Philippians 2:5

Τοῦτο φρονεῖτε. “Be this your mind,” your “feeling.” On the reading, see critical note. Practically, φρονεῖτε and φρονείσθω give the same thought.

In the great passage which follows we have a suggestive example of Christian moral teaching. A simple element of daily duty is being enforced; and the inmost secrets of the Person and Work of Christ are used to enforce it; the spiritual and eternal, in deep continuity, descends into the practical. This process is characteristic of Christianity all through. To isolate Christian morality from Christian theology is to rend asunder the teaching of the New Testament as to its deepest and most vital elements. See further Appendix E.

δ καὶ ἐν Χ. Ἰ. Ἐφρονείτω or better, ἐφρονήθη, must be mentally supplied after these words. And what was His φρόνημα, in that mysterious past, is such now and for ever; the Christian feels the power not only of his Lord’s act of infinite kindness, but of His eternal character.

ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ. He calls Him Ἰησοῦς, using the human Name, though in view of His glory before Incarnation. But the Person who willed to come down and save us is identically the Person who did so save us. And also, what is decreed in the Eternal Mind is to It already fact. So Revelation 13:8, τὸ�.