Philippians 2v5-11 | 19 Oct 2025 | The Five O'Clock
Notes
Transcript
My parents used to despair that I could remember word-for-word the lyrics of my favourite songs but not my 8-times-table!
Nothing has changed! I can still recite words to songs I heard 30 years ago but wouldn’t even know where to start with how to work out the circumference of a circle!
Songs are very powerful. We remember them very easily and find that we can even recall them years later. Can be very useful in pub quizzes!
But songs are most useful in remembering and applying gospel truths. That’s why Paul put well-known songs or hymns to good use in his letters.
They were probably words that the churches were already familiar with, and now they’re being used to apply important truths and principles for the church to put into practice.
At this point in his letter to the Philippians Paul is teaching about the importance of sharing a single purpose in the church, striving together for the faith of the gospel (1:27).
But to do that the church must be united; those who belong to the church must work together without striving for themselves or their own ambitions (2:3). As Paul says…
not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
So how can we work to overcome ourselves and look to others first? Where do we go for inspiration or an example of humility?
The answer is surely obvious! Jesus is the perfect example of humility. We couldn’t find a better picture of self-humbling than in the incarnation, sacrifice and exaltation of Jesus Christ.
And so Paul invites us into the ‘mind’ of Christ…
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
OR the ESV…
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
Having the mind of Christ is to think like Jesus. It’s to see ourselves the way Jesus saw himself. It’s to do for others what Jesus did for us. It’s to be like Jesus for the gospel.
So as we strive towards being a single-minded, selfless church, let’s go into the mind of Christ and learn how to put each other first and ourselves last. So what is the mind of Christ?
The mind of Christ is self-emptying
The mind of Christ is self-emptying
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing [lit. emptied himself]
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
Self-emptying like Jesus means overcoming the inclination to get what we want even when we deserve it.
What did that mean for Jesus? It meant…
Not grasping for glory
Not grasping for glory
We’re told that Jesus is God: literally ‘in the form of God.’ But Jesus ‘did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.’ He could have asserted his divine right to stay put and not endure manhood and death. But he didn’t want to exploit his position for his own advantage.
We see plenty of exploitation of power in our world, don’t we? Bosses, bankers, and bullies who throw their weight around and scare people into submission. Why do they do it? For their own advantage. To line their pockets, or climb the ladder, or hold onto to power.
Easy to see it in others. What about us in our relationships in the church? How much of our energy is spent fighting our little corners, preserving our positions, building our own kingdoms? Do you grasp for your rights and privileges at the expense of others? The mind of Christ doesn’t grasp for glory. Instead we see Jesus…
Laying aside rights and privileges
Laying aside rights and privileges
Jesus was prepared to forfeit the benefits of his equal position with God the Father and God the Spirit in order to benefit us. In other words, although Jesus had every right to stay in the glory of heaven, on the throne of heaven, he chose to set aside his rights for our sake.
Verse 7 tells us that he ‘made himself nothing’ which is literally ‘he emptied himself.’ Easily misunderstood! He didn’t stop being God, or temporarily abandon his divinity. He didn’t take anything away from himself, but added to himself – he ‘took the very nature of a servant.’
So often we assume that becoming a servant means we have to stop being who we are, that we somehow have to debase ourselves.
Think about the disciples in the upper room when none of them was prepared to wash the feet of the others. Why? Because it was beneath them! Only the lowliest servant washed feet. But Jesus took off his robe and got his hands filthy with the muck from their feet. He didn’t stop being God. Everyone in the room knew he was Lord. But he was also a servant.
The mind of Christ doesn’t grasp for glory, doesn’t assert rights and invoke privileges; instead the mind of Christ involves…
Becoming a servant
Becoming a servant
Instead of coming to be served, he came to serve. Instead of men serving God, God became a servant to man. This is fundamental to our understanding of God’s nature and his character.
So many people think of God as a big bully playing with humans from his cloud in the sky.
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” (The God Delusion, Chapter 2, p. 31)
Dawkins talks wrongly about the God of the OT but doesn’t even mention the God revealed in the NT! The God most fully revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, who didn’t come to boss us around, or force us to obey him, or exploit his divine power to his own advantage. This creator God who humbled himself to serve his creatures. This is our God!
Paul’s point is very clear. The mind of Christ is self-emptying. To have the mind of Christ is to make less of myself and to make more of others. Surrendering my rights, my privileges, my preferences, my skills, my way of doing things. To have the mind of Christ is to look to the interest of others as well as, if not before, our own.
But the mind of Christ isn’t only self-emptying. It doesn’t simply take away from itself; it also gives to others. The mind of Christ…
The mind of Christ is self-giving
The mind of Christ is self-giving
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Jesus could not have been any higher and he could not have become any lower!
His humility was total. He not only became a man, but he became a man to die as a man for mankind. Not just any death, but death on a cross – the most humiliating and shameful death known at that time. Not only that but in his death he suffered the full force of God’s anger at our sin as he took our sin on himself.
Though he was innocent he chose to be numbered with the guilty. He gave himself for us, willingly dying in our place.
When Jesus washed his disciples’ feet he was showing them the full extent of his love (John 13:1) because he was picturing what he would do for them at the cross. On the cross Jesus took all the filth and muck of our sinful hearts on himself.
He allowed himself to become unclean so that we could be washed. And he was crushed beneath the Father’s wrath so that we would be free from condemnation.
Jesus gave himself fully. The mind of Christ is therefore self-giving. Jesus told his disciples with freshly washed feet…
‘A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’
As we love one another there should no limit to how much we are prepared to give ourselves to each other. As we have one mind – the mind of Christ – we should empty ourselves and give ourselves fully to each other.
What will that look like? It will take many different forms! It will look like people in the church looking after each other’s children to give parents some respite. It will look like meals being provided through a difficult period. It will look like financial help for those who are struggling. It will look like the offer of prayer for someone who is in real need. It will look like ironing, cleaning, giving lifts, offering a spare room, lending or giving of possessions, taking someone away on holiday.
It will also look like the giving up of significant time to help someone get to grips with the bible. Reading and studying with them, investing in making and building disciples. It will look like spending hours listening to someone who needs to talk through serious issues in their life. It will look like walking alongside a fellow brother or sister through their darkest valleys. It will look like taking someone under your wing to help them learn how to serve in the church in a particular way.
We could go on! Giving ourselves fully, loving each other the way Christ has loved us, should know no end.
But someone might argue, and in fact most of us would think it subconsciously if nothing else – what’s in it for me? If I humble myself and give myself, what reward do I get? That may be the wrong way to think. The mind of Christ probably doesn’t think in those terms. But what we definitely see in the example of Christ is that having become low he was lifted high, and having humbled himself he was exalted! The self-emptying, self-giving mind of Christ…
The mind of Christ leads to divine exalting
The mind of Christ leads to divine exalting
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Christ became what we are to enable us to become what he is!
In response to Jesus humbling and submitting himself to God, God highly exalts him. This shows us that the path to exaltation isn’t through getting our own way and getting to the top by trampling on others; rather the path to exaltation involves self-humiliation and serving others. Like James says…
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Notice the connection between what Jesus did in emptying himself by serving others and what God did in response…
Because Jesus emptied himself, God highly exalted him.
Because Jesus humbled himself, God gave him the highest name
Because Jesus was obedient to God, God made every knee bow to him
And precisely because humbled himself for us, he is now able to exalt us to be like him…
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
So what’s the lesson? Far from losing out by debasing ourselves in serving each other, we win by the transformation that will be ours on the day of Christ!
All our service, no matter how hard, or how big a sacrifice we have to make, none of it will seem pointless or worthless on that day when we stand in our glorious bodies like Jesus!
We will rejoice in that day over all the ways in which we were able to love each other like Christ has loved us, because by doing so we will have magnified his glory and only then will we appreciate the greatness of his glory!
So now we know where to go when we want to know how we can look to the interests of other as well as our own. When we’re not sure whether we should fight our corner or submit with love. When we don’t know how far we should go in helping others. When we’re not sure if it will be worth it. We can strive to have the mind of Christ…
who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
