Emptied
May 20, 2026
Christ Jesus… who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to
Few of us desire to be less than we are in our own perception but what about the way God sees us? Do you want to be emptied of your desires and full of God’s desires for you? Would you like the supreme example of being emptied? Philippians 2, the first eleven verses, is such an example.
Let’s set the context first: Paul is writing to the believers in the Roman colony of Philippi where his first preaching in Macedonia had resulted in his and Silas’s imprisonment. Now, a decade or so later, Paul is imprisoned in Rome awaiting trial before the Emperor. Philippi’s believers were the first European converts to Christ and were fervent supporters of Paul’s European ministries both with gifts and traveling ministry companions from their midst. This is possibly the most personal of his letters to a church and has dozens of personal references indicative of his closeness to them enduring.
Paul writes from the Roman imprisonment encouraging the Philippians to ‘complete my joy’ by continuing in Jesus and living selfless lives characterized by ‘being of same mind’ ‘having same love’ ‘being in full accord and one mind,’ not acting out of selfish ambition or conceit, ‘humbly count each other more significantly than self,’ ‘not prioritizing self over others’ welfare’.1 All of this then comes to the hinge of this passage:
A little theology here: Jesus was fully God and fully Man at the same time without being less of either. Yes, theologians coined a phrase for this: hypostatic union, and yes, it is a paradox, an oxymoron, in that we cannot conceive of both in one. This is one plus one equals one. Jesus being fully God ‘emptied himself by taking the form of a servant,’ set aside His divine abilities to live as a servant to the will of God the Father. He choose not to use his ‘God-ness’ while in his birth form but to wholly rely upon the desires and direction of the Father throughout this era. No, I cannot adequately explain it either; several church councils over the last two thousand years have dabbled at explaining and all comes up short of making it rational, reasonable, acceptable yet it was necessary in the foundational design determination of the Godhead if mankind was to be redeemed.
What was the consequence of this emptying out? The Philippians passage ‘emptied himself by taking the form of a servant’ continues:
… being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 3
In 1956, missionary Jim Elliot and four others tried to evangelize the Huaorani natives of Ecuador and died in the process. Seven years earlier when working through the implications of the call of God upon his life, he wrote in his personal journal, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Yes, Jesus ‘emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, born in the likeness of man. Found in human form he obeyed the Father even in death.’ And, yes, Father God honored that ‘emptied’ life by raising Jesus right back up from the dead human form and restoring him to his ‘Godness’ and honoring Jesus with exaltation above all else. Father God by the redemption in Jesus has finished the eternal argument of the fallen that God is not worthy as God, that Satan is equal, and has assured that in Jesus “all” created will have to submit to God ultimately.
But, ‘emptying out’ isn’t just for Jesus—all of this about what Jesus accomplished through emptying out to be the vessel of God’s desire and enabling and expression, is meant to be the encouragement and example for all believers to do a likewise emptying out—‘Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus’—just as Jesus took this mindset, we are also to have this mindset. It is not merely something to see and be in awe of in Christ but also something to be made our own mindset in Jesus. If we desire the lives that Paul was encouraging the Philippians to live out, we must have the ‘emptied out’ life. The list that Paul gives begins with the “So if there is…” which is not a hypothetical ‘if’ but one of those rhetoricals that the following are true and obvious characteristics that should be identified in the life of each believer and the entirety of the Church of Jesus serving God:
How often do we ‘get full of ourself’ and become preoccupied with we above any other, even God? Paul is writing from prison encouraging those who knew the cost he had paid to give them the gospel, to minister to them, to take the truth to those who didn’t have it, and to live fruitful lives in the midst of their circumstances looking to the example of not only Paul but even more to Jesus. What is your Empty Quotient, how full of who are you?
Christ Jesus… who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from
You have wearied the Lᴏʀᴅ with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who
“…and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and
“But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be