Philippians 2:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

How do you Marcellians say that the Word is a power and not an essence? The divine essence is called “the form of God,” just as the nature of a servant is called “the form of a servant.”

And how do you, Samosatian, say that He began His existence from Mary? For He preexisted in the divine form and essence.

But see also how Sabellius falls. “He did not consider it robbery,” says the Apostle, “to be equal with God.” “Equal” is not said of one person. If one is equal, one is equal to someone.

Thus it is clear that two persons are being spoken of. Arius too is refuted in many ways: by “the form of God,” that is, the essence.

He did not say “having come to be,” γεγονώς, but “being,” ὑπάρχων. This is like the saying, “I am He who is” (Ex 3:14).

And: “He did not consider equality with God a thing to be seized.” Do you see the equality? After this, how do you say that the Father is greater and the Son lesser?

Yet see the senseless obstinacy of the heretics. They say that the Son, being a lesser God, did not consider it robbery to be equal to the great God.

But first, what Scripture teaches us that there is a lesser and a greater God? The Greeks teach this.

That the Son also is great God, hear what Paul says: “awaiting the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Tit 2:13).

Then, if He is lesser, how did He consider it robbery for Himself to be great?

Moreover, Paul, intending to teach humble-mindedness, would have been absurd if he taught this: because a lesser God did not rise up against a greater God, you also must humble yourselves before one another.

For what humility is it when the lesser does not rise up against the greater? That is merely weakness.

Humility is this: that He, being equal and equal in power with God, voluntarily became man. Enough, then, on this point.

Next, see what Paul says: “He did not consider it robbery.” When someone has seized something, he fears to lay it aside, lest he lose what does not belong to him.

But when one possesses something by nature, he easily disregards it, knowing that he cannot be deprived of it. Even if he seems to relinquish it, he will receive it again.

Thus the Apostle says that the Son of God did not fear to abase His own dignity. He possessed it, that is, equality with God the Father, not by robbery.

Rather, He knew this dignity to belong to His own nature. Therefore He chose abasement, since even in abasement He preserves His greatness.

He who is free by nature becomes, for our sake, in our nature. He who is above every creature comes even to death, though He gives life to all.

He is the bread of life, who will give His life for the life of the world (Jn 6:51). He who is above the law, and as God is the Lawgiver, came under the law together with us.

He who is above birth, in His birth and in His beginning, accepts an allotted portion. He who is before all ages and time is, moreover, the maker and creator of the ages.

If the Son, “being in the form of God” and in equality, as Paul says (Phil 2:6), has God and the Father as His God by nature, then the divine nature may fall under such definitions.

The Father too will have a God, if this has not already happened. For what can happen, even if it has not yet been accomplished, exists potentially as that whose possibility is admitted.

But if this is blasphemous, then the Father is not called the God of the Son by nature, but because the Son became man according to the divine economy.

If the Son, “being in the form of God” and in equality, as it is written, “humbled Himself, taking the form of a servant, and was found in appearance as a man” (Phil 2:7), then the humble words fitting a servant do not refer to His essence.

Rather, they clothe the person of His becoming man. As from the height of the Godhead we know His humility in the humanity He assumed, so also the reverse is true.

From His humility in humanity we shall know the majesty rooted in the Godhead and the height of the Son’s essence.

In the form of a servant, which He assumed, the Son is less than the Father. In the form of God, in which He also remained before assuming the form of a servant, the Son is equal to the Father.

What poverty is greater than for God to be in the form of a servant? What humility is greater than for the King of beings to enter into communion with our poor nature?

The King of kings and Lord of lords willingly clothes Himself in the form of a servant. The Judge of the universe becomes subject to tribute under those who rule. The Lord of creation dwells in a cave.

He who contains all things finds no place in the inn, but is laid in a manger of irrational beasts. The Pure and Whole One takes upon Himself the defilement of human nature.

Having borne all our poverty, He even comes to the trial of death. Do you see the measure of voluntary poverty?

Life tastes death. The Judge is led to the tribunal. The Lord of the life of all that exists is subjected to the judgment of a judge. The King of all the power above the world does not turn away the hands of the executioners.

In this example, says the Apostle, let the measure of humble-mindedness be seen by you.

“For,” he says, “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be seized, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant” (Phil 2:5-6).

What is more lowly for God than the form of a servant? What is more lowly for the King of the universe than willingly to descend to participation in our poor nature?

The King of kings and Lord of lords clothes Himself in the form of a servant. The Judge of all is subjected to authorities. The Lord of creation finds shelter in a cave.

He who holds all things in His hand finds no place in the inn, but is laid in the manger of irrational creatures. The Pure and Uncorrupted One does not reject the impurity of human nature.

Having passed through all our poverty, He comes to the tasting of death itself. Consider the measure of voluntary poverty.

Life tastes death. The Judge is led to the tribunal. The Lord of all the living is subjected to the sentence of a judge. The King of all power above the world does not withdraw from the hands of servants.

In this, he says, let the measure of your humility behold its example.

Correcting this ignorance, or rather this folly, the divine man and teacher of ineffable mysteries says: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be seized, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant.”

That is, He did not appropriate the Godhead and kingdom to Himself. Rather, before the ages He possessed them unbegottenly, and He did not suppose that He could lose them.

As Master of the things above heaven, of the things on earth, and of the things beneath the earth, He did not leave the heights, yet He came to us.

He descended even to Hades, so that, being everywhere, He might save all everywhere. On earth He renews both those who live and those who will live.

Under the earth He frees from the dominion of death those held by it.

By the words “taking the form of a servant,” he indicates that God the Word was united with human being, not with a hypostasis or person.

For he did not say that He took the form in the definite form of an existing servant. Otherwise he would have shown that the Word was united to a man who had previously existed hypostatically.

This is what Theodore and Nestorius impiously blasphemed, calling the union relational.

This partly confirms the meaning of the word μορφή. It indicates inward and complete likeness between things, not an outward or accidental likeness consisting, for example, in position, actions, and so on.

Thus man, created according to the image and likeness of God (καὶ εἰκόνα καὶ καθ᾽ ὁμοίωσιν), is called the image (εἰκών) of God on earth.

He is so called by his position, as king of the earth, and by his lordly relation to other earthly creatures. Yet he does not possess the properties and essence of the Godhead.

If Christ also were the image of God only in the same sense as man, He could not be called equal to God, just as man is not considered equal to God.

Then this Son of God, without changing in His being, actions, or properties, becomes man and becomes the Son of Man.

It is clear that this Man, who is God, is the highest of men and the most perfect being. No one can be compared with Him, because God could be united only with such a man as possessed all the perfections proper to His nature.

According to the Apostle’s word, precisely He who was “being in the form of God” took upon Himself “the form of a servant.” That is, He assumed human nature into the unity of His person.

He Himself emptied Himself, “being made in the likeness of men,” and He Himself “was found in appearance as a man.”

In order truly to serve as a propitiatory sacrifice to God for the sins of humanity, and to deliver us from all the destructive consequences of sin, Christ the Savior deigned to fulfill two conditions for us and to bear a twofold cross.

Since men, in the persons of their forefathers, did not fulfill the will of God and did not obey the commandment of their Creator, they fell through self-will and pride.

Since each of their later sins was a new transgression of God’s will, a new disobedience, and a new expression of self-will, Christ the God-man deigned to make satisfaction for all these human sins before eternal Righteousness.

In their place, He Himself fulfilled for men the will of God in all its wholeness and breadth. He revealed in Himself the most perfect example of obedience to it.

For our sake He humbled and abased Himself to the last degree. “Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire,” He said to His Father when entering the world, “but a body hast Thou prepared for Me.

In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hadst no pleasure. Then I said: Behold, I come; in the roll of the book it is written of Me, to do Thy will, O God” (Heb 10:5-7).

And immediately after this, He, “being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be seized, 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” (Phil 2:6-8). This is the first cross borne for us by our Savior.

It is the cross of His voluntary self-denial for our sake, of His deepest humility, and of His unconditional obedience and submission to the will of God.

For since the days of His Resurrection and Ascension, thousands of witnesses have seen how the heavenly powers obediently fulfilled His commands.

They have also seen how the powers of Hades, by His name, were cast down into the abyss. Millions born on earth find their blessedness in worshiping His name.

After this, and before men gathered precisely to bow before the name of Jesus, we may spare ourselves the labor of defending and justifying His abasement.

Nothing prevents us from beholding His abasement with the same reverence as His majesty.

Oh, how the Son of God humbled Himself in His Incarnation! This abasement should strike us all the more because it stands in a kind of opposite correspondence to man's original exaltation.

For the word of God does not use the same expression without purpose when depicting these opposites: image and likeness.

"Let Us make man," said God the Creator, "according to Our image and according to Our likeness" (Gen 1:26).

And the Apostle says of the Incarnation of the Son of God: "Taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man" (Phil 2:7).

Some earthly lord does not need to humble himself much in order to appear in the form of a servant.

But when the great and most high Lord, who grants even to His servants a lordly image, Himself appears in the form and likeness of a servant, the matter is different.

He appears in a state of complete servitude and in the deep humiliation proper to servitude. Such an extraordinary abasement of the Great One cannot be viewed without a special feeling of wonder.

That wonder extends either to compunction or to awe. In this very way the Son of God humbled Himself in His Incarnation.

But how much more did He abase Himself in the circumstances of His earthly birth! A people had to be chosen among whom He would be born.

He chose for this the least of all the nations of the earth. It had no government of its own, had been enslaved many times, and was near to a new enslavement.

Once blessed, it was already almost rejected. A city had to be chosen, and He chose Bethlehem.

It was so small that even the prophet favorable to it cannot conceal this reproach against it. He finds no other means to magnify it except by the name of the abased Jesus born there.

"And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephrathah, are you too little to be among the thousands of Judah? From you shall come forth for Me the ruler who is to be Prince in Israel, whose goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity" (Mic 5:2).

A mother had to be chosen. To conceal the mystery of the Incarnation from unbelievers for a time, a supposed father had to be joined to her by the bonds of law, though not of flesh.

And behold, those chosen are royal descendants, so that promises and prophecies might be fulfilled. Yet one is a carpenter, and the other a poor orphaned virgin.

And what more? If the Lord had been born in Joseph's small dwelling, whether his own or rented, and Mary had laid Him in a poor cradle, the form of a servant assumed by Him might not have had every possible feature.

For there could have been a servant's dwelling smaller than Joseph's, and a cradle poorer than Mary's.

What, then, does the infinitely Great One devise, seeking infinite abasement? By the hidden springs of Providence, the spirit of Augustus is moved.

By the spirit of Augustus the whole world is moved, that is, the whole Roman Empire, or at least all Judea.

Through the general movement of the people occasioned by the census, Joseph could neither remain in his own dwelling in Nazareth nor find a rented one in Bethlehem.

This happened when the time came for the true Lord of the universe to be born. Thus He who humbled Himself even to infancy abased Himself even to a manger instead of a cradle.

"She laid Him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn" (Lk 2:7).

If from the God who humbles Himself we extend our gaze further through the world in which, and for which, He humbles Himself, the wonder of abasement will show us new and striking forms.

Here there comes to my mind the image of the descent of the Word of God from heaven to the land of Egypt, drawn by the writer of the book of Wisdom.

"When quiet silence held all things, and night was in the midst of her course, Thy all-powerful Word, O Lord, leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, a stern warrior into the midst of the doomed land" (Wis 18:14-15).

And in the descent of the incarnate Word of God into the land of Israel, was not night likewise in the midst of its course?

For at the very moments of His birth, "there were shepherds in the same country, keeping watch and guarding their flock by night" (Lk 2:8).

Did not quiet silence hold all things on earth, when only one angelic voice was heard, and heard by only a few shepherds in the wilderness?

Terrible was the obscurity in which the punishing Word of God descended upon the doomed land of Egypt, to "fill all things with death" (Wis 18:16) through the striking of Egypt's firstborn.

Yet that obscurity did not diminish the glory of God the Avenger. Rather, it magnified it.

Without visible means or tangible actions, by one unheard command, or, one may say, by a single silence of the Word who speaks life to all, He accomplished the punishment of the impious.

Different, yet no less terrible, is the obscurity in which the saving Word of God comes, being born in the flesh, to visit the whole earth.

The earth is doomed because all born on earth have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).

He comes not as a stern warrior threatening every living thing with death, but as a newborn Infant bringing hope of regeneration and life into the whole realm of death.

He comes, yet the doomed earth does not meet Him, embrace Him, or glorify Him. It does not even see its Savior or hear the Word of God, silent in the manger.

Almost in vain does the glory that Jesus Christ had with God the Father before the world was (Jn 17:5) pursue Him, as He descends into the world, in the mouths of angels.

It reaches after Him even to the earth. Yet on the doomed earth there are almost no ears, not deafened by vanity, capable of hearing it.

Almost in vain does the wisest and most renowned of the stars complete its extraordinary journey, to point out the Sun of righteousness shining through deep night.

Scarcely two or three men are found capable of understanding this sign and ready to follow it. Even these are among those sitting in the darkness and shadow of death of paganism and star-worship.

And Judea, where God is known (Ps 75:2)? She does not know that God was manifested in the flesh (1 Tim 3:16).

And Jerusalem, the city of God (Ps 86:3)? She is not in joy with Christ, who came to save, but in turmoil with Herod, who seeks to destroy.

And the chief priests and scribes, who should have been especially near to God and His mysteries through prayer and understanding of the law?

They answer the learned question beautifully: "Where is the Christ to be born?" (Mt 2:4). They are so satisfied that they find no need to take further care and learn whether He is actually being born.

Thus not only at midnight of natural time, but in an equally deep night of men's ignorance and forgetfulness of Thee and Thy judgments, Thy all-powerful Word, O Lord, descended from heaven.

From the royal thrones He descended into the midst of the doomed earth. And although almost no one glorifies Him, no one knows Him, and no one seeks to know Him, He does not utter a punishing command.

Rather, He keeps silence in saving long-suffering for those who are perishing.

Thus He not only humbled Himself, being in the form of God, equal to God, and being God. He also received a new form of abasement from the ignorance and negligence of those for whose love He humbled Himself.

Let us marvel, Christians, at the voluntary abasement for us of our great God and Savior. Yet this is still little. Let us reverence His abasement, yet even this is not enough.

"Let this mind be in you," the Apostle teaches us, "which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil 2:5).

Have the same dispositions that Jesus Christ had. Order yourselves as He was ordered. What does this mean?

The Apostle himself explains it by what he joined before the saying cited: "Do nothing through rivalry or vainglory, but in humility of mind let each esteem the other better than himself" (Phil 2:3).

From this it is clear that, according to the example of Jesus Christ, he teaches us not to think highly of ourselves or be exalted by any advantages.

Rather, we must humble ourselves both within ourselves and before others.

Let the man who has servants remember Him who took the form of a servant. Let him not diminish by contempt those whose lot is low.

Having been raised above them by God, let him not exalt himself by pride.

Let the man who lives in a splendid house, rests on down, and dresses in silk remember the cave and the manger, and the rough swaddling bands corresponding to them.

Let him not despise those who live in huts, sleep on straw, and dress in rags. Perhaps they are more like Christ than he is, not only outwardly, but also inwardly.

"Let the rich man boast," the Apostle James teaches, "in his humiliation" (Jas 1:10).

And the man who, in the Apostle's expression, rests on the law, boasts in God, knows His will, and approves what is excellent, being instructed from the law (Rom 2:17-18), must also take heed.

Ah, even he who boasts, let him boast in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31). Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall (1 Cor 10:12).

Above all, let him not condemn the ignorant or mock those who fall. Christ is "the light that enlightens every man coming into the world" (Jn 1:9).

Perhaps the one whom you see sitting in darkness and the shadow of death will soon be illumined by this light more brightly than you are.

Perhaps he is already being illumined inwardly, in the realm of the spirit. Perhaps the Magi of the pagan East seek Christ more zealously than you, and will precede you in finding Him.

Perhaps tax collectors and harlots go before you into the Kingdom of God (Mt 21:31).

Meekness, simplicity, humility, condescension toward those below us, which makes itself equal to the least of them, tranquility in humiliation, and patience unconquered by any insults: let this mind be in you, as it was also in Christ Jesus. Amen.

In relation to this, speaking in a human way, there is also a norm of being in God. Whoever has this norm of divine being is God, just as whoever has the norm of human being is man.

Here the Apostle says of the Lord and Savior that according to the norm of being He is God. His being, essence, and nature are divine.

Chrysostom explains this by comparing the expression “being in the form of God” with the expression “taking the form of a servant.” Here “form of God” is μορφη, and there “form of a servant” is also μορφη.

But there “form of a servant” means human nature. Therefore here “form of God” also means divine nature.

Against Arius he directs his speech thus: “Arius says that the Son has another essence. But tell me, what do the words ‘taking the form of a servant’ mean? They mean, he says, that He became man. Therefore ‘being in the form of God’ means that He was God. For in both places the same word, form, is used. If the first is true, then the latter is also true. To be in the form of a servant means to be man by nature. To be in the form of God means to be God by nature.”

A little later he returns to the same point and says: “I said that the form of a servant is true and lacking nothing. So also the form of God is perfect and lacking nothing. Therefore the Apostle did not say, ‘having been in the form of God,’ but ‘being.’ This expression is equivalent to the words, ‘I am He who is’ (cf. Ex 3:14). Form, as form or norm, shows perfect likeness. It cannot be that someone should have the essence of one being and the form or norm of another. For example, no man has the form or norm of an Angel. No irrational creature has the form or norm of man. So it is with the Son. Only, since we are composite, form or norm in us refers chiefly to the body. In the simple and wholly uncompounded One it refers to the essence, that is, to the noetic and spiritual essence.”

“He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.” He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. It was not through unlawful appropriation that He held Himself equal with God, ισα υεω, exactly on one level with God.

Rather, His own nature and essence were divine.

Chrysostom says: “The dignity of being equal to God was not something stolen by Him, but natural. Therefore the Apostle did not say, ‘He did not seize,’ but, ‘He did not count it robbery.’ That is, He had authority not stolen, but natural; not given, but constantly and inalienably belonging to Him.”

The heretics, Chrysostom further observes, distorted this passage and conveyed its meaning perversely. They see here the thought that, according to the Apostle, the Lord, being less than God, did not dare to place Himself on a level with God.

“They say: being a lesser god, He did not wish to equal the great and highest God. So you introduce pagan teaching into the dogmas of the Church? Among the pagans there is a great and a little god. Whether there is such a thing among us, I do not know. But you will find it nowhere in Scripture. You will find the Great One everywhere, but nowhere a little one. For if He is little, what kind of God is He? One who is little is not God. In Scripture the true God is everywhere called great: ‘Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised’ (cf. Ps 47:2), and similar passages. But they say: this is said of the Father, while the Son is a little god. You say this, but Scripture says the opposite. It speaks of the Son as it does of the Father. Hear what Paul says: ‘awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God’ (cf. Tit 2:13). Is this said of the Father? By no means. The words immediately added by the Apostle do not allow this: ‘of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.’ Behold, the Son too is great. Why then do you speak of little and great? Know that the Prophet also calls Him the Angel of great counsel. Is the Angel of great counsel not great? Is the Mighty God (cf. Jer 32:18) not great, but little? How then do the shameless and audacious say after this that He is a little god? I often repeat their words so that you may withdraw still farther from them.”