The mind of Christ

ANy consolation – A most vehement exhortation to unity and Christian love, by way of Rhetorical adjuration; as if he should say, As ever you look to receive any comfort in Christ, or reap benefit by his love, and the communion between you and the Saints of God, fulfill my joy, by keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of love.

if any fellowship of the Spirit – If ye have any Communion with me in the Graces of the Spirit, and stand fast in one Spirit, 1:27, and would show that you do persevere in the same Spirit, 1 Cor 12:4, which acts in all the Members of the Mystical Body of Christ, that do in him their head partake of it. if any bowels and mercies – If ye are daily affected with any real Sympathy, and Commiseration towards me in my bonds for Christ, such inward affections as were moving in him towards them, Phil 1:8, with Luke 1:78; 2 Cor 7:15; Col 3:12, the latter word Emphatically expressing the sense of the Metaphor in the former.

If [there be] therefore any consolation in Christ – Or “exhortation”, as the word is sometimes rendered; … as all true, solid, strong, and everlasting consolation is only in Christ, and is founded on the greatness of his person, as God our Saviour, on the fulness of his grace, the efficacy of his blood, the perfection of his righteousness and sacrifice, and on the great salvation he is the author of.

that ye be like minded – Which is when they believe and affect the same things agreeable to the mind of God, 3:15; Acts 4:32; Rom 12:16; 2 Cor 13:11. having the same love – Having the same mutual sincere Charity, Eph 4:2; Col 3:14. being of one accord – Being unanimous in their honest designs, John 17:22; 1 Pet 3:8. of one mind – Agreeing as to the main in the same Judgment and opinion to promote the interest of Christ, 1 Cor 1:10; Gal 5:7, 10.

Fulfil ye my joy – but his joy was not yet full, there were some things which damped it; as the unbecoming walk and conversation of some, of whom he spoke with grief of heart, and tears in his eyes; and the inclination of others to listen to the false teachers, those of the concision, or circumcision; and the murmurings, disputings, and divisions of others among them, that were contentious and quarrelsome; wherefore to crown his joy, and fill it brimful, he signifies that their unity in affection, judgment, and practice, would do it, for so he explains it as follows.

but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves – But cherish and exercise true Christian modesty and meekness (which is of another kind than that the Heathen Philosophers did prescribe) in a due preference of each other, Matt 11:29; Rom 12:10; Eph 4:2; 5:21; 1 Pet 5:5, as the Apostle himself gave example. 1 Cor 15:8–⁠9. … so that however one Christian may excel with some singular endowments: yet he ought to think they were not bestowed upon him, that he should be puffed up, or value himself above what is meet upon that account before God, being he hath received them of God, 1 Cor 4:7, but judge himself for his own defectiveness and faultiness; which will afford himself matter of abasement and humility; when yet with respect to others, whose hearts he knows not, he in charity thinketh the best, 1 Cor 13:4–⁠5, and if in this case he should be mistaken, his modest apprehensions would be acceptable to God, (designing to approve that which he doth) and profitable to himself.

[Let] nothing [be done] through strife – About words merely; otherwise they were to strive for the faith of the Gospel, the purity of Gospel ordinances, worship and discipline; but the apostle would not have them strive merely to carry a point determined on, without having any regard to reason and truth, or yielding to the infirmities of the weak; which is the case and conduct of contentious persons.

Look not every man – The Apostle useth a word, which doth properly signify to aim or look narrowly as to a mark we shoot at; and his meaning is, that we should not principally or only aim at our own honour, or profit: for otherwise a Christian ought to provide for his own household, 1 Tim 5:8.

Let this mind be in you … Be you so humble and charitably mind, and so respect the good of others, even with neglect of your own, as we see Christ our Saviour did.

Let – Most Translations do express the causal or rather illative Greek, Particle, which ours doth here omit as an expletive. However the Apostle doth urge them to the exercise of self denial, mutual love, and an hearty condescension to one another from the great example of Jesus Christ, 2 Cor 8:9.

in the form of God – Either in the nature and essence of God, being very God, as the ancient Fathers generally expound the word μορφὴ here used; or in the state, that is, glory and majesty of God, appearing no otherwise, neither to Angels, nor to men, then as God in Divine glory and majesty. not robbery – It was his right by nature (See John 5:18) to be equal with God, and therefore the challenging it, could be no usurpation of another’s right, or taking to himself, that which was not his own.

being – i. e. Subsisting in opposition to taking or assuming, v. 7, and therefore doth firmly prove Christ, pre-existing in another Nature, to his so doing, namely his actual existing of himself in the same essence and Glory, he had from Eternity with the Father, John 1:1–⁠2; 17:5; 2 Cor 8:9; Rev 1:4, 8, 11. in the form of God … For the Apostle here treats of Christ’s Condescension, proceeding from his actual existence, as the term wherein he is Co-eternal and Co-equal to God the Father, before he abated himself with respect unto us. … None can rationally imagine that God was an external figure, wherein Christ was subsisting. For subsistence implies some peculiarity relating to the substance of a certain thing, whence we may conclude the Son to be of the same, (not only of like) substance with the Father, considering what signantly follows. … He did not really forego (neither was it possible he should) anything of his Divine Glory, being the Son of God still, without any Robbery or Rapine, equal to his Father in Power and Glory, John 10:30; 1 John 5:7, 20.

Who being in the form of God – but this phrase, “the form of God”, is to be understood of the nature and essence of God, and describes Christ as he was from all eternity; just as the form of a servant signifies that he was really a servant, and the fashion of a man in which he was found means that he was truly and really man; so his being in the form of God intends that he was really and truly God; … and this divine form and equality, or true and proper deity, he did not obtain by force and rapine, by robbery and usurpation, as Satan attempted to do, and as Adam by his instigation also affected; … as for the sense which some put upon the words, that he did not “affect”, or “greedily catch” at deity; as the phrase will not admit of it, so it is not true in fact; … and besides, the apostle is speaking not of what he was, or did in his incarnate state, but of what he was and thought himself to be, before he became man; wherefore the above sense is to be preferred as the genuine one.

of no reputation – Divested himself of his robes of majesty and glory, and brought himself as it were to nothing. Word for word, evacuated himself; laid aside for the time his divine Majesty; … form of a servant – Either the true nature of man, who is a servant to God; or the quality and condition of a servant, living in subjection, and receiving stripes for us. See Isaiah 53:2–⁠5.

made himself – i. e. Most wittingly emptied himself, or abated himself of the all fulness of glory he had equally with God the Father, that considering the disproportion betwixt the Creature and the Creator; he in the eyes of those, amongst whom he tabernacled, appeared to have nothing of reputation left him, Dan 9:26. … He by taking the form of a mean Man, might so obscure the dignity of his Person, as to the acknowledgement of him to be the Son of God, equal with his Father, that in vouching himself to be so, he might be accounted a Blasphemer, John 10:36, and during that appearance, not seem to be the most high; even as a King by laying aside the tokens of his Royalty, and putting on the habit of a Merchant, when all the while he ceaseth not to be King, or the highest in his own Dominions. … of no reputation, and took – Taking (in the Greek, without any copulative and before it) in opposition to being, or subsisting; he was in the Form of God, which he had before, and took this which he had not then, into the unity of his subsistence, by a personal union, Heb 2:16.

But made himself of no reputation – Or “nevertheless emptied himself”; not of that fulness of grace which was laid up in him from everlasting, for with this he appeared when he was made flesh, and dwelt among men; nor of the perfections of his divine nature, which were not in the least diminished by his assumption of human nature, for all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily; though he took that which he had not before, he lost nothing of what he had; the glory of his divine nature was covered, and out of sight; … a strange and surprising difference this, that he who was “equal to God”, should be “like to [sinful] men!”

fashion as a man … As a true man (not in show and appearance only) as John 1:14, We saw his glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God. Where as is demonstrationis, non similitudinis.² he humbled himself – In this verse there is a kind of gradation: for it is more to become obedient than to humble himself: more to yield unto death, than to become obedient: more to be crucified, than simply to die. For it was to submit himself to a most painful, ignominious and a cursed death, Gal 3:13.

he humbled himself – He doth not say he was humbled or depressed by the just Judgment of God, but of himself, voluntarily, on his own accord without any constraint. … Had he staid in his life for degrees of obedience, his condescension had been admirable, but that he should submit to a penal and painful death (taking in his burial, and abiding in a separate state till the third day) this is stupendous: aggravated by the shame. even the death of the cross – Of dying on the Cross, willingly and meekly yielding himself though a Son to that ignominious cursed death, Deut 21:23; Acts 5:30; Gal 3:10, 13; Heb 12:2, far more reproachful than by heading, hanging, or burning, out of unspeakable love, to bring us nigh unto God, Rom 5:19; Col 2:14; 1 Pet 2:24; 3:18.

Wherefore God – Because he humbled himself so low, God exalted him so highly, viz above the grave in his resurrection, above the earth in his ascension, above the heavens in placing him at his right hand.

Wherefore – Some take this particle illatively connoting the consequent of Christ’s Exaltation, upon his antecedent humiliation, as elsewhere, John 10:17; Acts 20:26; Heb 3:7; 2 Pet 1:10. The Apostle showing the sequel of his sufferings to be Glory according to that of Luke 24:26. … Others take the particle causally intimating Christ’s meriting his own exaltation and our Salvation, and his accepting of superexcellent Glory as a reward of his unparalleled obedience, though he might have challenged it, by virtue of the personal union, Heb 13:20, with 12:2, obedience superior to Angels, required a recompense superior to their Glory, and Christ might upon his exquisite obedience, demand his own mediatory Glory as being our Head, and that being the beginning and cause of ours. However whether the particle of order note that of consequence, or causality, or both, there is no need of controversy (because of the Communication of properties) sith the Person of Christ, as God-man was glorified. … Though as God, there was a manifestation, yet there was no intrinsecal addition of Glory. He did as Man receive the name, or glory he had from all Eternity as God.

at the name of Jesus – The Apostle in these words seemeth to have reference to Isaiah 45:23, and the meaning is, that all creatures should adore, and worship Christ, and yield him all obedience, either voluntarily, or by constraint, as to their Sovereign King, at whose very name they should fear and tremble. This is in part now performed in the Catholic Church dispersed through the whole world; but shall be perfectly accomplished at the dreadful day of Judgement, Rom 14:11.

That at – In the Old Translation by Bishops in Queen Elizabeth ‘s time,³ (and some say in the Manuscripts of this) it is in the Name. However in ours now, it is not appositively at the name Jesus. the name of Jesus – But constructively of Jesus, intimating, that the Power, Glory, and Majesty of him who hath that name, unto which every knee is bowed, is that name which is above every name; which would not hold true, if the name were took for the very word Jesus, (that as before) being common to others in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, yea, and English. … and things under the earth – Either the Dead, who are hid in the Earth, and shall be raised by the power of Christ, in, or upon them, Acts 24:15. Or Devils, and wicked Souls.

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow – Which is to be understood, not of the outward act of bowing the knee upon hearing the name, and the syllables of the mere name Jesus pronounced; for in the bare name there can be nothing which can command such a peculiar respect; it was a name common with the Jews: … Moreover, the words ought not to be rendered at, but “in the name of Jesus”; that is, in and by reason of the power, authority, and dignity of Jesus, as exalted at God’s right hand, every creature is to be subject to him: … But inasmuch as this action is a token of reverence, worship; and subjection, it is used for those things themselves; and the sense is, that Christ is exalted as before described, that every creature may give him reverence, worship, and adoration, submit and be subject to him, as all do, and shall, either freely or forcedly.

should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord – Can confess, or express their adoration of Christ, Rev 7:9, 11–⁠12, either with delight, or by a forced subjection, Rev 6:16, and acknowledge that he is Lord, i. e. of glory, Rom 11:36; 1 Cor 2:8; 8:6, the Son of God, 2 Cor 4:5; Heb 1:2, 4, having only power to command the Soul, and Conscience, Jas 4:12, and to save, Heb 7:25, being Lord both of the dead, and of the living, Rom 14:9, to the glory of God the Father. – Some render in the glory of the Father. Either in that, the honour of Christ redoundeth to the honour of the Father, Prov 10:1, with John 5:23; Eph 1:6, or the Father doth most glorify the Son in his Exaltation, who had most glorified him in his Humiliation, John 12:28, with 17:5–⁠6.

And [that] every tongue should confess – Whether of angels or men, or of men of whatsoever nation. Confession is either true and hearty, as when the mouth and heart agree in confessing, and which is made only by true believers; or verbal only, or in mere outward form, and by force, as in hypocrites, wicked men, and devils themselves; … The Vulgate Latin version renders the words, “because the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father”: being in the form of God, of the same nature and essence with him, and equal to him; as he will appear to be at his second coming, for then he will come in the glory of his Father.