I am always struck by the reality that the one thing we are called to emulate as followers of Christ is Christ’s self-sacrifice. May God grant us the grace and courage to have the same mindset as our Lord and Saviour who “because he was in very nature God… humbled himself, becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross.”

²Have the same mindset
Have the same love
Be “soul-joined�
Have one mindset.

³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit,
But in humility regard one another as more important than oneself.

⁴Do not merely look out for your own interests,
But also look out for the interests of others.

⁵Your mindset should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

⁶Who, because he was in very nature God,
Did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped,
⁷But emptied himself,
Taking the very nature of a slave,
Coming to be in the likeness of human beings.
⁸And, being found in appearance as a human being,
He humbled himself
Becoming obedient to death –
Even death on a cross!

⁹Therefore also,
God highly exalted him,
And granted him the name
That is above every name

¹⁰That
At the name belonging to Jesus
“Every knee should bow,�
of those who are in heaven
and on earth
and under the earth

¹¹And that “every tongue should confessâ€?
That Jesus Christ is Lord
To the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:2-11).

In verse 6, Paul is not saying that although Jesus was in nature God, he took the form of a slave; rather he is saying that it is precisely BECAUSE Jesus was in very nature God, that he did what he did. Jesus’ humble self-giving, self-sacrificing love towards humanity defines the very essence of God. As as followers of Christ, it should also define who we are.