“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God”
(Philippians 2:5-6).

Introduction

Philippi was a cosmopolitan city with various ethnic groups, so it was naturally difficult to forge unity in society, but the same problem ought not to be a hindrance to it in the church. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

It is not easy to change the way we think, for we spend much of our lives thinking only about ourselves, yet once we are born again everything is expected to be transformed by Christ; “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). From that moment we are to think about others rather than ourselves. Paul exalts Christ as the perfect example of humility, for the “Let this mind …” in :5 is a bridge between :4 and :6. Here he explains in detail what it means to be Christ-minded.

The mind

It is so easy to slip into self-centredness and disturb the unity of the church, for the flesh to seek to concentrate on itself rather than lay any personal ambitions and desires aside. As believers we are to focus upon the Lord, His church and how to minister to the lost. “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2).  No wonder then Paul brings our attention to Christ as the prime example of humility by saying, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”. The story of Jesus washing His disciples’ feet is the Lord’s humility in action (see John 13:3-17).

What an awesome blessing it is to be able to have the mind of Christ? Yet it is impossible to have it without humility. The wonderful portrait of Jesus in the following verses reveal both His humility and humiliation. No one has ever humbled themselves to the level the Lord did, therefore He is the supreme example of selflessness, sacrifice and servanthood for us to follow. “For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me” (Romans 15:3). If we remind ourselves of what the apostle has already stated thus far we will begin to grasp why he desires us to have the mind of Christ. 1. Be likeminded; 2. Have the same love; 3. Be of one accord; 4. Be humble; 5. Put others first. This is the sure foundation for building unity in the local church.

The misunderstanding

There has been much misunderstanding regarding this passage of Scripture throughout the centuries. Those who hold to the ‘Kenosis Theory’, kenosis being the Greek word for ‘emptiness’. teach that Christ divested Himself of all divinity to become a man, but such a doctrine flies in the face of the fact that Jesus was literally “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). Jesus never for one moment stopped being the “I AM” (John 8:58, Exodus 3:14). Jesus Christ has always been God in nature, equal with the Father before, during and after His life on earth. Some modern versions of the Bible, such as the NIV, promote this cultic theory by translating Philippians 2:7 as ‘made Himself nothing’. We will look at this more fully in the next study. There have been a number of ‘Christian’ songs in the last few decades that have reintroduced the Kenosis teaching into the Church. This view was first introduced in the late 1800s in Germany with a Lutheran theologian named Gottfried Thomasius (1802-75). The Kenosis theory is a dangerous doctrine because if it were true then it would mean that Jesus Christ was not fully divine when He came to earth.  If Jesus was not fully divine, then His atoning work was not sufficient to atone for the sins of the world. The correct doctrine is the Hypostatic Union which states that Jesus is both fully God and fully man and did not give up any divine attributes while as a man on earth. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

“Who being in the form of God” tells us who Jesus was before He came to earth, but notice Paul does not use the word ‘was’ but the precise word “being” (Gk. Huparchon), which means ‘existing’. The word “form” (Gk. morphe) describes the permanent, unchanging essence of a person. If the

apostle wanted to describe Jesus less than divine he could have used the Greek word ‘schema’, which means ‘appearance’. Since Christ’s divine essence is not meant here, only the external manifestation of the characteristics of God were, for a time, laid down. The One who is “the form of God” willingly took “the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7). Scripture reveals that He is God even though He took on human form to live amongst us. “Who is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15) … “Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4) … “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrew 1:3).

The preincarnate Christ possessed every attribute of God. Heaven declared Him to be God and worshipped Him as such. He was not ‘a god’ of the Jehovah’s Witness fairy tale, but the Almighty God of the Bible, that is Jehovah, the Sovereign Lord. Neither was He a man with ‘divine qualities’ but rather the Creator of the universe. “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14) … “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2) … “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1-2) … “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom” (Hebrews 1:8). When occasion demanded the Lord Jesus Christ exercised His divine attributes.

“Robbery” (Gk. ‘harpazo’) means ‘to take by force’. It is illustrative of a thief fiercely robbing someone.  To rob someone is to take that which does not belong to you. Jesus did not grasp for or steal that which already belonged to Him. Paul in teaching that Jesus is equal with God is committing an unforgivable sin if it is not true. As a Pharisee he must have known what Isaiah 46:5 states, “To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?” Therefore we have no other choice but to accept the full divinity of Christ. Simply put, verse 6 tells us that that though Jesus was indeed “God with us” (Matthew 1:23), He did not exploit His divinity for personal advantage. “I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God” (John 10:30-33). For all their spiritual failings, the religious leaders did not misunderstand what Jesus said.

Conclusion

The writers of the New Testament took Jesus’ divinity for granted rather than trying to prove it. The Lord Jesus Christ was not ‘like’ God, instead He was, and is, and always will be God. To fail to see Him as God in the flesh is to misunderstand and corrupt the simple yet vital teachings of Scripture. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8).