Make My Joy Complete, Philippians, 2:1-2

We are actually proceeding here with the second chapter of Philippians. Did you notice that? After five months, we're done with the first chapter. Now, at this rate, either we're going to take longer to go through the book of Philippians and the book of Revelation, or the Lord will come first. So we'll see. But it is kind of amazing. You know, Revelation was easy because it's just such a piece of cake to interpret, right? But Philippians, we've got to go through it real carefully. All right.

Now, let's take a look at it here. As Doug read for us, we're just in the first couple of verses. And so Paul starts off there, he's continuing into another chapter by our modern chapter and page breaks. The truth is, Paul was just continuing to write his letter, wasn't he? He was just continuing on. He didn't say, hey, I think I'll start another chapter. He just continued on writing his letter. And he's really, in fact, carrying on a theme that he'd begun to hint at in the prior chapter.

Notice, remember this? All this emphasis, striving together. He used words that the people in Philippi, being Romans, would easily relate to. And so, even though he's not talking about anything in the way of disunity here, he is hinting at the issue, and he's going to continue with it, and we'll see that in a bit. Okay.

Therefore, if there's any encouragement in Christ, if there's any consolation of love, if there's any fellowship of the Spirit, if there's any affection and compassion, make my joy complete. by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose."

Real easily, two parts this falls easily into, doesn't it? Verse 1 is one part, verse 2 is the second. Verse 1 says, therefore, and it starts off with, therefore, and so he's got some premise ideas to lay down, doesn't he? And then in the second one, make my joy complete by, And he has some things to lay down. So the verse is really structurally simple. Isn't that good? Alright. Simple is nice, isn't it? Okay. He's making a logical if-then kind of statement. He's trying to bring them along saying, look, if these things are true, then doesn't it make good logical sense that the rest of this should follow?

That's what he's laying out for them. He's saying, to put it simply, starting here, Make my joy complete by arriving here. That's really what he's laying out. You're starting here. Make my joy complete by carrying it to its logical conclusion. That's what he's telling them. Let's look at the key words and phrases that come out of this passage. Therefore, if there is.

We need to point out that that's really for the sake of smooth English. The Greek text doesn't actually have the words behind there is. implied. Paul is using ellipsis again. Ellipsis is where you drop out some words that are implied for the sake of brevity and sometimes for emphasis. And he's done that again here.

So the other thing to point out is that the if idea is brought forth a lot of our translations. And the reason is he is making this logical statement. But the truth is he's not intending to place doubt, is he? Is he questioning that these people are in Christ? Is he questioning that these people have the fellowship of the Holy Spirit? No, he's not. So what he's really doing here is establishing a logical basis, and that's why a number of translators have pointed out you could properly use since in here instead of the if idea.

Therefore, since there is already, saying you have this, Therefore carry it to its logical conclusion and take it to this. That's what he's saying in verses one and two Therefore since there is already and you have this on your handout and just a reminder You've got the number in the corner to let you know what? Side of your handout you've got it on if there since there is already Encouragement in Christ. Okay, since there's that since there is consolation of love fellowship of the Spirit and affection and compassion So he's laid out those four points. Since that's there already, that's where you've already begun.

Now, he goes to the next step, and we need to keep in mind what he is not saying in verse 2. He's not saying here, go ahead, make my joy complete. This isn't a challenge here where he's trying to encourage them and draw them to something, isn't he? Instead, he says, make my joy complete, and I put this on the background of the river where the church started, because that's where they met.

Remember Acts 16? They started by the river. This is the river. Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit and intent on one purpose. So he says, we've got four logical premises here at the beginning. carry those to their logical conclusion, and these are the four. That's what he's laid out for them. Real clear. Something else.

Though Paul was thankful for the consistent support of the saints, and he makes that real evident to them at the beginning. What does he do after he says, Hi, my name's Paul, and greetings to you? He says, I am thankful for you. I thank the Lord every time.

However, While he's thankful for their consistent support, for their participation, and for every way in which they were joining with him in the ministry and expressing concern, it's clear that there are problems with conflict and division in this church.

Remember that illustration at the first where he's talking about striving together? I assume that they weren't. I think it's a logical assumption. He's not going to tell them to strive together if they aren't. We have other evidences, though, that there is conflict, and we'll be looking at one of those next week, Philippians 2, 3, and 4.

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, and by the way, I assume that that was happening, right? He was hearing up, that's what's happening. But with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, which I assume was happening there at the church, but also for the interests of others.

Philippians 2, 14, just a little farther down this chapter, we'll get there in a few years. Do all things without grumbling or disputing. Again, a safe assumption that there was some grumbling and disputing going on. Doesn't that make sense? Otherwise, why would he mention it?

The next thing, a couple chapters later here, Philippians 4.2, now he gets personal. How would you like to have your name in a letter that gets recorded, sent all over the globe, and read 19 centuries later? That's what happens. I urge Jodea and I urge Syntyche, and I'm going to look for those ladies up in heaven, right? And you say, hey, was that really you?

Oh, never mind. Okay. To live in harmony in the Lord. Okay? I urge these two to live in harmony. Can you imagine having this letter going across many, many miles and being hand-carried, pointing out these two ladies? I think they would have thought about that after that, wouldn't you? Okay. Here are some more key words.

This word, encouragement in Christ, this phrase comes out. The King James has consolation in Christ, and we have the Greek and the Greek transliteration there for us. Periclesis in Christos. Now, something to notice here, this periclesis is like, Paul loves to use these compound words. He just loves it. John doesn't, by the way. When John writes, like the Gospel of John, his letters, Revelation's a piece of cake because John writes so simply. Paul uses these compound words, and we're going to see more than one of them here this morning.

Paraklesis is an alongside call. That's the idea. This word para, we have in English parallel, lines that are running in the same direction alongside each other. This paraklesis is an alongside call. Here's what it's talking about. It's the noun, is from the verb there, parakaleo, to call alongside, and it has these ideas to it.

To aid, to comfort, to encourage, to counsel, to console and exhort. It has all those ideas. Think about it, what it's communicating is one believer coming alongside another believer to minister in these ways. That's what he's communicating. But there's even more depth to it than that.

Christ repeatedly calls the Holy Spirit our paraclete. Related word, see that? Our paraclete, the one who does these things that we see just right above in our lives. Several times there in the Gospel of John. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is one who is called alongside us for our aid, our comfort, our encouragement, our counsel, our consolation and exhortation. Isn't that what the Holy Spirit does in our lives? So these words tie together. Beautifully they tie together. Let's make sure we get the idea.

He doesn't just say paraklesis andropedes, he says paraklesis in Christ. Remember we noticed that that Greek word en, which is just simply equivalent to our English word in, has the idea of being completely in. In Christ, in the position that we have in Christ, There is this ongoing ministry. That ministry is to us, and that ministry is through us. Both. This is a statement of this ongoing ministry that is based upon our position. That's what he's telling them. To start with, he says, there is a ministry to you, there is a ministry through you, all as a result of your being in Christ. So he says, that's how I'm going to start off with you on this.

Okay, we've got some more. I want to point this out, I'm not going to read it. This is 2 Corinthians 1, 3-7. Look at how often this word comfort shows up. That's parakaleo and paraklesis. Again and again and again and again. I think Paul's trying to get a point across, don't you? It shows up numerous times in this passage. Okay. Let's look at the next one. Consolation of love that he brings up. Comfort of love in the King James. This word consolation is a similar word.

Paramuthion, which is a combined word para and musos, means alongside, just like in paraklesis, and speech, alongside speech. What do you do when you are called alongside? There is alongside speech and communication. So these words are similar in meaning. There is a kind of an overlapping. in the significance between these two. So they call it consolation of love. And something else, he uses these words together a couple other times in Scripture. So he draws on building up the whole idea by combining these words. So this is one instance of that. Now, what else have we got here?

Consolation of love. This word love is one we've seen previously in our study of the book of Philippians. It's this word agape, love which is self-sacrificial in nature, it has God as its source, and it seeks the benefit of the recipient entirely, not looking for anything back. So here's this word love, this consolation, this alongside speech that is founded in and characterized by love, agape love.

Alright, let's take a look at another. The fellowship of the Spirit. Here's the third one that he's bringing to them. The fellowship of the Spirit. Here's this word fellowship, koinonia. Many of us have heard that before. It's a participation and a sharing that goes on. This word here is related to the adjective koinos, common, referring to that which is shared commonly or in common.

Now, you say fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Why is that attached in there? Why doesn't he just leave it as fellowship? Well, there's a reason. The fellowship that we have is a result of what the Holy Spirit has done and does. That's what it's about. So, we want to point out 1 Corinthians 12, 13.

It is by the Holy Spirit that believers have been placed in, baptized, baptizo, into the body of Christ. So that is one aspect of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We have fellowship because of the Holy Spirit having placed us commonly into the body of Christ, sharing the exact same position, every one of us who believes. All believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Scripture makes that clear. Romans and 1 Corinthians both point that out. All believers share that, every one of us. It is part of what we have and are in Christ.

Paul refers to the fellowship of the Holy Spirit as well, as he addresses the Church at Corinth, 2 Corinthians 13 and 14. Now, this is another interesting one, John 16, 13 and 14. But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own initiative, But whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will disclose it to you what is to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of mine, and will disclose it to you."

This is all truth that we share because of the Holy Spirit's working. Next one, affection and compassion. This one is very interesting. The King James has bowels and mercies. You might say, why does it do that? We'll talk about that. Hopefully they've got vowels and mercies and things like that. Anyway, affection here. The Greek here is σπλάχνα. Believe it or not, you've got σπλάχνα. Don't worry about it. It's not anything to be concerned about. Compassion, this is the word translated mercies in the King James. The Greeks, κύρμοι.

So he puts these together. Both terms literally refer to internal organs. That's the literal use of those terms. Why does he use those? Well, in truth, we use the words similarly too, don't we? We talk about having a heart. Well, that's not getting gory. It is an analogy, isn't it? Or we say that someone has guts, okay? So we've learned to use words in a similar kind of term. We're not talking about anatomy here, are we? We're talking about something that takes something physical and then compares it in order to convey something that is deeper. All right, now, that's for starters.

These words, splankna and orkturmoy, are used to convey tenderness, heart, affection, compassion, and mercy. And you will find different translations, they kind of keep hopping around trying to come up with what's the right word. Well, the reason they keep hopping around is because it's hard to convey it with one word. These are all things that have to do with tenderness and mercy and compassion and affection together. And that's why you also find that Paul frequently puts those together.

Colossians 3.12 is a place where he does exactly that.

He starts off, So as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion. Heart of compassion is That's what he's talking about. This is something, he's talking about the relationship between believers is not arm's length and distant. Saying the relationship between believers is, in our terms, heart to heart. There is compassion. There is a personal closeness.

That's intended. That's what God has in mind, and that's what he's spelling out. Now, then he goes on into verse 2, and he turns a corner, makes my joy complete, and the King James has fulfilled you my joy. And actually, as we'll see here in just a little bit, there's a reason to say, well, is it complete or fulfill? It's both. Literally, you must fill up to the point of completion the joy of me.

That's the phrase. It's in the imperative mood. So Paul's not just giving this as some sort of a suggestion. Hey, here's a good idea. You know, do this. No, he's saying this is something, and he's not trying to beat him over the head, but he's saying, doesn't this make sense? Doesn't it make logical sense? I've given you these four things that are a premise for my statement here. Doesn't it make logical sense having this as a foundation, this as a premise, that you proceed on to the logical conclusion to those. That's what he's saying. So he's saying you must fill up to the point of completion the joy of me. Why? Because it only makes sense.

Something else to point out here is this is an imperative and we're going to run into more imperatives. And it's important, critical, that we have a good understanding of why imperatives are in Scripture. They don't always jump out at us in the English If we see, do, don't, then it maybe hits us a little stronger. But imperatives are there not to beat us over the head as some sort of a legal requirement, do this or else. Imperatives are there to tell us that this is entirely and completely and exclusively consistent with the life of Christ in and through the believer. That's what imperatives are about, and He's doing that right here. He's saying, doesn't it make logical sense? Can you arrive at any other conclusion? But these next things I'm going to lay out. That's what he's spelling out to them.

Now, we come to this word joy. You've heard that before, right? This word joy is the Greek word kara. We've seen it before. We're going to see it again. He's not done. It's a gladness which springs from the abounding freely given grace of the Lord. It's not just because we had ice cream. We'll do that later tonight, but that's not going to be the reason for joy. This is something that comes from the Lord. It comes from the grace of the Lord. It's part of the charis family of words. Grace-given joy.

Now, the next one that comes out there, being of the same mind. This is an interesting one. King James has like-minded. This is mind not as an item, a noun, but as a verb. So it has the idea of being minded. Being minded. Having this characteristic of mind. This is the word phreno in the Greek. It says to have a mindset about something or someone involving the will, emotions, and conscience. So this is all encompassing, isn't it? Resulting in a proper course of action. Now that's a potent word, isn't it? This is a big word.

Now, Paul writes about being of the same mind. Being minded the same. He writes about that several places. This is a common message that Paul lays out. And while technically some of these words are in slightly different form, I won't go into that, but he delivers that message to the church at Rome. And again, after chapter 12, he returns to that again in chapter 15.

And then he has a similar message to the saints in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 1.10. I will touch on that because I think there's a point here that Paul's trying to bring across that we need to take a look at.

In 1 Corinthians 1.10, he says, Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment." Here he returns to this idea again.

In 1 Corinthians 1.10, he's giving them a critical message. The church at Corinth also had problems with division, didn't it? He starts off in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians there and he tells them that they should say, thing. Say the same thing.

A singular doctrinal message. How about that? Paul keeps telling Timothy and Titus, you read through 1st and 2nd Timothy in the book of Titus, they're not long books, but interesting, you have 50 times in those three short letters, 50 times plus, those three short letters, doctrine, teaching, instruction, keeps being brought up again and again and again. Why?

He is concerned that they say the same thing. He says, the things that I've told you, guard it, hold to it, stand by it. The New Testament, as we pointed out previously, refers to this phrase, the faith. It's a specific, understood, and fixed set of doctrinal teachings. About two dozen times in the New Testament, that word pair, the faith, shows up. It's not just, hey, we all believe something, okay? It is a specific set of teachings, fixed and understood. He could say, the faith, and it was understood what was meant.

There's some things I think to draw from, because what Paul is exhorting them to as we look at Scripture and draw this together, including this passage here in 1 Corinthians 1.10, here are the conclusions we come to. Unity does not consist of finding a small, little core group of doctrines that everybody happens to agree on, and then we just set aside the rest because we can't agree on it. That's not what he's asking them to. We don't say, look, we've got to be an organization, and we've got to stand under something, so let's just bring it down to this little small group of things we teach.

Why do we have the whole New Testament if that's all that counts? Instead, here, unity calls for Christians to stand together under singular doctrine, which represents the full truth that God has revealed in His Word. Believers have no need whatsoever to create a unity. Remember what we looked at before, the Holy Spirit is the one who places us into the body of Christ. We have no need to create a unity. It's simply a matter of standing under the unity that we already have. That's again our position in Christ. Now, let's take a look here.

Maintaining the same love. He's coming back to this message of love again. King James having the same love. Paul is writing here literally the same love. That's the way it literally comes across in concise Greek. It's the agape love, like we saw in verse 1. Same word.

And it makes sense as the source of love is the same, doesn't it? Have the same love because where does that love come from? That love has one source. That one source is God himself. Therefore, the same love makes perfect, logical sense. No reason for you to have this disparate and divided love.

United in spirit, being of one accord. He wants them to be together. You know what that means here at Holly Hills, don't you? United in spirit, being of one accord. No, that's not what I meant. United in spirit. Sumtukas is the word there. It means together soul. Not that tough. It's one of those compound words where you break it apart.

Together soul. Souls together. That's the idea. Souls together. Kind of goes back to that picture we saw at first there, striving together, doesn't it? It keeps pointing back to that same message. United as one. Intent on one purpose. The King James has of one mind.

And what's happening here is he's actually reaching back and reusing a word that he has used before in a slightly different way. This is this Greek word that we translate mind again from ale, and it's the verb again. Now what's he doing? It has in the plural and singular use, the Greek here expresses the idea of all the saints thinking, and the thinking is plural, the verb is plural, as one.

Plural thinking as one. How about that? It doesn't mean that Doug does the thinking and the rest of us shut down. It means that the thinking of each one of us is singular. How about that? Isn't that amazing? Thinking as to understanding. Thinking as to perspective. Thinking as to the view of things. Thinking as to what's valuable. He says singular. Multiple minds as one. Isn't that amazing? That is amazing. This world knows nothing of the sort, does it? Okay.

Paul is not at all promoting diversity of doctrine, mindset, and purpose in the church. Instead, he is promoting profound singularity. He says, hey, you know, it's alright if you have numerous little groups here and, you know, it's alright, no big deal. No. One. One. That is mind-boggling. And think of the group that he has talked to.

Remember the first one who became a believer there at Philippi? Here's Lydia. She's a seller of purple. Some indications she may have come from Thyatira, one of the cities that's written about in the book of Revelation. She apparently was a Jew, or at least a Jewish convert. Who was the next one we read about? If it's not the slave girl, and that's possible that she may have been the next one, But after that comes the Philippian jailer.

So now you've got a Roman in the mix. We have diverse people here that are in this church body, and others that we don't have individual accounts for, but we're already starting a date that was something that by any natural explanation is not unified. Do you see that? By any natural explanation it's not unified. He is telling that group composed of, here's this lady with a Jewish background, Here's this other guy with a Roman background. He's telling you, think as one. Now that is amazing. That's phenomenal. That is absolutely startling. Let's take a look at this passage.

We want to kind of step through it. Make sure we've got a grip on the whole thing. After I've thrown accords at you and Clint Eastwood. First, let's start with verse 1, and you have this on the back side of your handout so you can follow along and make any notes you like.

Therefore, since there is certain called alongside ministry in and through us based on our position in Christ, first premise, certain alongside heart-to-heart communication, certain sharing and joint participation because of the work and presence of the Spirit we have in common, certain affection, tenderness, compassion, and mercies that is based on your position in Christ and the accompanying ministries in and among you."

See, what is he talking about? He's talking about the position that they have in Christ. He's also talking about the very evident beginnings of ministry in and through the believers there. He's saying, don't you have a position in Christ? Don't you have very evident beginnings of ministry here among you? And he begins to lay out what those are. Isn't that known and evident and visible? Don't you see that?

Then he goes on to verse 2. He says, you must by logical conclusion. And again, he's setting this whole thing up as a logic equation. It's not a, boy, if you don't do this, I'm going to whoop you. He's not threatening them. What he's doing is he's saying, it makes logical sense. There isn't some other alternative that you can come to a conclusion about.

You must, by logical conclusion, fill up my grace-given joy. This isn't just, oh boy, I just got fed, or I'm glad I just got out of prison, because he's writing from prison. This is grace-given joy. To the point of completion by being of the same thinking and perspective, having the same self-sacrificing love, which has God as its source, being souls together, because of who Christ is and who you all are in him, all of you together thinking as one person since you have the one mind of Christ.

Does that make sense? The bottom line is he's saying, look, there is all these things that in spiritual fact you have this in common. There is no disparity in the Lord. There is no division in what the Lord has done. The position that you have in Christ is perfectly identical from one to the next. The earthly differences that you have in comparison are inconsequential. By logical extension of the premise, the only conclusion that you can reach is that your condition needs to match your position.

That's what he's saying to them. That's the first two verses here. He's trying to get them to think through what they know to be true and carry it out to its logical conclusion, not in the realm of just academia. This isn't a hypothesis here, but this is the way it should be in life, he's saying.

What is true in your position needs to be lived out to the fullest. Make my joy complete. Fulfill it to the point of completion. That's what he's talking about. Carry it to its logical conclusion. So he's saying, starting here in your position and with ministry begun, make my joy complete by arriving here in condition like your position.

That's the summary logical statement that he's laying out. It's really quite simple, isn't it? He's set up four points, verse one, four points, verse two, but this is where he's headed with it. He is continuing on to build on the idea that he laid out that we looked at a couple weeks back, this striving together for the faith. We brought out the point when we looked at that passage in Philippians 127.

He started off in this unity issue, not by pointing out the individual ones that were a problem at the outset, but by giving them a picture that they would well understand. They knew being Roman soldiers or having gone to the amphitheater and seeing the Roman soldiers demonstrate or seeing the Roman soldiers out in the field practicing, doing this kind of thing. The Romans would issue a command and everybody in that particular group would know about on the basis of that command we are in defense mode against arrows and stones and they would strive together for this complete unity. Complete unity.

So he draws upon that. Now he is just starting to go into some detail, laying it out. This is why this striving together that I talked about a couple verses back makes good sense. That's what he's spelling out to them here. Let's pray. Lord, as we look here at this passage, it becomes quite clear to us, as Paul has really laid things out systematically, clearly, as you've done so that we have this marvelous position in you and we rejoice and give you thanks for that and now Lord as we look at it by your life and by your life alone we ask that that might be true of our condition this day each moment and we we look to you Lord for for that strength to carry it all out not to fulfill what we cannot do, but that our lives, our efforts might be completely replaced by your own. And we give you thanks for these marvelous truths, for the depths of them, and for the fact that we can rest on your entire strength and accomplishment. In Jesus' name, Amen.