Philippians 2:11

And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The use of "should" in this place does not imply any uncertainty. As regards the present life only, the teaching of this place details what people ought to do, "should" do, and not what they will do; for it is a fact that many live and die without confessing the Saviour. However, there are overtones of eternity in the passage, and with reference to the ultimate future, all people, high and low, good or bad, saved or unsaved "shall" surely confess Christ to the glory of God the Father. See Revelation 6:15-17.

Here is the great truth that comforted and sustained the weary prisoner chained to a Roman guard; this was the reason why martyrs died with the blessed name of Jesus on their lips; and here is the basic conviction of the redeemed of all ages, namely, that Jesus Christ our Lord is supreme, our only Lord, seated at the right hand of God.

However, we cannot agree with some scholars who take "Jesus is Lord" to be the total creed, and the first-creed, of the early church. Of course, such a view is tailor-made to fit the foolish notion that the religion of Christ grew, developed or evolved." It did no such thing. True Christianity was revealed in its entirety by Christ; and, while true enough that the apostles required some time fully to understand and practice his teachings, none of the apostles ever went beyond the basic revelation by Jesus Christ himself.

In this context, everything mentioned in this Philippian letter was commonly accepted Christian doctrine. Even the profound teaching of the pre-incarnation glory and Godhead of Christ as related to his humiliation, death and ultimate glorification - all of this was a part of the basic fundamental creed of the first Christians. How else could Paul have referred to such things, not as new doctrine but as a well-known, long-received argument favoring their humility? Remember it was only 30 years since Christ was crucified when Paul wrote this letter. The writings of Paul are the effective refutation of any notion that the Christians did not generally refer to Jesus as Lord until long after the resurrection. Christ himself thus referred to himself in Matthew 7:21 and many other places in the New Testament.

Boice has a matchless paragraph on this as follows:

What do these verses contain? The answer is that they contain most of the distinctive articles of the Christian creed. They teach the divinity of Christ, his pre-existence, his equality with God the Father, his incarnation and true humanity, his voluntary death on the cross, the certainty of his ultimate triumph over evil and the permanence of his ultimate reign. Then how foolish in the light of these statements are the views of scholars who attempt to dismiss the distinct doctrines of Christianity as late developments in the history of an historically conditioned and slowly evolving church. There was no evolution of these doctrines ... the doctrines themselves were always known (from Christ himself). Christianity is Christ - this Christ; and these things were believed about him from the beginning[37]