A Philippian Christmas: Have This Mind

Philippians 2:5-8 ESV

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Have you ever heard or ever used the saying, “I feel naked without it”? Whenever you say that you feel naked without something, it means that whatever you’re missing has caused you to feel incomplete.

I still remember the first time that I heard that saying used, it was used by my grandpa, Ernie. My grandpa, Ernie was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, serving for over twenty years, including time served during both World War II and the Korean War, and he was very proud of his service in the armed forces.

In fact, he had a ring that he would wear with a silver band and a great big blue gem in the middle, and on that band, it read United States Air Force Veteran. I remember thinking that that ring was so unique and neat looking and when I would be over at his house he would let me hold it and look at it.

One day though, when I was over at his house and my mom came to pick me up, I remember asking him if I could take his ring home with me, and he said, “I can’t let you do that, I always wear that ring, so I’d feel naked without it”. Well, I was pretty young when he died, seven or eight years old I think, but guess who he left that ring to? We still have it lying around somewhere.

Well, you know, there must be a good reason why I never forgot that particular interaction with my grandpa, and I suppose that using it as an illustration to start our sermon this morning is one of them. Because just as my grandpa “felt naked” without his Air Force ring, so should the believer “feel naked” without practicing those things which Paul has been commanding the believers in the Philippian church to practice throughout this series.

This is especially true as we gather here this morning and recognize what we know as the Christmas holiday. There is no greater blessing than the blessing of God condescending to man so that He may save man from the damnation that hangs over him. This is what Jesus came to do, this is why He came to the world, and without doing it, He wouldn’t be the Savior that He was sent into the world to be.

And today, the Church, the body of Christ, has Christ as its Head, therefore, without doing those things which please Christ, it should indeed cause us to “feel naked” so to speak.

Going back to the ring analogy, I always wear my wedding band, it never comes off. But on the very rare occasions when I do remove my wedding band for a few seconds, I can hold up my hand and look at my ring finger and see that there is an indention there, and so, I can say, “I’m married, I just don’t have my ring on my finger”, but without that ring there, it doesn’t feel right. I’m married, but the absence of that ring on my finger makes me almost feel as if I’m not because my ring finger feels strange without my ring on it, it makes me “feel naked”, incomplete.

Well, in the same way, if we as the body of Christ have Christ as our Head, which we do, we are certainly Christians. But if we don’t do what Christ does, then even though we are Christians, we won’t feel like Christians.

And this is exactly what was going on in the Philippian church as, throughout this series, we have spoken at length about the strife and division that was in that particular church. We said that there were two influential women in the church, Euodia and Syntyche who were at odds with one another. And because they were influential, they had each gained their own supporters, forming factions within the church. And because they were influential and had formed their own supporters and were in fact at odds with one another, this caused their respective supporters to be at odds with the supporters of the other faction.

And so, supporters of Euodia, for example, would look down on supporters of Syntyche, and supporters of Syntyche would look down on supporters of Euodia to such an extent that they were ostracizing one another, ostracizing brothers and sisters in the faith, ostracizing those of the same body of Christ!

Indeed! They were all in fact Christians, but it seems like very few of them were actually behaving like Christians!

But this should not be, for as we have already said, these were all of the body of Christ, and so, Christ, Who is the Head of His body ensures that all of the individual members of His body are influenced by Him as we all share the same Spirit. And because we all share the same Spirit, we all belong to one another, but if we are all fighting each other, even though we all belong to one another, it sure doesn’t feel like we belong to one another.

And so, Paul, after telling the Philippian believers that they all share the same Spirit and belong to one another, then tells them that they should not be just looking out for their individual selves, but they should be looking out for each other. They shouldn’t be looking at their selves, their own reasoning and saying, “It’s this way or no way at all!”, but because they are ALL believers, they should show charity to one another in the non-essential aspects of the faith.

And so, having said this, Paul goes on to say in verse five of our reading:

Philippians 2:5 ESV

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

So, Paul says that “this mind”, this determination to humbly love one another, to place our brethren before us, to be charitable to one another, to care for each other as if we are caring for ourselves is what Paul says needs to be collectively “among yourselves”.

In other words, it is not just these three men and these two women who need to “have this mind” among them, but collectively, all of them, the whole body of born-again believers needs to think highly, lovingly, charitably towards every other born-again believer in their collective whole and then act upon the high and loving thoughts that they have towards one another.

Just as the members of our natural bodies have individual functions which serve to nurture the whole body, so must the Church, the individual members of the body of Christ, serve our individual functions towards one another so that the whole body may be nurtured.

This mind, Paul says, “is yours in Christ Jesus”. What this means is that this determination to love one another, to put the needs of our brethren before our own originates in Christ Jesus. If the Church is the body of Christ and if Christ Himself is the Head of His body, then that means that the mind of Christ is accessible to the body of Christ.

You heard that right, we as believers, because we have Christ as our Head, can access the mind of Christ, know what He expects from His body, and then actively fulfill what He expects of us.

And you say, “How in the world can you know the mind of Christ?!”, well, I’m glad you asked, because the rest of our reading, the last three verses reveal the mind of Christ to us.

Let’s begin to see the mind of Christ by looking at verse six, which reads:

Philippians 2:6 ESV

6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

So, what we see here is something extremely, and I mean extremely interesting. Here, we get somewhat of a peek into the thought process of the Lord Jesus before He came to earth.

What we read is that Jesus was “in the form of God”. Before I explain what this means, I want to tell you what it does not mean, when it says that Jesus was “in the form of God”, it does not mean that Jesus was like God, as if He seemed like God but wasn’t truly God. That is not what it means.

But what it does mean, is that being in the form of God, He is God indeed! You see, you cannot be like God, for there is none other like Him, you either are Him or are not Him, and being in the form of God indicates that Jesus is God.

But Paul says that though Jesus is God, “He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped”. What this means is that though Jesus, being God Himself, and thus, all-great and all-powerful did not exploit His status as equal with God and outwardly manifest that equality.

And so, Paul says that though God the Son is indeed equal in nature with God the Father, He nonetheless willingly submitted Himself to obey God the Father, just as the Philippian believers, though they are all one in the same beloved by God, willingly submit to one another by loving one another and putting each other’s needs before their own.

But then, as we move on to verse seven, we see even more the manifestation of the mind of Christ, especially applicable for us today as we recognize Christmas, when we read that Christ did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

Philippians 2:7 ESV

7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

So, the obedience of Christ, of God the Son to God the Father was that He “emptied Himself”. Now again, we need to make clear what this does not mean. What it does not mean is that Christ emptied Himself of His Godhood, making Himself less God, or not God at all. That is a terrible heresy and people who adhere to that heresy try to use this verse as evidence in favor of their heresy.

But again, that cannot be! God can never not be God. God can never be less God, for if He were ever less than He is, then He would no longer be God. If He could be more than He is, then that means that He is not and never was God.

So, that is not what Paul is saying here, but what Paul is saying is that Jesus voluntarily set aside the radiance of His pre-existent glory and forfeited His rights as God, choosing not to exercise His divine attributes. So, Jesus ever remained God, just as much God as He was before He came into the world, He simply, temporarily forfeited His rights as God. He didn’t outwardly look like God; He didn’t effectively and fully use His divine attributes.

And this He done, Paul says, “by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man”.

What this means is that Jesus, when coming to this world, done so at the command of God the Father, and when He came, He did not insist on His equality with the Father to refuse His command, but rather, He willingly and perfectly submitted to it, actively obeying the will of the Father as He was: “born in the likeness of man”.

And being born in the likeness of man, He maintained His full Godhood, He didn’t become less God, but instead, He added a human nature, a perfect human nature to His divine nature, and thus, perfectly obeyed His Father as God and man; the perfect God-man.

And as we look at the last verse in our reading, we see how Christ perfectly submitted to and obeyed the will of His Father, when we read:

Philippians 2:8 ESV

8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus, we read, having taken on flesh, was “found in human form”. Again, just as verse six read that Jesus was “in the form of God”, so here do we read that Jesus was “in human form”. Back in verse six, we said that saying that Jesus was “in the form of God” indicated that He is indeed fully and actually God. And so here, saying that Jesus was found “in human form” indicates that He is also fully and actually man as well.

And in this form, as the God-man, we read that Jesus “humbled Himself”. This means that Jesus, though being God Himself, thought nothing too low or beneath Him to perform in obedience to His Father. And when I say nothing, I most certainly mean nothing. For as we read here, He did not even count experiencing death, something that only fallen creation is forced to endure, to be beneath Him. Humbly, Jesus submitted to dying, when it was His Father’s will that He do so.

This was not something that was forced upon Jesus, no, it was what Jesus chose to obediently perform. And the death that Jesus willingly, obediently died was no ordinary death, no, it was “death on a cross”!

As we conclude our exposition this morning, I want to read an excerpt from the ESV Expository Commentary on this verse, from a man named Benjamin L. Merkle. Concerning Jesus’ death on the cross, we read:

“The cross was deemed an especially appropriate death for rebels and slaves because it was designed not just to kill but also to shame. The victim was stripped down to no (or few) clothes and typically nailed to the cross through the ankles and wrists (or, sometimes, fastened with ropes). Death would come by suffocation, when the victim could no longer lift himself to draw breath. This excruciating pain and shame was common to all who were crucified, but Jesus’ suffering on the cross is unparalleled and unequalled because he bore the terrible curse of sin (Gal. 3:13) and suffered the awful wrath of God as an atoning substitute and sacrifice (Rom. 3:21–26). The cross is the measure of Jesus’ humility, the lengths to which he was willing to go in obedience to his Father. Even the lowest position possible was not too low for the humble mind of Christ. Only the greatest humility (the lowest mind-set) could willingly accept the lowest place possible. He was not too proud to wear our skin or bear our sin.”[1]

Beloved, if Christ Jesus, God Himself could so humbly serve God the Father, though equal to Him, then shall we not, members of the body of that same Christ, humbly serve one another?

[1]Benjamin L. Merkle et al., Ephesians–Philemon, ed. Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar, vol. XI, ESV Expository Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 154.