PHILIPPIANS 2 — THE MIND OF CHRIST AND SHINING AS LIGHTS
Did Christ give up His deity when He "emptied Himself"? Study Philippians 2 with context, apologetic analysis, and cross-references.
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Dr. Lucas D. Shallua Commentary · PHILIPPIANS 2 — THE MIND OF CHRIST AND SHINING AS LIGHTS
01
The precise difficulties
Did Christ give up His deity when He "emptied Himself"?
Does "work out your salvation" mean that salvation is earned?
Does verse 10 teach that everyone will be saved eventually?
Why did Epaphroditus nearly die if God could have healed him immediately?
Is the hymn of Christ evidence that early Christians worshiped Jesus as God?
02
Verse and question study
Did Christ give up His deity when He "emptied Himself"?
No. The orthodox teaching is that Christ remained fully God while becoming fully man. He did not lay aside His divine nature, but He set aside the glory and prerogatives that He had in heaven and took on the limitations and humiliations of human life, including suffering and death. He did so by adding human nature, not by subtracting divine nature. Some groups misunderstand this passage to say that Christ was a created being, but the hymn says that He was in the form of God and equal with God before the incarnation.
Does "work out your salvation" mean that salvation is earned?
No. Paul teaches clearly elsewhere that salvation is a gift of grace, and the next verse shows that God is the one at work. The command is to live out the salvation received, to grow in it and to express it in daily life and in relationships within the church. The picture is of a gift that is being worked into every area of life.
Does verse 10 teach that everyone will be saved eventually?
No. The passage says that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, but it does not say that all will be saved. Elsewhere Scripture teaches that those who reject Christ will face judgment (Matthew 25:46; 2 Thessalonians 1:8–9; Revelation 20:11–15). The acknowledgment of His lordship will be universal, but some will acknowledge it with joy and others with dread.
Why did Epaphroditus nearly die if God could have healed him immediately?
Scripture does not tell us. Healing is real and available, but God is sovereign in how and when He applies it. Paul, who healed others, did not command Epaphroditus' healing but received it as a mercy. We should pray in faith for healing, expect God to work, and trust Him when the answer is delayed or different from what we asked.
Is the hymn of Christ evidence that early Christians worshiped Jesus as God?
Yes. Whether Paul composed the hymn or quoted it, it applies to Jesus a text about Yahweh from Isaiah 45 and describes Him as pre-existent, equal with God, and the object of universal worship. This is some of the earliest and clearest evidence for the deity of Christ, and it comes from within a generation of the crucifixion.
03
Historical and literary context
Chapter 2 is the theological center of the letter. The central passage, verses 6–11, is often called the carmen Christi, the hymn to Christ, because its rhythm and structure suggest that it may be an early Christian hymn, either composed by Paul or quoted by him. Whether Paul wrote it or adopted it, it presents a remarkably high view of Christ, written within about thirty years of the crucifixion. The hymn is not an abstract piece of theology inserted into the letter but is the foundation of a practical argument. The Philippians were showing signs of disunity (4:2) and self-centeredness, and Paul presents the humility of Christ as the model for how they are to treat one another. The structure of the chapter flows from this: the call to unity and humility (verses 1–4), the example of Christ (verses 5–11), the call to obedience and shining (verses 12–18), and two living examples of the humble mind, Timothy and Epaphroditus (verses 19–30). The chapter is a reminder that doctrine and practice are inseparable.
04
Apologetic note
The Christ hymn is one of the most significant texts for the question of when Christians began to regard Jesus as divine. Many scholars, including those who do not share Paul's faith, consider the passage to be pre-Pauline, which means that it was composed in the first decade or two after the crucifixion. Yet it describes Jesus as existing in the form of God, as becoming human, and as exalted to receive the worship due to God alone. The historian Larry Hurtado and the New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham have argued that devotion to Jesus as divine appeared extremely early and among strictly monotheistic Jews, which is hard to explain unless something extraordinary had occurred. The Roman governor Pliny, writing around AD 112, reported that Christians sang hymns to Christ as to a god, and Philippians 2:6–11 shows that this practice goes back to the apostolic age. The confession "Jesus Christ is Lord" also carried a political edge in a world where "Lord" was a title claimed by the emperor. Philippi was a Roman colony with a strong loyalty to Caesar, so this was a bold statement. The consistency of the claim across Paul's letters, written to different churches over a period of years, shows that it was not a late development.