This sermon was preached at Ascension Reformed Church in Moscow, Idaho, on August 23, A.D. 2026. You can watch or listen here.
Philippians 2:1–11
1 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (NKJV).
Introduction
Last week, I called the text in that sermon one of the peaks in the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians, with his bold claim that “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” This morning, it appears that we have simply hiked over to the next peak, with one of the most glorious and important passages concerning our Lord in the New Testament. For it is here we see very clearly Christ’s divinity, as well as His humility in the incarnation—even to the point of death—and then subsequent exaltation above all things.
In light of these profound realities, the Apostle Paul calls his readers to respond. Our passage calls for radical humility and self-giving, in imitation of Christ, and it is a humility that ought to be the norm in the lives of Christians.
I want to begin this morning, first with a piece of encouragement from John Calvin. He wrote this concerning our Paul’s call to humility here, “If anything in our whole life is difficult, this above everything else is so.”
Encouraging, right?
If there’s anything difficult in life, it is this. To imitate Christ in humility. This is because in your sinful flesh, this is the complete opposite of what you want to do. You want what you think you deserve. You want to preserve your comfort. The last thing you want to do is die to self in order to benefit someone else. This is hard. It goes against our greatest fleshly desire.
This humility you are to strive to imitate is the greatest truth ever. There has never been greater love, there has never been a greater example of humility, than what God accomplished through the work of His Son. It is so far beyond you.
Therefore, what I want you to keep in mind this morning as you look at this passage is that all of this is only ever accomplished by the Spirit’s work in your life. You must not endeavor to do this on your own. You can’t. But you can with the grace and strength of the Lord in you. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Cor. 15:10).
Summary of the Text
After encouraging the church in Philippi to stand together in suffering for Christ’s sake (Phil. 1:27–30), the Apostle Paul appeals to them with four rhetorical questions. He asks them to consider if there is any consolation in Christ, comfort of love, fellowship of the Spirit, and affection and mercy among them (v. 1).
In the first three, which refer to God’s care for the church, we could argue that we catch a glimpse of the Trinity. Christ and the Spirit are explicitly mentioned—you have the consolation of Christ and the fellowship of the Spirit—and so now we have “comfort of love” to refer to the Father. This might seem like a stretch at first, but in 2 Corinthians, Paul uses similar phrasing that connects love to the Father. He writes, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14). Again, not a slam dunk argument, but throughout Paul’s letters, there is this repeated Triadic structure and formulation.
He then asks if there is any “affection and mercy” (v. 1). Whereas the first three can be read as coming from God to the church, affection and mercy could be understood as for one another. Is there any deep compassion and sympathy for one another among you? If these things are present, the Apostle Paul calls them to fulfill his joy by being of one mind, love, and accord/soul (v. 2). This looks like putting off the sins of selfish ambition and conceit, and in humility counting others as more significant than yourselves, pursuing their good (vv. 3–4). All of this is done in imitation of Christ (v. 5).
He was “in the form of God,” meaning the eternal God Himself, and in humility, willingly took on flesh—even dying horrifically on a bloody cross (vv. 6–8). Because of this, in Christ’s resurrection and ascension, God the Father exalted Him above all, giving Him the Name that is above all names (v. 10). Christ’s humility in love became the grounds for His exaltation. And His incarnation and death demonstrated that He was God, for God is love (1 Jn. 4:8).
Now all people must bow before Him and confess that He is Lord, again proving that Jesus Christ is God Himself (v. 11). And the passage ends, noting that all of this blessing and honor poured out onto the Son is “to the glory of God the Father.” Even in His exaltation, Christ the Son is pointing glory to His Father.
Hymn of Christ
This passage has been given the name “Carmen Christi,” meaning hymn or song of Christ, for the way it is written in Greek gives it qualities of poetry.
Because of this, scholars debate whether this is a hymn that predated Paul, meaning he is referencing something already known in some parts of the church at that time, or if it is original to him as the author. Either way, I like to think of this as one of the first Advent hymns besides the songs in Luke’s nativity account like Mary’s Magnificat. This is because in these verses, all three “stages” or aspects of our Lord’s life are covered—His eternal existence as God, His incarnation, life and death, and His exaltation, which begins with His resurrection from the dead and then ascension to the right hand of God the Father. This is a very important passage in Scripture for the doctrine of Christology—understanding who Jesus Christ is and what He has done. In fact, about half of the Nicene Creed is found in these six verses.
In verses 5–6, the Apostle Paul makes an astounding claim—that Christ Jesus is equal to God. That Christ is God. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God…”
It is understandable if, on your first reading, you’re not quite sure whether that is Paul’s claim, or something less than that. This is due to the phrase “being in the form of God.” The way that we sometimes use the word “form” could have us thinking that Christ was “kind of” God or in some “lesser form” God. But this is not what this word means.
“Form” here implies equality. It means to have the true and essential nature of something. Christ didn’t merely “appear” to be God, but He possesses the same divine nature as God. This is another way of stating what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians: Christ “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation… All things were created through Him and for Him” (Col. 1:15–16). Or as the Apostle John began his Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn. 1:1).
There is a Trinitarian distinction going on here between the Persons of God, “…the Word was with God,” but we then read the affirmation that the Word was indeed God. The Apostle Paul is making a revolutionary claim, especially for any first-century Jew, who would never dare say a man was in the “form of God.” And this is strengthened even more by the end of verse 6, where Paul writes, “being in the form of God, [He] did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.” This is from the New King James—again, “did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.” This can also be translated as “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped” (ESV). In this, Paul is saying Christ is equal with God—He was not grasping for divinity. He was not robbing God of glory, stealing something that was not rightly His. But the Son is, and always has been, the eternal God.
In verses 6–8, we then see our Lord’s astounding humility. “…being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross…”
The eternal Son of God… became man.
Again, though He was in the form of God, He did not hold onto His privileges with a firm grasp, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a slave.
As the Book of Hebrews tells us in various places, “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same” (Heb. 2:14).
“He was in all things made like His brethren”—like us (Heb. 2:17).
He “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).
So we see that Christ was truly God and truly man.
Now, some translations like the ESV and NASB state that Christ “emptied Himself,” rather than “made Himself of no reputation” here. This is a fine translation, but it has been often misinterpreted. Christ did indeed “empty Himself,” if by that we mean deprive Himself of His privileges as God. But He did not in any way give up or lose His divinity in the incarnation. Christ did not cease to be God, or to possess divine attributes.
Rather, the incarnation is best thought of not in terms of subtraction, but addition. The Son of God added to Himself humanity. He was and is in the “form of God,” and in the Virgin’s womb He was also in the “form of man.” We confess with the Definition of Chalcedon that He is one person, with two unmixed natures—fully divine and fully human. But not only did the Son become man—amazing enough—He humbled Himself and became obedient to His Father, even to the point of death on the cross (v. 8).
In this, Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53.
“He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.And they made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.”
That is your Lord. That is your God.
Consider again the staggering humility of Jesus Christ. Who was in the form of God, and yet made Himself of no reputation by taking on the form of a slave, a slave sent to a horrific death on a Roman cross. He suffered utter humiliation. This is what evangelicals mean when they recite their favorite verse: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16).
This is what your God has done for you. He suffered and died in your place, that you would have eternal life. That you would not taste the wrath that is due to you for your sin, but be given peace with the God that you have offended each and every day of your life. This is Christ’s love for you, even as a sinner.
As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).
Exaltation
But that is not the end of the story. For through His humble obedience, even to the point of death, Christ was rewarded with glory.
As we read in verses 9–11, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Note the “therefore.” Christ’s humility was the grounds for His exaltation. His selfless love led to His everlasting glory. And in this ultimate display of love—in this act that has none greater and is the source of all other love—He again proved that He was truly God, who is love (1 Jn. 4:8).
In this, too, Christ fulfilled Isaiah’s vision. For in the same passage of the Suffering Servant’s humiliation in Isaiah 53, we also read of His exaltation.
From Isaiah 53:10–13,
“Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin…
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong…”
Again, notice the “therefore.” Because the Messiah bore their iniquities and justified many, God divided Him a portion with the great. What is that portion? Or who is that portion? You are. You are His great reward. By faith, you are His seed, you are the labor of His soul in which He is satisfied. The nations are His inheritance, the ends of the earth His possession (Ps. 22). He was given an everlasting dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples should serve Him (Dan. 7). Our Lord died for His people. He purchased the church with His own blood (Acts 20:28). He purchased you with His own blood, and He did so with undeserved love.
Now, Christ’s suffering and death and exaltation are not the only things the Apostle Paul brings in from the Prophet Isaiah.
Hear the Lord God from Isaiah 45:22–23,
“Look to Me, and be saved,
All you ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.
I have sworn by Myself;
The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness,
And shall not return,
That to Me every knee shall bow,
Every tongue shall take an oath.”
Sounds familiar… Now consider this. Who will every knee bow before? Who will they take an oath before?
In Isaiah it is the covenant God of Israel speaking. It is Yahweh. All the ends of the earth will look to Him and be saved. Here, writing to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul again affirms Christ’s divinity, identifying Jesus as the One to whom all will bend their knee and confess His lordship. “…at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” and “every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…” Jesus of Nazareth, Israel’s Messiah and our Lord, is the eternal Son of God. And in Him we see perfect love and humility, leading to exalted glory.
Imitating Christ’s Humility
So now, understanding all of that, we must consider the Apostle Paul’s exhortation to us as individuals and as a church community. For here in this passage, as we do throughout Paul’s letters, we have indicatives and imperatives. Indicative refers to truth to believe, and imperative is a command to obey.
We have the indicatives—that Christians have the Triune “consolation in Christ, comfort of love, and fellowship of the Spirit” (v. 1) and the amazing example of the mind of Christ in His humility and servanthood (vv. 5–11).
And then we have the imperatives—the Apostle Paul’s admonition to “fulfill his joy” by “being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (vv. 2–4).
What this means is that you must not only marvel at and meditate on Christ and His work, but also imitate Him and His work. This attitude of humility that you are called to is the resulting fruit of your union with the Triune God, as those who have been purchased by the blood of Christ and united to Him.
Think about it—if Christ, who was God, humbled Himself… how much more are you called to humility? The problem is that in our sin, we want to do the very opposite of what Christ has done.
In this we are like our father Adam. Adam was made in the image of God, and yet his sin was that of pride and selfishness—grasping to be exalted, to be like God, without simple obedience to the Lord and sacrificial love for his wife. Adam, and all of us in our sin, strive upward to be exalted, when Christ has shown us that the way to glory is to first go downward. And so again… if Christ, the Son of God, embraced a life marked by humility… how much more should you.
Commenting on this passage, this is what John Calvin noted:
“This is not a comparison between things similar, but in the way of greater and less. Christ’s humility consisted in His abasing Himself from the highest pinnacle of glory to the lowest disgrace. Our humility consists in refraining from exalting ourselves by a false estimation. He gave up his right: all that is required of us is that we do not assume to ourselves more than we ought…”
Humility is seeing yourselves rightly in light of both God’s holiness and your sinfulness. Humility is being able to speak like the Apostle Paul, “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (1 Tim. 1:15). Humility is not groveling or a lack of self-esteem, but it is recognizing who you are in Christ, and employing your strengths and gifts in the service of others.
You are called to put off selfish ambition, to cast aside all conceit and pride, and to put on humility. You are called to share in the mind of Christ, to follow His example, and to esteem others as better than yourselves. You are to look out for your own interests; God is not calling you to self-harm or to abdicate your duty to your families, but you are also to look out for the interests of others. You are to “love your neighbor as yourselves” (Mt. 22:39). Christ did not consider what He was owed; He did not use His divinity for His own self-advancement, but rather He laid all of that down for the sake of His people.
Think for a moment about Christ’s example again. That every time He was cursed and accused of sin, every time He was rejected and cast out, every time He was beaten and whipped, every time those nails pounded into His hands and feet… He willingly laid His rights and privileges aside as the divine Messiah, and He did so in loving humility for others. That is what the Apostle Paul is calling you to. As he wrote to the church in Ephesus, “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Eph 5:1–2).
So what does this look like?
It seems like all Christian duties and virtues are caught up in this command to be like Christ in His humility. If we start in the home, this must be the fundamental attitude toward one another in your families or among your roommates. If you are a husband and a father, those you are called in life to love the most are right next to you right now. They are the ones that need your attention and care the most. You are called to lead them by laying your life down daily for their temporal and eternal good. You must love your wife, as Christ loves His church, and you must bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Do not neglect this high calling. Do not spend the very little time you have outside of your vocations on frivolous things—private activities and distractions that serve your own interest but not theirs. I am not saying that you cannot have personal hobbies or interests, but you must make sure they do not conflict with your calling in this life.
Likewise, if you are a wife or a mother, your primary concern must be those people in your home that God has blessed you with. You are called to honor your husband and to assist him in his work. And one of those primary works is the raising of your children together, the nourishing of little bodies and souls. Do not despise this good and difficult work. Do not seek escapes from it by complaining to your friends or disappearing on social media. Do not believe the lie that there is a way to live and honor God without sacrifice.
Christ is calling all of you to put the needs of others before your own—whether in your families, at work, or at school—and to live out the love you have received from Him in your hearts.
There is something very important for you to understand in all of this. When you find yourself worn out, exhausted, and tired in the daily service of others, this is not an indication that something has gone wrong in your life. If you finish each day tired in mind, body, and soul—you are imitating your Lord Jesus. If your hands are full, and you are barely keeping up, and each day is more of the same—you are most likely serving others as you are called to.
Now, there are certainly times to pause and make sure you are not wearing yourself thin unnecessarily. There are times when you need to find new strategies, helping your strength go further. Sometimes you need to seek counsel on how to love your wife better, respect your husband, or keep up with the kids. But if your baskets are simply full of heavy fruit, of many blessings from God, and your arms are heavy—that does not mean something has gone wrong.
That feeling of being spent after giving everything you have for the good of others—that is not a feeling to complain about. It is not something to despise, hate, or to avoid. Rather, that feeling of weakness is great assurance that you are walking in your holy calling, in the footsteps of Christ.
Conclusion: Participating in Christ’s Glory
We all desire glory and joy. This is how God has made you. It is part of His design. But you need to understand that the right kind of glory, the glory that you should aspire to, is only obtained in imitation of Christ.
Why was Christ exalted? Because He obeyed His Father in heaven. He was exalted because He considered others more highly than Himself. Because He laid His life down in an ugly death. He was only lifted up above all things because He was first lifted up on a Roman cross. In this, Christ has shown you that humility is the pathway to true glory. As James wrote, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you” (Jas. 4:10).
When God’s people earnestly live in humility, considering others before themselves, the resulting fruit is joy and glory and exaltation both in this life and in the life to come. By this I mean, when you are united with one mind—the mind of Christ—when everyone is seeking the good of others, it is absolutely glorious. When a husband and wife constantly seek to outdo one another in showing love and honor, peace and joy prevail. God’s blessing rests upon their home. When workers in a company strive to help one another and truly bless their customers, the result is trust and a thriving business. When a church is filled with brothers and sisters who constantly look out for one another and provide for both spiritual and physical needs, the joy is palpable, and fellowship deepens.
There is a glory and an exaltation to be had in this life, for believers who strive for like-mindedness, and by the Spirit mortify the sins of selfish ambition and conceit, seeking to esteem others as better than themselves.
And of course there is a coming exaltation for all of you who are in Christ. “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Col. 3:3–4).