LITERAL COMMENTARY
Phil 2:1-2 If there is, therefore, any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of charity, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels of mercy:
If any comfort is to be expected by me from you in Christ, if any consolation may be hoped for from your charity, if there is among us any communion in spiritual things through Christ—whose members we are—if there is in you any feeling of compassion toward me, your Apostle, bound in chains for the sake of Christ: then fulfill and complete the joy which I have conceived from your excellent beginnings, by your agreement and concord, being united in mutual charity, joined in mind and purpose.
Phil 2:3-4 Do nothing through contention nor out of vain glory, but in humility, esteeming others better than yourselves. Let nothing be done with a contentious spirit or from a desire for empty glory, but with sincere humility regard others as superior to yourselves—especially in what pertains to the gifts of grace and virtues. Let each of you not consider his own interests, but those of others. Let no one place his private advantage before the utility and salvation of his neighbor (Greek: τὰ τῶν ἑτέρων, “the things of others”).
Phil 2:5-7 For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Be so disposed toward one another as Christ Jesus was toward us all.
Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Since He was by nature God, He did not think it an usurpation to be equal with God, as though He had seized something not His own and therefore needed to humble Himself by laying it aside.
But He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and found in appearance as a man. Rather, He willingly cast Himself down into the lowest state, assuming the form of a servant—that is, human nature—becoming man, like other men in nature. In all things that appeared to the eyes of mortals—His body, actions, weaknesses, and sufferings—He was recognized as a true man.
He did not regard equality with God as robbery, because He did not consider as чужое (something чуждое / alien) what was His by birth; yet He sought not His own advantage but ours. He emptied Himself, not by losing the form of God, but by taking on the form of a servant. For that divine nature is not changeable, such that He would empty Himself by losing what He was, but rather by taking on what He was not—not by consuming what was His, but by assuming what was ours.
Theological Notes on Verses 6-7 (Against Heretics): In the source this notation appeared in the margin,
"Did not consider equality with God something to be grasped," because He did not consider it alien to Himself, which He was by birth, but nevertheless seeking our things, not His own.
[Against Arians:] Athanasius, Oration 4 against Arians; Chrysostom, Commentary: "He emptied Himself, not losing the form of God, but taking the form of a servant." For that nature is not mutable so that He emptied Himself by losing what He was, but by accepting what He was not; nor by consuming His own, but by assuming ours.
[St. Hilary,] On the Trinity, Book 5, etc.
Phil 2:8-11 He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death—even death on a cross. He was not humbled by others nor compelled, but humbled Himself beyond measure: Christ, the Son of God, became obedient to the decree of the Father, to undergo death for the redemption of the human race—death on a cross, which is the most cruel and most shameful kind of death. “Unto death” encompasses the whole course of His life and death.
Therefore God also exalted Him and gave Him a name which is above every name. Because of the merit of His humility, obedience, passion, and death, God raised Him to the highest summit of glory—exalting Him as man above all the heavens, giving Him all power and dominion in heaven and on earth, over all angels and men. He also granted that He who from eternity was the true Son of God might be acknowledged everywhere and by all.
This is that name of which the Apostle elsewhere says that He sits at the right hand of Majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did He ever say: “You are My Son; this day I have begotten You”? And again: “I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son.” When He humbled Himself, He not only did not lose what He had as God, but also received something as man.
So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow—of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. That is, all who exist anywhere—whether in heaven, on earth, or in the underworld—should recognize Jesus as God and the Son of God, submit themselves to Him, and adore Him: willingly, as the holy angels and the righteous; or unwillingly, as demons and the wicked.
And every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. That is, all should acknowledge and confess that Christ has the same glory as the Father; or, that all should recognize and confess Christ as the Lord of all—such confession being to the glory of God the Father.
Theodoret of Cyrus observes that many heresies are refuted by these and the preceding verses: those who blaspheme the divinity of the Only-Begotten, those who deny His humanity, and those who confuse the divine Persons.
He refutes Sabellius, Photinus, and Paul of Samosata by showing two Persons. For he says: “Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.” No one is said to be equal to himself.
He also shows that Arius and Eunomius speak blasphemy by these same words. For he did not say, “who was made in the form of God,” but “who was in the form of God,” and he added, “did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.” For it is characteristic of those who seize what belongs to another to boast of it. But God the Word is by nature God: He was in the form of God and did not regard equality with God as something stolen, for He possessed this equality by nature.
If they say that the “form of God” is not the substance of God, let them be asked what they understand by the “form of a servant.” For they do not deny, as Valentinus, Marcion, and Mani do, the assumption of flesh. Therefore, if the form of a servant is the substance of a servant, then the form of God is likewise the substance of God.
Thus we may also question those who introduce mere appearance or illusion. The “form of God” is the substance of God—they will certainly admit this, since they do not deny that Christ is God. Therefore, let us reason: if the form of God is the substance of God, then the form of a servant is likewise a substance. And so those who think otherwise will, by what they admit, be forced to confirm what they do not wish to confess.
Finally, the divine Apostle, teaching humility, set forth the example of Christ. For if the Son were not equal but inferior to the Father, then He would not obey in humility, but merely perform His duty.
MORAL COMMENTARY
Phil 2:1-2
"If therefore there is any consolation in Christ, if any solace of charity, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels of mercy… Fulfill my joy, that you be of the same mind, having the same charity, being of one accord, thinking the same thing."
For those whose one head is Christ Jesus, whose one life is namely charity, whose one soul is namely the Holy Spirit, whose one bowels are namely mercy, their sentiment is one, their end is one, their heart is one. The sum of all Christian discipline is placed in charity, concord, and peace. Every commandment is about love alone, and all are one precept, because whatever is commanded is solidified in charity alone. Although it is a great thing to have right faith and sound doctrine, and although circumcision of the throat, gentleness of meekness, purity of chastity are worthy of much praise, nevertheless all virtues are null without charity, nor can anything be called fruitful in any excellence of morals which has not brought forth the offspring of love.
Whence in the Gospel of John the Lord says: "By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). And in the Epistle of the same Apostle it is read: "Beloved, let us love one another, because charity is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. And he who does not love does not know God, because God is charity" (1 John 4:7-8). Therefore, let the minds of the faithful examine themselves, and let them judge the inmost affections of their heart by a true examination; and if they find something placed in their consciences from the fruits of charity, let them not doubt that God is in them. And that they may be more and more capable of so great a Guest, let them become larger through the works of persevering mercy.
For if love is God, charity ought to have no limit, because divinity can be closed by no end. Charity consoles the afflicted not by human reasons, but by the words and examples of Christ. "If any consolation in Christ." Charity initiates fellowship not with carnal and impious men, whom our Savior indicates by the name of "the world," but with spiritual men, that is, those living according to the Spirit, according to the law of the Gospel. "If any fellowship of the Spirit." Charity grieves with the evils of neighbors by an intimate affect. "If any bowels of mercy."
Inner joy, consent, and concord of counsels, wills, and studies are the fruits of charity. Love of the same God, of the same Christ, of the same Gospel, of the same Church, of the same Pastors and Preachers brings forth consent, concord, and unanimity. Conversely, men of diverse loves are drawn apart into diverse counsels and studies. "Having the same charity, being of one accord, thinking the same thing." The concord of the flock is the joy of the Shepherd. "Fulfill my joy." He yields with a generous spirit to all solace and aid which he can justly expect from the sheep, provided they love one another. He counts their concord as a benefit, and accepts it just as if he had obtained mercy from them. "If any bowels of mercy… be of the same mind, having the same charity, being of one accord."
Phil 2:3
"Do nothing through strife or vain glory, but in humility esteem others superior to yourselves."
There are four sources of dissensions, disagreements, and contentions:
Excessive love of private opinions and the desire of prevailing.
The cupiditas (greed) for human glory.
The appetite for domination and prelation.
The study of private advantages.
Therefore, that peace and concord may be preserved, which Christ Jesus wished to reconcile by His Incarnation, let every Christian:
Distrust his own sense, let him not love his own opinions too much, let him not delight in singular sentiments, especially in matters of Religion, nor strive to be famous for singularity. For hence comes a lapse into contentions and new dogmas. "Nothing through strife." Concerning questions and fights of words, it is the mark of a weak soul to languish. "It is an honor for a man who separates himself from contentions; but all fools are mixed up with contumelies" (Prov 20:3). In contests which do not aim at making faith or morals better on either side, let us yield that we may conquer, just as athletes who often extort victory from adversaries pressing supreme upon them by depressing themselves to the ground.
Let the Christian, lover of peace, flee vain glory, let him not seek celebrity of name, praises and applauses of men, let him not desire them. For the cupiditas of vain glory is the mother of contentions. Hence come fights and litigations, hence envy and the study of conquering, hence the refrigeration of charity. When we love the glory of men, then we serve the honor which is exhibited by many; then all these things happen. For it is by no means lawful for one serving glory to be also a genuine servant of God. "Nor through vain glory." Each one is the more similar to God, the cleaner he is from this immundicity. Although in this life it is not eradicated from the heart fundamentally, because it does not cease to tempt even well-proficient souls, at least let the cupiditas of glory be overcome by the love of justice, so that if anywhere lie things which are disapproved by anyone, if they are good, if they are right, even the love of human praise blushes and yields to the love of truth. For this vice is so inimical to pious faith, if the cupiditas of glory is greater in the heart than the fear or love of God, as the Lord said: "How can you believe, who expect glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that is from God alone?" (John 5:44). Likewise, the Evangelist says concerning certain who believed in Him and feared to confess openly: "They loved the glory of men more than of God" (John 12:43).
The true Christian ought to love submission, to wish to prefer himself to no one nor be preferred. "But in humility esteeming others superior to yourselves." It is not about the excellence of ranks, honors, natural talents, as we have said, but of probity and virtues. Nor should he think thus of others simulately, but truly and from the soul, however much he may seem to have progressed in virtues. He who surpasses another in the gift of virginity, let him think that perhaps that one surpasses him in patience, meekness, humility, piety, charity. Even if he sees others to be worse than himself in external actions, nevertheless let him estimate that there is something occult in them according to which they are superior to himself. "For the heart of man is inscrutable, and who shall know it?" (Jer 17:9). Finally, even if perhaps you are better according to present justice, you ought to esteem another who appears worse externally to be perhaps better than you according to eternal predestination. If you think these things, you will not be great in your own eyes. For you ought to think more about what you lack than what you possess. "What you have, take heed lest you lose it; what you do not yet have, pray that you may have it." You must think about in how many things you are lesser, not in how many you are greater. For if you think how much you have surpassed another, fear swelling. But if you think how much is still lacking to you, you will groan; and when you groan, you are cured; you will be humble, you will walk safer, you will not be precipitated, you will not be inflated.
Phil 2:4
"Not looking to their own things individually, but also those of others."
Finally, the true Christian, for preserving peace, ought always to postpone his own conveniences and emoluments to the conveniences and emoluments of others, and indeed to the public good. "Not looking to their own things individually, but those of others." For when I seek what benefits you, and you indeed what benefits me, neither is place left for vain glory, nor for contention, nor for any evils, but here life is angelic and divine. Those who are so affected not only please God but also men. For there is no greater bond of pleasing men than that no one wishes to please those whom he pleases for his own sake, because what is effected for the progress of private utility cannot but sometimes excite some offense from accidental causes, since what is useful to one often becomes inconvenient to another. But he who wishes nothing for his own sake and exercises all things for the progress of another's utility, necessarily acquires for himself a cause of inoffensive placability, because he pleases from another's utilities and does not offend from his own. And the Apostle taught that this is a probable cause of pleasing all, because neglecting his own utility he had given himself to another's utility.
Phil 2:5-7
"For 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 something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and in appearance found as a man."
Nothing more just is required from servants than that they imitate the Lord of all; nothing more equitable is postulated from members than that they have the same affections which they know to have been in their Head; nothing more reasonable from Christians than that they express the humility and obedience of Christ Jesus in themselves. The Only Begotten Son of God did not plead His divinity and equality to the Father in all things so as to avoid infinite humiliation and abjection, but "He emptied Himself," made similar to us in all things except sin, and by nature a servant, so that He might free servant men, contumacious and rebels from the servitude of sin and the devil, and promote them to the status of sons. "Taking the form of a servant." He renounced all the rights of His body's glory, and willed it to be suspended throughout His whole mortal life, so that He might be able to suffer and die for us, and recall us to His unity. "And in appearance found as a man."
How grave a wound of human pride, which could only be cured by God's emptying Himself! Because of vice, because of this great sin of pride, God came humble. This immense disease of souls drew the omnipotent Physician from heaven down to the form of a servant; He humbled Himself, acted with contumelies, suspended Him on wood, so that this tumor might be cured by the salvation of so great a medicine. Now at last let man blush to be proud, for whom God was made humble. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," whose humility is to be despised by no rich man, to be blushed at by no noble. For no human happiness can be raised to such a summit that he should estimate it shameful for himself, what God remaining in the form of God did not consider unworthy. Imitate what He wrought, love what He loved, and you will find the grace of God in you. Love His nature in you again, because just as He did not lose riches by poverty, did not diminish glory by humility, did not lose eternity by death, so you also by the same steps, by the same footprints, that you may apprehend heavenly things, despise earthly things.
Phil 2:8
"He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."
In Paradise humility failed, and therefore He came from heaven. In Paradise disobedience arose, and therefore obedience descended with the Savior. The flesh was swelling, whence the subjection of meekness could not be found on earth; the Lord Jesus coming first emptied Himself that He might restore humility on earth. Since therefore we must first be deposited from the vanity of pride to humility, so that rising thence we may hold solid height, this could not be inspired to us so magnificently as blandly, so that our ferocity might be settled not by force but by persuasion, unless that Word by which God the Father indicates Himself to the Angels, which is His Virtue and Wisdom, which could not be seen by the human heart blinded by the cupidity of visible things, deigned to act and show His Person in man. So that man might fear more to be extolled by the pride of man than to be humbled by the example of God. The Son of God was made man so that humility might be consecrated, so that it might be deified, so that it might be more glorious to be humbled with God than to be proud with man, so that nothing could be ambited more illustriously than to be abjected with God and to lie in the lowest things.
Therefore, not Christ decorated with earthly kingdom, nor rich with earthly opulence, nor prefulgent with any earthly felicity, but Christ crucified is preached through the whole orb of lands. What the peoples of the proud laughed at before, and still the remnants laugh, the peoples believed before, few now, because then to the faith of the few and against the derision of the peoples, when Christ crucified was preached, the lame walked, the mute spoke, the deaf heard, the blind saw, the dead rose. So finally terrestrial pride noticed that there was nothing in terrestrial things itself more powerful than divine humility, so that even most wholesome human humility might protect itself against pride insulting it by the patronage of divine imitation. Man exalted himself and fell; God humbled Himself and raised [him]. Nor did He humble Himself only so that He might heal the wound of human pride, but truly also He was made obedient, the form of a servant having been assumed, so that He might expiate the disobedience of man. Made Mediator of God and men, "He was made obedient unto death," because the first man was made disobedient unto death. For where a great penalty of disobedience is proposed and a thing easy is commanded by the Creator, who can sufficiently explain how great an evil it is not to obey in an easy matter and by the command of so great power and by so terrifying a supplice? Finally, in the penalty of that sin, what was retributed to disobedience except disobedience itself? For what is the other misery of man except his own disobedience against himself, so that because he willed not what he could, he wills what he cannot? Christ washed away the debt of so grave disobedience by His obedience, "made obedient unto death."
To what point was He made obedient? Unto the Incarnation of the Word, unto the participation of human mortality, unto the threefold temptation of the devil, unto the derision of the Jewish people, unto spittle and chains, unto blows and scourges. If it is little, "unto death." And if still something concerning the genus of death is to be added: "Even the death of the cross." We have such an example of humility, a medicine for pride. What do we owe to God emptied for us, to God obedient for us, to God dying for us, to God crucified for us, except humility, obedience, mortification and crucifixion of our flesh through penance, death of our cupidities and vices, our life, our blood?
Phil 2:9-11
"For which cause God also exalted Him, and gave Him a name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow…"
The glory of Christ Jesus corresponds to His humiliations, obediences, labors, passions, death's ignominy and bitterness. With what punishments are they worthy who humble Him sitting at the right hand of the Father and crowned with glory and honor by their pride and other crimes, as much as is in them, and dishonor Him, so far are they from glorifying Him? Let us believe to His glory and let us live to His glory; for without the one the other is of no utility. For when we glorify Him in words but do not live rightly, then especially are we contumelious to Him, indeed we who bear Him as Lord and Master by the inscription itself before us, nevertheless we despise Him nor do we dread that terrible tribunal. Indeed for Gentiles to live impurely is neither to be wondered at nor worthy of so great a supplice; but for Christians, partakers of so great Mysteries and sharers of so great glory, to live so impure a life, this surpasses all improbity.
Christ descended to the last offices of obedience, therefore He arrived at that high degree of honor; He was made a servant, therefore He was made Lord of all, and of the Angels and all others. Wherefore let us not think that we are cast down from the state of our dignity when we have humbled ourselves. For then rather are we truly carried into the sublime, then especially are we worthy that we be looked up to. There is no other method of attaining glory than to flee glory. If you wish to be in glory, do not concupisce glory; if you wish to be high, do not elevate yourself into the sublime. We tend to great things, let us take small things, and we shall be great. Do you wish to grasp the height of God? First grasp the humility of God. When you have grasped His humility, you rise with Him, not as if He Himself rises according as He is the Word, but you rather, that you may be more and more grasped by Him. Consider the tree; it seeks the lowest parts first so that it may grow upward. It fixes its root in the humble so that it may tend its vertex to heaven. Does it strive unless from humility? But you, without charity, without humility, wish to comprehend high things; without a root you seek the airs. This is ruin, not increment.
Phil 2:10-11
"That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow… And every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father."
He does not adore Jesus Christ as is fitting who does not love Him. He bends the knee to Him in vain who reveres Him coerced by servile fear, as the demons who believe Him to be the Son of God and tremble. He truly worships Him and bends the knees of his heart to Him who submits himself to Him by chaste and religious love, as the celestial Spirits. True adoration is the submission of our will to the will of God and the law of Christ Jesus. The work of the tongue of the heart confesses and praises Jesus who imitates. Praise worthy of His height is a life animated by His charity. "And every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father."
CONTINUE
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