Let’s talk about Christology.

I love Christology. This is the kind of thing I nerd out about.

Christology is the theological study of the nature of Christ.

It’s a sub genre of systematic theology. It’s the process of exploring what one means when one refers to Jesus as “Christ.” It’s studying the role that Jesus Christ specifically plays in our faith.

Exciting stuff, right?

It concerns such things as:

the divinity of Christ,

the eternal nature of Christ,

the miracles and teachings of Christ,

Christ’s birth,

Christ’s death,

Christ’s resurrections,

what it means to call Christ “Lord”,

what it means to call Christ “Son of Man,” or “Son of God,”

the role of Christ in the Trinity.

It is the theological, academic, focused study of all things “Jesus.”

We are talking about Christology today because some scholars consider Paul’s letter to the Philippians, and specifically chapter 3, to be one of the earliest examples of Christology.

Additionally, Paul has reflected on the nature of Christ in earlier letters. But Philippians is the first time there seems to be a specific emphasis on such.

It begins in chapter 2, with the hymn Paul quotes in verses 5-11:

5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

6 who, though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited,

7 but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

8 he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death—

even death on a cross.

9 Therefore God also highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

10 so that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue should confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Clearly and obviously, the early churches were playing with who and what Christ was, and what his life and death meant.

This beautiful early hymn says things we take for granted today, but at one point in the young church, these things weren’t so well-known. At some point, somebody wrote these things down, as a way of laying down a marker for what Jesus meant to the church.

That process is Christology.

So, back to chapter 3.

Paul, throughout his letters, likes to use the Greek words “Kyrios” to describe Jesus. Kyrios means “Lord.” Kyrios is central to the development of early Christology.

The common use of kyrios by Paul established it as the go-to title for Jesus. The early ideas about who Jesus was and what he did were all colored by the use of the word. It is impossible to understand the development of the meaning of Jesus to those who lived when he did without understanding the importance of this word.

Early in chapter 3, Paul recounts the confidence he could have in who he was, due to the great names and titles and associations he had:

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

But he switches gears, and makes one of his most famous statement through all of his letters, one of the most quoted verses in the New Testament:

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.

This right here. This is so, so important to our understanding of the nature of Christ, to our common Christology.

To associate one’s self with a kyrios, with a Lord, was to associate one’s self with success, with power and prestige and honor. All the great things you had done, all the titles you won and the powerful relations you had, would raise you in the eyes of your kyrios, would be immensely important to your standing in the world.

By associating with our kyrios, Jesus, we don’t count those earthly accolades in the credit column. Instead, they are counted against us. They are debits to our accounts.

Because in Kingdom of this kyrios, the least are counted as the first.

Our standing with God does not come from the honors we have achieved. It comes from our willingness to lower ourselves, to become meek and lowly, to live in service to others, instead of served by others.

And it’s that way because that is the example we saw from the life of the one who showed us God.

Jesus humbled himself.

He ate with the sinners.

He hung out with the outcasts.

He touched the sick.

He mourned with the small.

His success came through failure; the symbol of his victory, of the victory of God’s Kingdom, was not a crown,

or a scepter,

or a throne.

And yet, here we are, twenty years after his ignominious death, and Paul has branded him kyrios, and announced the way in which we properly honor our Lord.

That’s Christology right there.

That’s working through what and who Jesus was, what his life meant.

Isn’t that exciting stuff?

I’ve almost been defeated. 

I’ve been plugging away over the last ten days or so at this #30daysofPaul reading challenge, writing about these little note-like missives from Paul. Sections of 2 Corinthians, the letter to Philemon, the Epistle to the Philippians: all these have been light on the theology, and heavy on  personal notes and minutiae and specific instructions and answers to questions.

There is only so much one person can say about this stuff.

And today was almost the day it got me.

I’ve been thinking and thinking on this passage since yesterday afternoon, and after 18 hours of fruitless reflection, I was ready move on to Romans.

And then I pulled out my handy, dandy Interpreters Bible set.

Thank goodness for fifty year-old scholarship.

So, let’s think about the big picture here.

Paul’s seven+ authentic epistles weren’t written in a vacuum. They did not spring forth fully formed, free of any context and or personality traits. Paul wrote these in a specific time, to a specific audience, with a specific purpose in mind. His writings have very little to do with guiding the faith of American Christians in the 21st century, and very much to do with addressing the needs of his congregations and friends.

I know, you’re saying “duh, we’ve already been over this.” But I think it’s important to point out again. We get into the weeds of these Epistles sometimes, and we lose sight of the purpose Paul was writing with. We start pulling out individual phrases and verses to back up an argument or make a point, and we lose sight of the big picture.

According to my Interpreters Bible, it is widely held that Paul was writing a letter of thanks in response to a large monetary gift from the church at Philippi, as referenced near the end of the letter. It seems the church raised a large sum of money, something that took a lot of work, to send to support Paul.

Now, we have seen elsewhere that Paul wasn’t much of one for accepting money for churches. It appears he made an exception for Philippi, at least in this case, perhaps because he saw how much work and pride they put into their fundraising. But there is still a note of embarrassment from Paul, a hint of the uncomfortable feeling he had in accepting money. This has been Paul’s consistent attitude throughout his ministry, and in fact, in previous letters, he had always had a point of pride in acknowledging his refusal of funds from the churches he supported.

Back to my point: this is supposedly a letter of thanks from Paul to his benefactors in Philippi. But go read the letter as a whole, or at least skim the headers. I’ll wait while you do.

We don’t see much reference to that gift, do we?

In fact, it’s not really mentioned until the end, in chapter 4. The rest of the letter is a status report on Paul’s situation, and exhortations to live humbly and be a light to the world, and some information about Timothy and Epaphroditus.

If this is a letter of thanks for a gift,

it’s kind of an odd one.

I think this emphasis is deliberate. Something we can discern about Paul is that he took the words of Jesus on money and wealth very seriously. Paul agreed that money is the “root of all evil,” and I think he always wanted churches to keep the focus off finances and on serving one another. If he asked them to send money to another church, or to support the leaders in Jerusalem, it was about spreading and nurturing the Christian faith.

Paul is shifting the emphasis of his church at Philippi with his letter. They have sent him a large sum of money, and while they probably wouldn’t come out and say they expect it, they surely believed that Paul would write a gushing thank you letter, talking about how generous they are.

But Paul doesn’t want them becoming about the money; he doesn’t want them to make their fundraising prowess their chief gift to the world. Instead, he moves the focus to the things that are important for the church.

In 4:8 he makes this point most explicitly,

“Finally, beloved,

whatever is true,

whatever is honorable,

whatever is just,

whatever is pure,

whatever is pleasing,

whatever is commendable,

if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise,

think about these things.”

That’s what Paul wants their focus to be.

Live in the example of Christ.

Be humble.

Love justice.

Find purity.

Serve, and be served.

Be generous, not for the praise it engenders, but because it brings the Kingdom a little

bit

closer

everytime.

Paul had a purpose in writing to Philippians. But I don’t think it was the purpose they expected.

If there is one thing I think we can understand about Paul, it is the fact that he had a perpetually sunny outlook. Despite numerous imprisonments, shipwrecks, trials, betrayals and tests, Paul consistently exudes a spirit of joy in his writings.

who, though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death—

even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue should confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.