The Call to Humility and Unity
Study note
Paul appeals to everything the Philippians have experienced in Christ, comfort, love, fellowship of the Spirit, tenderness and mercy, as the motivation for unity. The antidote to division is not organizational strategy but a transformed mindset that considers others as more important than self. This radical other-centeredness sets the stage for the Christ hymn that follows as its ultimate illustration.
1 Being joined to Christ brings you comfort. Love gives you courage. The Spirit makes a bond between us. You have warmth and kindness for each other. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
2 then fill my cup of joy to the very top! Think the same way, share the same love, and be completely united in heart and purpose. Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
3 Never do anything because you are selfish or because you want to look important. Instead, be genuinely humble and treat other people as if they are more important than you are. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
4 Do not watch out for your own needs. Pay attention to what other people need too. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
The Christ Hymn: Descent and Exaltation
Study note
This passage, likely an early Christian hymn, is one of the most theologically profound texts in the New Testament. It traces Christ's journey from equality with God, through voluntary self-emptying and incarnation as a servant, to the lowest point of death on a cross, and then to the highest point of exaltation above every name. The pattern of descent before ascent, humiliation before glory, becomes the template for all Christian life and service. The declaration that every knee will bow and every tongue confess Christ's lordship points forward to the final consummation of God's purposes.
5 Think and act the way Jesus Christ did. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Even though Jesus was fully God, he did not cling to his equal status with God. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 Instead, he emptied himself of all his privileges and took on the role of a servant. He became a real human being. But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And once he became human, he lowered himself even further. He obeyed God all the way to death -- even the horrible death of being nailed to a cross. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9 Because of this, God lifted him up to the highest place and gave him the name that is greater than every other name. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10 At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow down. Everyone in heaven, on earth, and under the earth will bow. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 Every voice will say openly that Jesus Christ is Lord. This brings glory to God the Father. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Shining as Lights in the World
Study note
Paul draws the practical implications of the Christ hymn: believers are to work out their salvation with reverent seriousness, empowered by God who works within them. Living without grumbling or arguing is the way Christians shine as lights in a morally dark generation. Paul's willingness to be 'poured out like a drink offering' on their faith echoes Christ's own self-emptying, showing that the apostle practices what he preaches about sacrificial service.
12 My dear friends, you have always obeyed -- and not just when I was there with you. Now that I am away, work on living out your salvation even more seriously, with deep respect and reverence for God. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 Remember, it is God himself who is working inside you. He gives you both the desire to do what is right and the power to do it. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without grumbling or fighting. Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
15 so that nobody can criticize you. Be innocent and pure, God's spotless children living in a world full of crooked and messed-up people. Among all those people, you shine like stars lighting up the night sky! That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
16 Hold tightly to the message of life. If you do, I will be able to celebrate on the day Christ returns, knowing that all my running and all my hard work counted for something. Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.
17 And even if my life is poured out like an offering on top of the sacrifice your faith is making, I am filled with gladness. I celebrate with all of you. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.
18 You should feel the same gladness and celebrate right along with me. For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me.
Timothy and Epaphroditus: Examples of Selfless Service
Study note
Paul holds up two living examples of the Christ-like mindset he has been describing. Timothy is unique in genuinely caring for others' interests rather than his own, a direct application of verses 3-4. Epaphroditus nearly died carrying out his mission to serve Paul on behalf of the Philippians, modeling the kind of self-sacrifice described in the Christ hymn. By commending these two men, Paul shows that the pattern of humble service is not theoretical but can be lived out in everyday relationships and ministry.
19 If the Lord Jesus allows it, I hope to send Timothy to you soon. That way I will be encouraged when I hear how you are doing. But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state.
20 I have no one else like Timothy who truly cares about what happens to you. For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.
21 Everyone else seems to be chasing their own goals instead of focusing on what matters to Jesus Christ. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's.
22 But you have seen Timothy's character for yourselves. He has worked beside me like a son works alongside his father, serving together to spread the good news. But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel.
23 So I plan to send him as soon as I know how things will go for me. Him therefore I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me.
24 And I trust in the Lord that I myself will be able to come to you soon as well. But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly.
25 But for now, I felt I had to send Epaphroditus back to you. He is my brother, my co-worker, and my fellow soldier. He is also the messenger you sent to take care of my needs. Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants.
26 He has been missing all of you badly, and he was deeply upset when he found out you had heard about his sickness. For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick.
27 He truly was sick -- dangerously close to dying. But God showed him mercy, and not him but me too, so I would not have to deal with one heartbreak on top of another. For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.
28 Therefore I am especially eager to send him. When you see him, you will be filled with joy again, and I will not have to worry so much. I sent him therefore the more carefully, that, when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.
29 Give him a hero's welcome in the Lord, full of happiness! People like him deserve the highest honor, Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation:
30 because he almost lost his life doing the work of Christ. He put himself in danger to do for me what you could not do because you were far away. Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.