Five-minute study · Day 7 · Philippians 2
Philippians 2:7
A word worth stopping on: emptied κενόω kenoo
What Paul quotes here is likely a hymn. A song. Sung in churches within twenty years of the resurrection by people who knew the eyewitnesses. At the center of this song is a Greek verb that started one of the fiercest debates in the history of Christianity. The question it raises is simple to say and impossible to fully answer: what exactly did Christ give up?
Word study: emptied
- Greek
- κενόω
- Pronounced
- kenoo
- Strong's
- G2758
- Definition
- To empty completely. To pour out until nothing remains. Used for turning a vessel upside down.
Picture turning a jar upside down and letting every last drop fall. That is kenoo. Paul says Christ 'emptied himself,' and theologians have argued about that verb for two thousand years. They call it the kenosis debate, from the Greek word itself.
The question: did Christ empty himself OF his divine attributes (omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence), or did he empty himself BY taking on human limitations while remaining fully God?
The text gives the answer. Paul says Christ emptied himself by something: 'by taking the form of a servant.' He poured himself out by adding humanity to his deity. Full divinity carrying full humanity. That is what cost him everything.
Historical context · 30s-60s AD
They Were Singing This
Philippians 2:6-11 likely predates Paul's letter. It was already being sung in churches before he wrote it down around 62 AD. That means this hymn could date to the 30s or 40s AD. Within a decade or two of the resurrection.
Look at what the song claims: Jesus existed 'in the form of God.' He was 'equal with God.' At his name 'every knee should bow.' These are words sung by the earliest believers. People who could have walked to Jerusalem and asked the apostles if it was true.
The hymn follows a V-shape. Descent from glory (verses 6-8) to the lowest point imaginable (death on a cross), then ascent to the highest exaltation (verses 9-11). The earliest Christians sang these claims before anyone systematized them into theology.
For reflection
Christ's emptying was the act of adding what we are to who he already was. Where might God be asking you to add a burden for someone else's sake?
Think about serving in a way that costs you comfort without diminishing who you are.
Sources: Thayer's Lexicon; Lightfoot, 'Commentary on Philippians'; Martin, 'A Hymn of Christ'