The Attitude of Christ
For the week of June 21-27, 2026
FREE PREVIEW: Philippians 2:1-11 — The Attitude of Christ
This is a condensed preview of this week's full Bible study lesson, available exclusively to paid subscribers.
Introduction
Philippians 2:1–11 contains what many scholars consider the most theologically profound passage in all of Paul’s letters — and possibly in the entire New Testament. In eleven verses, Paul moves from a pastoral appeal for humility in a local congregation to one of the most breathtaking descriptions of the person and work of Jesus Christ ever committed to writing. The movement is not accidental. Paul’s point is that the solution to every problem of pride, rivalry, and disunity in the church is not a technique or a strategy. It is a Person — and a Person who modeled, in the most radical way imaginable, the very humility He is now calling His people to practice.
I. The CHARACTERISTICS of Christlike Community (vv. 1–4)
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself; each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others” (Philippians 2:3–4).
Paul opens with four “if” clauses that are not really conditions at all — they are reminders. If there is encouragement in Christ, if there is consolation of love, if there is fellowship of the Spirit — and there is, and the Philippians know it — then there is a community obligation that flows from those realities. Genuine Christian community is not built on personality compatibility or shared preferences. It is built on the shared experience of grace — and that grace demands a particular posture toward one another.
II. The CONDESCENSION of Christ Incarnate (vv. 5–8)
“He existed in the form of God, yet he didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6–7).
The Christological hymn of verses 5–8 is one of the most studied, most debated, and most worshiped passages in all of Christian theology. In it, Paul traces the downward arc of the Son of God — from the heights of divine glory, through the humiliation of incarnation, to the ultimate depth of a criminal’s death on a cross. Every step is voluntary. Every step is for others. Every step is the supreme model of the attitude Paul has just commanded.
III. The CORONATION of Christ Exalted (vv. 9–11)
“Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow... and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9–11).
The downward arc of the hymn does not end at the cross. God answers the Son’s self-emptying with an exaltation so total and so permanent that every created being in the universe — in heaven, on earth, and under the earth — will one day bow before the name of Jesus. The humility that descended to a cross has been crowned with a glory that will never end. And this is the pattern Paul holds before the Philippians — and before every believer — as the shape of the Christian life: down into service, and up into glory, following the One who walked that road first.
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