It seems every word in Philippians 2:5-11 is theologically important . That Jesus “emptied himself” is one of the most discussed since it is not immediately clear what it means to become empty when one is “the form of God.”
The meaning of “emptied” is important here. The verb (κενόω) refers to setting the status described in verse 6 in order to be obedient. While there is a great deal of theological weight placed on this word, it usually focuses on how Jesus (as God) could set aside certain attributes of God while he lived as a human. I do not want to downplay those discussions, but they do distract from what Paul’s main point is in the cultural context of the Roman world of the first century.
The phrase is better understood in terms Roman status, especially in the practice of wearing the toga by Roman elite. Jesus set aside his honor and prestige as “form of God” when he became the “form of a servant.” Perhaps the use of the toga in the Roman world illustrates what Paul may have had in mind. The toga was a sign of elite status in the Roman world. Hellerman makes the point that this would be equivalent to a Roman senator setting aside his toga (his mark of status) and taking on the rags of a slave (also a mark of status). Because of that humble obedience, Jesus is exalted to the highest status imaginable, even above the emperor of Rome! That Jesus is called Lord is counter to a Roman world where Caesar is Lord and worshiped as a god (Embracing Shared Ministry, 167).
So when he “he emptied himself.” Jesus “divested himself of his prestige or privileges” (BDAG). It is as if he voluntarily set aside his toga, the sign he was the highest ranking Lord in the universe. Rather than divesting himself of divine attributes, the idea Paul has in mind the humility Jesus had in the incarnation, so much so that the God of the universe could set aside that status in order to serve others.
Rather than having the form of God, Jesus took on the form of a servant. The ESV translates this as servant, but it is the same word as “slave,” the lowest possible social class in the Roman world.
Jesus therefore set aside the toga, and picked up the rags of a slave. By way of analogy, think of the Roman emperor stripping himself of the finest clothing available to a Roman citizen and putting on the stained and flea-infested rags of the lowliest slave. (Think of the the rags of Dobby the House-Elf!) Just as the status of a Roman citizen was evident by what they wore, so too the clothing of a slave signal his status. Even a slave with some social standing would not dress in a toga!
The social status of a servant was always viewed negatively in the Roman world. In modern western culture, a person at a store might say something like “I am at your service” in order to indicate their willingness to help someone. In the Roman world, this would be a shameful expression; the social status of a servant was not worth considering. Yet Jesus was by nature God and he voluntarily took on the nature of a human.
This idea of a “leader as a servant” or “God as a servant” would be counter-cultural in the first century. A leader would not be humble nor would they ever consider serving others of a lower social class. The modern church is used to hearing about “servant leadership” and Christians are continually encouraged to serve in their churches and communities. Like the church at Philippi, members of local churches still struggle to serve others with “the mind of Christ.”
This would have been such a hard thing for people to understand back then, especially in the Roman culture where slaves were seen more as property than as human beings. However, I think that the fact that Jesus came as a slave instead of a king should give us some insight on how we as Christians should live. As Christians, we are constantly being told to follow Jesus’ example, and I think that this is one of the most important ways to do so. Jesus came as a servant, and so we should make ourselves servants to those around us. We should be willing to go out of our way to help others, and to put the needs of others before our own, because that is what Jesus did. I think that this can be really hard for us though, because we live in a culture that tells us we should be living for ourselves, and only doing things that will make us happy, regardless of how that effects our relationships with others. We also live in a world that puts a big emphasis on our status, usually based off of wealth. Almost everyone wants to get a good job and make a lot of money, and if we have those things, it can be hard not to flaunt them and raise ourselves up because of them. As Christians, we need to really make an effort to change our mindsets to that of a servant, and we must be willing to serve others and not show off the material things of this world that we may have.
I may be wrong, but I feel like lessening ourselves to serve others in the church is becoming more and more “popular” if you will. It is becoming a normal concept to humble yourself in order to serve those around you. Just as Christ humbled Himself to the lowest social status despite his divine nature and powers and he completely emptied himself of this status to lift others up. Although this is something often discussed and encouraged in the church today, I feel like we still have not grasped the concept of what it truly means to trade our riches for rags for the benefit of others. We might give a little bit up of our riches (that being money, time, clothing, food, etc) but I feel like we don’t fully practice emptying ourselves as Jesus did. Christians often give just enough so that they are still comfortable, but are still giving SOMETHING up for the needs of others, almost for the appearance of doing good and being servants. We need to remember how drastic it was for Jesus Christ to turn in His glory and riches and status for dirty, filthy, rags. He resorted to shame, mockery, and embarrassment to serve those around him. The Son of God chose rags over riches and that is the least we can do. We do not and never will have the status that He had, but however highly we think of ourselves or others think of us, we must humble ourselves and give up that status to be down in the dirt with the needy, lifting them up.
We have a savior that gave it all for us so we could live forever. I know that our sinful nature is the reason that we struggle to have a servant’s heart, but we need to stop using that as a crutch. We are sinners and we know this, but we continue to beat it like a dead horse. The fact that we know this needs to make us better and push us to have a servant’s heart like Jesus. There is no me in Jesus, but there is an “us” and that is how we are able to make it in this world. We make it by taking care of each other. We stop making excuses and start making friends. Those who have nothing and need shelter are the responsibility of us Christians. Christ was there and washed the feet of his disciples. What a beautiful visual of being humbled to do something that no one would expect the king of kings to do. We are so blessed to have the chance to even be close to how humble Jesus was in that moment. We need to start focusing on the “us” in Jesus because that is who Jesus is always focused on.
I found this blog very important I find many people and even myself struggle with this sometime. We are so focused on materialistic things that we tend to focus on I stead of what truly in reality becomes important because in the end all of that materialistic stuff is coming with us. Jesus put aside his toga what would have labeled him higher class but that wasn’t what he found important so he set it aside. This world is tough that is kind of where we are headed in a way I think like for example when people say it’s not what you know it’s who you know which I think is relatable o this situation because many people are being labeled but no one is really higher than another which is what Jesus is trying to get across with the toga and him putting it aside or just not wanting to stand out.
I like what P long said at the end about a “Leader as a servant” this idea of servant leadership is what I was taught to be most affecting a respectful. This is why we should model ourselves after Jesus.
Jesus had made himself nothing by being crucified sounds like the ultimate way for a king to humble himself to show his love for us. In a previous blog post, P Long talks about how humiliating crucifixion is, and how it was strange for the messiah to be crucified. Jesus took on the role of a servant or a slave. This to Rome is a low ranking. According to P long, slaves were the workforce, their life wasn’t terrible like we view slaves in America, but they still had no rights. As Jesus took on this role, it was pathetic to the roman empire.
Jesus humbling himself to be a servant and dying on the cross to me has so much great power. The king of the world humbled himself to take all of our sins and dies with the sin of the world, then to be resurrected leaving our sins behind. The idea of Christianity only makes sense to Christians because of how countercultural the whole idea is.
This whole ideology of clothing is still very prevalent in today’s society. People want the newest things to look like they are rich by wearing specific brands like Gucci and Prada while they look down on someone for wearing the Wal-Mart brand of clothing or clothing from a thrift store. It is very interesting to watch how these things change throughout time yet hold the same value. These things like clothes hold the same value yet the newest trends change every so often and people try to look as if they are up to the highest status. One person that people know to be very popular and have a high status in today’s society is Adam Sandler. He is one of the biggest actors and directors that we know today, yet he doesn’t look that way. There are many memes which talk about all of Sandler’s riches, yet he still dresses like he just rolled out of bed. Matthew 6:19-21 talks about how we should not worry about the treasures of this earth, the toga that represents high social status, because that will one day will be destroyed as it doesn’t last forever. Yet the verse continues on to say that we should focus on the things that will not be destroyed, treasures in heaven. This is the whole purpose of what Jesus did when he came to this earth. He understood what was important and what wasn’t, obviously being the son of God, but he wanted to show others that we don’t have to worry about these things in order to serve others. Romans 6:23, the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ. We don’t have to fit in, social status doesn’t matter, and we don’t have to be perfect in order to receive this gift because it is for every single one of us. We can all accept Christ and live our lives to serve others and show His work through us. Some people don’t get to experience the word of God, they don’t get to read the book of Acts or the book of Proverbs, so I must live my life for God and show them why I am the way I am because all they get to see is the book of Justin.
I really liked the way this blog was thought out and worded. It helped shine light on a different perspective that seems to often be overlooked. For Jesus to “empty” himself and lower himself to a standard considered beneath him and lowly, was to do the unimaginable. Like stated above, status and social standing was important to those in Roman culture, purposefully “demoting” yourself was unheard of.
Today the world is so fixated on materialistic items, their social status, and how important they are to others we sometimes forget what it is like to walk in someone else’s shoes, what it is like to see life through their eyes. Serving others is big in churches today, churches do strive to set that example for the congregation and the outside community. “I am here to serve you” or “What can I do for you” are not unheard of statements in the church. But I do feel like people say these out of obligation or because it is what they are told to say. It’s like having a conversation with someone and asking how they are doing, do you really care or is it the polite thing to ask when talking to someone? Are you listening attentively enough to be prepared if they actually do go against the norm and talk about how life is actually going for them? For some church goers and Christians I don’t think we are.
Jesus willingly and intentionally took off his “toga” and took on the “slaves” clothes in order to, in my opinion, bring himself to a status that would allow those who felt ignored and less than perfect to come to him and listen. Today, the churches and Christians should strive for that level of humility. Most of the time outsiders don’t feel comfortable coming to a new church or approaching Christianity because of the attitudes and atmosphere Christians can create. If we would humble ourselves as people and as a community, the church would be a more inviting place for people through all walks of life, all social statuses and reputations…but first we must shed the toga and put ourselves in their shoes.
It is very interesting to think that back in the Roman world for an elite to be like a servant is viewed negatively, but Jesus changed the perspective of how to live, which is being humble helping/serving others. It would also be quite interesting to see a wealthy CEO trade their personal tailored suit to a homeless person with their cheap hand me downs. As Paul teaches that we are to “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5). For when we get more “Christ-minded”, we in turn might live as He has lived (Longenecker and Still, 201).
This actually reminds me of the time in youth group when we went to someone’s house to pray for them. After the prayer, the lady complimented my leader’s earrings to which she responded “you want them?” and proceeded to take them off and handed it over to her and accepted them. My leader did this without any expectation of getting anything in return.
Back to the Greco-Roman era, a friendship relationship society was based on reciprocity (Long, 133). To give/do something for someone and expect something in return is common knowledge and behavior from a friend as well as an enemy. So Paul had to break that stigma to practice more humility and humbleness; much like a servant.
Philippians 2:7-8 looks at how Jesus emptied Himself for the sake of others. Jesus willingly chose to become a servant even though He did not have to. By Jesus becoming a servant to others, He became a part of the lowest social class in Roman society. Mark 10:45 says that Jesus came to serve and to give His life as a ransom for mankind. Jesus sets the standard for how Christians should live. We should not use the life that God has given us to glorify ourselves, but rather we should use our lives to bring glory to God. Christians are called to use the freedom that they have in Christ to lovingly serve others (Galatians 5:13). By doing so, we are following the example that Jesus set for us.
In today’s society, it is not always easy to be a servant for the Lord. There are so many things that can keep us from it such as technology, mental health, the opinions of others, and just overall busyness. However, serving God is always the right thing to do. Even when it was not feasible, Jesus still chose to empty Himself for the sake of others. Jesus did not care what others thought of Him because He knew the bigger picture: becoming a servant for mankind served the greater good. Christians can take assurance in knowing that serving God is not easy, but it is always worth it.
This passage really points out the importance of “dying to ourselves” as Christians. Christ stepped down from His place of glory and emptied Himself for us. This reminded me of Matthew 19:21-24 when Jesus instructs the young man to sell all of his possessions and follow him. In a way as Christians, we are called to empty ourselves to God in the same way Jesus did. There are a couple different reasons for this but a big one is so that we can “make room” for God. If we are so connected to our worldly possessions that takes up our time, mental space, and it takes up room in our heart. But when we let those idols and possessions go, it empties our heart so that we can be filled with the Holy Spirit. Longenecker also points out how Christ willingly emptied himself for the will of God and so that he could come to earth can live a perfect life for our sake (Longenecker, 2014). Instead of remaining in the form of God, Christ willingly turned into a servant. As Christians we are to submit to God as His servants for the sake of furthering His kingdom. Like I said earlier, it is imperative that we empty our hearts of all of the other things that are taking up space in order to make room, so that we can be filled with Christ.
There are many instances in the Bible where clothing is mentioned to show prestige or social class ranking. A few examples that come to mind include Lydia in Acts 16:14, who was a prestige woman in Phillipi who sold purple cloth. Purple cloth was a sign of wealth, worn by people in high positions such as the Emperor of Rome. In the Old Testament we see that Jospeh was given a coat of many colors, signifying his position as the favorite child (Genesis 37:3). And in Exodus there are many instructions on what the Levitical priests were to wear such as purple linen (39:1), hats and sashes (28:40), and a golden breastplate (Leviticus 8:7-9). On the other hand, the Bible also describes those who were in lowly positions to wear such things as rags, such as the time of when Jesus was born and was wrapped in scraps of linen (John 19:40). Therefore, for a modern reader, it can be hard to draw the conclusion of the point that Paul is trying to make in Philippians 2:7-8 where he talks about Jesus laying down his royal prestige to become like one of us, the lowly. In Roman culture, robes or togas signified wealth and a slave would be known by their rags. For Jesus to be able to empty himself to such a lowly state, He showed us how we should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought but to be willing to be humble and lowly (Romans 12:3).