No Reputation (Philippians 2:6-8)
Philippians 2:5-8
(5) Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
(6) Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
(7) But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
(8) And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
The passage is full of wonderful doctrinal statements about the person of our Lord Jesus. Yet these are the basis for the most practical of teaching. What had caused the envy and strife amongst the preachers in chapter 1? Why were two sisters estranged from each other in chapter 4? It was because of reputation – a reputation that they believed had to be maintained amongst the saints. What folly when we consider One who had the highest reputation in the universe, yet He was prepared to give it up because He looked not upon His own things but on the things of others. Where would we have been today had the Son of God only considered His own things?
The passage from v.6 to v.8 will open up to our understanding when we observe two statements: He emptied Himself – He humbled Himself. God is very careful in the language He uses concerning His Son. He emptied Himself when subsisting in the form of God and He humbled Himself as a man.
The KJV translation ‘made himself of no reputation’ is perhaps an interpretation rather than a strict translation. There can be no doubt that the original phrase means simply, ‘He emptied himself’. But there is equally no doubt that the KJV translators understood this. Their translation not only guards against any suggestion that Christ gave up any of his divine nature or attributes when coming into the world, but contextually explains the relevance of what He did to the problems at Philippi.
There are two ways that we could empty a bottle of water. We could empty it on the ground, so that all the water is lost. Or we could empty it into a water jug so that every drop is retained. It is quite clear that our Lord Jesus did not lose anything of His essential and eternal nature as ‘being in the form of God’. He displayed on earth that He was still omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.
Of what then did He empty Himself? Clearly – of every outward display of His glory. This is confirmed by his prayer in John 17: 5, ‘And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was’. Had He displayed such glory when He came into the world, it would have been impossible for sinners to draw near to Him. But He ‘made Himself of no reputation’ so that He could even take children up in His arms and bless them.
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