text: Hi Joan. OK, simply delete the words "no longer." Still, the point remains that, "although he was in the form (essence) of God he did not regard equality with God as something to be prized, but emptied himself, taking on the form (essence) of a slave, being found in the likeness of humans . . . , even to death on a cross." The constant problem is that the passage does not fit into the substance theology of the Fathers, so they mostly ignored it. My contention (see The Empty Christ of Philippians: Mahāyāna Meditations) is that emptying self is the main idea. The mind of Christ empties selfhood, which is why we are to take on this mind. The ancient and medieval substance theologies were skillful in their times, but today hardly anyone embraces their categories as live options for us. So many theologians are attempting to rethink the mind (and nature) of Christ "from below," i.e, from a phenomenally sensitive approach. Start with the gospel Jesus, not with Greek ontology.