Philippians 2 & the First Great Christian Hymn

One of the things I love about the Christian faith is this: we've got great hymns!

How Great Thou Art!  Amazing Grace!  Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty!  Here I Am, Lord, The Church's One Foundation, How Great is Our God, This is My Father's World, Glorify Thy Name, and on and on and on.

Great hymns combine inspiring lyrics with timeless melodies, and they help shape our faith and our lives. They're more important than we realize. What would worship be without hymns?

Philippians 2 contains one of the earliest hymns of our faith. It begins at Vs. 6.  Paul either wrote it or quotes it here to make his point.

What does it say to you?


Philippians 2New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Imitating Christ’s Humility

2 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was[a] in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God,
    did not regard equality with God
    as something to be exploited,
7 but emptied himself,
    taking the form of a slave,
    being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8     he humbled himself
    and became obedient to the point of death—
    even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him
    and gave him the name
    that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus
    every knee should bend,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue should confess
    that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Philippians 1:1-2

Image
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Ancient Letter Writing Today when we write letters we start off with who we're writing to, "Dear Mom." And we end our letters by signing our own names. In ancient times it was different and easier. One first identified one's self and then who you were writing to. Have you ever received a letter and had to skip to the end to see who it was from? Long ago they didn't have to! It was settled early on. The Blessing Paul often begins his letters with a blessing.  " Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."  Starting with a blessing  was also common in ancient letter writing. Paul raised it to a theological art form.  It was Paul's desire to be a blessing to them. Here's a good, short prayer to start the day ...
Read more

The Purpose of Paul's Letter

Image
As I write this letter . . . Paul writes his letter to the Philippians for the following reasons: 1. To thank them for a gift he's received from them (Phil 4:10-11). 2. To instruct them to receive Epaphroditus back into their fellowship (Phil. 2:29-30). Paul sent him back to Philippi for having an unpronounceable name! Actually Mr. E. was ill and Paul urged him to return to his home. E. was supposed to stay with Paul to assist him in his time of imprisonment. Paul wanted to make sure that the Philippians knew that Epaphroditus had not deserted Paul. 3. To encourage them during their time of trails and persecutions (Phil. 1:28-30). 4. To appeal for unity. Chapters 2 & 3 deal with this subject. An early Christian writer named Polycarp was well aware of Paul's letters to the Philippians. He once wrote to them, "when he (Paul) was absent he wrote letters to you." I always get a kick out of the tarp company named, ...
Read more

Affection and Encouragement

More affection from Paul - You hold me in your heart Philippians 7-8 7 It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.  8 For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. How do you encourage and gently challenge those you love so much?  I often face this in preaching. I love our congregation so much! People are living loving, faith-filled lives. Yet our challenge, and the challenge of scripture and discipleship, is to keep growing, keep serving and keep loving. Look at how Paul does it: Philippians 9-11 9 And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight  10 to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless,  11 having produced the harvest of righteousness ...
Read more