Exegetical Notes on Divine Kenosis (God’s “Emptying”)

Theologian (and friend) Tom Oord just sent me his new bestselling book, The Uncontrolling Love of God, and I’ve been happily reading it. Tom promotes the concept of “essential kenosis” in God. For him, kenosis is “not so much about how God became incarnate as to understand God’s nature in light of incarnate love” (156).

This led me to reflect on the Greek word kenosis and what it means in the New Testament. I have to admit I’m not yet sure how what follows would affect Oord’s project directly--perhaps that connection will appear in a subsequent post--nonetheless, I have discovered that theologians have often misunderstood kenosis in the key passage, Philippians 2:7 because they have not taken Paul’s rhetorical structure seriously. (I have not yet seen a commentary on Philippians that engages the structural set-up and denouement for kenosis, but one exists, let me know.)

The Greek word kenosis only occurs five times in the New Testament, where it means in

Philippians 2:7 (which I’ll quote below), “empty” or “make empty”; “to make void” (Romans 4:14; 1 Corinthians 1:17); and “to cause a thing to be seen to be empty, hollow, or false” (1 Corinthians 9:15; 2 Corinthians 9:3). Only in Philippians is kenosis about Christ. Since this one passage has been central to kenotic theologies, the context is critical for the meaning of the word.

In Philippians 2, Paul moves from kenodoxian conceit or two words, “empty glory” (3) to ekenosen “emptyied” (7) to doxan (“glory” in this case, God’s) (11). So just to be obvious, Paul takes a compound word, kenodoxian and breaks it into two words in their related grammatical forms, ekenosen and doxian. This structure has interpretive (or more precisely, exegetical) payoff. 

I’ll have to quote the passage at length (with those three words in bold) so you can see it.

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.  4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.
5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
 6   who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
 7   but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
 8   he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
9    Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
 10       so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
 11       and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

If you’re wondering where all this leads, here’s the bottom line: this passage is primarily about serving—not seeking our own way—for the purpose of creating true community. In a phrase,

Be like Christ—Don’t seek empty glory, but empty yourself of privilege, and God will be glorified.

Whose Are You?

I've been thinking about citizenship recently as I muse on two passages from the book of Philippians. First the Apostle Paul's exhortation to this group of house churches in ancient European city of Philippi:

Only, live your civic or public life worthy of the gospel of Christ. (1:27; I added italics and elaboration)

And then Paul lays out the contrast between the life of the citizens of the "secular city" (to use Augustine's term) and that of followers of Jesus--particularly whose they are:

But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. (3:20-21, again, my italics)

I've been thinking about this because I'm working on a sermon for our presbytery (the regional gathering of our denomination). I'm asking the question: What do we need to hear in light of some contentious political battles in our denomination? It seems to me we need to hear about freedom. We need to hear about our citizenship about how to answer "Whose are we?" The answer: we're free for God and therefore free from being defined by human associations so that we can be free to re-engage in this world with love and service. When we know we ultimately belong to God then we can serve this world more effectively, worthy of the Gospel.


At least that's how I see it. What do you think?

Real Stars

"Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life" (Philippians 2:15).


I've been thinking about stars recently--you know the kind we see in movies and tv, the ones who sing. The ones whose names are in our minds as the Academy Awards loom. Someone like Aaron Rodgers, are homegrown Chico kid, who's leading the Green Bay Packers to the Super Bowl next weekend. Why do we idolize them? What's the basis of their star power? Here's what I think: At its best, the fame of stars makes us yearn for their influence, to make a difference in the world. (At the worst, they give us an excuse not to do anything with our lives... but I'll save that for another post.)

So that brings me to this passage from Paul's writings where he tells the early Christian community in Philippi (now in Macedonian) that they could "shine like stars," that they could give their light to the world around them. In other words, that their light wouldn't be for their own sake, but for the benefit of others.

And to the right are some real stars--some of our college students at Chico State and Butte (along with a few advisors) who took a week of their winter break (specifically January 16-22) to build houses for four poor families in Baja California. They took a week where they could easily have been skiing, sitting at the beach, watching video games, or a host of other distractions. Instead they decide to serve others. And I can tell you, it made a difference to those families who received the keys to their new houses with tears in their eyes. 


And that gives me hope. In my eyes, those, and many like them, are the real stars.

The Lesson of Flexico

I just spent a week down in Mexico building houses for the poor 175 south of the border. Actually, we planned to spend a week, but it ended up lasting 11 days because the bridge just north of town (and our only way home), well, broke, under the raging torrent of a flash flood. 


But the big story wasn't the bridge. It was the way that our team of 40 students and 10 adults lived into community--to be more biblical "koinonia," the fellowship of the Gospel (Philippians 1:5) where we learned to support one another, put one another first, and find that God is present through the Christian community he creates or what Philippians 2:1-4 describes so eloquently:

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

It's a lesson I'll not soon forget. 

And, by the way, we made it home...