Emptying Ourselves

Scripture — Philippians 2:3-8 (CEB)

Don’t do anything for selfish purposes, but with humility think of others as better than yourselves. Instead of each person watching out for their own good, watch out for what is better for others. Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus:
Though he was in the form of God,
he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.
But he emptied himself
by taking the form of a slave
and by becoming like human beings.
When he found himself in the form of a human,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.

Devotion

Last week, we began to examine a stunning passage in Paul’s letter to the Christians in Philippi. This six-verse passage, sometimes called a “Hymn to Christ,” is a poetic portrayal of the “grand story” of Christ. Paul includes this hymn in his letter in order to show the Philippians what it means to “watch out for what is better for others” and why they should do this. Thus, this passage contributes significantly to this devotional series: Living and Leading for the Good of Others.

As we noted in last Wednesday’s Life for Leaders devotion, the hymn in Philippians 2 begins with a striking affirmation of the deity of Christ. He was not just an inspired human being, but a person who was “in the form of God” or, as the NIV puts it, “in very nature God” (2:6). Christ was not merely created in God’s image, like all human beings, but “equal to God” in a unique way (2:6).

Now, when we remember that Paul was a deeply committed Jew, the fact that he affirmed that a human being was God was shocking. Jews simply didn’t do this sort of thing. Yet the earliest Christians, almost all of whom were Jewish, did indeed affirm the deity of Christ.

Paul’s Philippian audience may have been less shocked by this, however. For Jews, the barrier between humans and God was never breached. For Gentiles in the Greco-Roman world, however, this barrier was not nearly so impervious. It’s likely that some of the Philippian Christians would have been less unsettled by Paul’s assertion of the deity of Christ than a predominantly Jewish church would have been.

For the Gentile believers in Philippi, however, the next part of the story of Christ would have been astonishing and utterly counterintuitive. You see, the Greco-Roman gods tended to act in line with their privilege and self-interest. They were always seeking what was best for themselves: their power, their pleasure, their glory. So, it would have been natural for Gentile believers to assume that, if Christ was God, then he would surely pursue what was best for himself. That’s what “gods” did in those days.

But that’s not how the story goes. In fact, it goes in precisely the opposite direction. As we saw in last Wednesday’s devotion, Christ “did not consider being equal with God something to exploit” (2:6). He did not assume that being God gave him the right to grasp and protect all of his advantages. Rather, as verse 6 continues, “But he emptied himself by taking the form of a slave and by becoming like human beings” (2:7). The phrase “becoming like human beings” does not mean Jesus only appeared to be human (one of the earliest Christian heresies known as Docetism). Christ didn’t just look like a human being. He became fully human.

Now, if people from the Roman world might not have been scandalized by the breaching of the divine-human gap, the “taking the form of a slave” line would have unnerved them. This was not the sort of thing the gods did. They would not choose to be like people of the lower classes. They would not give up their glory and power even if they were to live on earth as human beings.

Christ’s taking the form of a slave is portrayed as something that happened when he “emptied himself” (2:7). Unfortunately, Paul didn’t add a footnote explaining exactly what he means by this. We wonder: What exactly did Christ empty himself of? What did he put off when we became human? Some early Christians thought that Christ actually emptied himself of his deity. The human Jesus was fully human, but not divine. Only later did Jesus become divine once again. This notion of emptying was rejected by the faithful early Christians who affirmed that Jesus was both fully God and fully human.

But of what, then, did Jesus empty himself? What did he put off if not his deity? Other English translations help to answer this question. For example, the NLT reads, “he gave up his divine privileges.” Similarly, the Message says, “he set aside the privileges of deity.” When the Word of God became incarnate in Jesus Christ, he took on the limitations of human life. So, when Jesus was apprenticing with his father to become a carpenter, and he accidentally hit his thumb with a hammer, he felt pain just like every other human being. That may seem like a trivial example, but it makes real in a small way the fact that Jesus gave up his divine privileges. A much, much bigger “giving up” is coming soon.

What might it look like in real time to be a leader willing to give up our privilege in order to serve others well? I saw this happen once in an intriguing way. I was flying on Southwest Airlines from Dallas to San Antonio. This was before Southwest had assigned seats or special classes. Most seats were the same in terms of size and leg room, except for a few unusual seats in the front and exit rows. In the scramble for seats that happened when I boarded the plane, I always hoped to get some of those more comfortable seats.

Anyway, while in line to board the plane, I noticed a man behind me who looked familiar. I knew I had seen his face before, but I couldn’t place it. I watched this man curiously, noting that he went out of his way to greet every flight attendant, pilot, gate crew person, and so forth. Since he wasn’t near the front of the line, he ended up sitting in a very ordinary seat toward the back of the plane.

Finally, it dawned on me who that man was. He was Gary C. Kelly, the CEO of Southwest Airlines. Surely, I thought, he could have at least secured a seat with more legroom, maybe one of those near the front for quickly getting on and off the plane. But, no, he was back in the “cheap seats,” encouraging his crew, acting like anything like a privileged CEO. I was impressed and inspired by his example of servant leadership.
If we’re going to live and lead for the good of others, we will pay attention to and imitate the example of Jesus. We will at times “empty ourselves” of our advantage and privilege, choosing the way of humble servanthood.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Attitude Adjustment.