The
SUSQUEHANNA SENTINEL
August 15, 1999
Vol. II, No. 16

In This Issue

JESUS EMPTIED HIMSELF: A BASIC APPROACH

That Jesus “emptied Himself” is not a debatable issue, Phil. 2:6-7.  Of what He emptied Himself, or exactly what that phrase means has been an ancient debate.  What I have to offer here may not solve any controversies, but I hope it will give some food for thought.

1.  Any position which effectively destroys the Deity of Jesus is wrong.  This is the effect of the position that teaches that Jesus gave up His divine attributes and characteristics.  Those who teach this need to explain how Jesus could remain God while giving up the nature of God.  The nature of something is the attributes and characteristics that make it what it is.  If Jesus did not have the nature of God, He was not God.  See Gal. 4:8.

2.  The text does not say that Jesus emptied Himself “of” anything.  When we add “of” to the phrase, and then start enumerating upon what all He supposedly gave up to come to earth, we are not being faithful to the text.  We are reading into the text what it does not say.  As opposed to being “full of Himself” (a modern idiom), He “emptied Himself.”  He did not empty Himself “of” a bunch of things.

3.  To insist that “emptied Himself” should be taken literally to mean that Jesus had to dump something out of Himself before He could take something else on is a misuse of the text.  The text says, “He emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant.”  That is self-explanatory.  His taking on servanthood was a self-emptying act.

4.  A good comparison can be made with Isaiah 53, a text describing the suffering Servant.  Note in verse 12 the phrase, “He poured out Himself to death.”  Does that not have a striking resemblance to “emptied Himself,” and “humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death” (Phil. 2:7-8)?  As the suffering Servant, He emptied Himself, poured Himself out even to death.

5.  The context of Philippians 2 itself shows what it means by the phrase “emptied Himself.”  Paul’s point of the text is to urge the brethren to be of the same mind, to be united and intent on one purpose (vs. 2).  To accomplish this, he instructs, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others” (vs. 3-4).  These are the instructions, but how does one do this?  “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus (vs. 5).  To reach the point of selflessness, one must look to Jesus.  Why?  Because He is the perfect example of these instructions.  Though He Himself is God, while on earth He did not grasp after His godhood by trying to exercise His own independent will apart from the Father (“did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped”).  Rather, He “emptied Himself,” which is the perfect phrase to describe the attitude of verses 3-4.  So what does it mean that Jesus “emptied Himself”?  Jesus Christ, in His role of the Servant, did nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but in lowliness of mind He regarded others as more important than Himself.  He looked out for the personal interests of others.  How did He do this?  Ultimately, by dying on the cross.  So, Paul’s point is that, as Jesus emptied Himself, so must we all empty ourselves.  It is simply another way of saying that we need to deny ourselves, Luke 9:23, for this is what Jesus did when He fulfilled His mission for a lost world.  He set Himself aside so that everything He did was selfless.  Mark says it this way: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).  These passages say the same thing.

6.  The idea that Jesus emptied Himself of attributes and characteristics is completely foreign to Paul’s argument.  He points to Jesus as our example of self-humiliation.  If Jesus emptied out of Himself a bunch of attributes, then how can we follow this example?  We can’t divest ourselves of our human nature any more than He could divest His divine nature.  The line of reasoning that Paul uses to say that we should be selfless becomes meaningless through such an interpretation.  It is an attitude that he is teaching.

7.  Very simply, then, the text tells us that we should empty ourselves.  We should deny ourselves, doing nothing out of selfishness.  We do this by taking the attitude of Jesus, the supreme example of self-denial.  He emptied Himself.  As a Servant, He completely submitted to the Father and poured out Himself unto death.  Afterwards, he was exalted.  If we, too, will humble ourselves in like manner, God promises that we will be exalted, James 4:10.

--T. Doy Moyer via Gospel Observer

IT TAKES A VILLAGE

It takes a village (so we're told), to raise a child today. 
It takes a village (we reply), to steal his heart away. 
To purge old-fashioned do's and don't from his enlightened mind,
To leave old fashioned Ma and Pa, a hundred years behind.

It takes a village, verily, to teach some mother's son 
To steal and gamble, smoke and swear, and vandalize for fun. 
His mother didn't teach him that! His father?  No, not he!
It takes a village to corrupt, a village verily.

It takes a village, this we know, to teach the maidens sweet 
To dress and act, to look and talk, like women of the street.
It takes a village, not a doubt, to teach a maiden mild 
To save the monkey's, owls, and whales, yet kill her unborn child.

It takes a village public school, some subtle class-room chats, 
To teach the little boys and girls to act like alley cats. 
To teach them of the birds and bees, without morality, 
To teach them what to do and how, and tell them they are free.

It takes a village, yes indeed, to brainwash all our youth 
With notions and with fallacies, in place of sense and truth. 
Abortion rights!  The right to die!  the rights of animals! 
Creative spelling!  Unisex!  The rights of criminals!

It takes a village, well we know, to turn their minds awry, 
To stand for fancied "Children's rights," and parent's rights deny. 
To honor human nature less, and trees and rivers more. 
To sacrifice to "Mother Earth", and Father God ignore.

"It takes a village," so they say, but something more they mean. 
United Nations, Washington, The Liberal machine. 
Society,  the "Brave New World," the socialist scheme. 
The global ideology;  The New World Order Dream!

It takes a village idiot to believe that a family needs instruction from the government to raise a child.

--Glenn Conjiurske via Old Paths And Ancient Landmarks.

WISDOM AND HER CHILDREN

In Matt. 11:16-19, Jesus spoke somewhat disparagingly of those who had heard and rejected both Himself and John the Baptist.  He said, “To what shall I liken this generation?  It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, saying: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we mourned to you, and you did not lament.’  For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’  The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners?’  But wisdom is justified by her children.”

First, let us note that the accusations brought against John and Jesus were not true.  John was not demon-possessed, and Jesus was not a gluttonous winebibber.  Most likely, the real problem was that both Jesus and John were demanding of that generation what that generation was unwilling to do, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2; 4:17).  The idea of a kingdom of heaven may have appealed to them, but the idea of repentance did not.  They were not willing to change their lifestyles and priorities.  They found it easier to find fault with the preachers than to correct their own faults, so they accused John of being anti-social and Jesus of being too frivolous.  Like fretful children, nothing pleased them, because they were displeased with the basic message of both preachers.

When others tried to play wedding, they wouldn’t make merry.  When they tried to play funeral, they refused to weep.  John couldn’t please them by avoiding their parties and Jesus couldn’t please them by attending.  None could have pleased them without ceasing to demand repentance.  Yet repentance was a prerequisite to being ready to enter the kingdom of heaven that was about to come into existence.

In the statement, “Wisdom is justified by her children,” Jesus uses a figure of speech called personification.  That is, He speaks of wisdom as if wisdom were a woman whose actions would be justified in the light of their results.  Though the preaching of both Jesus and John had been ineffective in changing the attitudes of the religious leaders and influential citizens, both had been very effective in bringing repentance to those whose need was most obvious.  The publicans (customs agents) and sinners had flocked to hear John and many of them had submitted to his baptism.  They likewise flocked to hear Jesus and multitudes were led to repent of their sin and become reconciled to God.  These results were the evidence that both Jesus and John acted by Divine wisdom in their methods and manners of teaching.  And this wisdom was proven to be such by the results (children) brought about as it was put into practice.

--CRJ