The Crucified Lord’s Mind and the Upward Call of God

Philippians 2

2:1If therefore there is any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion,

2:2make my joy full by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind;

2:3doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself;

2:4each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.

2:5Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus,

2:6who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,

2:7but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.

2:8And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross.

2:9Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name,

2:10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,

2:11and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

2:12So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

2:13For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

2:14Do all things without complaining and arguing,

2:15that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without defect in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world,

2:16holding up the word of life, that I may have something to boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run in vain nor labor in vain.

2:17Yes, and if I am poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

2:18In the same way, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

2:19But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered up when I know how you are doing.

2:20For I have no one else like-minded, who will truly care about you.

2:21For they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ.

2:22But you know that he has proved himself. As a child serves a father, so he served with me in furtherance of the Good News.

2:23Therefore I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how it will go with me.

2:24But I trust in the Lord that I myself also will come shortly.

2:25But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier, and your apostle and servant of my need,

2:26since he longed for you all, and was very troubled because you had heard that he was sick.

2:27For indeed he was sick nearly to death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow on sorrow.

2:28I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that when you see him again, you may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.

2:29Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy, and hold such people in honor,

2:30because for the work of Christ he came near to death, risking his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.

Philippians 3

3:1Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not tiresome, but for you it is safe.

3:2Beware of the dogs; beware of the evil workers; beware of the false circumcision.

3:3For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;

3:4though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he has confidence in the flesh, I yet more:

3:5circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;

3:6concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.

3:7However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ.

3:8Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ

3:9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith,

3:10that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death,

3:11if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

3:12Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

3:13Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before,

3:14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

3:15Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you.

3:16Nevertheless, to the extent that we have already attained, let’s walk by the same rule. Let’s be of the same mind.

3:17Brothers, be imitators together of me, and note those who walk this way, even as you have us for an example.

3:18For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ,

3:19whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.

3:20For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

3:21who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.