Passage: Philippians 2:5-11

The Big Idea

Paul doesn’t just tell us to have a lowly mind; he shows us one: Jesus. Though He existed in the very nature of God, He emptied Himself, became a servant and a man, and humbled Himself all the way to death on a cross. In Psalm 22 He even says, “I am a worm.” The distance He descended is infinite, and so is the glory the Father gave Him in return. Looking at Jesus is the instruction. When we behold Him, our hearts melt, our pride bows, and we discover that the highest place a person can live is wanting nothing for self and everything for His glory.

Show Me How

Last time, we started learning humility: how to think with a lowly mind by emptying it of selfish thoughts so God can fill it. Sin is like cotton candy: no weight, no substance. God wants to fill us with the “weight” of His glory.

Now Paul turns our attention back to Jesus: let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5).

Paul has explained how to operate our minds, and now he shows us. That’s a great way to learn: explain it, then show me.

It’s not like those furniture assembly instructions that are all pictures and leave you more confused. And here’s what’s amazing: looking at this picture is the very thing the instructions tell us to do.

Looking at Jesus makes us adore Him and love Him. It changes our hearts. It’s like being an ice cream cone held up to the sun. We melt. His love is too bright and strong to resist.

Beholding Jesus is our one aim, the one thing needful (Luke 10:42). When you keep looking at Him, eventually you’ll call out to Him.

Spurgeon wrote, “The lower he stoops to save us, the higher we ought to lift him in our adoring reverence.” He stoops, and stoops, and even after reaching our level and becoming a man, “he still stoops, and stoops, and stoops lower and deeper yet.”

Our minds get tossed around by so many things, but eventually they settle back where we’ve chosen to dwell, to abide. Let that place be Christ.

Where Jesus Started (2:6)

Jesus, being in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God something to be grasped.

This is where Jesus started: He is God!
Being: the Greek word describes what someone is in their very essence, what doesn’t change in any circumstance.
Form: the Greek morphe means the essential nature that never changes, as opposed to an outward appearance that shifts with circumstances.
Jesus has always been God. He isn’t less than God, the way we sometimes think of a son as less than a father. He’s the perfect image of the Father.
“Only begotten” can make us think He came from God at some point. But the word means He is the one and only, uniquely the Son, the perfect representation of God.
Jesus started out high, because God is high.

How high?

God calls Himself the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy. He dwells in the high and holy place (Isaiah 57:15).

High and lofty.
He inhabits eternity. Time itself can’t contain Him.
His name is holy: every aspect of who He is, is perfect and infinite.
He is completely self-sufficient. No one is worthy even to be with Him.

Yet the same verse continues: He also dwells with the one who is contrite and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and the heart of the contrite.

He wants to be with us. Not just anyone, but the most humble of us.
Jesus longs for relationship with the most broken, bruised and weak people in the world.
But He doesn’t just blast us with His full glory. If He did, we would die. He is so good, it’s dangerous. That’s holiness.
So He chose a different way to reach us: condescension.

Condescension

Condescension means voluntarily stepping down from your rank or dignity to relate to someone lower.

We measure condescension by how far someone has to drop to meet another.
For Jesus, that distance is infinite.

Jesus is so great, wonderful and powerful that we’re dust before Him. He doesn’t need any of us. We can’t add anything to Him. We can’t even fully comprehend Him.

Jonathan Edwards wrote: “He is sovereign Lord of all. He rules over the whole universe, and does whatsoever pleases Him. His knowledge is without bound. His wisdom is perfect, and none can circumvent it. His power is infinite, and none can resist Him.”

His power, glory and majesty are infinite. Next to Him, every angel and human is like an ant, or lower, a worm.

From an immeasurable height down to sinful humanity is an infinite distance.

He Emptied Himself (2:7-8)

He made Himself of no reputation (literally, “emptied Himself”), taking the form of a servant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Jesus became a man. He never stopped being God. He added humanity to His divinity.

He operates His mind completely differently than I do. I’m like a worm standing on a few extra layers of dust so I can be higher than the worms around me. I don’t like to go down even a couple of layers.

He came to a world of worms and humbled Himself to be the lowest of all.

He came as a baby.
He came poor.
He came in obscurity.
He wasn’t famous.
He wasn’t privileged.
He had to wait thirty years.
He was ridiculed.
He was rejected.
He was mocked.
His closest friends failed Him.
He was weak.
He was tempted.
He should have been honored and worshiped. Instead He was tortured.
He died as the most humiliated, despised and rejected man who ever lived.
His death was the pinnacle of human wickedness.

He humbled Himself to death, even death on a cross.

“I am a worm”

In Psalm 22, the psalm Jesus quoted from the cross, the Messiah says, “I am a worm, and no man,” scorned and despised. Everyone who sees Him mocks Him, shaking their heads: “He trusted in the LORD; let the LORD rescue Him” (Psalm 22:6-8).

Spurgeon called this verse “a miracle in language,” and marveled: “What a contrast between ‘I am’ and ‘I am a worm’!”

The Hebrew word here, tola, is translated elsewhere as “scarlet,” because the famous scarlet dye of the ancient world came from a crushed insect. Bible teachers like Henry Morris have described how the female of this species attaches herself permanently to a tree to protect her young. As she dies, she leaves a crimson stain on the wood, and from her body the scarlet dye was made. What a picture of Christ, fixed to the tree, shedding His blood to bring many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10)! He died so we could live through Him.

God Exalted Him (2:9)

Therefore God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name above every name.

What is the Father’s response to Jesus’ humility and obedience? He lifts Him up!
Jesus had one thing that mattered to Him: obeying His Father.
Humility led to obedience, and God loves to exalt humble obedience.
He loves to fill empty vessels with true glory.
Lives that truly matter are so humble that obeying God becomes their deepest desire.
When we suffer, even if no one sees, it still pleases God, and He fills our lives with glory (2 Corinthians 4:17).
And notice: the Father does this for Jesus. Humility doesn’t need to talk about itself. But the Father loves to honor His Son!

Every Knee (2:10-11)

At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The Father isn’t content to honor Jesus privately. He will have every being acknowledge Him.
Jesus’ humility was infinite, so His glory is infinite too.
Our hearts need to feed on His example. Our minds need to linger at the cross. Ask yourself: “What does the cross show me about this situation?”

That’s how Jesus “thought like a worm.” He emptied Himself of all dependence on the flesh and depended only on His Father.

Our only fitting response to His beautiful life of surrender is the one this passage describes: bow the knee and confess that He is Lord.

Every human, every angel, every demon will acknowledge who Jesus is.
Anyone who refuses Him now is still in rebellion against God.
Worms are good at one thing: bowing low. Even their crawling looks like bowing.

Why It Matters

If we can say, “It doesn’t matter what happens to me and my kingdom; I only care about Jesus and His kingdom,” then we’re completely safe!

Because we are in Christ!

His kingdom is our kingdom. We’re His body, united with Him. When we suffer or even die in this world, we only experience more of Jesus, without limits. The more we suffer, the more we rejoice. The more we die to self, the more we truly live!

This passage is a test for your soul. Does it taste sweet to you that Jesus pleased His Father and was honored and exalted?

If it does, your soul is in a good place. Your mind is working rightly. If it doesn’t stir you much, ask the Lord to draw you closer to Him.

Why does a father weep for joy at the sight of his daughter on her wedding day? Because he watched her be born. He watched her grow, stumble, fall and learn. He taught her and loved her. He walked many miles with her. It’s a relationship. And on the day she’s honored more than ever, he overflows with joy.

That’s why true believers rejoice in this passage and find comfort in it: relationship. We’re connected to Him. We’re family. Outsiders aren’t as moved. But those who’ve been forgiven and cleansed by Jesus want nothing more than to see Him exalted!

The highest place a person can live is where they want nothing for self and only want to glorify Jesus. Then His life flows in and through them. That’s what surrender looks like.

Jesus is what surrender looks like.

Grace Takeaway

The One who inhabits eternity stooped all the way down to a cross, and called Himself a worm, for you. You don’t learn humility by trying harder to be humble. You learn it by looking at Him until your pride melts like ice cream in the sun. As Spurgeon prayed, may we die to self and live wholly to Him. Bow your knee today and confess with joy: Jesus Christ is Lord.

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How to Think Like a Worm