Holy Bible - Obsidian Study Guide

The Christ Hymn

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The Christ Hymn

Overview

  • Testament: New
  • Book: Philippians
  • Chapters: Philippians 2:5-11
  • Summary: The kenosis hymn describing Christ’s threefold descent and threefold exaltation, offered as the pattern for Christian humility.

Details

Philippians 2:5-11 is widely recognized as one of the earliest Christian hymn fragments embedded in the New Testament, likely pre-dating Paul’s letter itself and drawn from early liturgical use in the churches. Paul introduces it not as abstract theology but as an ethical imperative: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (2:5). The hymn is thus simultaneously doctrinal and moral — it sets forth who Christ is precisely in order to shape how believers think and act toward one another.

The descent is threefold and deliberate. Christ existed “in the form of God” (morphe theou) — not a mere appearance of divinity but the actual mode of divine existence. He “thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (2:6), meaning he did not cling to that equality as something to be exploited. Instead, “he made himself of no reputation” (ekenosen heauton, “emptied himself”) and “took upon him the form of a servant” (2:7). The final step of the descent is the most arresting: “he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (2:8). The cross was not merely death but the most degraded form of execution — reserved for slaves and criminals, carrying social shame as well as physical agony.

The ascent follows in three corresponding stages. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him” (2:9) — the word huperupsoo means to exalt to the highest possible degree. Then: “given him a name which is above every name” — in the Jewish world, the name carried the full weight of identity and authority. Finally, the cosmic result: “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (2:10-11). This directly echoes Isaiah 45:23, where Yahweh declares that every knee shall bow to him — Paul applies that text without modification to Jesus Christ, making an unmistakable claim about Christ’s identity with the God of Israel.

The ethical purpose is not incidental. Paul places this hymn within a passage about church unity and selflessness (2:1-4). Christ’s “downward mobility” — from the form of God to the death of a slave — is the very pattern he calls believers to imitate. The greatest being in the universe became the lowest servant; therefore no Christian can claim status or seek advantage over a brother. The hymn connects to similar early fragments at Colossians 1:15-20 and 1 Timothy 3:16, suggesting that rich Christological poetry was sung and prayed in the earliest churches long before the full canon was assembled.

Important Verses

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” — Philippians 2:5-7

“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” — Philippians 2:9-11

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