Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, (6) who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, (7) but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.  (8) And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.  (9) Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, (10) that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, (11) and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The letter to the Philippians was written by the apostle Paul. The ostensible reason for the letter was to thank them for a gift in his time of need; a gift of money symbolizing their love and support for Paul who was in prison and facing capital punishment for preaching the gospel.

In our verses today Paul writes of humility as an intellectual approach to Christian living.  There is nothing in the Bible about self esteem and the heart of relationship problems is the self.

Christ Jesus went from the highest (the divine) to the lowest (in the nature and form of man)  voluntarily,  to rescue man from God’s judgment. Christ was in the form of God – He was equal to God, and it was not false or illegal to claim this. He emptied himself and veiled His divine nature and added to His divine nature a human nature but without sin.  He did not cease to be God.  It the Son of God can go from extremes who is man to be filled with pride.  We must imitate Christ – to help grow in humility we must let Christ’s actions and death be our guide.  To pursue humility we need to know what it looks like, which is our attitude toward the self and others.  The antithesis of humility is pride and c.s.lewis writes in mere Christianity “But pride always means enmity….it is enmity.  And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity with God.