Daily Meditations on the Bible / We stand with Israel
… and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
Summary: Verbal acknowledgement is powerful.
Part of exalting Jesus to the highest place is proclaiming his name … out loud. The “out loud” part is important.
“Why?” you ask. Well, let’s explore …
Continue reading “Philippians 2:11a – Say it — Jesus Christ is Lord!”
… in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
Summary: Paul’s simple little phrase about places above and below the earth opens a door of wonder about how things work in the spiritual realms.
This is an interesting passage. Paul could have said, “At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow,” and left it at that, but he didn’t. Instead, he added these words:
“… in heaven and on earth and under the earth…”
Continue reading “Philippians 2:10b – Spirit and Flesh”
…that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
Summary: The name of Jesus has been exalted above every name, but not everyone on Earth has gotten the message yet.
Do you ever wonder why every knee doesn’t bow to Jesus now?
Continue reading “Philippians 2:10a – Of Self and Sin”
[Therefore God exalted him to the highest place]
and gave him the name that is above every name…
Summary: Paul’s words about Jesus’ name give us a reason to pause and think about why names have meaning and how Jesus’ name reflects who he is.
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
— Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II
As a kid, I sometimes wondered,“How do we get names and why are some more important than others?”
Continue reading “Philippians 2:9b – God’s Rose”
… even death on a cross!
Summary: The challenge of understanding who Jesus is continues to haunt us as we read more of Paul’s words. It is one thing to jump on a grenade to save your friends; it is entirely something else to allow yourself to be flayed alive and hung on a wooden cross until dead.
In our last meditation, “Our Selfless God,” we stumbled across what the Bible calls the “stumbling stone.”* In our version of the “stumbling stone,” we realized:
Continue reading “Philippians 2:8c – Life and Death”
… he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—
Summary: Examining Christ’s humility and obedience opens a fascinating line of inquiry into our Lord’s personality and the world we live in.
Arrogance is the opposite of humility.
Another way of putting it is that arrogance is “self-centered,” while humility is not.
Continue reading “Philippians 2:8b – Our Selfless God”
And being found in appearance as a man…
Summary: Paul is walking us through what it means to think like Jesus. His understanding of the Lord is reflected in the clarity of his description of what sets Jesus apart.
Paul is in the middle of describing the mindset of Jesus Christ.
Whatever you might think of Jesus, it seems obvious he was in a pickle. Here he was, the one through whom all things were made (John 1:3), reduced to being a social outcast in his own creation. (His disciple, Nathanael, when he found out Jesus was from Nazareth, said: “Can anything good come from there?” — John 1:46).
Continue reading “Philippians 2:8a – Two Things”… being made in human likeness.
Summary: As Paul turns the conversation to the nature of Jesus Christ, we discover a dangerous detour that tempts us away from Paul’s main point into a tarpit of our own making.
Before we dive into today’s passage, we need to have a little talk about theology.
Continue reading “Philippians 2:7c – Two Natures”
… by taking the very nature of a servant,
Summary: This passage provides a critical description of Jesus’ character. Understanding Jesus requires that we try to understand what it means to have the “nature of a servant.”
To avoid using his “equality with God” as an advantage, Jesus did things that run counter to our natural instincts for self-preservation. One of those things was “taking the very nature of a servant.”
Continue reading “Philippians 2:7b – The Nature of a Servant”
… rather, he made himself nothing…
Summary: Paul’s description of Jesus gives us something to think about: Who is Jesus really?
When Paul writes that Jesus “made himself nothing,” he is not exaggerating.
Continue reading “Philippians 2:7a – Our Jesus”