Philippians 2:3

The context

Paul has just appealed for unity and asked the Philippians to complete his joy by sharing a mind. This verse states what that shared mind looks like in practice, before the great hymn about Christ's self-emptying that follows. The letter is written from prison to a congregation he knows well.

What it establishes

Humility is presented as the community's basic ethic, defined as regarding others as worthy of consideration rather than as a denial of one's own standing. The next verse supplies the balancing clause about one's own interests.

What it does not establish

It does not require self-erasure. The command is about ambition and conceit, not about pretending to have no gifts or needs, and the following verse assumes that a person rightly attends to their own concerns as well.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• Why do arrogant Christians think they're right about everything?

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.