PHILIPPIANS 2:10

Q: What do the three categories here refer to?

This passage is based on Isaiah 45:23 and is parallel in thought to I Corinthians 15:24-28.

There are several controversies regarding this verse. Some feel that it applies to all of creation, even inanimate objects, but the majority of commentators are quite convinced that it only includes intelligent, rational beings. Also, some feel that this applies to the present time period while most agree that it refers to some future time, either during the millennial reign or at the Last Judgment. Then there is the controversy with those who feel this passage teaches the concept of universal salvation. Most evangelicals would agree with D. G. Reid (Dictionary of Paul and His Epistles) that being submissive to the rule of Christ for some is best compared to the bowing of a condemned criminal.

Now, to the more important point regarding the three categories of beings that are referred to. Both J. M. Gundry-Volf and F. Craddock feel that only spiritual world powers are involved, in which case that is an easy answer to your question. All other sources I consulted include both humans and spiritual beings in the three categories. Those in heaven are the angels and perhaps dead saints. Those on earth are living human beings.

There is a little more disagreement regarding those under the earth. They may be described as:

devils (Ralph Martin)

deceased souls who have descended to Hades (Jac Muller)

the dead in either Hades or Sheol (R. R. Melick)

those in Hell (W. Barclay)

Satan, demons and the unsaved in Hell (Robert Lightner)

all those who have died (H. C. Hewlett)

the dead (either in their graves or in hell) (J. Barton Payne)

It all boils down to the intermediate state of the dead, a very controversial subject. The Old Testament has only a small hint of any sort of positive life after death. All the dead go to Sheol where they are pictured as roaming around aimlessly in a dim sort of existence. The New Testament, of course, deals a lot more with the subject of the afterlife but concentrates mainly on the final state after the Judgment. As to what happens to the dead before that time, there are several schools of thought.

Some groups, including major cults, believe in “soul sleep.” One dies and then has no more conscious thoughts until awakened at the Last Judgment. If this is so, then Philippians 2:10 definitely refers to the Final Days when consciousness returns.

Others feel that at death, people go in one of two directions depending on where their final destination will be. The saved will be immediately be transported into God's presence where they will wait until the Judgment. The damned will go immediately to Hades, which will resemble OT Sheol. At the Judgment they will descend even further into the punishment of Hell. Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus gives this sort of picture, but most commentators feel that Jesus was not necessarily trying to be realistic in his description of the afterlife. The intermediate state of the saved dead is thus sometimes called Abraham's Bosom, or Paradise in allusion to the conversation between Jesus and the thief on the cross.

Then there are those who feel that all the dead go immediately to the same in-between place.

It doesn't matter which of these views you hold if Philippians 2:10 refers to the time of the Last Judgment. If it describes some earlier time then soul sleep makes no sense since the dead would be incapable of responding to Christ by bowing.

There are also hints of this same idea found in I Peter 3:19 and 4:6, two of the most difficult passages to interpret in the whole New Testament. I won't review all the various interpretations, but one popular view is that after Christ's death and before his resurrection he visited Hades and proclaimed the truth to the inhabitants. If that is the case, then there is certainly no problem with those same inhabitants at one time or another acknowledging His glory as in this verse, even if it is too late to effect their salvation.