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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
What shall we say against Arius, who asserts the Son is of a different substance? Tell me now, what means, "He took the form of a servant"? It means, He became man. Wherefore "being in the form of God," He was God. For one "form" and another "form" is named; if the one be true, the other is also. "The form of a servant" means, Man by nature, wherefore "the form of God" means, God by nature. I said that the "form of a servant" was a true form, and nothing less. Therefore "the form of God" also is perfect, and no less. …
Gregory of Nyssa
These attributes no longer seem to be in either Nature by way of division, but the perishable Nature being, by its commixture with the Divine, made anew in conformity with the Nature that overwhelms it, participates in the power of the Godhead, as if one were to say that mixture makes a drop of vinegar mingled in the deep to be sea, by reason that the natural quality of this liquid does not continue in the infinity of that which overwhelms it. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
Where are those who say that He descended not voluntarily, but fulfilling a command? Let them know that He emptied Himself as Lord, as One having authority over Himself. By saying "the form of a servant," the apostle thereby puts Apollinarius to shame; because He who takes the form, or, in other words, the nature of a servant, also has a fully rational soul. …
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
He "emptied himself," not because as eternal Wisdom he underwent change. For as eternal Wisdom he is absolutely changeless. Rather without changing he chose to become known to humanity in such a humble form.
Hilary of Poitiers
As regards His being in the form of God, by virtue of God's seal upon Him, he still remained God. But inasmuch as He was to take the form of a servant and become obedient unto death, not grasping at His equality with God, He emptied Himself through obedience to take the form of a slave. And He emptied Himself of the form of God, that is, of that wherein He was equal with God—not that He regarded His equality with God as any encroachment,—although He was in the form of God and equal with God and sealed by God as God.
Thomas Aquinas
Then when he says, but emptied himself, he commends Christ's humility: first, as to the mystery of the incarnation; secondly, as to the mystery of the passion (2:8). In regard to the first: first, he mentions His humility; secondly, its manner and form (2:7). He says, therefore, He emptied himself. But since He was filled with the divinity, did He empty Himself of that? No, because He remained what He was; and what He was not, He assumed. …
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