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

​​So much so, that, according to Paul, though Son was equal to God (Father and Spirit), Son was willing to empty himself, by putting aside this equality and assume and subordinate himself to Father, similar to a slave-master relationship. With this in mind, we are given a little bit more insight into Son’s seemingly contradictory statements: “I and the Father are one”,[1] in contrast to “the Father is greater than I”[2].
 
In embracing this slave-master relationship to Father, Son could say: “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.”[3] “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”[4]
 
Emptying himself, through laying aside equality with God, and embracing this slave-master relationship, Son became a human being. Notwithstanding that he was fully divine[5] even as he was fully human, he humbled himself by being obedient to Father even to the point of death, even death on a cross[6] He learned obedience through suffering.[7]
 
For me and to me, this was Son’s personal cross to bear even as we have ours. Son’s cross began in his emptying and laying aside His equality with and in God, and assuming the posture of a slave in relation to Father. Son continued to bear this cross by becoming a human being, then humbling himself by accepting, embracing the rejection of his own creation, humanity, and allowing humanity to engineer his death by crucifixion.
 
Becoming obedient to Father, as a slave would be to his master, was also part of this cross. He learned to obey even if obeying would expose him to suffering. More than that, he learned obedience through suffering. What this means is that in the midst of suffering he continued in his obedience. Finally, this cross, his cross, led him to allow himself[8] to be crucified, suffer and die on the wooden cross on Calvary.
 
We are his treasure.[9] We are his pearl of great price[10]. He did all this for us, you and me personally.
 
Son’s cross has two fundamental purposes.
 
Firstly, Son’s cross was to reveal Who he is and that I Am That I Am, I Will Be Who I will Be is Triune, Father, Son and Spirit. In conjunction with this, to reveal to us Triune God’s purpose, desire, intent and will towards and for us.
 
Secondly, to present Himself,[11] as a worthy spouse, for our consideration, even as he, through Holy Spirit, woos each and all of us, jointly and severally as a whole, to be His bride[12] and spouse.[13] His mind, intent, desire, and will has been, is and will ever be, that we, each and every, may partake of the Divine nature[14], be one with and in him and Father, through Spirit, in union and communion in love[15], be in oneness with us.
 
This was the profound mystery that can be found embedded in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Paul recognised this when he wrote: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”[16]
 
This is what love is even as God is love. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”[17] “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation[18] for our sins.”[19] “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us”[20]
 
Where the Law and the Prophets hang[21] under the first and second great commandments of: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”[22] and “you shall love your neighbour as yourself”[23], Jesus gave only one new commandment: “that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”[24]
 
There is, however, an anomaly in this new commandment. We are to love as he has loved us.
 
Jesus said: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.”[25] Father also loves us as He loved the Son: “that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”[26] Even as Father and Son has ever loved and continues to love us freely, willingly, out of choice and not under any law or command, we are to love one another, freely, willingly, out of choice and not out of or under a command.
 
As such, we are exhorted, as husbands, to love our wives.[27] In this fashion, as disciples, we are to love one another.[28] This is how as humans we are to relate in love one to another.[29]For, “love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love”.[30] “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”[31]
 
Because God first loved us, and showed us what love is, through the Way, the Truth and Life of His Son, in the man Christ Jesus, now, we know what it means and takes to love each other.
 
This, for me, is what being a Christian is all about: to experience being truly loved and growing in loving truly.
 
Being born from above[32], becoming a new creation,[33] having the Son of God became flesh and residing in me,[34] to become a child of God,[35] not arising from any ancestral genealogical right or out of any effort or accomplishment on my part, but solely through an act, choice, will and grace of God,[36] is all about growing in love and loving as Jesus has loved me.
 
I do not and cannot claim that I have already succeeded or have already been perfected in this loving. On the contrary, I continue to pursue to know the extent and depth of Jesus’ love. At the same time, I hope somehow to love, just as Jesus, and in and through him, Father and Spirit, has loved me. In all moments, I accept and embrace the reality that only to the extent that I have experienced Jesus’ love for me am I able to exhibit my love, in like manner to another.
 
We love because he first loved us[37]. As he is, so too are we to be in this world.[38] As such my status and privilege as child and a son of the Most High God is not something to be grasped tightly and be assertive about. Rather, like the Son, I have been given the privilege to empty myself, lay my status and privilege aside.
 
In Christ, I am given the choice to decide to willingly and lovingly take the form of a slave, even embrace a slave-master relationship with Father God. In humility I am to regard my fellow humans as my treasure, to love and cherish, for better and worse, in sickness or in health, in wealth or poverty, in like manner as myself, as Christ Jesus has loved me.
 
More than just offering sympathy or empathising with others, I am to jointly identify myself with others so as to recognise that their weakness is my weakness, their pain my pain, their well being my well being. All these, I am to do, live, love, in the dynamic process of growth, moment by moment, one step at a time.
 
This is far from easy and can be likened to “becoming obedient to the point of death”[39], “a living sacrifice”[40], “even death on a cross”[41]. For this is akin to the cross and the life, truth and way of love of the Son of God,
 
In love, Son became human and did all this for us, that each and all of us may experience and enjoy oneness with him and in him with each other, in partaking of the Divine nature, in union and communion,[42] akin to a loving spousal relationship where the two become one flesh.[43] 

To be embraced, loved and empowered by Spirit to grow in love in this manner, as Son and Father has loved and loves us, is to grow in partaking of and in the Divine nature.
 
Emptying and Loving: Son-Slave-Spouse
 
Consider 
 
Ponder
 
Decide


[1] Jn 10:30. ESV See also Jn17:11

[2] Jn 14:28. ESV See also Jn 5:19-23

[3] Jn 5:19. See also Jn 5:26, 30. Jn 6;27; Jn 8:28, 29; Jn10:18

[4] Mk 13:32. cf Matthew 24:36

[5] Jn 5:18; 10:30, 36 See also Colossians 2:9

[6] Luke 22:42.

[7] Hebrews 5:8

[8] Jn 10:17-18

[9] Matthew 6:21

[10] Matthew 13:46

[11] Colossians 2:9 “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” ESV

[12] Revelations 21:2, 9, 17.

[13] Ephesians 5:23-32.

[14] 2Peter 1:4

[15] Jn 17:20-26

[16] Ephesians 5:31-32 ESV See also Ephesians 5:23-30, 2Corinthians 11:2, cf Revelation 21:2,3 read with 21:9 the New Jerusalem as being the tabernacle of God

[17] 1 Jn 4:9 ESV

[18] appeasement-make peace with Strong’s NT 2434. The Son being the person-event-action, becoming the peace (in full satisfaction) and reconciliation of not only between God and humanity but also between us, one with another.  In so being and doing, the parties are also enabled and empowered by Spirit to, hopefully, continue and grow in peace, in love one with another. The person is the Son. The event is word becoming flesh, Son becoming human.  The action is the whole process of what he did to become a man, how he lived as a man and what he continues to live and do as a man, within the Triune Being, Nature and Life of God.

[19] 1 Jn 4:10

[20] 1 Jn 3:16. See also Jn 3:16

[21] Matthew 22:40 NKJV

[22] Matthew 22:37 NKJV

[23] Matthew 22:39

[24] Jn 13:34. ESV

[25] Jn 15:9 ESV

[26] Jn 17:23

[27] Ephesians 5:25

[28] John 13:34,35

[29] 1Jn 4:12-21

[30] 1 Jn 4:7-8

[31] I Jn 4:16

[32] Jn 3:3,7 the words usually translated “born again” in Greek is γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν gennethe anothen literally meaning born from above. See Strong’s Interlinear, The Nestle Greek text with a Literal English Translation by Reverend Dr Alfred Marshall

[33] 2 Corinthians 5:17 Galatians 6:15 ESV

[34] Jn 1:14 the word translated “among” is the Greek preposition “ἐν en” mliterally meaning “in”. see Stromg’s NT 1722

[35] Jn 1:12

[36] Jn 1:13

[37] 1Jn 4:19

[38] 1Jn 4:17

[39] Philippians 2:8 ESV

[40] Romans 12:1

[41] Philippians 2:8 ESV

[42] Jn 17:22-23

[43] Ephesians 5:31-32