This is the heart of our short series in Philippians. Paul has been telling us how to phroneō — think, set our minds, orient our hearts. Today, he tells us whose mind we’re after.
Humans are wired to climb.
Watch any room of people for long enough, and you’ll see it. Who gets the better seat at the table. Who speaks first. Who’s the smartest in the conversation. Who gets credit when something goes right. Who gets blamed when something goes wrong.
It’s not that we’re all walking around scheming for status… most of the time we’re not. But the gravity of the human heart pulls upward. We want to be seen. We want to be respected. We want to come out of the room a little higher than we walked in.
And then comes Paul, in the middle of his letter to a church struggling with unity, and he says something that turns all of it upside down.
Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus.
— Philippians 2:5 (CSB)
There it is. The word again. Phroneō.
Have this mind. Set your mind this way. Think like he thought.
And the moment he says it, he doesn’t give us a principle. He gives us a Person.
Not a Principle — a Person
Pay close attention to where this verse is placed.
Just two verses earlier, Paul has pleaded with the Philippians to be of one mind. To think the same thing. To agree in the Lord (we walked through that yesterday).
And now they might be wondering — okay, Paul, how? How do we actually do that?
Most preachers would have given them a five-point plan. Here are the principles. Here’s the technique. Here are the steps to congregational unity.
Paul doesn’t do that.
Paul says: Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus.
You want to know how to think together? Look at how Christ thought. Catch his disposition. Absorb his orientation. Take on the inner direction of his life — and the unity question takes care of itself.
That’s why this verse sits at the center of the whole series. Phroneō isn’t a technique. It isn’t a self-help project. It’s a Person. It’s the mind of Christ becoming our own.
Christ’s Direction Was Down
What follows, from verses 6 through 11, is one of the most beautiful passages in all of Scripture. Paul, possibly quoting an early Christian hymn, paints the picture of how Jesus actually thought.
Read it slowly —
Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death — even to death on a cross.
— Philippians 2:6–8 (CSB)
Look at the direction.
He existed in the form of God. He had every right to grasp at that — to hold onto status, to demand recognition, to insist on his rightful place.
He didn’t.
He emptied himself. The Greek word is kenoō — he poured himself out. He didn’t stop being God. But he refused to clutch at what was rightfully his. He took the form of a servant. He came in our likeness. He humbled himself. He became obedient.
All the way down. All the way to death. All the way to a cross.
That’s the mind of Christ.
And that mind moves the opposite direction of every instinct in our heart. We climb. He descended. We grasp. He let go. We protect our standing. He laid his down.
The Way Up Is Down
After Paul shows us how far down Christ went, he shows us what happened next:
For this reason God highly exalted him...
— Philippians 2:9 (CSB)
For this reason.
Because he went down, God lifted him up.
The exaltation didn’t come in spite of the descent. It came because of it. The path to glory ran straight through the cross. The way up was down. And there’s something in that pattern that ought to reshape how every Christian thinks about ambition, status, recognition, and place.
You want to know how Christ’s mind worked? He trusted his Father enough to let go of every advantage and serve. And the Father — at exactly the right moment — lifted him to the highest place.
That’s not a sermon illustration. That’s the gospel.
Where Are You Climbing?
So here’s the question.
Where in your life are you climbing when Christ would have you descending?
Where are you grasping at recognition you don’t need to clutch? Where are you protecting your reputation instead of laying it down? Where are you scoring points in an argument when serving the other person would honor Christ more?
Maybe it’s at work, where the promotion has become more important than the people. Maybe it’s in your marriage, where you’ve been keeping score for so long you don’t remember when it started. Maybe it’s in the church, where you’ve quietly been making sure people know what you contribute, what you sacrifice, what you bring.
The mind of Christ goes the other way. Quietly. Without announcement. Down toward the towel and the basin. Down toward the person who hasn’t earned it. Down toward the seat nobody else wants.
And here’s the promise: the One who descended is now the One who lifts. When you put on the mind of Christ, you don’t lose. You follow the same path he walked. And there’s nowhere it leads but home.
The mind that loves remembers. The mind that’s united moves forward. The mind of Christ bends low.
Set your mind there.
Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus. — Philippians 2:5 (CSB)
