Philippians 2:1-11 He Made Himself Nothing

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2 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

1. “…make my joy complete…”
   1. Even while imprisoned, Paul asks that that they put his mind at ease by caring for one another.  He’s more concerned about their well being than his own.

   2. “Here again we may see how little anxiety he had as to himself, provided only it went well with the Church of Christ. He was kept shut up in prison, and bound with chains; he was reckoned worthy of capital punishment — before his view were tortures — near at hand was the executioner; yet all these things do not prevent his experiencing unmingled joy, provided he sees that the Churches are in a good condition.” -John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentary

2. “If you have…”
   1. Paul asks about all these things rhetorically.  He knows that the church has every one of of these things, because they’re gifts that all Christians share.

   2. While the language of these gifts might sound emotional, don’t reduce these gifts to feelings or sentimentality.
      1. There are some Christian traditions that associate happiness and excitement with God’s presence and loneliness or sadness as evidence that God is far away, but emotions are a poor center for a Christian life.

      2. Feelings are fickle.  Sometimes, we are in poor moods, even when things are going very well.  Sometimes, we’re in good moods even when things are miserable.

      3. Emotions are like the weather; we can predict them sometimes, but the only thing you can be absolutely sure of is that they’ll change over time.  The gifts that God gives us?  They’re not reliant on a good mood.  They’re more than that.  They’re realities to be grasped.

3. “If any encouragement… comfort… sharing in the Spirit… tenderness…”
   1. Encouragement in union with Christ: We should be encouraged regardless of mood, knowing their sins are removed “as far as the east is from the west,” (Ps 103:12).  Our worst moments moments don’t define us.  Jesus does.  And our story ends with union with God in a world where everything is made right.

   2. Comfort from Christ’s love: Jesus loves us for who we are, not for our performance, appearance, or particular gifts.  The thing about ourselves that we’re proudest of?  Even if that vanished in an instant, Jesus would still love us.  He loves us better than we love ourselves.

   3. Common sharing in the Spirit: The Holy Spirit is poured out on all who confess Christ, binding believers across nations, languages, and interests, giving them unity beyond anything else we can know.

   4. Tenderness and compassion: Even if we haven’t acted particularly tender or compassionate lately the Spirit of God is in us.  This is the same God who made the earth and everything in it and takes care of them.  His tenderness and compassion are in us.

4. “…by being like-minded, having the same love…”
   1. Notice that he follows this with “being one in spirit and of one mind,” a second paring of the same characteristics.  This is likely an instance of poetic parallelism from Hebrew culture.  Saying the same thing twice in slightly different ways emphasizes them and was considered aesthetically pleasing.

   2. Like-minded- There are some things in the church that are so crucial that if we don’t share a collective witness, we’ll fall apart.
      1. Biblical doctrine

      2. Leadership structures

      3. Collective outreach

      4. What is the Church for?

      5. How do we solve disagreements?

      6. How can we serve God?

   3. The same love– The Church isn’t just about thinking the same; it’s also about loving one another rightly.
      1. Spending time together

      2. Listening when times are hard

      3. Lifting one another up before the Lord

      4. Caring for the marginalized

³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

1. “…selfish ambition or vain conceit…”

1. 1. Selfish ambition is taking opportunities to promote ourselves, our ideas, and our image.

   2. Vain conceit is doing things because we think we’re particularly important.

   3. Dignitas
      1. In Roman society, people wanted to gain dignitas (social standing/clout) during their lives by interacting with upper social classes, winning victories in battle, or making big public achievements.  You could lose your dignitas by acting cowardly or beneath your station.

      2. Julius Caesar’s death was avenged at Philippi only 100 years before this letter was written to the church there.  He was assassinated precisely because he was so good at acquiring dignitas that a whole nation was in his grasp.  People that wanted to ensure that Rome would not become ruled by one man killed him, but his impact was so legendary that people would live in his image for generation upon generation.

      3. Roman society was built by the exact kind of selfish ambition and vain conceit that Paul is standing against.

   4. Today, our world isn’t so different.  Just look at a list of famous politicians or the richest people on earth and ask, “Are these humble servants of the people?  Or are they people pursuing wealth, status, and power?”

   5. “[L]ove waxes cold, when we love the praise of men, when we are slaves to the honor which is paid by the many, for it is not possible for a man to be the slave of praise, and also a true servant of God.” -Chrysostom, Homily 5 on Philippians. 

1.  
2. “…value others above yourselves…”
   1. Imagine a church where everyone fully looks out for the needs of others before themselves.  It would be beautiful indeed.

   2. Some people are concerned that if you don’t look out for yourself, you will be taken advantage of.  In rare cases, that’s true, but most of us tend to excel at looking out for ourselves and are exceedingly poor at tending to our neighbors in comparison.

   3. “How long shall we be puffed up thus ridiculously? For as we laugh, when we see children drawing themselves up, and looking haughty, or when we see them picking up stones and throwing them, thus too the haughtiness of men belongs to a puerile intellect, and an unformed mind.” -Chrysostom, Homily 5 on Philippians. 

⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Full Transcript

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All righty. So we’re in the book of Philippians. Last week we looked at the second half of chapter 1, and we saw how Paul wrote to this church at Philippi while he was imprisoned by the Romans, and said, “Hey, here’s the thing. Maybe you are worried about me. You don’t need to worry about me. I’m fine. You know what? I am in chains for Christ, and ultimately, I am reaching people in ways that I never even expected to.”

All the Christians that see me suffering for Jesus are so inspired that they are willing to evangelize even more. And all of the non-Christians that see me, well, they scratch their heads and wonder why I’m doing all this. And so they take a second look, and that’s great too. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. This is a win-win scenario. Either the Romans decide they want to execute me, in which case I get to go be with Jesus. There’s nothing better than that. Or they decide not to execute me, and I go do more work for Jesus, and that’s good too. This world, the forces of this world, have nothing compared to the God that’s on our side. So stick together, stand with each other, and behave in a way that’s worthy of the gospel, because you’re going to suffer. But how you act in your suffering—that’s going to make all the difference. So he’s continuing forward with this idea, and he says:

“Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and one in mind.”

Paul is in prison, and he says to them, “If you want to make things a little easier for me, you know what you could do? Take care of each other. That would just be great.” He is so other-focused; he doesn’t need them to do anything for him. He wants to make sure that they’re all right. And these things that he lists when he says, “Okay, if you’ve got this, if you’ve got this,” he knows they have this. This is normative stuff for a Christian to have. So I’m going to go through them one at a time. Just remember, these belong to all of us. In so far as you are a Christian, every one of these things is yours. And I also want to challenge you as we go through them, because a lot of them, I think people can sometimes read these lists a little too sentimentally, with a little too much concern for feelings. Now these are feelings, right? You can feel encouraged. You can feel comforted.

There’s no way around that, but there are some traditions within Christianity that really put feelings all the way up here. And I think if you feel really, really good, that’s proof that God is here and He’s doing stuff. But if you don’t feel very good, maybe God’s kind of far away, and maybe you need to worry about that. Feelings are way too frail to be our primary relationship with God. You can’t rely on feelings. If that is what we’re pinning our relationship with God on, it’s just not enough. And I know you know that because I would wager every person in here, you have had a day where the sun is shining and the birds are singing, and everyone that you care about is being so, so kind to you, and you just about bite their head off sometimes because you woke up in a mood. Why? Who knows? That’s just how it is.

And I’m sure you’ve had days too where there is nothing going right in your life, and you know what? You are surprisingly resilient about the whole thing, and having a pretty okay time, circumstances considered. That’s another thing. See, our feelings—it’s kind of like weather. You can’t always predict them; they’re unpredictable. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can’t. Sometimes you’re happy when there’s not really a reason to be, and sometimes you’re torn up when really you should be overjoyed. Feelings are fleeting; they come and they go. What we see Paul describe here is more than that. These are things you can rely on.

So, here we go. Chapter 2, verse 1: “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ…” Regardless of what mood you’re in today, are you encouraged because you’ve been united to Christ? And you should be. You should be encouraged because no matter what you’ve done in your life, if you have any moments where you’ve failed or fallen short, any moments where you’ve done things that you know are wrong and you’re embarrassed about them—any kind of moments like that, those things that keep you up late at night, on the nights where you can’t get to sleep because your mind keeps going back and you just think about how you wish you wouldn’t have done that—if your trust is in Jesus and you’ve asked for His forgiveness, you’re not going to be judged by your worst moments. Your sins are as far away from you as the east is from the west. You can trust that you know the end of the story. No matter what’s going on in your life right now, things end well. You get to be with Jesus in a world where everything is right again.

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if you have any comfort from His love—and again, you should have comfort in Christ’s love because Jesus doesn’t love you because of what you do. Jesus doesn’t love you because of the way you look. Jesus loves you for who you are. Sometimes we even love ourselves because of what we’re really proud of, don’t we? Maybe you’re someone that’s a great chef. You’re so proud of the way that you can cook for people, but then maybe you take something to a party and everybody tastes it and they make a face and say, “Oh, interesting,” and you go home beating yourself up because you think, “Oh no, that was my thing. If my cooking’s gone, what am I? What’s the point of me?” Jesus doesn’t love you because you’re a good cook. Jesus loves you better than you love yourself sometimes.

Or maybe you’re a great runner and you lose a race, or maybe you’re someone who gives great advice and you’re really proud of that, and then you give some advice that was terrible in hindsight. It doesn’t matter what you pride yourself on. Jesus doesn’t love you because you’ve got a particular gift. Jesus loves you because of who you are underneath all of that. That should be encouraging. It should be comforting.

“If any common sharing in the Spirit…” Every single person that confesses Christ has the Holy Spirit poured out on them, and that Holy Spirit binds us together. When we meet other Christians, it doesn’t matter what country they’re from, doesn’t matter what language they speak, doesn’t matter what hobbies they have. Even if we have nothing else in common, we have the most important thing in common: we have the Spirit of God inside of us. There is no unity more powerful than that.

And then the last one: “If any tenderness and compassion…” Have you been tender and compassionate lately? Maybe not. But the Spirit of God is in you. That tenderness and that compassion, it exists in you. That’s the same God that created everything, sustains everything, loves everything. His Spirit is in you. You have the same tenderness and compassion as the God that created everything, right inside of you. All of these things, the comfort, the encouragement, all of this is yours as Christians for the taking. Even if you don’t recognize it every day that you wake up, it’s yours.

Paul knows that, and so when he writes to them, “If you have these things…” he knows they do. Then what does he want from them? He wants them to be of one mind, one heart. That’s what he wants. There are a lot of different things that go on in a church that require the mind. First off, sound doctrine. You want to believe what’s true. You want to understand the Bible well. You want to be on the same page. And not only that, but there are a million other things: decisions that must be made, decisions about leadership, decisions about how the church can best reach out and care for those around it. All of these kinds of things, Paul wants the church to be of one mind, trusting that, yeah, we’re not all going to be 100% on the same page for every little detail. But we trust that as we work together, as people filled with the Holy Spirit and discern what God would have of us, we have so much more to gain by working together than by doing our own thing and insisting that we’re right.

And similarly, He wants us to be of one heart, because it’s not just what’s up here that matters; it’s what’s in here that matters. He wants us to take care of each other. Just to remember each other, he wants to pray for each other. And if you haven’t done that in a minute, I encourage you: look around this room right now and think about two people. Maybe you don’t even know their names. Ask for it before you leave today. But just pray for them this week. Pray for the other people in your church so that you can take care of them. You can lift up their needs before your own. There’s power in that.

Paul wants the church to be of one mind, one spirit, because the alternative that he warns them about, verse 3: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.” I know we don’t talk about vain conceit very often—not exactly everyday language, but it means excessive care for yourself because you think you’re a really big deal. So, in essence, what he’s saying is, I don’t want you doing things because you want to differentiate yourself and try to come out on top, and I don’t want you doing things because you just think you’re such a big shot that you’re entitled to it.

That’s the opposite of how things worked in the Roman world. The Romans had a special word for one of the most important things in their society. That word was dignitas. Dignitas was the Latin word for something like your social standing, your clout, how much people owed you and should listen to you and do what you say, how much honor you deserved—all of that kind of stuff rolled up into one word, and that’s why people did things. People wanted to get more dignitas. You could gain more. Now, obviously, being born into the right family would give you some right off the bat, but beyond that, there were all kinds of things you could do if you behaved in a way that was impressive. If you served in the military, if you won often—all of these things would gain you dignitas. Meanwhile, you could lose it by making mistakes, by acting cowardly, all that kind of stuff.

That was a big driving force for Roman culture. A couple of weeks back, we talked about how the city of Philippi, a hundred years before this letter was written, was the site where a Roman civil war ended. Julius Caesar had gained so much power that there were some people that decided he had to be assassinated because they were worried he was going to take over their whole empire. And so the assassins and the avengers of Julius Caesar had a final showdown right there in the city of Philippi, and his avengers won. All this happened because Julius Caesar was so powerful. He did not get to be that powerful because he was just the humblest, kindest guy you would ever meet. Julius Caesar was someone who gained dignitas by winning battles, by being impressive, by asserting his power, by showing people if you trusted him, he got things done for you. That’s why he got ahead—specifically because he was highly ambitious and he wanted to show what a big deal he was.

What Paul’s describing for the church is the opposite, and you know it’s not so far from the opposite for our world today either, is it? Go ahead and look at a list of politicians and highly wealthy people in this world, and I want you to honestly ask yourself the question: Are these people humble servants to other people, or do they think they’re big shots? Right? That’s the world we live in. It is the reality that people try to get ahead in the eyes of the world by trying to assert themselves, not serve others.

But Paul encourages them again: “In humility, value others above yourself. Not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others.” That’s what the church is supposed to look like—people putting the interests of each other above themselves. Can you imagine if we really lived into that completely? A whole group of people whose number one concern was making sure each other were taken care of and not worrying so much about themselves. That makes some people wary. They say, “Well, hold on now. You got to take care of yourself first and foremost, because if you’re not taking care of yourself, you might be taken advantage of.” From what I’ve seen in this world, people are really good at taking care of themselves. I don’t think many of us need a lot of extra practice on that. But taking care of others—that’s something most of us could use practice on.

And Paul ties all of this—his continual hope that they are humble and servants to one another—in the life of Jesus, and He’s going to teach us a little bit about Jesus right now. Not only is He going to teach us some of the most intense theological truths about who Jesus was, but He’s doing so so that we remember who we are. Jesus was the perfect person. The more we act like Jesus, the more we act the way that we are supposed to act.

So this next section, you’ll notice in your Bibles, it’s printed in a very specific way, almost like song lyrics or a poem. It’s a very poetic section. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that maybe Paul is referencing a hymn here that the people at Philippi already knew, that had sound doctrine that he wanted them to think about. Now, there’s no evidence that this is some kind of ancient hymn from beyond the pen of Paul. It’s just a theory some people have. I personally find it hard to believe, if only because I get that it looks really nice and uses really beautiful language, especially compared to the parts around it. But if you’ve read enough of the epistles, you know Paul can be something of a wordsmith. He can write some really beautiful stuff when he wants to. I mean, think about that famous passage: “Love is patient, love is kind.” You’ve heard it at every wedding, right? It’s good, and that’s Paul too. But if you do think that’s the case, that’s all right. It’s just something to be aware of. That’s how some people think about this section.

Either way, another major theme to think through as we go through this is kenosis. That’s the Greek word for emptying yourself, and you’ll see it here in the NIV that I use for preaching. It says he made himself nothing. That’s that Greek word kenosis. We’re going to talk about the specifics of it as we continue to go. So let’s go through it:

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”

So, “who, being in very nature God…” Jesus was God, and God did not start existing in a manger in Bethlehem when Mary gave birth to the fullness of God. No, that’s not how it worked. In the incarnation, Jesus was born, and yet at the same time, Jesus already existed from eternity. You can read about it in the beginning of the book of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” and He became incarnate for us. And similarly, in the book of Genesis, we read that God uses plural language to talk in the very beginning: “Let us make humanity in our own image, in our own likeness.” Jesus has always existed even before the incarnation because He’s eternal. He’s God.

Now, being God, “He did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage. Rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant. Being made in human likeness…” Jesus was God. How much glory is due to God? All of it. How impressive is God? The most impressive thing you’ve ever seen. How much applause does God deserve? How much praise? How much honor? All of it. He’s God. He’s the best. But Jesus wasn’t worried about accumulating glory. He was God. All of it was due to Him anyway. He didn’t need people to acknowledge His greatness because He was great simply by being what He was. He didn’t need continual praises poured out on Him for all of eternity because He’s already worthy of those. He’s not worried. He’s God.

In the same way that we’re all humans in this room, right? And if you’re not, man, come talk to me because that’s wild. But we’re all people. We’re all humans, right? We don’t need to establish that to anybody. There’s no way to say, “Well, I’m going to act more normal to prove how human I am.” No, that’s weird. You are what you are. Don’t think about it so much. God is what He is. Jesus is God. He doesn’t need to prove that He’s more God. He doesn’t need more praise to establish that He’s more God. He’s God. That’s what He is. And in light of that, He laid aside all of that honor and glory that He had in the hallowed halls of heaven to come and live among us. It’s like a king taking off their crown, leaving their scepter aside, and putting on peasant’s clothes, and just going and wandering around the town to be with the people. That’s kind of what it was like. The King of Creation did that. He came and He lived with us. And Jesus wasn’t even born as a human that was particularly impressive. He wasn’t born as a noble or a king. He was an Israelite peasant born in a manger. But God did that for us because He wasn’t concerned about acting like a big shot, about being given even more honor and glory that was already due to Him. He was willing to be humiliated and brought low for our sake because He loved us. And not just to be born, but to die.

It continues: “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”

Jesus didn’t just come and be among us. He died in the most humiliating way that you could. The Romans crucified people and essentially tortured them to death for everyone to see. The goal was to establish: this is someone who was not just wrong, but weak. Don’t be like this person. Watch them gasping out their last breaths as the people around them jeer at them. This is pathetic. You know, whenever we see Jesus crucified, they give him this nice little loincloth too. That’s not how it was in the Roman days. Being humiliated was a part of it. They wanted the whole world to see how pathetic you were as you died. Jesus went through that for us. He not only came and lived among us as God, but He died in the eyes of the world below everyone else in a shameful way. That’s what this is all about: this kenosis, this laying aside His glory to come and suffer and die.

Now there is another way sometimes people suggest this passage ought to be read, and I think you should be aware of it because it’s incorrect. I thought it was incredibly deep for a little while until I realized, “Oh man, this isn’t biblical at all.” It’s something you need to be wary of. The idea began in the 19th century, and it was this idea that some people had that, you know, if Jesus emptied Himself and became a human, maybe He not only gave up His honor and glory as God, but maybe He also gave up His divine attributes. God is all-knowing. Was Jesus all-knowing? Maybe not. Maybe He emptied Himself of His all-knowingness. God is all-powerful. Was Jesus in His incarnation all-powerful? Maybe not. Maybe He emptied Himself of that.

The problem with this is that, well, first off, God has certain attributes that make Him God. The whole thing about God is He’s good, He’s all-knowing, He’s all-powerful. If He stops being those things, He stops being God and just becomes a really powerful being. God can’t do that. That’s not how it works. To cease being what He is—that doesn’t even really make sense. Not only that, but you can look first off in the Scripture itself. It says He takes on the nature of a servant. It doesn’t say He exchanged His divine nature for a human nature. And even more than that, let me look at the other parts in Scripture that talk about this. You can read about places, especially in the Gospel of John, where Jesus does miracles, and He does miracles precisely to establish that He is God. How many miracles have you done lately? Not a lot, right? I haven’t pulled many off. Jesus did that because He was God. He had power. That was the whole thing.

Similarly, Jesus showed moments where He knew things that no one else could know. Think about when Jesus went to the temple as just a little kid and started teaching the priests. Do you think He was able to do that because He had just, even as a kid, read a lot and was really knowledgeable about things? No, Jesus knew things that nobody else could know because He knew everything. Jesus did not stop being God when He came; He wasn’t any less God. Jesus was 100% God, 100% man. He took on humanity and blessed it with the fullness of the divine presence. That’s a big deal. He did not die on the cross because He emptied Himself out of all of His power and knowledge and said, “Well, shoot, now I’m kind of at their mercy.” No, He could have stepped off that cross any time He wanted to. He wasn’t at our mercy. He allowed Himself to suffer for us because He loved us.

Verse 9: “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The humiliation that Jesus underwent in the eyes of heaven is infinitely more glorious than anything else, because when you’re willing to suffer and put others first, that is what makes you truly, genuinely special—not because you have to act like a big shot, but because you care about the people around you and are willing to set yourself aside to serve them. It’s the same principle that we saw in the passage we read earlier from John. We read about how Jesus washed the feet of the disciples. That was something that only the lowest of the low in a household would do. Feet were gross. Sure, a servant’s going to wash the feet, but there were even rules that the rabbis had about how you couldn’t ask one of your disciples, if you were a teacher, to wash anyone’s feet because it was too gross, too embarrassing. Jesus did all of that kind of stuff for His disciples because, in the kingdom of heaven, being willing to serve—that’s impressive. You don’t need to come across like a big shot by asserting yourself and being ambitious and being cruel and none of that kind of stuff. That’s weakness. The real strength is being able to put others first, and that’s why the name of Jesus is so important.

Sometimes people get hung up on that detail. By the way, every so often someone figures out that Jesus’s name in Hebrew is not Jesus; it is Yeshua, and they have a little crisis because they say, “Oh my gosh, if I had the guy’s name wrong the whole time, that’s so embarrassing.” It’s like, “Calm down, okay.” You get to “Jesus” because you translate Yeshua, His Hebrew name, through Greek, then Latin, then English. It’s just the way things have worked out as it’s been passed to us. But Jesus’ name isn’t so special because of the syllables that are involved. If that were the case, you could just look between different nations. I mean, we know Mexicans say “Jesús,” right? That’s the way you say it in Spanish, and that does not make His name any less glorious if you’re speaking Spanish. It’s not about the details of the name. The name is special because of the Being that it points to, the specificity of who we’re calling on, what He’s done, and the name of Jesus. The person that He is, the way we can invoke Him—that is the most beautiful thing there is. Because this Person, who is willing to put everyone else before Him, ultimately everything is given over to Him. He’s at the right hand of God the Father, and every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that He is Lord in the end.

For all of us today, as we read this, if we want to be like Jesus, and somewhere up in heaven make the apostles’ joy even more complete, we need to set aside any sense that we’re a big shot, any sense that we are more important than others, any ambition, and enter into worship. Our church community, trying to help each other, trying to put one another first, trying to be of one mind and one heart, serving one another—in that is more glory than you can imagine. It is the glory of Jesus. Amen.