Filipi 2:6

2:6 ¹ who though he existed in the form of God ² 

did not regard equality with God

as something to be grasped,

Filipi 2:26

2:26 Indeed, he greatly missed all of you and was distressed because you heard that he had been ill.

Filipi 3:2

3:2 Beware of the dogs, ³  beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! ⁴ 

Filipi 3:7

3:7 But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ.

[2:6]  ¹ sn This passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[2:6]  ² sn The Greek term translated form indicates a correspondence with reality. Thus the meaning of this phrase is that Christ was truly God.

[3:2]  ³ sn Dogs is a figurative reference to false teachers whom Paul regards as just as filthy as dogs.

[3:2]  ⁴ tn Grk “beware of the mutilation.”