ACC ~ Philippians 2 v7b

HIS SERVANTHOOD NOT FROM A NATURAL INFERIORITY. CHRYSOSTOM: If it were through a natural inferiority that he undertook to bear “the form of a slave,” this would not be an instance of humility. Yet Paul makes excellent use of this example as an exhortation precisely to humility. ON THE EQUALITY OF THE FATHER AND THE SON, HOMILY 10.

HE ASSUMED WHAT HE WAS NOT. GREGORY OF NYSSA: The one who says that he “took the form of a slave”—and this form is flesh—is saying that, being himself something else according to his divine form, something else in his nature, he assumed the servile form. ANTIRRHETICUS AGAINST APOLLINARIUS.

THE SLAVERY AS GOD’S INSTRUMENT. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: God did all things through him. Therefore he is also said to have “taken the form of a slave.” It is not only the flesh of the slave that he assumed but the very nature of a slave that he assumed. He became a slave so that he could share human suffering in the flesh. EXCERPTS FROM THEODOTUS 1.19.4-5.

TAKING THE FORM OF A SLAVE. AMBROSIASTER: He is said not to have taken the form of God but to have been in the form of God. What he is said to have taken is the form of a slave when he was humbled like a sinner. People become slaves through sin, like Ham the son of Noah, who first received the title of slave through his own actions. His “taking the form of a slave” was not simply his becoming human but his profound identification with sinners, voluntarily “taking the form of a slave.” EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 2.8.2.

YET HIS SLAVERY INVOLVED NO ACTUAL SIN. AUGUSTINE: The Son humbled himself, taking the form of a slave. But meanwhile he remained above any slavery because he had no stain of sin. ON THE GRACE OF CHRIST 33.

THE SLAVERY DID NOT INDICATE A DEFECT OF POWER. LEO THE GREAT: He “assumed the form of a slave” without the stain of sin, enhancing the human without diminishing the divine. That emptying by which the invisible One offered himself to be seen and the Creator and Lord of all things elected to be one among mortals was a sovereign act of stooping in majestic pity, not a defect of power. EPISTLE 28 TO FLAVIAN 3.

THE SLAVERY OF THE SON ENDS THE SLAVERY OF SIN. AUGUSTINE: The Lord Jesus Christ came in flesh and, having “accepted the form of a slave, became obedient even to death on the cross.” He has no other purpose than that by this dispensation of his most merciful grace he might give life to those who have become, as it were, members of his body. He is their head in order to obtain for them the kingdom of heaven. This he did to save and set free. He redeemed and enlightened those who had formerly been consigned to the death of sin. They had been languishing in slavery, captivity and darkness under the power of the devil, the prince of sinners. ON WHAT IS DUE TO SINNERS 1.39.

THE SLAVERY EXEMPLIFIES HUMILITY. AMBROSIASTER: “Taking the form of a slave.” He indeed was taken captive, bound and driven with blows. His obedience to the Father took him even as far as the cross. Yet throughout he knew himself to be the Father’s Son, equal in divine dignity. Yet he did not make a display of this equality. Rather he willingly subjected himself. This patience and humility he teaches us to imitate. We are to refrain from making a display of our claims to equal dignity, but even more so we are called to lower ourselves into service as we follow the example of our Maker. EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 2.8.1-2.

THE TRIUNE GOD NOT EXHAUSTED IN THIS SLAVERY. GREGORY OF NYSSA: The Word who appeared in the flesh was the same as the Word that was with God. But the earthly flesh he assumed was not the same as the Godhead until this too was changed into Godhead, so that necessarily some attributes belonged to God the Word, others to the form of a slave. AGAINST EUNOMIUS 3.3.62.

THE WILL OF THE FATHER AND THE SON WAS VOLUNTARY. MARIUS VICTORINUS: The Son was sent by the Father and fulfills the Father’s will. The mystery stated here is that it was by his own will that he came and assumed the form and image of a slave. … The Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father. … So what the Father willed the Son also willed, and what the Son willed the Father willed. EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 2.6-8.

HIS PARTICIPATION IN SLAVERY IS AN EXPRESSION OF HIS DIVINE COMPASSION. EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA: Read the record of his compassion. It pleased him, being the Word of God, to “take the form of a slave.” So he willed to be joined to our common human condition. He took to himself the toils of the members who suffer. He made our human maladies his own. He suffered and toiled on our behalf. This is in accord with his great love of humankind. DEMONSTRATION OF THE GOSPEL 10.1.22.

THE UNITY OF THE DIVERSE APOSTOLIC TESTIMONY. THEODORET: See how the varied attestors agree. The Evangelist says “the Word became flesh.” The apostle says that he, being in the form of God, “came to be in the form of a man” The Evangelist says “he pitched his tent among us.” The apostle says “he took the form of a slave.” The Evangelist says “we saw his glory, as of the only begotten of the Father.” The apostle speaks of One “who being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God.” In a word, both teach the same: that, being God and the Son of God, and clothed in the Father’s glory and having the same nature and power as his Begetter, the One who “in the beginning was with God and was was God”and wrought the creation “took the form of slave.” ERANISTES 1.

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