But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
Paul is writing to the church in Philippi, a Roman colony in what is now northern Greece. This verse is part of a passage (Philippians 2:5-11) that many scholars believe was an early Christian hymn about Jesus. The phrase 'made himself nothing' translates the Greek word ekenosen, meaning 'he emptied himself' — giving rise to the theological concept called kenosis. Paul is describing what Jesus voluntarily gave up when he became human: his outward glory, his divine position, his right to be served. He took on 'the very nature of a servant' — not just doing a servant's work, but inhabiting a servant's identity. The word for servant here is rooted in the word for a bond-slave, the lowest social status in the Roman world.
Lord, you had every right to be served, and you chose to serve instead. Forgive me for how tightly I hold onto being recognized and valued. Make me more willing to be nothing — to show up for people in ways that cost me something, simply because you did it first. Amen.
Think about what you would voluntarily give up. Not the things you are forced to surrender — but what you would willingly release, for someone else's sake, from a position of strength. Most of us hold tightly to being recognized. To our status in the room. To the quiet satisfaction of being seen as competent and valuable. We find it genuinely hard to serve without being thanked, to work without getting credit, to be overlooked without feeling a little diminished. Jesus had every right to be worshiped, and he chose instead to become the kind of person who washed feet, ate with people society had written off, and died without a single dignified title above his head. 'Made himself nothing' — that phrase stays abstract until you hold it against your own resistance to being overlooked. Paul did not write this passage so we could admire Jesus from a safe distance. He wrote it as a direct invitation: where are you clinging to status or comfort that Jesus would have set down without a second thought? Love, apparently, makes you willing to become nothing. The question is whether you are willing.
What does it mean that Jesus 'emptied himself' — what did he give up when he became human, and what does the concept of kenosis help us understand about who Jesus truly is?
Think of a specific time when you genuinely served someone without recognition or reward. What did that feel like in the moment, and what did it actually cost you?
Jesus' humility was not forced or the result of weakness — it was a deliberate choice made from a position of complete power. How does that reframe the way you typically think about strength, greatness, and what it means to lead well?
How does understanding Jesus as a servant — not just in role but in identity — change the way you interact with the people who serve you in your everyday life?
Where is God asking you to make yourself nothing right now — to set aside status, credit, or comfort in genuine service to someone else — and what makes that feel costly to you?
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
2 Corinthians 8:9
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
Isaiah 53:2
Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
Matthew 20:28
For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Hebrews 4:15
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Romans 8:3
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Matthew 11:29
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isaiah 53:3
but emptied Himself [without renouncing or diminishing His deity, but only temporarily giving up the outward expression of divine equality and His rightful dignity] by assuming the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men [He became completely human but was without sin, being fully God and fully man].
AMP
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
ESV
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, [and] being made in the likeness of men.
NASB
but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
NIV
but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
NKJV
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges ; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form,
NLT
Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human!
MSG