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Php 2:7. Ἀλλʼ, but) To this word the two clauses refer: He emptied Himself, to which the form of a servant belongs; and He humbled Himself, on which His obedience depends. The former is opposed privatively, the latter also in direct contrariety to being equal with God; wherefore these two words are used in the way of gradation, and He humbled is put before Himself.[18] (Comp. Jam 2:18, note). For, to take an example, when Philip V. ceased to be King of Spain, whose doings were agitating the public mind while we were engaged in these meditations, he so far emptied himself, yet he did not equally humble himself: he laid down the government of a kingdom, but he did not become a subject.-ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσε, He emptied Himself) החסיר, LXX., ΚΕΝῸΝ ΠΟΙῆΣΑΙ, Isa 32:6, where the matter discussed is indeed quite different, but yet Paul, when he uses ἘΚΈΝΩΣΕΝ, translates by it the verb חסר, Psa 8:5, with which comp. Heb 2:7. Wherever there is emptying, there is a thing containing and a thing contained. The thing containing, in the emptying of Christ, is Himself; the thing contained was that fulness, which He received in His exaltation. He remained full, Joh 1:14 : and yet He bore Himself in the same way as if He were empty; for He avoided the observation, so far as it was expedient, of men and angels, nay, even of His own self: Rom 15:3 : and therefore not only avoided observation, but also denied Himself, and abstained from His rights.-ΜΟΡΦῊΝ, form) These three words, μορφὴ, ὁμοίωμα, σχῆμα,[19] form, likeness, fashion, are not synonymous, nor even can they be interchanged the one for the other; but yet they are closely related: form signifies something absolute; likeness denotes a relation to other things of the same condition; fashion is to be referred to the sight and sense.-λαβὼν, having taken) The act of emptying carries with it [contains in it] His taking the form of a servant. Moreover He was able to take it, because He was in the likeness of men.-ὁμοιώματι ἀνθρώπων, in the likeness of men) He was made like men, a true man.
[18] ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσεν (the ἑαυτὸν coming first, because HIMSELF, viewed in respect to what He had heretofore been, is the emphatic word and thought); but ἐταπείνωσεν ἑαυτὸν (the ἑαντὸν coming second, and ἐταπείνωσεν first, because the emphatic word is ἐταπείνωσεν, which forms a climax to the previous ἐκένωσεν, He not only emptied Himself of what He was and had, but submitted to positive humiliation).-ED.
[19] The word σχῆμα, habitus (Th. σχῶ habeo., ‘condition,’ ‘appearance,’ ‘bearing,’ has a wider application than μορφή, forma. Ὁμοιότης is the similarity itself: Ὁμοίωσις the image or likeness according to which anything is conformed: Ὁμοίωμα the thing itself so conformed or made like.-ED.