Christ as our example as in 2 Corinthians 8:9. B. B. Warfield:
O that we could once for all grasp the meaning of the great fact that self-forgetfulness and self-sacrifice express the divine ideals of life … Self-sacrifice brought Christ into the world. And self-sacrifice will lead us, His followers, not away from but into the midst of men … Self-sacrifice means not indifference to our times and our fellows; it means absorption in them … It means not that we should live one life, but a thousand lives …
- Christ was in heaven in the form of God
- verses 6-11 an early Christian hymn? See John 17:5.
- Ezek.44:4. ‘Jesus, Joy of the Highest Heaven’ and ‘He came down to earth from heaven, Who is God and Lord of all’. See Col.2:9.
- Christ emptied Himself.
- it can be translated as ‘robbery’ (NKJV), and could mean that Christ did not consider that He was robbing God of anything in being equal with God. Or as ‘something to be held onto to be equal’.
- Isaiah 53:2-3. Christ willingly chose that.
- Christ became a man, servant, even a crucified criminal.
- 2:7-8. ‘Glory to God in the Lowest,’ mused G. K. Chesterton. Christ did not set aside His deity, but His privileges, His high position, His majesty and His glory. This fallen world is full of social climbers of one kind or another. Not so Christ.
- Alexander Maclaren: ‘Looking at it from earth, men say, “Jesus was born.” Looking at it from heaven, Angels say, “He emptied Himself.”‘
- The supreme Somebody became a nobody. Christ is contrasted with Adam – Gen.3:5.