Lowliness of mind (razrewvodpocdvn). See on Matt. xi. 29.
4, Look (cxozodytes). Attentively: fixing the attention upon, with desire for or interest in. So Rom. xvi. 17; Philip. ili. 17; 2 Cor.iv.18. Hence often to aim at; compare cxorés the mark, ch. iti. 14. The participles esteeming and looking are used with the force of imperatives. See on Col. iii. 16.
5. Let this mind be in you (rodT0 dpoveloIw év buiv). Lit., let this be thought in you. The correct reading, however, is gpovetre, lit., “think this in yourselves.” Rev., have this mind an you.
6. Being in the form of God (év popdh Qcod vTdpyov). Being. Not the simple eva to be, but stronger, denoting being which is from the beginning. See on Jas. ii. 15. It has a backward look into an antecedent condition, which has been pro- tracted into the present. Here appropriate to the preincarnate being of Christ, to which the sentence refers. In itself it does not imply eternal, but only prior existence. Form (woppm). We must here dismiss from our minds the idea of shape. The word is used in its philosophic sense, to denote that expression of being which carries in itself the distinctive nature and char- acter of the being to whom it pertains, and is thus permanently identified with that nature and character. Thus it is distin- guished from oyjua fashion, comprising that which appeals to
Casi THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 431
the senses and which is changeable. Mopdx form * is identi- fied with the essence of a person or thing: cyfua fashion is an accident which may change without affecting the form. For the manner in which this difference is developed in the kindred verbs, see on Matt. xvii. 2.
As applied here to God, the word is intended to describe that mode in which the essential being of God expresses itself. We have no word which can convey this meaning, nor is it possible for us to formulate the reality. orm inevitably carries with it to us the idea of shape. It is conceivable that the essential personality of God may express itself in a mode apprehensible by the perception of pure spiritual intelligences; but the mode itself is neither apprehensible nor conceivable by human minds.
This mode of expression, this se¢t¢ng of the divine essence, is not identical with the essence itself, but is edentified with it, as its natural and appropriate expression, answering to it in every particular. It is the perfect expression of a perfect essence. It is not something imposed from without, but something which proceeds from the very depth of the perfect being, and into which that being perfectly unfolds, as light from fire.
To say, then, that Christ was i the form of God, is to say that He existed as essentially one with God. The expression of deity through human nature (ver. 7) thus has its background in the expression of deity as deity in the eternal ages of God’s being. Whatever the mode of this expression, it marked the being of Christ in the eternity before creation. As the form of God was identified with the being of God, so Christ, being in the form of God, was identified with the being, nature, and personality of God. '
This form, not being identical with the divine essence, but dependent upon it, and necessarily implying it, can be parted with or laid aside. Since Christ is one with God, and therefore pure being, absolute existence, He can exist without the form. This form of God Christ laid aside in His incarnation.
* T use form for the sake of the English reader, not as adequately express: ing the original.
432 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TE? LAMENT. (Cu. IL
Thought it not robbery to be equa! with God (ovy dp maypov nynoato TO elvat ica Oew). Robbery is explained in three ways. 1. A robbing, the act. 2. The thing robbed, a piece of plunder. 3. A prize, a thing to be grasped. Here in the last sense.