Jesus-H-Christ
Short answer: Philippians 2:5-11 calls believers to share the mindset of Jesus Christ, who, though truly God, humbled himself by becoming human and obeying to the point of death on a cross. Because of that obedience, God highly exalted him and gave him the name above every name, so that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The passage is one of the clearest statements in Scripture of both the deity and the genuine humanity of Jesus, and of his lordship over all creation. It does not merely tell us facts about Jesus; it commands us to adopt his humble, self-giving disposition in our relationships with one another. The flow moves from eternal glory to incarnate humility to universal exaltation, and every stage is presented as grounds for how Christians are to think and live.
What Philippians 2:5-11 Actually Says
Paul introduces the passage with a command: Philippians 2:5 says, "Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus." The context, beginning in verse 1, is unity and humility among believers. Paul is not offering abstract theology; he is addressing a congregation tempted toward selfish ambition and vain conceit. He points to Christ as the pattern and the power for a different way of relating.
The verses that follow trace a movement. Christ Jesus existed in the form of God but did not grasp at equality with God as something to exploit. Instead he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. Being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. This is not a story of a good man becoming divine; it is the eternal Son assuming a human nature and walking the path of obedience.
Then the passage turns. God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The one who humbled himself is now universally acknowledged as Lord. The whole sweep is presented as the ground for the Christian's own humility, and as a confession the earliest church apparently sang.
The Mind of Christ Is Not a Generic Attitude
It is easy to flatten Philippians 2:5 into a general call to be nice. Paul means something more specific. The mindset he commands is shaped by the actual story of Jesus, not by a vague ideal of servanthood. To have the mind of Christ is to think about status, rights, and advantage the way he did in his incarnation. He did not cling to the privileges that were rightly his; he laid them down for the good of others.
This does not mean believers are to pretend they have no legitimate needs or boundaries. It means the default posture of the heart is not self-protection but self-giving. In the Philippian church, two women were in conflict, and Paul urged them to be of the same mind in the Lord. The doctrine of Christ's humility becomes the practical engine for reconciliation in a local congregation.
So the call is not to imitate a moral example from a distance but to live out of a relationship with the risen Lord. The same Lord who humbled himself is the one who now lives in his people by the Spirit. The command is therefore both a pattern to follow and a grace to receive, and Paul treats it as normal Christian experience rather than heroic exception.
What It Means That Jesus Is Truly God
Philippians 2:6 assumes something profound: Christ Jesus existed in the form of God before he took on human flesh. The phrase does not mean he merely resembled God or reflected God's glory as a creature might. It places him in the divine mode of existence. When Paul says he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, he is not denying that equality; he is describing how Christ refused to exploit it for his own advantage.
This is why the New Testament elsewhere speaks of Jesus in terms that would be idolatrous if applied to a mere creature. John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Colossians 1:15 calls him the image of the invisible God and the firstborn of all creation, and Hebrews 1:3 describes him as the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his nature. These passages together establish that the humility of Philippians 2 is the humility of one who is genuinely divine.
This matters because the value of Christ's obedience depends on who he is. If he were only a man, his death could not bear the weight of sin for others. If he were only God and not man, he could not represent humanity or die. The passage holds both together without confusion, and the church has confessed this unity of person and distinction of natures ever since.
What It Means That Jesus Is Truly Human
The same passage that affirms Christ's deity also affirms his real humanity. He took the form of a servant, was made in human likeness, and was found in human form. These phrases are not poetic decoration; they assert that the Son entered fully into human existence. He did not appear to be a man while remaining something else. He became what he had not been before, without ceasing to be what he always was.
Because he is truly human, his obedience is a human obedience. He learned obedience through what he suffered, as Hebrews 5:8 puts it. He faced temptation and did not sin. He experienced weariness, hunger, grief, and the fear of death. His death on a cross was a real death, not a semblance. The humility of Philippians 2 is therefore not the humility of a distant deity pretending to stoop; it is the humility of one who genuinely took the lowest place.
This also means Jesus can sympathize with our weaknesses. He is not a remote example we cannot approach. He is a high priest who has passed through the heavens and yet knows what it is to be human. The call to have his mind is a call to follow one who has walked the road ahead of us, not to imitate an abstraction.
From Humiliation to Exaltation
Philippians 2 does not end at the cross. God highly exalted him and gave him the name above every name. The exaltation is God's response to Christ's obedience, and it is public and universal. Every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. This is not merely a future hope; it is the present reality that the church proclaims and by which she lives.
The name that is above every name is likely the title Lord, which in the Greek Old Testament translates the divine name. To confess Jesus as Lord is to place him in the position that belongs to God alone. Paul explicitly says this confession is to the glory of God the Father, so the exaltation of the Son does not compete with the Father's glory but displays it. The triune God is glorified in the Son's lordship.
This means the humility of Christ is not a story of loss that ends in loss. It is the path to genuine exaltation. The one who descended is the one who ascended, and his lordship now governs all things for the church. The passage gives believers both a pattern to follow and a Lord to trust, and it grounds their unity in the shared confession that Jesus is Lord.
Confessing Jesus as Lord in Romans 10
The lordship Paul celebrates in Philippians 2 is the same confession that saves in Romans 10. Romans 10:9 says, "that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." The confession is not a formula muttered without understanding; it is the heart's allegiance expressed in speech. To call Jesus Lord is to renounce every rival claim and to entrust oneself to him.
Paul goes on to say that the same Lord is Lord of all and is rich to all who call on him, and that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This is not a narrow ethnic message but a universal invitation. The exalted Christ of Philippians 2 is the accessible Savior of Romans 10. The one before whom every knee will bow is the one who hears the cry of anyone who calls on him, and he does not turn away those who come.
So the doctrine of Christ's person and work is not abstract. It lands in the everyday act of calling on the Lord in faith. The humility of Christ and the exaltation of Christ together make salvation possible and make it available. The believer's confidence rests not in the strength of their own confession but in the character of the Lord they confess.
Testing Spirits and the True Christ
Because the identity of Jesus matters so much, the New Testament warns against counterfeit versions of him. 1 John 4:1 says, "Beloved, don't believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." The test John gives is whether a spirit confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Any teaching that denies the real incarnation is not from God.
This is why Philippians 2 functions as a doctrinal test as well as a moral example. A Christ who was not truly divine cannot save; a Christ who was not truly human cannot represent us. The humility of the cross and the exaltation of the name both depend on the full truth of who Jesus is. The church has always had to guard this confession, and she still must.
Testing the spirits does not mean suspicion toward every teacher or a posture of endless doubt. It means holding every claim up to the apostolic witness about Jesus. The Christ of Philippians 2 is the standard. Where a teaching diminishes his deity, his humanity, his atoning death, or his lordship, it fails the test, no matter how sincere or impressive it sounds.
Biblical fidelity check
Philippians 2:5-11 establishes several things clearly. It establishes that Christ Jesus existed in the form of God before his incarnation, that he took on human form, that he obeyed to the point of death on a cross, and that God exalted him and gave him the name above every name, so that every knee will bow and every tongue confess him as Lord. It establishes the pattern of humility for believers and grounds Christian unity in the shared confession of Christ's lordship. It does not, however, explain the mechanics of how deity and humanity are united in one person, nor does it use later technical terminology for the Trinity or the two natures. Those formulations are faithful summaries of what the passage and the wider New Testament teach, but they are not themselves found verbatim in this text.
A common misreading treats Philippians 2:7 as teaching that Jesus ceased to be God or emptied himself of his divine attributes. The text does not say that. It says he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, not by subtracting deity. Another misreading treats the passage as merely a moral example with no doctrinal content. But the example only works because of who Jesus is. Faithful Christians have differed over how to describe the self-emptying and over the precise relationship of Christ's two natures, and it is honest to acknowledge that. What the passage does not permit is denying either his true deity or his true humanity.
Other passages that speak to Philippians 2:5-11
Several related studies help place this passage in the wider biblical witness. For the practical outworking of Christ's lordship in ordinary life, see Colossians 3:17 Meaning: Do Everything in Jesus' Name. For a classic pastoral treatment of coming to Christ, see Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ: A Bible Study from C. H. Spurgeon's Classic Sermon. For the doctrinal shape of Christ's two natures in one person, see Hypostatic union: Jesus Christ as one person in two natures: A Biblical Guide. For a book study that traces the same themes, see Colossians Bible Study: Seeing Jesus in Colossians.
Frequently asked questions
What does it mean to have the mind of Christ?
Having the mind of Christ, as Philippians 2:5 commands, means adopting the same disposition Jesus showed in his incarnation. He did not grasp at his rights or privileges but humbled himself for the good of others, even to the point of death on a cross. For believers, this means a default posture of self-giving rather than self-promotion, especially in relationships within the church. It is not a demand to have no needs or boundaries, but a call to put the interests of others ahead of our own and to trust God with our status. This mindset is both a pattern to follow and a grace received through union with Christ.
Does Philippians 2 teach that Jesus stopped being God?
No. Philippians 2:6 says Jesus existed in the form of God before his incarnation, and verse 7 says he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, not by ceasing to be divine. The passage describes the Son adding a genuine human nature and walking in humility, not subtracting his deity. He remained fully God while becoming fully human. This is why the New Testament can call him Lord and say that every knee will bow to him. If he had ceased to be God, his death could not save anyone, and the exaltation that follows in verses 9-11 would make no sense.
Why does every knee bowing to Jesus matter?
Philippians 2:10-11 says that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. This language echoes Isaiah 45:23, where God says every knee will bow to him alone. Paul applies it to Jesus, which is one of the strongest statements of his deity in the New Testament. It matters because it means Jesus is not merely a good teacher or a moral example; he is the Lord of all. His lordship is universal, and the confession of it is to the glory of God the Father.
