Charles Ellicott Commentary Philippians 2

If there is therefore any consolation...—In the fourfold division of this verse, we trace, first, a reference to unity with Christ and to a spiritual effect following from it; next, a similar reference to communion with the Holy Spirit and a corresponding spiritual result.

1. “Consolation” is properly encouragement—the stirring up of spiritual activity—ascribed in Acts 9:31 to the action of the Holy Spirit, but here viewed as a practical manifestation of the life flowing from union with Christ. Out of it comes naturally the “comfort of love,” that is, as always, the deep and thankful sense of comfort in His love, overflowing into comfort, lovingly given to our fellow believers. On this “encouragement” in Christ, both received and given out to others, St. Paul dwells at length (2 Corinthians 1:3–7).
2. Next, he speaks of “communion of the Spirit” (the very word used in 2 Corinthians 13:13), by which, indeed, we are brought into that unity with Christ; and of this, still keeping to the main idea of love, he makes the manifestation to be in “bowels and mercies”—that is, both in strong affection and in that peculiar form of affection which is directed towards suffering, namely, compassion or pity.

The whole passage is full of a grave and persuasive eloquence characteristic of this Epistle. No absolute distinction is to be drawn between the two elements of the sentence; but it may be noted that the “consolation in Christ” is exhibited in the action which visibly follows His divine example, “the communion with the Holy Spirit” is shown by the inner emotion, not seen, but felt.

That you be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.—In this verse there is again a four-fold division; but of a different kind. St. Paul begins with the exhortation not uncommon from him, to be likeminded,” that is, to have true sympathy (Romans 15:5; 2 Corinthians 13:11; Philippians 4:2); which he naturally strengthens by the addition of “having the same love” (that is, a mutual love), to show that the sympathy is to be one not only of mind but of heart.

But this does not satisfy him: he rises to the further exhortation to perfect “union of soul” (which is the proper rendering for “being of one accord”) in which they shall not only be likeminded, but (in a phrase peculiar to this passage) be actually “of one mind,” living in one another, each sinking his individuality in the enthusiasm of a common love.

This verse expresses the negative result of this unity of soul—that nothing will be done in “strife,” that is, factiousness (the word used in Philippians 1:17), or “vainglory”—nothing, that is, with the desire either of personal influence or of personal glory.

“For,” he adds, each will esteem other better than himself, or, rather, will hold that his neighbour is worthy of higher consideration and a higher place of dignity than himself (compare the use of the word in Romans 13:1 and 1 Peter 2:13, of temporal dignity). For the idea is of the ascription to others, not of moral superiority, but of higher place and honour. Self-assertion will be entirely overcome. So he teaches us elsewhere that charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own (1 Corinthians 13:4–5).

Look not every man on his own things.—This verse similarly describes the positive effect of this “being of one mind” as consisting in power of understanding and sympathy towards “the things of others”—not merely the interests, but also the ideas and feelings of others. To “look upon” here is something more than “to seek” .

It expresses that insight into the thoughts, hopes, aspirations of others, which only a self-forgetting love can give, as well as the care to consider their welfare and happiness. Yet by the word “also” we see that St. Paul does not, in the spirit of some forms of modern transcendentalism, denounce all self-consciousness and self-love, as in a bad sense “selfish.” For man is individual as well as social; he can subordinate “his own things” to “the things of others,” but cannot ignore them.

From a practical introduction, in the familiar exhortation to follow the example of our Lord, Saint Paul proceeds to what is, perhaps, the most complete and formal statement in all his Epistles of the doctrine of His great humility. In this he describes, first, the Incarnation, in which, being in the form of God, He took on Him the form of a servant, assuming a sinless but finite humanity; and next, the Passion, which was made necessary by the sins of humankind, and in which His human nature was humiliated to the shame and agony of the cross.

While inseparable in themselves, these two great acts of His self-sacrificing love must be distinguished. Ancient speculation delighted to suggest that the first might have been, even if humanity had remained sinless, while the second was added because of the fall and its consequences. Such speculations are, indeed, thoroughly precarious and unsubstantial—for we cannot ask what might have been in a different dispensation from our own; and, moreover, we read of our Lord as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8; see also 1 Peter 1:19)—but they at least point to a true distinction.

As the Word of God manifested in the Incarnation, our Lord is the treasure of all humanity as such; as the Saviour through death, He is the special treasure of us as sinners.