Philippians 2

Philippians 2:1-30

Division 2. (Philippians 2:1-30.)Christ in His self-humiliation our pattern. We have now, therefore, set before us the whole path to its issue in glory, but as trodden in the first place and in full reality by Him who had come down into the world, drawn by His love alone, giving up all which was His just right, which He might have retained, and taking His place amongst men, to come down to the very lowest possible place in this way, the death of the cross. Such was the path which had ended, however, for Him in the glory in which now He was, and where every knee should shortly bow to Him and every tongue confess Him Lord. Such, then, is the pattern for us of One perfect in the path, but the apostle shows us also that there were, in fact, those who were running in it witnesses to the joy which, for themselves also, could make them despise the shame, and enable them to run on stedfastly to the goal which already has been shown us, -Christ Himself -the foremost in the race and who has reached the end of it.

1. He desires for the Philippians that there may be amongst them but one mind, but then, this mind could, therefore, only be the mind of Christ. If here for Him, representing Him on earth, they must realize the spirit in which He walked upon earth. There was abundant blessing that they had found already, which would be an incitement to them for this. Faith, hope and love, all drew them on, and were in them the testimony of that love which Christ had shown them. (1) He appeals, therefore, to the comfort in Christ which they had enjoyed, the consolation of a love which had sought them and which was with them ever, a communion of the Spirit which had in it, therefore, a true, divine energy. There were bowels and compassions, tender thoughts and desires for others which the Spirit had awakened. He could appeal to them, therefore by all this, that they would fulfil what was his joy for them, that there might?be that perfect unity of mind which was but the unity of one aim, one interest, -the same love responsive in them all, soul joined to soul by this precious sympathy. Here oneness of mind would be not from mere reception of a common creed, but as the whole outcome of truth received, with all its blessed effects, as God wrought in them by it. The first necessity for this was that the spirit of the world, as the spirit of strife, with which the world was full, of vain glory which would necessitate a striving after it, should be absent from them. In the presence of God, lowliness is that which marks the soul.

How could pride be nursed in such a presence? and where as a consequence realizing what they were themselves, of which they knew more, necessarily, than they could know of others? The result would be simple enough, the esteeming others as better than themselves. With regard to others, we have to give them credit to the full with regard to things in which we cannot know. With regard to ourselves, we are not called upon to spare ourselves; and in the consciousness of the love which is towards us, spite of all we are, we shall be delivered from any desire to make ourselves more than others. From this point of view, we can look upon each other, not with suspicion or envy, but, on the contrary, as rejoicing in that which we find of Christ in them. This is, in fact, the truest blessing for our own souls, -to walk in the enjoyment of that which Christ is, to all His own around us, and of the effects, therefore, produced by the reality of what Christ is, thus enjoyed. (2) Now he puts before them this mind that was to be in them; a marvelous thing indeed, that, for such as we are, this mind can be enjoined and expected to be found in us, -the mind of One who, from a height of glory beyond possible apprehension, could come down, moved by His love alone, into the lowest possible depth where again the eye cannot follow Him, every step the giving up afresh of something that might be held! This is the course which manifests the mind of Christ, a course of continued self-denial and self-sacrifice, yet with an object which makes this not to be realized indeed as such. Here, we have then before us this wonderful path, -One subsisting in the form of God, that is to say, God Himself manifestly, so that there could be no question with regard to Him at all, yet this form of God He gave up; not the divine reality, which was, of necessity, His at all times, but the manifestation of it, the outward aspect. This he did not esteem “an object to be grasped,” this equality with God. This, no doubt, is the proper translation here. It is much more than His not esteeming it robbery to be equal with Him. The point is, as the next words show us, that He was not seeking to retain that which was His without any question, but emptying Himself." In this spirit, He took the place of a bond-servant in the likeness of men. He does not tarry among angels, unutterable condescension as that would be. The need of men appeals to Him and brings Him on. He is not merely a Man, but in the likeness of men also, (in all the truth of that which manhood implies,) but a Manhood necessarily without blemish, a Man unfallen, nay, more perfect and greater than Adam before the fall. Here then, He was found amongst us, but even here He could not tarry. Love brought Him farther in this path which continually descended. “Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled Himself and became obedient unto death.” The very words show the glory that was His, and that that which was the consequence of the fall had no title over Him. It was in His self-humiliation that He stooped to death, this being for Him a path of obedience in which God was infinitely glorified. But death itself was not the whole matter here. There was a depth far below death merely, the death of the Cross: not simply a death of shame, or which showed (as it did show) man’s rejection of Him, but beyond all that, a death in which alone man’s need could be reached, a death which alone could work atonement, a death, as we have seen in Galatians, of curse and penalty, not from man simply, but from God Himself. Here was the lowest point. Obedience itself could go no farther; and here was, at the same time, necessarily therefore, the full display of His proper glory to a soul that can realize it. Who could have stood in this place to do this work, but Himself alone? Who could, in utter loneliness and in the feebleness of humanity, -for “He was crucified through weakness,” -yet lay the foundation upon which could be securely built a new creation brighter than all before; and where God should be seen in the full display of righteousness and holiness and love, His whole nature manifested, there where every element of trial and opposition was met and mastered!

Here is the pattern path. For us it is not, after all, a path that we could take, save only in the principle of it, the mind which the apostle says we are to have of One who was perfect in the obedience which made the greatest demands upon Him, and in which every step of the way was a further surrender of that which otherwise was His to retain. How wonderful, we may say again, that God should work in such as we are any resemblance to this mind of Christ, and how wonderfully must He have supplied and qualified us, in order to expect any such thing rightly from us! (3) To this point it is Christ’s course that we see, God leaving Him to it. Power was not on His side, but against Him. It was not by power that this conflict could be fought to victory, or those ends that He sought attained. Hitherto Christ might seem to be alone the worker, God simply remaining an impassive spectator of His course, but now the whole heart of God comes out manifestly. Once He has reached this point, the work being accomplished, the result gained, God now manifests Himself completely. “He has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name that is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of heavenly, earthly and infernal beings, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Thus we see the goal reached. All opposition is vanquished and ceases.

Every knee even of infernal beings must in result bow to Him. Everywhere He is confessed the Lord of all, a Man still, in the full reality of manhood, but a Man in whom now all that was lost or imperilled by the fall is restored and more than restored. The glory of God shines out as nowhere else. 2. This then is the example set before us, one that we might say, perhaps, is absolutely beyond us. We may concede that it is beyond us, but not that this would induce hopelessness. On the contrary, the perfection of the standard is that which gives continually fresh desire for acquirement, and in an object such as this is for the heart, an energy for acquiring. But we have now before us witnesses amongst mere men, who present us with such actual accomplishment in men as we can no longer say, therefore, is beyond us. Whatever such an one as Paul might be in this respect, there is no inherent impossibility in our following him, even as he followed Christ. Paul was a man encompassed with the same difficulties as those that we have, and we, on the other hand, have dwelling in us the same Spirit as he had. (1) The apostle immediately encourages us, in fact, with the assurance that if we are to work out our own salvation, yet it is God who worketh in us both the willing and the doing. We have already seen what this working out of salvation means, that it applies to the difficulties in the way, a salvation from all that would hinder the glorifying of Christ in our life here. It is this, therefore, which is to induce the fear and trembling; not in selfish dread, but the sense of our responsibility to Him to whom we owe our all and whose our life is. Plenty there is to make us serious in such work as this, but nothing to dishearten us. If God has taken in hand to work in us after this fashion, that is ample security for our success. The fact that the apostle was now absent from them, whose presence had been so great a comfort and blessing to their souls, was only to make them more completely realize this divine power which was carrying them on to the full blessing beyond. (2) They were to preserve, on the one hand, the character which belonged to them, and on the other, to hold forth that word of life which was their public testimony in the world. The one must have the other as an accompaniment, if it was to be a testimony for, instead of against the One they heralded. Solemn it is to realize that as witnesses for Christ there can by no possibility be a negative position for us. We have the responsibility of witnesses; and if we are not that, so as to commend Christ to others, we cannot help but dishonor Him. The apostle bids them, therefore, act in the spirit of those who are in full subjection to God, without murmuring at circumstances which they might pass through, without reasonings such as unbelief might urge, where there was such a spirit. On the other hand, they were to be harmless, children of God, who could take that name without bringing reproach upon it; and that in the midst of a generation crooked and perverse. Stars are best seen in the night, though they may shine at all times; and the world, such as it is, is the best possible place for testimony of this kind. As lights in it, they would not shine indeed by their own light. Christians are planets and not suns. The word of life held forth is that which declares the light to be reflected light, from Him who, though absent, (for it is night time now,) is yet in this sense still the true light of it.

Without the testimony to Christ, the best life may appear only to testify of what is natural in man. Men constantly plead, as we know, the lives of others who make no profession. The “word of life” held forth gives the glory to God which is His due, shows that the power is outside one’s self, while the effect upon one is manifest. The two things are here put in their place, the life and the light. The life in Christ was the light, but not so with us, although without the life the light would indeed be darkened. Their testimony would be for the apostle a thing to glory in, in the day of Christ, when it would be seen that he had “not run in vain nor labored in vain;” for a labor really vain must of necessity show a great defect in its own character.

No true labor can be in vain in the Lord, as the apostle assures us. (3) So much then as to the character of witness on the part of Christians; but now we have examples in actual life. First of all, the apostle himself, who in the joy which so fully characterized him, a joy in Christ, which is strength for all the way, was ready in the spirit of his Master to be poured out even as a drink-offering on the sacrifice and service of the disciples, faith. The drink-offering was itself the symbol of joy; here a joy which set the offerer of it beyond all selfish calculation. He could pour out his life in the mere joy of the service of others. It was one who, as we know, was the prisoner of Jesus Christ at this time, who could say this; and who could bid them, therefore, rejoice, and rejoice with him, in that very suffering. Here is the first and most perfect witness amongst men merely, to the ability given of God to follow Christ.

He does not give it openly as an example, but the Spirit of God, nevertheless, surely would draw our attention to it. It was the simple expression of his own joy, without a thought, one may say, of any peculiar testimony in it. The witness to Christ is that just in the proportion in which he is unconscious of being so. But he now brings forward those of whom he can speak as witnesses. (4) First of all, we have here Timotheus, true to his name, a man who “honors God;” now, alas, all the more manifest for what he was, in the midst of a departure sad enough to realize in days such as we are contemplating. “All seek their own,” the apostle could say, “not the things of Jesus Christ;” and yet he was in the midst of that Roman assembly of whom, in his epistle to them, he had spoken as having a faith which was being proclaimed in the whole world. How short a time this testimony seems to have lasted! But Timotheus is not dragged down by it. We are not made by our circumstances; that is, if there is any vigor in our souls at all. We are manifested by them, which is a very different thing. One can easily look at the condition of things around and make it an excuse for the inexcusableness of our own condition; but God has not ordained for us that we should be down to the level of those around us.

All His grace abides for us, none the less. The power of the Spirit is not a mere register of the outside temperature. If men seek their own things, they will excuse themselves by the fact that they are only in keeping with the company around them. If Christ be really before the soul, it will be impossible to do so. This would rather stir up and energize one who thought of Him to serve Him the more earnestly. Thus it was with Timothy, a worthy spiritual child of such a father as Paul was, one who had served as companion with him in the work of the gospel.

He had, therefore, in mind to send him immediately to them -another beautiful example as to himself of that self-denying love which wrought in him. (5) And this goes further, for not only would he send Timothy, but he had thought it necessary already to send back to them Epaphroditus, one who had been their messenger, and minister on their part to his need, whom yet he would dismiss from the place in which his value had been thoroughly felt, in order that he might now give joy to the Philippians. There was a special reason for this on Epaphroditus, part, which shows him as another witness to the attainment of the mind in Christ. He had been sick, nigh unto death, and sick from the work into which he had thrown himself, realizing the responsibility of ministering to one identified with the gospel as the apostle was; a responsibility which, in a sense, was rather that of others, but which lacked through no fault of theirs. It was this lack that he was filling up, and with such energy and zeal that he had hazarded his life in doing this. They were to receive him, therefore, in the Lord, with all joy; and, in fact, the apostle could count so much upon their sympathy with him that he could not be content just with the assurance of his present recovery, but must send him to them, that they might satisfy themselves about it. How beautiful a testimony still to the one who could speak and act thus.

How necessarily in all this the character of the man, the heart that was in him, shows itself! Feeling, on the one hand, with no ascetic stoicism, the mercy God had shown to him through Epaphroditus, the mercy He now shows in restoring him, and yet ready to sacrifice what he could realize thus the value of, almost, as one might say, without the need of doing this, merely to make their joy complete. Such, then, are the examples given us, in a way marked by such beautiful simplicity, of the possibility of the attainment of the mind of Christ in those who like ourselves were men, in all the weakness of men, and in all the difficulties, if not more than all the difficulties that encompass us also.