Filipenses 2
Hilary of Poitiers · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Filipenses 2:7
To assume "the form of a slave," he "emptied himself" through obedience. He emptied himself, that is, from the "form of God," which means "equality with God." — ON THE TRINITY 8.45
Filipenses 2:7
Remaining "in the form of God," he "took the form of a slave," not being changed but "emptying himself" and hiding within himself and being made empty within his own power. He tempered himself to the form of the human state as far as was necessary to ensure that the weakness of the assumed humility would not fail to bear his immeasurable power. He went even so far as to tolerate conjunction with a human body. Just this far did his goodness moderate itself with an appropriate degree of obedience. But in making himself empty and restraining himself within himself, he did nothing detrimental to his own power, since even within this lowliness of his self-emptying he nonetheless used the resources of the evacuated power within him. — ON THE TRINITY 12.48
Filipenses 2:7
Note well the breathtaking economy by which the Son assumed flesh: Through the obedience of the one who was in the form of God [and] was emptying himself of the form of God, [he] was born as a man. In doing so, he took a new nature upon himself! This occurred not by a loss of his power and nature but by an assumption of a new condition.… Though he retained the power of his nature as God, he was in much of his earthly ministry temporarily relinquishing his exercise of the power of his nature as God as he walked as a man. The effect of this economy of order was this: The Son in his entirety, namely, as both man and God, was now, through the indulgence of the Father's will, in union with the nature of the Father. This is what occurred to God the Son: that he became a man. — ON THE TRINITY 9.38
Filipenses 2:8
Humility is hard, since the one who humbles himself has something magnificent in his nature that works against his lowering. The one who becomes obedient, however, undertakes the act of obedience voluntarily. It is precisely through the act of humbling that he becomes obedient. — ON THE TRINITY 11.30