BOOK 50 OF 66 · PAULINE EPISTLES · KING JAMES BIBLE

Philippians 2

Philippians book home•Chapter 2 of 4•30 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

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Philippians 2 Overview

Paul calls the church to unity through humility, using Jesus Christ as the supreme example: though in the form of God, He humbled Himself, took the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death on the cross. God highly exalted Him. Paul then urges believers to work out their salvation in reverent obedience because God works in them, and commends Timothy and Epaphroditus.

PhilippiansBook

2Chapter

30Verses

Pauline EpistlesDivision

Before you read Philippians 2

Coming from

Paul writes from imprisonment with joy and confidence in God’s work among the Philippians. He thanks them for gospel fellowship, explains that his bonds have advanced the gospel, rejoices that Christ is preached even by mixed motives, and urges the church to live worthy of the gospel with one spirit and courageous unity.

In this chapter

Leads into

Paul warns against confidence in religious flesh and recounts his impressive Jewish credentials only to count them loss for Christ. He rejects his own law-based righteousness in favor of righteousness through faith in Christ, presses toward the prize of his heavenly calling, and reminds believers that their conversation is in heaven while they await Christ’s transformation of the body.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Philippians 2:5–11 strongly affirms both Christ’s deity and His genuine humiliation in becoming man and servant; it does not teach that He ceased to be God.

‘Work out your own salvation’ addresses the lived outworking of deliverance/Christian obedience among already-believing saints. Verse 13 grounds their ability in God working in them.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Christlike humility protects unity

Believers are to esteem others above themselves rather than compete for status.

Jesus humbled Himself without surrendering deity

His incarnation reveals divine self-giving, not loss of divine nature.

God exalts the obedient Christ

Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Christian obedience depends on God’s inward work

Believers work because God works in them both to will and to do.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

John 1:1,14

The Word is God and becomes flesh.

Isaiah 45:23

The universal bowing/confessing language applied to Jesus echoes the LORD’s declaration in Isaiah.

Hebrews 12:2

Jesus endures the cross and then sits at God’s right hand.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not teach that Christ emptied Himself of deity

The text says He took the form of a servant and was made in human likeness.

Do not turn ‘work out your salvation’ into earning eternal life

The audience is already in Christ, and God is already working in them.

Do not confuse humility with passivity or self-hatred

Christ’s humility expresses purposeful obedience and service.

Read Philippians 2 watching for…

The unity language at the beginning.

Every movement in Christ’s humiliation and exaltation.

The relation between verses 12 and 13.

The command to do all things without murmurings.

Timothy and Epaphroditus as examples.

Chapter outline5 sections

1-4Believers are called to unity, humility, and concern for others 5-11Christ humbles himself to the death of the cross and is highly exalted by God 12-18Believers are told to obey, work out their salvation with fear and trembling, and shine as lights 19-24Paul hopes to send Timothy, whose faithful care for the church is commended 25-30Paul sends Epaphroditus back and tells the church to honor such faithful servants

If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,

Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.

For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me.

But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state.

For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.

For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's.

But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel.

Him therefore I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me.

But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly.

Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants.

For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick.

For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

I sent him therefore the more carefully, that, when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.

Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation:

Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.

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Philippians 2:13

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