Read · Philippians 2:1–2

¹ Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,

² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

Paul opens this section with four conditional statements, and the effect of them is cumulative.

Encouragement from being united with Christ

Comfort from His love

Common sharing in the Spirit

Tenderness and compassion

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion. He isn’t genuinely asking whether these things are true, because he knows perfectly well that they are. He’s stacking them up so that by the time we reach the actual request, we’ve already agreed to it four separate times.

Then comes the request itself, and it’s startlingly personal.

Make my joy complete.

Stop there for a moment, because it tells us something about Paul that’s easy to miss. This is a man whose joy we’ve already watched survive imprisonment, rival preachers, and the real possibility of execution, and here he admits there’s still something that could make it more complete. His joy wasn’t finished, and he says so without any embarrassment at all.

So what would finish it? Not his release, and not vindication, and certainly not a comfortable retirement. He asks them to be like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

Paul’s joy is completed by their unity.

That’s the entire answer.

We should let that reorder something in us, because most of our joy is tied directly to our own outcomes. We’re happy when our situation improves, our plans work, and our people behave. Paul had reached a place where the health of a church eight hundred miles away moved the needle on his happiness way more than his own verdict did.

Notice also what unity means here, because it isn’t uniformity.

Paul asks for the same love and one mind, which describes a shared affection and a shared aim rather than identical opinions about everything. A church full of people who think alike on every subject isn’t unified. It’s simply small.

Here’s the question to carry into today. Whose joy would be made complete by something you could actually do this week? A parent, a pastor, a friend, a spouse. Someone in your life has been quietly hoping for a change in you that would genuinely finish something in them, and you probably already know exactly what it is.

Reflect

Whose joy would be made more complete by a change in you? What’s the change, and what has kept you from making it?
Paul’s joy rose and fell with the unity of a church far away. What does your joy currently rise and fall with?

Today’s Move

Ask one person this week what you could do that would genuinely encourage them, and then don’t defend yourself when they answer.

Just listen, say thank you, and act on it.

Pray

Father, my joy is tied almost entirely to my own outcomes, and Paul’s was tied to other people. Move my heart in that direction. Show me who has been quietly hoping for something from me, and give me the humility to actually do it. In Jesus’ name, amen.