1If therefore there is any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion, 2make my joy full by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind; 3doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself; 4each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.
5Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, 6who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross. 9Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, 11and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
14Do all things without complaining and arguing, 15that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without defect in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world, 16holding up the word of life, that I may have something to boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run in vain nor labor in vain. 17Yes, and if I am poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18In the same way, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.
19But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered up when I know how you are doing. 20For I have no one else like-minded, who will truly care about you. 21For they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ. 22But you know that he has proved himself. As a child serves a father, so he served with me in furtherance of the Good News. 23Therefore I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how it will go with me. 24But I trust in the Lord that I myself also will come shortly.
25But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier, and your apostle and servant of my need, 26since he longed for you all, and was very troubled because you had heard that he was sick. 27For indeed he was sick nearly to death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow on sorrow. 28I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that when you see him again, you may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful. 29Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy, and hold such people in honor, 30because for the work of Christ he came near to death, risking his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.
The second chapter of this small letter by Paul contains a key Christological doctrine, and much "ink" has been used attempting to explain Paul’s words in Philippians 2:5-11. The key point of dispute is found in the understanding of the Greek word “κενόω, kenoo,” empty, which literally means to remove the content of something. The fundamental issue is what occurred to the second person of the Trinity when He took human form. The range of possible interpretations is broad with some believing that He lost His deity in the "emptying" to the view that the Son of God had inability to exercise His divine attributes in the incarnation. These views are called kenotic theories and fail to satisfy a proper understanding of the nature of God or the nature of the incarnation. There is no room for an in-depth discussion of all the possible interpretations in this article, which are covered by me elsewhere.[1]
So then, more extreme kenoticism avers that the Son ceased to be God, while a more mild form says He only lost some of His attributes, like omnipresence or omniscience. The first view is easy to reject, because God cannot cease to be God. However, the latter view suffers from the fact that for God the Son to lose even one of His attributes is to lose His deity altogether. His attributes are interconnected since God is perfect and infinite (unlimited in every way). Some, attempting to mitigate this view, have explained that Christ simply “gave up” the use of His divine attributes. This position also suffers from the theological difficulty that not being able to use an attribute is akin to losing the attribute itself, and suffers from the understanding of the two natures in one person argued at the Council of Ephesus in A.D. 431. Another perspective says that God the Son “gave up” only the “free and independent use of His divine attributes in the incarnation.” This view argues that Christ only made use of things like omniscience and omnipotence when it was the Father’s will for Him to do so. Once again, though, the divine person's lack of use is the same as not having the attribute.
All of the above views suffer from tending to forget the two natures (divine and human) existing in the Person of Christ, as well as attempting to use Philippians 2:7 to explain how Jesus, at times, appeared to be less than the Father. The above views are clearly heretical. Most likely Paul is saying that the Son emptied Himself (not lost a divine attribute) upon taking on human nature and becoming a servant; this involved the putting aside of His privilege, rank and position in regard to His human activity. Paul doesn’t speak of Christ’s attributes at all. Moreover, unlike the other views, it doesn’t ignore or downplay the hypostatic union – that the divine Son’s nature and the human nature were joined into one Person in Christ, but without “mixture or confusion.” He was fully God (all that it means to be divine) and fully human (all that it means to be human) at the same time and in one person, the Son. The incarnation did not cause any loss of the deity of the Son. Rather, humanity was added to the Son, an addition and not a subtraction.[2] While a weak infant in Mary's arms, this person was everywhere as God. While unable to know the time of His coming as a man, He did know as God. While unable to heal as a man, He healed countless sick persons as God. While dying on the cross under Roman cruelty, this person was an all-powerful God. When Paul says, then, that the one who is God thought it not something to "take advantage of" (Greek harpagmos) His equality with God, but emptied Himself—His divine person—into the form of a man, and as a servant; He was then subsequently raised by God and given a name above every name—that Jesus is the Lord (Yahweh in Hebrew)—He affirmed the simultaneous deity and humanity of the Son of God (see Rom 10:9).
[1] See H. Wayne House, "The Self-Emptying of God," Ὁ ΝΕΟΣ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΟΣ (Spring 1974):25-37.
[2] See my chart at Philippians 2:6. Taken from "The Unity of Deity and Humanity in the Person of the Son," H. Wayne House, Charts of Christian Theology and Doctrine (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), chart 29, p. 56.