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He always had the nature of God,
    but he did not think that by force he should try to remain[a] equal with God.
Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had,
    and took the nature of a servant.
He became like a human being
    and appeared in human likeness.
He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death—
    his death on the cross.

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Footnotes

  1. Philippians 2:6 remain; or become.

who, though he existed in the form of God,
    did not regard equality with God
    as something to be grasped,(A)
but emptied himself,
    taking the form of a slave,
    assuming human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human,(B)
    he humbled himself
    and became obedient to the point of death—
    even death on a cross.(C)

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5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

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