Philippians 2:11

ἐξομολογήσεται. So ACD2G2K2LP, several cursives, Origen Ath Chrys (alibi). אB, 17, most cursives, Iren Clem Eus Ath (alibi) Chrys (alibi) Cyr ἐξομολογήσηται. L (margin) T Alf Ell Wordsw Ltft WH ἐξομολογήσεται. Tr ἐξομολογήσηται. The Greek patristic evidence is weighty for this latter.

11. πᾶσα γλῶσσα ἐξομολογήσεται. For the reading, see critical note.—Here again cp. Isaiah 45:24 (in the Alexandrian Text), ἐξομολογήσεται πᾶσα γλῶσσα τῷ θεῷ.

Ἐξομολογεῖσθαι, as Lightfoot points out, has in Biblical Greek almost resigned its meaning of “open avowal” to take that of praise and thanksgiving. (It is used thus, Matthew 11:25; Luke 10:21; ἐξομολογοῦμαί σοι, πάτερ.) So “every tongue” is to “give thanks for His great glory” to the exalted Jesus.

It may be asked, how shall this be fulfilled in the case of the lost, ὧν τὸ τέλος� (Philippians 3:19)? Either they are not explicitly referred to here at all (see note on Ephesians 1:10); or their mysterious state may admit, beyond our knowledge, such a recognition that even it is the ordinance of “supremest wisdom and primeval love,”[2] manifested in Jesus Christ, as shall give them a part in the adoration indicated here.

[2] Giustizia mosse il mio alto Fattore:

Fecemi la divina potestate,

La somma sapienza e il primo amore.

Dante, Inferno, III. 4–6.

κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς. Cp. 1 Corinthians 12:3, where the “Lordship” is seen to be knowable only by Divine revelation. He who took “the form of a bondservant, and became obedient,” even so as to die on the cross, is now seen and worshipped as “God, whose throne is for ever” (Hebrews 1:8), while yet He is “Christ Jesus, Man” (1 Timothy 2:5).

It is observable that the Valentinian heretics (cent. ii.), according to their contemporary Irenæus, ascribed to Jesus the title Saviour but denied Him that of Lord.
Assuming κύριος here to represent JEHOVAH (יהוה), it is important to compare John 12:41, ταῦτα εἶπεν Ἠσαΐας ὅτε εἷδε τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ, with Isaiah 6:5, the place referred to by the Apostle, “Mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts,” יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת

εἰς δόξαν θεοῦ πατρός. The Father is the ultimate Object of adoration, as He is the eternal Origin of the eternal Godhead of the Son. Cp. John 5:23; John 17:1; 1 Peter 1:21; for this profound relation between the glory of the Son and the glory of the Father. But no isolated references can properly represent a subject so deeply woven into the very texture of the Gospel.

In the light of the revealed truth of His Nature, summarized with luminous fulness in the “Nicene” Creed, we see the Christ of God as at once divinely adorable in Himself and the true Medium for our adoration of the Father.
St Chrysostom has a noble comment here, shewing how the attribution of proper Godhead to the Son can only enhance the Father’s glory: ὁρᾶς πανταχοῦ, ὄταν ὁ υἱὸς δοξάζηται, τὸν πατέρα δοξαζόμενον … ὅταν λέγωμεν ὅτι … οὐκ ἐλάττων [ἐστὶ] τοῦ πατρός, τοῦτο δόξα τοῦ πατρός … ὅταν εἴπω … ὅτι [υἱὸν ἐγέννησεν] οὐκ ἐλάττονα κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν, ἀλλʼ ἶσον … καὶ ἐν τούτῳ πάλιν τὸν θεὸν θαυμάζω, ὅτι ἄλλον ἡμῖν τοιοῦτον ἔδειξεν ἐξ αὐτοῦ, πλὴν τοῦ πατέρα εἶναι (Hom. VII. in Philipp. c. 4).

Thus closes a passage of the Epistle in which, in the course of practical exhortation, the cardinal truth of the true Godhead and true Manhood of Christ, and the greatness of His Example, are presented all the more forcibly because incidentally. The duty of self-sacrificing mutual love is enforced by considerations on His condescension which are meaningless if He is not pre-existent and Divine, and if the reality of His Manhood does not thus involve a supreme instance of unforced self-abasement for the good of others. All merely humanitarian views of His Person and Work, however refined, are totally at variance with this apostolic passage, written within fresh living memory of His life and death.
A striking commentary on the passage is afforded by the hymn (by the late Prof. Anstice) Thou the cup of death didst drain (Lord Selborne’s Book of Praise, Appendix, no. 11).