4. M^ ra saurojv) not merely your own interest, nor on your own account: comp. ver. 21. — //,?} ra — ro) Perverted Usefulness is manifold ; true usefulness is simple and one.1 This is the differ ence between ra and ro.'2
5. <bpove?<!8u, let the mind be) He does not say ppovs/rs, think ye, but <ppoveiGt}&}, cherish this mind, — sv Xptcrti 'l>j<rou, in Christ Jesus) Paul also was one who had regard to what belonged to others, not merely what belonged to himself: ch. i. 24 : and this circum stance furnished him with the occasion of this admonition. He does not, however, propose himself, but Christ, as an example, who did not seek His own, but humbled Himself. [Even the very order of tlie words, as the name Christ is put first, indicates the immense weight of this example. — V. g.]
6. "Og) inasmuch as being one who. — sv poppy Ssov u^rap^wv, subsisting in the form of God) The name God, in this and the following clause, does not denote God the Father, but is put in definitely. The form of God does not imply the Deity., or Divine nature itself, but something emanating from it ; and yet again it does not denote the bewg on an equality with God, but something prior, viz. the appearance [outward manifestation] of God, i.e. the form shining forth from the very glory of the Invisible Deity, John i. 14. The Divine nature had infinite beauty in itself, even without any creature contemplating that beauty. That beauty was the poppy &sov, form of God, as in man beauty shines forth from the sound constitution and elegant symmetry of his body, whether it has or has not any one to look at it. Man himself is seen by his form; so God and His glorious Majesty. This passage furnishes an excellent proof of the Divinity of Christ from this very fact ; for as the form of a servant does not signify the human nature itself — for the form of a servant was not perpetual, but the human nature is to continue
1 Therefore the plural, rot, is used in the former case; the singular, TO, in the latter : a distinction lost in the reading of the Engl. Vers. — ED.
2 The margin of the older Ed., which has the suffrage of the Germ. Vers., prefers the reading py roc, — x.ecl TO, but the margin of the 2d Ed. de clares the reading TO, I know not whetfeer at the beginning or end of the verse, not quite certain. — E. B.
None but inferior uncial MSS. read TO in the second position. ABC Vulg. and Rec. Text read xocl roc. D corrected Gfff read roc rav. — Ed.