6 who, abeing in the form of God, did not consider it1 robbery to be equal with God,
7abut1 made Himself of no reputation, taking the form bof a bondservant, andccoming in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and abecame bobedient to thepointof death, even the death of the cross.
9aTherefore God also bhas highly exalted Him and cgiven Him the name which is above every name,
10athat at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,
11 and athat every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Light Bearers
12 Therefore, my beloved, aas you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, bwork out your own salvation with cfear and trembling;
13 for ait is God who works in you both to will and to do bfor His good pleasure.
14 Do all things awithout complaining and bdisputing,
15 that you may become blameless and1 harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as alights in the world,
16 holding fast the word of life, so that aI may rejoice in the day of Christ that bI have not run in vain or labored in cvain.
17 Yes, and if aI am being poured out asadrinkoffering on the sacrifice band service of your faith, cI am glad and rejoice with you all.
18 For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me.
Timothy Commended
19 But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send aTimothy to you shortly, that I also may be encouraged when I know your1 state.
God commends the humble, not those who consort with the rich and famous, and He promises to exalt the humble at the appointed time (Proverbs 16:18-19). Jesus Christ's example of humility helps us to realize the meek stature of true Christians. In Him we see the zenith of virtue from which the apostles drew illustrations and admonitions for us. He gave up inexpressible glory to take upon Himself the humble form of humanity and perform the lowliest of services to us. He consented to be without distinction or honor and was willing to be despised and disregarded. When He laid aside his former rank and dignity, He became as nothing, yet now He is exalted above everything and everyone. He set this example for us that we might overcome self-exaltation and develop the true and ultimately exalting trait of humility.
Jesus shows us that meekness is not a mere contemplative virtue; it is maintaining peace and patience in the midst of pelting provocations. In II Corinthians Paul realizes that the meek and gentle approach can easily appear as weakness to those unfamiliar with Jesus' example, so he calls it "the meekness . . . of Christ." True meekness is always measured by Christ's meekness. His humility, patience, and total submission of His own will to the will of the Father exemplifies meekness.
There is our example and the instruction as to the mind that we have to adopt and make our own. If we are going to go through this with a kind of growth that God wants us to have, it takes a certain mindset to be able to do it.
One of the things God wants us to get out of this is that He wants us to consider often that He, the Father, did not withhold suffering from His Son and our Savior Jesus Christ. He shared suffering with us despite His high status as God in the flesh and living a totally sinless life. We are neither God in the flesh nor have we led a sinless life. He did this to be our Savior. He did it in order to be our example, and He did it to be perfected to carry out His job as High Priest and Savior. He set His mind to be this way, and He carried through.
Jesus teaches self-denial to His disciples not only with His words but also by His actions. Notice that His call to self-denial comes immediately after predicting His own sacrificial death. He is the supreme model of the self-denial to which He calls others. He even denies Himself any urge to avenge Himself or to threaten His persecutors for what they had done to Him. In Jesus' example, we see that, by committing ourselves to God who judges rightly, we deny ourselves the temptation of worldly lusts.
