Understanding Philippians 2: 5-11

Literary Context In trying to understand Philippians 2:5-11 it is equally important to understand what is going on both before this passage occurs and what happens after. Paul is writing a letter to the church in Philippi and unlike some of his other letters he is filled with joy when writing to them. Immediately his letter begins with praise and thanksgiving directed towards the Philippians due to their kindness and provisions that they had consistently provided for Paul while he was in Prison. Paul then goes on to write about the fact that his imprisonment has advanced the Gospel of Christ. Paul then continues on to talk about the way in which the Philippians need to compose themselves and tells them to “stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel” (1:27). He says this because at the time the Philippians had a lot of forces that opposed them, just as Christ did when he was here on earth. Rather then becoming boastful or prideful Paul urges the Philippians to be like a servant who gives all the glory to God and not upon

Paul has three terms that he wrote in 2:5-11 that are not found anywhere else in the entire Bible. The three words are “nature” (morphe), “something to be grasped” (harpagmon) and “exalted…to the highest place” (hyperpsoo). Now why would Paul use these words only here while he does in fact discuss these same ideas just with different word choice? The answer is because Paul most likely did not compose these verses. It would be similar to a pastor today quoting the famous hymn “how deep the fathers love for us” which has many verbs, nouns and pronouns that most likely would never be used elsewhere. Rarely do pastors say the term scoffers, mar, or wretch, and similarly Paul used terms in these 6 verses which do not appear anywhere else in his writings. This is probably the heaviest argument against the fact of whether or not Paul himself wrote these