Emptying and Loving: Son-Slave-Spouse

​We do not like to serve. We prefer to be served. In like fashion, our preference is not to be the lowest person on the employment ladder. We aspire to rise and be leaders, supervisors, CEOs, with people and subordinates working under and serving us. We aspire to be great and receive the accolades of others. Our notion of greatness and success is determined by how high we are in the hierarchy of our industry, profession, social, economic or political status. Notwithstanding that countless others have supported and contributed to our achievements and success, we revel in the acclamations given to us, acquiescing that it is primarily through our efforts and by being who we are that we are deserving of these accolades and recognition.
​
We see this in sports; the gold medal winners, the top teams, the top managers; in religion: the heads of the various faiths and traditions; in politics: prime ministers and presidents; in industry: Chief executive officers and entrepreneurs; the lists goes on.  This has always been the way of our world.
 
In our history, one person held a completely different view. He was a different take of this, the man Christ Jesus: God becoming flesh, as a human being.
 
When his disciples were vying as to who would be the greatest among them, to sit at his right and left hand in his glory,[1] Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
 
Then, “Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant[2], and whoever wants to be first must be slave[3] of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served[4], but to serve[5], and to give his life as a ransom for many.”[6]
 
The Apostle Paul understood this mind of Christ with the following description: “who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery[7] to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation[8], taking the form of a bondservant[9], and coming in the likeness of men. 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”,[10] when he exhorted “ Let this mind[11] be in you as was also in Christ Jesus.
 
To have this mind[12] in us as was also in Christ Jesus means to seek our affection on and to interest ourselves with similar attitude in focus, desire and passions, to what he did. However, to begin to grow into having this mind, we must first choose and will to make it our treasure: “for where your treasure is, there your heart [your wishes, your desires; that on which your life centers] will be also.”[13]
 
If we are honest with ourselves we will recognise that we live this truth each moment of our lives. For whatever we have chosen to be our treasure has been or is now the focus and centre of our attention, desires, passions, urges, efforts and energy. It applies without exception, whether person, ambition, pursuit or thing. We will inevitably see our lives gravitate towards our treasure. A way to recognise our treasure is identifying ‘the what’: person, desire or thing that is consuming and occupying our minds and thoughts.
 
What was Son’s treasure causing Son to have this mind, focus, intense passionate interest?
 


[1] Mark 10:35-39 ESV

[2] Greek διάκονος diákonos probably from an obsolete διάκω diákō (to run on errands; compare G1377); an attendant, i.e. (genitive case) a waiter (at table or in other menial duties. Strong’s NT 1249

[3] Greek δοῦλος doûlos;  a slave, devoted to another with disregard to one’s own interest. Strong’s NT 1401

[4] See 2 above, to be an attendant, to wait on another like a waiter.

[5] See 2 above, to be an attendant, to wait on another like a waiter

[6] Mark 10:42-45 ESV

[7] Philippians 2:6 Literally may be translated as “not thinking that being equal with God is robbing or plundering something from God.  The phrase is usually translated to convey the following meaning: did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped or asserted [as if He did not already possess it, or was afraid of losing it] Amplified Bible.

[8] Philippians 2:7 emptied Himself of His privileges Literally “emptied Himself” ἑαυτὸν himself ἐκένωσεν to empty, make empty.  Strong’s 2758

[9] Greek δοῦλος doûlos;  a slave, devoted to another with disregard to one’s own interest. Strong’s NT 1401

[10] Philippians 2:5-8 NKJV

[11] Philippians 2:6 φρονείσθω  singular in Textus Receptus or φρονεῖτε plural in Morphological GNT from Greek φρονέω phronéō: meaning to direct one's mind to a thing, to seek, to strive for, to have understanding, be wise, intensively, to interest oneself in. Different from mind in 1 Corinthians 2:16  νοῦς nous, the mind, comprising alike the faculties of perceiving and understanding and those of feeling, judging, determining. Strong’s NT 5426 and 3563 compare

[12] See 11 above

[13] Matthew 6:21 Amplified Bible

Read More