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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Philippians 2:8 - 2:8
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Being found in fashion as a man (σχήματι εὑρεθεὶς ὡς ἄνθρωπος)
Some expositors connect these words with the preceding clause, thus: being made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man; a new sentence beginning with He humbled Himself. The general sense is not altered by this change, and there is great force in Meyer's remark that the preceding thought, in the likeness of men, is thus “emphatically exhausted.” On the other hand, it breaks the connection with the following sentence, which thus enters very abruptly. Notice being found. After He had assumed the conditions of humanity, and men's attention was drawn to Him, they found Him like a man. Compare Isa 53:2. “If we looked at Him, there was no sightliness that we should delight in Him.”
Fashion (σχήματι). That which is purely outward and appeals to the senses. The form of a servant is concerned with the fact that the manifestation as a servant corresponded with the real fact that Christ came as the servant of mankind. In the phrase in the likeness of men the thought is still linked with that of His essential nature which rendered possible a likeness to men, but not an absolute identity with men. In being found in fashion as a man the thought is confined to the outward guise as it appealed to the sense of mankind. Likeness states the fact of real resemblance to men in mode of existence: fashion defines the outward mode and form. As a man. Not being found a man not what He was recognized to be, but as a man, keeping up the idea of semblance expressed in likeness.
He humbled Himself (ἐταπείνωσεν ἑαυτόν)
Not the same as emptied Himself, Phi 2:7. It defines that word, showing how the self-emptying manifests itself.
Became obedient unto death (γενόμενος - μέχρι)
Became, compare Rev 1:18. Unto. The Rev. very judiciously inserts even; for the A.V. is open to the interpretation that Christ rendered obedience to death. Unto is up to the point of. Christ's obedience to God was rendered to the extent of laying down His life.
Of the cross
Forming a climax of humiliation. He submitted not only to death, but to the death of a malefactor. The Mosaic law had uttered a curse against it, Deu 21:23, and the Gentiles reserved it for malefactors and slaves. Hence the shame associated with the cross, Heb 12:2. This was the offense or stumbling-block of the cross, which was so often urged by the Jews against the Christians. See on Gal 3:13. To a Greek, accustomed to clothe his divinities with every outward attribute of grace and beauty, the summons to worship a crucified malefactor appealed as foolishness, 1Co 1:23.