Philippians 2:9-11 - Every knee should bow

2:9a

Jesus said that the first shall be last and the last first (Matt 20:16). He taught and lived a life of humility, a life of serving others. The wisdom of Jesus goes completely against the wisdom of the world. The world tells us we need to put ourselves forward, we need to think of number one, we need to stand up for our rights. Yet who lived a life of authority? Jesus. He lived as a servant, He lived a life of complete faith and obedience to the Father, and He had authority over sickness, over demons, over the wind and the waves. He also knew that His Father would glorify Him, and because He lived a life of servanthood and humility God exalted Him to the highest place. Man operates on the principle of exalting yourself, this is the demonic way. The Jesus way is to depend upon the Father. Note that being exalted is not the problem, it is not wrong to be exalted. The problem is how we go about it. If we seek to exalt ourselves, if we make being exalted our goal then we are following the way of the world and will reap all its terrible harvest. If instead we live for others and trust in God, then we will find that God does exalt us. We may receive some in this life, we may not, it does not matter.

2:9b-11

And Jesus was given the name above all names, and it is at His name that every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth. And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

The “foolishness” of Christ will be shown to be far wiser than the “wisdom” of the world. There are two main motivating forces that can lead us to exalt ourselves or seek our own ends. One is greed and pride, the other is fear. Greed and pride are always a risk, when a church is under pressure, as they were in Philippi, fear comes in. We can start to fear the forces that are against us. We need have no fear, and we need to know what the end result is. The end result is that the name of Jesus will be exalted in all the earth, and all will have to admit this, even those who oppose and ridicule us the most.