The Bible Studio

The Downward Staircase (Philippians 2:5-11)

Sipho Dlamini

  • philippians
  • humility
  • christology
  • hymn
  • study

In the middle of his most joyful letter, Paul quotes what many scholars believe is the church's earliest hymn, and it is a hymn about going down. "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped." The instruction before the hymn is the stunning part: think like this. Philippians 2:5 English - ESV

Then the staircase descends, step by deliberate step. He emptied himself. Taking the form of a servant. Born in the likeness of men. Philippians 2:7 English - ESV He humbled himself. Obedient to the point of death. Even death on a cross. Philippians 2:8 English - ESV Each line drops a rung. In a colony proud of its Roman citizenship and its honor games Philippians 3:20 English - ESV, Paul teaches the church a song about a Lord who kept choosing the lower place until there was no place left.

The hinge of the whole hymn is one word: therefore. "Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name." The elevator up runs on the staircase down. Exaltation is not seized at the top; it is conferred at the bottom. Every knee will one day bow to the one who knelt.

It helps to remember why Paul quotes this. Not to settle a doctrine exam, but because Euodia and Syntyche are quarreling, and the church is fraying into rivalry and conceit. The hymn is pastoral surgery: in humility count others more significant than yourselves. The mind of Christ is medicine for a divided community, not material for a lecture.

And this, I think, is where the letter's joy comes from. Joy in Philippians is not the view from the top of the ladder. It is the freedom of no longer needing to climb it. The Lord of the hymn went down singing, and a church that learns that melody can rejoice from any cell. Philippians 2:5 English - ESV Philippians 2:9 English - ESV

Philippians 2 Berean Standard Bible - Bob Souer

Chapel of Lydia on the riverside at Philippi. The proud Roman colony that first sang a hymn about choosing the lower place.