Philippians 2:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He created them not from goodness, but because He needed glory from us. Do you see the folly? Do you see the impiety?

But when the Apostle said this of the incarnate One, he had reason for it. The Word of God allows such things to be said of the flesh.

All this does not touch the divine nature, but belongs to the divine economy of the Incarnation. After this, there remains no forgiveness for those who maliciously claim that these words refer to the Godhead.

Thus, when we say, “God made man immortal,” I know what I am saying, although I speak of the whole.

What does “of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth” mean? It means the whole world: angels, men, demons, righteous, and sinners.

He who entered into the world (Heb 1:6), becoming the firstborn from the dead, both from the brethren by faith and from all creation, will again enter into the world (Heb 1:6).

Then, as the prophecy says, He will judge the world in righteousness (Ps 9:8). He will not lay aside the name Firstborn, which He once assumed for our sake.

But just as “at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth,” so before Him who comes under the name Firstborn the fullness of all the angels will bow.

They will rejoice in the calling of men, whom He, by becoming firstborn from among us, has again called to the original grace. In Greek: πρωτότοκος.

When we were in such bitter captivity and were held by invisible and bitter death, the Master of all visible and invisible creation was not ashamed. He humbled Himself.

He assumed man, condemned by the passions of dishonor, by the prohibition, and by the Master’s sentence upon him. He became like us in all things except sin, that is, except the passions of dishonor.

What came upon man as punishment for the sin of transgression by the Master’s sentence, namely death, labors, hunger, thirst, and all such things, He assumed.

He became what we are, that we might become what He is. “The Word became flesh, that flesh might become Word. Being rich, He became poor for our sake, that through His poverty we might become rich.”

Through His great love for mankind He became like us, so that through every virtue we might become like Him.

For since Christ came, the truly new man is renewed according to the image and likeness by the grace and power of the Spirit. He reaches the measure of perfect love, which casts out fear and is no longer subject to falling.

“For love never fails” (1 Cor 13:8), because “God,” says John, “is love, and he who abides in love abides in God” (1 Jn 4:16).

The Apostles were counted worthy of this measure. So were those trained in virtue like them, who presented themselves perfect to the Lord and followed Christ with perfect desire throughout their whole life.

Therefore, if you always contemplate without forgetting such humility, which the Lord assumed in His ineffable love for mankind and out of love for us, consider the indwelling of God the Word in the womb.

Consider His assumption of man, His birth from a Woman, the stages of bodily growth, dishonor, vexations, reproaches, mockeries, insults, beatings, spitting, derision, abuse, the scarlet cloak, and the crown of thorns.

Consider the sentence passed upon Him by the rulers, and the cries against Him by the lawless Jews, His own kinsmen: “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him” (Jn 19:15).

Consider the Cross, the nails, the spear, the drink of vinegar and gall, the triumphing of the Gentiles, and the mockery of those who passed by and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, come down from the Cross... and we will believe in You” (Mt 27:40).

Consider the other sufferings which He endured for our sake: crucifixion, death, the three-day burial in the tomb, and the descent into Hades.

Then consider the fruits of the sufferings, what they are and how great they are: the resurrection from the dead, the captivity of Hades and death, and the souls that came forth from there with the Lord.

Consider the ascension into heaven, the sitting at the right hand of the Father “above every Principality and Power... and every name that is named” (Eph 1:21).

Consider the honor and glory, and the worship of all the Angels before the Firstborn from the dead, because of His sufferings, according to the apostolic word.

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a Cross. Therefore God also highly exalted Him and gave Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth,” and so forth (Phil 2:5-10).

Do you see the consequences of the sufferings spoken of above, according to the righteousness of God? Do you see to what glory and height they raised the Lord’s humanity?

We are raised from the dead and enter the heavens, ‘where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us’” (Heb 6:20).

Concerning the name above every name, one may say without doubt that this name is “Son of God.” The Apostle Paul testifies to this, and he also explains which of the heavenly beings worshiped Him as seated at the right hand of the Father (cf. Rev 5:12-13; Heb 1:3-6).

The exaltation of Jesus Christ was forever. Therefore the worship of Him understood here is not only that which took place at His Resurrection and Ascension.

It is also the future worship, which will be completed by the worship of the chief inhabitants of Hades, the evil spirits. They must do this out of fear (Jn 2:19; cf. 2 Pet 2:4; Jude 1:6).

The envier of human blessedness led men into the temptation of sin and thereby turned them away from God. But the incarnate Son of God, the God-man, again brought men to the heavenly Father.

By this the whole work of the devil will be abolished, and the glory of God will be restored. In the person of the exalted God-man, it will reach its highest measure and degree.

All this will be accomplished through the self-abasement of the Son of God. From this the Philippians must understand how important and necessary humility and self-abasement are in general.

They must also understand how beneficial it can be if one imitates Christ in it. “Therefore let us believe in His glory and live for His glory. For one without the other is useless.”

Blessed Theodoret notes that in the confession of Jesus Christ as God-man by all beings endowed with speech, the Father too will be glorified.

He says: “If the confession of Christ as Lord glorifies the Father, then it is clear that those who call Him a creature and a servant cover the Begetter with dishonor.

By these few words the divine Apostle overthrew every heresy, both those who blaspheme the Godhead of the Only-begotten and those who deny His humanity.”

According to blessed Theophylact, “The glory of the Father consists in this: that He has such a Son, to whom all things are subject.”

And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion unto the ages of ages” (cf. Rev 5:12-13).

“Let every knee bow” with divine worship, because of the hypostatic union of humanity with the Godhead in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

By the words “of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth,” the whole creation is expressed. The heavenly are the angels, the earthly are the living men, and those beneath the earth are the dead, as blessed Theodoret says.

St. Chrysostom says: “That is, the whole world, angels, men, demons, righteous, and sinners.” All this followed of itself, for the incarnate One is God the Son.