The Meaning of ἐκένωσεν in Philippians 2:7

Jesus emptied himself by taking the form of a slave.

 Key ideas 

• Paul made a wordplay with ekenosen and kenodoxa in the text. Paul also used heauton (himself) as the direct object of ekenosen. This means that Paul alerts his readers to understand Christ's action of ekenosen in light of the moral qualities about selflessness he just described in vv 2-4. 

In Philippians 2:3, Paul told his readers to do nothing from: 

1. Kenodoxa (Lit. empty glory) - highlighting one's self (self-conceit)

 2. erithea (Lit. pay for hire) - doing things for one's selfish-ambition (self-serving). 

As the Lord God, Jesus deserves to be served. However, according to Mark, Jesus "came to serve not to be served". In Jesus' self-emptying, Paul was telling us that the Lord Jesus Christ "looked not only to his own interests but also looked to the interests of others" (Philippians 2:4). 

• Paul also has made a contrast between Jesus' equality with God (v. 6) and Jesus' new role as a slave in v. 7. A slave is one who serves a lord/master. In Jesus' previous life, he and God have everyone else serving them. Paul believed that they are the same Lord. In 1 Corinthians 8:6, Paul applies the Shema to Jesus, ascribing to him the divine title "one Lord" (εις κυριος) from the Shema's "the Lord is one" (κυριος εστιν εις) and also ascribing to him the role of being Creator ("through him are all things").

 
• Paul consistently used the active sense of harpagmos in his letters. In Philippians 2:6, harpagmon in the active sense befits the context: who, being in the form of God, did not consider it a robbery (to empty others of their own possessions by force) to be equal with God, but rather, he emptied himself, by taking the form of one who serves others. He served others by emptying himself of his own possessions (riches). The active sense befits the context that speaks of Christ's service using socio-economic metaphor (to empty one's self/ to robbery). This is consistent with Paul's socio-economic metaphor in 2 Corinthians 8:9 where it says that Jesus is rich but that he chooses to become poor so that he can make others rich by his poverty.