What an Ancient Christian Poem Reveals About Jesus and Us
There is something powerful about slowing down long enough to sit with a text that has shaped the imagination of millions of people for two thousand years. Philippians has been my guide recently and as I have moved through it slowly, I keep finding myself surprised by how relevant this ancient letter is for anyone who is trying to take Jesus seriously in the world we live in today.
Philippians is a short little letter. Four chapters. Ten or fifteen minutes to read. Yet beneath its simplicity sits a depth of thought and a quiet challenge that confronts the way we think about faith, power, identity, and what it means to be human. Walking through the text line by line has been a reminder that there is always more to discover when we give ourselves time to pay attention.
Paul writes this letter from prison, most likely in Ephesus, with a community on his mind, a community he planted years earlier. These were people who heard his message in Acts 16 and joined him in the surprising work of following Jesus in a world shaped by Rome. He writes to encourage them, to challenge them, and to pull their imagination back to the center of everything, which for Paul is always Jesus and the reality of his kingship.
In the first chapter he sets that tone. Jesus is not simply a wise teacher who said meaningful things. Jesus is Israel’s Messiah and the true King of the world. And if that is true, then something follows. We ought to be the people who act like he is the King. This flows right into the idea Paul builds next, the invitation to have the mind of Christ, meaning to begin thinking in the pattern Jesus thought in, even when it pushes against the instincts and habits of the world around us.
The move from chapter 1 to chapter 2 is not a shift in thought. Early manuscripts had no chapter breaks, so this is the same stream of reflection. Paul wants this church to understand that belonging to Jesus means stepping into a different way of interpreting your life. He tells them to share the same mind, the same love, the same purpose. Then he takes that further by naming a core ethic of Christian life. Treat one another as more important than yourself.
That is not any easier now than it was then. It resists the normal impulse to center yourself. It asks you to look around and see the other person in front of you as someone worth honoring, protecting, and lifting up. Paul is not inventing this ethic. He is drawing directly from the teachings of Jesus. Love one another. Pray for those who persecute you. Bless your enemies. The last will be first. The greatest is the one who serves. These were not safe ideas when Jesus first spoke them and they are not safe ideas now. They are an invitation to a posture of humility that does not come naturally for any of us.
To explain this more clearly, Paul turns to something beautiful. A poem. If you look in almost any English Bible (Philippians 2:6-11), you will see this section indented. Most scholars agree that this was an early Christian poem or hymn about Jesus. The church would have recited it or sung it. Paul did not create it. He received it and passed it along, the same way he did with the resurrection tradition he mentions in 1 Corinthians 15 when he says, “What I received I passed on to you.”
Some think Paul may have learned these things during the three years after his conversion when he disappeared from public ministry. Scripture does not tell us exactly what happened during that time, but something deeply formative took place. Whether through direct encounters with Jesus or simply through contemplation and teaching from other believers, Paul came to understand the significance of Jesus in a way that aligned fully with the apostles. However it came to him, he recognizes the importance of this poem and places it here in the center of Philippians to make his point.
The poem describes Jesus in three movements. Pre existence. Incarnation. Exaltation. It begins with the surprising claim that Jesus existed in the form of God, yet did not see his equality with God as something to cling to or exploit. He did not hold tight to divine power for personal advantage. Instead he emptied himself and took the form of a slave, entering fully into human life, humbling himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.
For a first century audience living in a city shaped by stories of Philip of Macedonia, Alexander the Great, and the Caesars, this was shocking. Every great figure they admired gained power through conquest, domination, and the ability to force others beneath them. Yet here is a poem about a King who refuses to grasp at power, who chooses humility, who lifts others up rather than crushing them. It reframes what it means to be divine. It reframes what it means to be human. It reframes what power is meant to accomplish.
This is why the poem matters today. We still live in a world that believes power means control. Influence means domination. Leadership means getting your way and protecting your position. Jesus flips that imagination upside down. True power is the ability to let go of power for the good of others. True authority is revealed in service. Healing begins when someone chooses humility over self protection.
Paul adds that because Jesus lived this way, God exalted him. Not because he grabbed power but because he released it. Not because he climbed higher but because he descended lower. This is the story Christians claim at the center of everything. Lives are rarely changed through force or clever arguments. Lives are changed when people see someone walking in the way of Jesus with such integrity and humility that they cannot ignore it.
This is why Paul keeps urging them to put on the mind of Christ. Not as a slogan. Not as a theological idea. But as a real way of existing in the world. A way of seeing others. A way of carrying your power. A way of resisting the broken systems around you without becoming shaped by them.
Then Paul says something that is often misunderstood. Work out your salvation with awe and seriousness. Paul does not mean to earn salvation. He means to participate in your healing. The Greek word for save can also mean heal. Think of a broken leg. A doctor may set it and begin the healing, but you still have to walk through the recovery. You participate in the healing that has already begun. Salvation works the same way. God has acted, but there is still work to do in your heart, your mind, your posture, and your imagination.
Paul invites them into this healing. Into becoming people who stop grumbling and arguing. Into becoming people who live as lights in the world. Into becoming people who model a different kind of life in a society that still celebrates the same things Rome celebrated, the same things our world celebrates. Power, winning, control, image, celebrity. Paul says none of these resemble Jesus. The Christian way is humility, sacrificial love, and a willingness to consider the interests of others before your own.
All of this brings us back to the question that started this exploration. What does an ancient Christian poem have to do with Jesus and with us? The answer is everything. This poem confronts the ways the world, or Christianity, has been used to harm, oppress, and control. It invites us to look beyond the abuse done in Jesus name and see Jesus himself. The one who gives himself away for others. The one who refuses to exploit power. The one who heals. The one who models a different kingdom.
If you have been hurt by Christians or by leaders who used their authority in destructive ways, hear this clearly. They were not acting like Jesus. They were acting in opposition to the very poem Christians have treasured for two thousand years. Remember, do not judge Jesus by their actions. Judge him by what he claims. Judge him by this poem. Judge him by the cross.
He is worth following. And this poem still calls us to the same thing it called the Philippians to. Let your mind be shaped by Christ. Let your life reflect his humility. Let your posture lift others up. Let your healing continue. And may you become someone whose life shines like a light in a world that needs it.
