Dwell in the Word Philippians 2:1-11

Think on these questions while you dwell in Philippians 2:1-11:

Certainly! Here are three questions based on the provided content:

1. How does Paul emphasize the theme of humility in this passage, particularly in relation to the example set by Jesus Christ? How does this perspective challenge the world's conventional understanding of success and self-elevation?

2. In what ways does Paul highlight the paradoxical nature of Christ's journey from exaltation to humiliation and back to ultimate exaltation? How does this narrative shape our understanding of God's redemptive plan and His choice of instruments for His glory?

3. Why is it significant that Jesus' act of humility and subsequent exaltation serve as the foundation for our faith and salvation? How does this story challenge our expectations of how God chooses to work and save humanity? How might it impact the way we approach serving others in humility?

Transcript:

As I said, this is a well-known passage of scripture. What is amazing here is that it continues this theme that Paul has been having, that things aren't exactly the way the world expects here. Paul has this idea that suffering is a good thing, and he continues here that humility is a good thing, to be humble is a good thing. We want to build ourselves up. Our egos want to amplify us. But here Paul tells us that if we're going to have the mind of Christ Jesus, we need to be thinking about humility. Look at what he says here. Look, even though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped. Instead, he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. In other words, God himself, God the Son, took on human flesh and came to Earth. It's always the other way around. We feel that we need to go up to God. We need to elevate ourselves to God's level. How would God dirty himself and come here among us and become one of us being born in the likeness of humans? Not only that, but being humbled and being obedient to the point of death.

Notice what it says, even death on a cross, the most humiliating way to be executed that we could probably ever think of. It's just totally humiliating. He's humbled to that point that he even accepts death in that way. Death on a tree is a curse, but he took that curse for you and me. And so, we need to have this mind of Christ. And what does that mean? That means that we humble ourselves, we serve one another and we look to Christ to have that type of mindset. We think, boy, there Christ was glory of heaven, God, the Son. But he descended to us. He descended to me. He took on human flesh for us. It was so that I could be saved. And so, we then are not above serving others, right? We have this mind of humility and of faith where we remember what the Lord Jesus did. And so, we then mimic him. We try to be like him. We be Christ-like in the same way that he was being humble. But look at what it did. It's amazing what Paul does here with the language. He takes Jesus down, but then that's the reason that he is brought up.

Amazing here because he says, Therefore, God is highly exalted and bestowed at him the name that is above every name. Because he was humble, because he went to the cross in his death, he is now exalted above everything. It is his humiliation that causes him to be glorified. He is glorified at the cross. It's bloody. It's ugly. He is humiliated. He is burying the sin of the world there. And so, he now is glorified. So that the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that he is Lord. How amazing is that? That he is humbled, but then he is exalted. But this is what God does. This is how he works. He doesn't work in the things that are flashy. We expect those things. But as you look throughout scripture, he chooses the lowly. He chooses those who have been humiliated. He forgives wretched sinners and uses them for His glory. And because of what Christ has done, because he is now exalted and he is the name by which we are saved and he is Lord, we have trust that he has accomplished our salvation for our good and His glory.

What an amazing story. It goes against what we would expect every last time, but it is how God was at work to save you. And so may we be humbled by that story today. May we think about what God did for us, that we might humble ourselves and serve others, and that we might bring praise to the one who every knee will bow to, and every tongue will confess that he is Lord.