What is the tenderness of Messiah Jesus?

Paul has already mentioned the affections of Christ insofar as Paul himself feels this way towards the church at Philipi:

Phil. 1:8 For God is my witness, how I deeply miss all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

But what does it mean to act with the affection or tenderness of Christ mentioned here in 1:8 and again in 2:1?

Since there is little agreement amongst commentators as to how we should understand the four phrases in 2:1, I suggest that we look to vv.5-11 of chapter 2 to give us an indication of what the affections or tenderness of Christ might mean such that it could be a characteristic of the Spiritual mindset:

Phil.2:5 Have this attitude among you which is also in Messiah Jesus. 6 Who, having the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. 7 but emptied himself taking the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in outward appearance as a man 8 he humiliated himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, and death on a cross.

Now when we consider the connection between vv.1-4 in Phil.2 with the Jesus part of the hymn, if I can put it that way, the most obvious link is with v.3:

Phil.2:3 Do nothing according to selfish ambition, nothing according to conceit but in humility consider others as more important than yourself.

Thus we are to act towards each other in humility considering others more important than ourselves because that is how the Messiah acted towards our heavenly Father – that much seems fairly clear.

But what then of tenderness or affection? I suggest that acting with tenderness is one of the ways that we indicate that we consider others more important than ourselves – even that we consider their self-image of greater worth than our own. I think the tenderness of Christ that we see here in Phil.2 comes back to something I suggested in the first post, that the means by which we are to make a difference in ministry and mission is through engagement. In the first post I appealed to John 1:14 for justification of engagement because the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Phil.2 gives us further insight into what it means for us to engage with others based on the way the Lord Jesus engages with us. He who possessed the form of God took on the form of a slave; he gave up his right to power in all circumstances. His glory and majesty were hidden; he went about in the world that was made through him and for him in cognito; such is his grace. Yet he did what super heroes do when they adopt their secret identity, when he became one of us he took on our weakness, our frailty, our finitude. And here is, I suggest is an indication of Christ’s tenderness – out his love he welcomed, in fact embraced the fragility of others.

Whether it was the groping blind, the cringing leper, the weeping demoniacs or the unclean women he literally reached out to them and connected – he touched the untouchable. Of all the things that tenderness could be, a physical connection must be one of them. So amazing is his grace, so profound is the connection that he made with the weak, that he not only subdued his magnificence to embrace our vulnerability, he opened himself to humiliation – he willingly risked immense shame. It was as the prophet foretold so long beforehand:

Is.53:4 He himself bore our infirmities and carried our pains but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted.

His engagement was such that he readily suffered the exposure of his thoughts and even his fears as he gave himself up for us in obedience to death, and that’s death on a cross – surely one of the most depraved acts of exploitation humans have devised for each other.

So Paul says that to live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, to participate in the Spirit, to make a difference in ministry and mission, the Mindset of the Spirit must have the same attitude as Christ – we must be ready to embrace the fragility of others even to the point of making a physical connection and as we do we must risk our own vulnerability, possibly even the revelation of our own fears and weaknesses.