Philippians 2: 1-13 Analysis

Whether or not Saul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus was a “conversion experience” or a clarification of theology and the onset of a new mission has become a subject that lots of ink has been spelt over within the last decade. For those who take the perspective of a clarification of theology, one of the many points of theology that had to be refined for Paul was his Christology, or his understanding of who Jesus was and is. Within Philippians 2:1-13, Paul records a creed that reveals in the moment that Paul was writing, his understanding about who Jesus is, both in his own self-identity, form, history, function, and current state. More broadly, the section of interest for this essay is a section on Christian relationships and personal conduct.

Within these verses, Paul commands the church to act together in love and agreeance, with humility. It seems that Paul may have been assuming that those in the church were already experiencing vv.1-2, love, participation in the Spirit, affection and sympathy, and so the proper response was to reciprocate it to others. Within Greco-Roman culture, it has become well known to scholarship that it was normal to seek a platform of recognition above others, including family, friends, and work. It was praised to be the best, or at the very least, to be seen as the best. As Philippi is located on the coast of the Aegean Sea, in the middle of Greece, it is highly likely that these same cultural themes were prevalent in Philippi. Given this, Paul’s quinary reiteration to act humbly would seem appropriate as an identification of a likely issue that the church would be struggling