves at his dedication. The nation of Israel was humiliated under Roman rule. Jesus came as one of them and not as a privileged Roman. He who was the greatest of all became the very least.
His humility led Him to willingly embrace the most humiliating of deaths. There is no more horrible way to die than to be crucified. Only slaves and “traitors” could be crucified. It was more than the abject pain of being nailed to the cross and suffering from exposure to the elements. It was also psychological torture as well. Those who were crucified were crucified naked, which is utterly shameful. They were also hung with their feet just above the ground. People could come by and insult them and spit upon them. They were hung in the public marketplaces where the entire populace could see. The crucified were made a chilling example and warning for others not to imitate what they had done. What they had done was written above their heads.
Yet, Paul turns this all on its head. Instead of not doing what Jesus had done, they were to arm themselves with the same mind. This goes back to Jesus who commands anyone who would follow Him would also have to embrace the cross. They were to do and teach even as He had done. This should be the placard placed over our own heads. We must remain willingly humble even as we are ourselves humiliated.
Hebrews 12 tells us that Jesus saw beyond the humiliation of the cross. He saw the glory also. Here Paul tells us that because Jesus had subjected Himself willingly to the cross that God gloriously raised Him. It is hard for us to think how one can add water to a full bucket. The Son had full glory before the incarnation. But, yet it seems that He was raised to even greater glory. It is He who is given the name which is above all names. This shows the humility of the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Three are One. There is no division in the Trinity. They all exalt one another. Not only this, but they lift us up as well. We will never be their equals in this world or the next, but, yet we shall all be raised to share in the glory of the Eternal Kingdom. But this remains on the other side of our cross. To Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Yahweh (LORD) to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus serves as our example of how we should strive for unity withing the church. We must first lift Him up, and then we must lift each other up. We are all one body. We share in all things, not just goods. When we are willing to be humble, then we are submitting ourselves to God who is able to make us stand. With this in mind, then we are properly able to work out our own salvation. We realize more fully to what lengths the Son of God went to effect our salvation. This makes us tremble in fear and reverence before Him. when we keep this in mind, then we will love our Christian brother with the same love. Love and unity will lift up the church and its witness in the world. Just like the Holy Spirit brought unity and power to the church on the Day of Pentecost, God wants to work in us according to His will to bring us all unto perfection. We deserve none of this. But we rejoice in the grace of God. We can face either life or death here on this earth knowing that God who has begun a good work in us will continue it until the Day of Jesus Christ.
