If then [there be] any comfort in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of [the] Spirit, if any bowels and compassions,
Paul writes to believers who had just sent him a gift. Small rivalries were also starting to show among them. Before he asks them for anything, he names four things they already have. These are the ground for what he is about to ask.
Each phrase in the verse points back to something the Philippians had already shown Paul. Their gift becomes his argument.
The apostle felt their kindness deeply. But he was so fully taken up with Christ's desires for His people that the only true joy they could give him was to show Christ in their dealings with one another. So their own ministry to him, read for its spiritual meaning, becomes the ground of his appeal. It runs like this: "if there is any encouragement in Christ," as I have found through your gift; "any comfort from love," as you have caused me to experience; "any participation in the Spirit," as you have shown there is; "any affection and sympathy," as you have expressed in your tender care for me — then "complete my joy."
The four "ifs" raise no doubt. They are the settled ground under what Paul is about to ask. He had felt the first one himself.
When we are suffering, above all suffering for Christ's sake, what a thing it is to have encouragement! And when that encouragement is in Christ, how sure and blessed it is! You remember when Paul was in prison in Jerusalem… That night, after all that trouble, the Lord Himself came and stood by him — not an angel. He did not come to remind him of his failure, but to say, "Be of good cheer, Paul!" That is indeed encouragement in Christ… That little word "if" does not raise a question or a doubt. It has the meaning of "Since." We will find four grand motives for the exhortation Paul is about to give; this is the first.
The third ground raises a question — whose spirit does Paul mean?
The old manuscripts used capital letters throughout, so we cannot be sure whether "spirit" here should have a capital or not. It may mean the fellowship between the spirits of the saints, or the fellowship we have in the Spirit of God. Possibly both are included. Every true saint of God has the Spirit of God dwelling in him. By God's Spirit every saint is linked to Christ, and linked to each other. The Spirit of God is such a bond between saints that none can ever break it. All our divisions and sects and parties cannot break that bond of "fellowship of the Spirit." Instead, He is like that middle bar of the tabernacle. It stayed out of sight, running through the boards from one end to the other, and it was the strongest bond holding them together.
The older wording, "bowels and mercies," covers a pair of words that belong together. One names a feeling. The other names what that feeling does.
The word translated "tender-heartedness" is really "bowels." It means the "home of tender feelings." That word does not carry this meaning for most of us. We use the word "heart" instead, as in "heartless." The word translated "compassions" is the showing of these tender-hearted feelings. Both words are plural. Together they give us the inward spring and the outward display of the Lord's tender love and care for us.
Paul does not scold the Philippians into agreement. He names the good already at work in them, and builds his request on that.
They had sent the apostle what he needed, and he says there is consolation in Christ. It is not merely the things he received, but the comfort of Christ and fellowship of the Spirit. It was the working of the spirit of grace in Jesus, showing itself in this fellowship. He says, If you want me to be perfectly happy, go on well among yourselves. There were some little jealousies at work, the kind of thing that springs up among Christians. But he takes the chance to own all the grace that was in them, and then says, "Complete my joy."
The gift from Philippi explains what prompted the verse. Its truth reaches much further.
While we recognise the immediate application of this first verse, let us not miss its wider bearing. Christ is the source of consolation; love is what produces comfort; the Spirit of God, shared by all true believers, is the spring of fellowship. These facts hold in every age, and for us all.
- Since, not if. The four "ifs" are certainties, not doubts. They are four motives Paul lays down before he asks for anything.
- Encouragement. The first motive is Christ Himself, who stood by Paul in prison and told him to take heart.
- Bond. The fellowship of the Spirit is a link no division, party or quarrel among believers can break.
- Compassions. The old phrase "bowels and mercies" means a tender heart and the care that heart shows.
- Joy filled. Paul first owns the grace already in them. Then he asks the one thing that would complete his joy: that they go on well together.
fulfil my joy, that ye may think the same thing, having the same love, joined in soul, thinking one thing;
Paul writes from prison to Christians who had just sent him help. Instead of only thanking them, he asks for one thing more: unity that goes deeper than a truce.
The letter overflows with gladness. That makes Paul's appeal surprising: something is still missing.
"Fill full my joy!" Was the apostle's joy, then, not full? There is probably no book in the Bible so filled with joy as Philippians. The apostle seems to be flowing over with joy; what is it, then, that keeps his joy from being full? We get the answer in a series of four conditions of soul. First: "when you mind the same thing." Then, and not till then, will the apostle's joy be full. Notice how many times we find this word "mind". I think ten times in this letter. How often our mind runs in the wrong direction. While we look at our own things, or seek our own things, we will never mind the same thing.
The tone matters as much as the appeal. Paul had heard bad news about the Philippians, yet he had also just received their kindness.
How gently and graciously the apostle speaks! The Philippians had thought of him in prison. He had heard of disputing among them. Euodia and Syntyche were not of the same mind. But he cannot rebuke them sharply when he had just received their kindness. "Fulfil my joy" — if you want to make me perfectly happy, you will think alike, "having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." It is a rebuke, but a very gentle one. The spirit in which he writes is very beautiful.
The four phrases are not repetition. Each one supplies what the one before cannot guarantee.
First of all they were to be likeminded. It is clearly a great thing when believers all think alike. But we must also weigh the spirit behind their thinking. If that spirit is wrong, thinking alike will not keep quarrels away. So he adds, "having the same love." Only love can produce the next thing he speaks of, "being of one accord," or, more literally, "joined in soul." That in turn leads to all minding one thing.
Hatred can bind people together as tightly as love. So where does the right bond come from?
We know more about being "joined in soul" through having the same hate. We have seen the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Herodians — all bitter enemies — sharing the same hate against Christ, and so joined in soul. I think it was Mr Darby who said, "Devotedness to Jesus is the strongest bond between human hearts." Oh, Lord Jesus, give Your poor saints more of this devotedness to You! Devotedness formed by love to Jesus. Devotedness caused by the love of Jesus. This is the devotedness that brings the "same love". So may we be joined in soul to each other.
So how could the Philippians become more likeminded?
How could they be more likeminded? If the mind were set upon one thing, they would all have the same mind. God has one object for His saints, and that object is Christ. For Paul, every aim and every duty came second to Him. As he says in the next chapter, "one thing I do." So here he wanted to produce this one, common mind in the Philippian believers.
Does this verse demand that Christians hold identical views on everything?
Many scriptures press home the Lord's desire that we should be of one mind, or likeminded. Of course this does not mean that everyone must think alike on every subject. But suppose we all let that self-forgetting mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus. What perfect harmony would result! Shall we put it to the test?
This unity is not manufactured by effort alone.
This is the normal effect of the power of the Spirit, where He is ungrieved in us. He produces this unity among Christians, where self can have no place.
- One appeal. Paul does not order them to agree. He asks them to fill up a joy that is otherwise not full.
- One love. Thinking alike is not enough if the spirit behind it is wrong. So Paul asks next for "the same love."
- One soul. Devotedness to Jesus knits souls together. It is the strongest bond between human hearts — the opposite of the shared hatred that once united His enemies.
- One object. God has one object for His saints, and that object is Christ; minds set on one thing end up being of one mind.
- One result. Where self has no place and we do not grieve the Spirit, He produces this unity — and Paul's joy is full.