Therefore God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
All Commentaries on Philippians 2:9 Go To Philippians 2
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Let us say against the heretics, If this is spoken of one who was not incarnate, if of God the Word, how did He highly exalt Him? Was it as if He gave Him something more than He had before? He would then have been imperfect in this point, and would have been made perfect for our sakes. For if He had not done good deeds to us, He would not have obtained that honor! And gave Him the Name. See, He had not even a name, as you say! But how, if He received it as His due, is He found here to have received it by grace, and as a gift? And that the Name which is above every name: and of what kind, let us see, is the Name? That at the Name of Jesus, says He, every knee should bow. They (the heretics) explain name by glory. This glory then is above all glory, and this glory is in short that all worship Him! But ye hold yourselves far off from the greatness of God, who think that you know God, as He knows Himself, and from this it is plain, how far off you are from right thoughts of God. And this is plain from hence. Is this, tell me, glory? Therefore before men were created, before the angels or the archangels, He was not in glory. If this be the glory which is above every glory, (for this is the name that is above every name,) though He were in glory before, yet was He in glory inferior to this. It was for this then that He made the things that are, that He might be raised to glory, not from His own goodness, but because He required glory from us! See ye not their folly? See ye not their impiety?
Now if they had said this of Him that was incarnate, there had been reason, for God the Word allows that this be said of His flesh. It touches not His divine nature, but has to do altogether with the dispensation. What means of things in heaven, and things in the earth, and things under the earth? It means the whole world, and angels, and men, and demons; or that both the just and the living and sinners,
