κενόω

If the whole fullness of God dwells bodily in Christ (the previous chapter), what could it possibly mean that Christ also emptied Himself?

Paul puts both claims in the same letter cluster. In Colossians, the fullness. In Philippians, the emptying. Both are about the same Person. Both are descriptions of the same incarnation. And any Christology that loses either claim, or tries to soften the tension between them, has stopped being Christian.

The verb in Philippians is kenoō — to empty. The verse is one of the most contested in the New Testament. This is the chapter where we make our way through what Paul did and did not mean by it.

The Word

κενόω (kenoō), pronounced ke-NO-oh. A verb. The family includes the adjective kenos (empty, vain), the noun kenōsis (an emptying), and various compounds. The basic meaning is plain: to empty, to pour out, to make void.

The word is rare in the New Testament. It appears only five times — Romans 4:14, 1 Corinthians 1:17, 1 Corinthians 9:15, 2 Corinthians 9:3, and Philippians 2:7. Four of those uses are non-christological — they describe faith being “made void,” preaching being “emptied of its power,” or boasting being “made empty.” The fifth use is the christological one: “but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil 2:7).

One verse. One word. And on it has hung an enormous amount of Christology, including a notable nineteenth-century heresy that the church had to push back on by name.

Range of Meaning

In its New Testament usage, kenoō covers:

• To empty literally, as one might empty a vessel by pouring its contents out.
• To make void or null. Faith is “made null” if salvation is by works of the law (Rom 4:14).
• To deprive of force or significance. Paul does not preach with eloquent words “lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Cor 1:17).
• To make empty in the sense of taking away the basis for something. Paul will not accept payment from the Corinthians because no one should be able to “make empty” his ground for boasting in the gospel (1 Cor 9:15; 2 Cor 9:3).
• Used reflexively in Philippians 2:7 — “emptied himself” — in a sense Paul does not unfold elsewhere.

The lexical baseline is straightforward: to make empty, to render void, to deprive of content or force. The interpretive question, when Paul applies the verb to Christ, is what content Christ emptied Himself of. Or whether He emptied Himself of any content at all.

Where You’ll Meet It

The dominant text is one passage. Worth quoting in full:

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5–11, ESV)

The passage is what scholars often call the Christ hymn. It may have been a pre-Pauline liturgical text Paul incorporated into the letter, or it may be Paul’s own composition with a hymnic shape. Either way, the passage was meant to be heard, possibly sung, by a congregation that already knew its rhythms.

The structure is descent and ascent. Christ descends from divine equality through the emptying into the form of a servant, into death, into the worst death. Then God exalts Him — bestows on Him the name above every name (we met this in Chapter 3 on kyrios), receives the universal confession of His Lordship.

The crucial detail for understanding kenoō is the grammar of verse 7. Paul says Christ “emptied himself” — heauton ekenōsen — and then he attaches a participle that explains how: “by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” The participle tells us the manner of the emptying. Christ emptied Himself by taking on the form of a servant. The emptying is not a subtraction from His divinity. It is an addition of humanity. He did not become less God. He became also a servant. The kenosis is the incarnation.

The other four uses of kenoō:

“For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.” (Romans 4:14, ESV)

The verb here describes faith being deprived of effect. Useful for showing the word’s basic sense of “making void.”

“For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” (1 Corinthians 1:17, ESV)

The cross can be emptied of its power — drained of its content, robbed of its force — by the wrong kind of preaching. The verb again describes deprivation of effect.

“But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.” (1 Corinthians 9:15, ESV)

Paul will not allow his ministry to be emptied of its integrity by accepting payment that might compromise his message.

“But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter…” (2 Corinthians 9:3, ESV)

Same verb, same range — Paul does not want his confidence in the Corinthians to be made void.

These four uses are useful precisely because they show what kenoō normally means: to make void, to drain of effect. The christological use in Philippians 2:7 is unusual — it is the only place where the object of the emptying is the self. And it is the only place where the meaning has launched two thousand years of theological debate.