'If there is therefore any comfort in Christ, if
any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the
Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions, 2.
Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be of the same mind,
having the same love, being of one accord, of one
mind; 3. Doing nothing through faction or through
vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting
other better than himself; 4. Not looking each of
you to his own things, but each of you also to the
things of others.'--PHIL. ii. 1-4 (R.V.).
There was much in the state of the Philippian church which filled Paul's
heart with thankfulness, and nothing which drew forth his censures, but
these verses, with their extraordinary energy of pleading, seem to hint
that there was some defect in the unity of heart and mind of members of
the community. It did not amount to discord, but the concord was not as
full as it might have been. There is another hint pointing in the same
direction in the appeal to Paul's true yoke-fellow, in chapter iv., to
help two good women who, though they had laboured much in the gospel,
had not managed to keep 'of the same mind in the Lord,' and there is
perhaps a still further indication that Paul's sensitive heart was
conscious of the beginnings of strife in the air, in the remarkable
emphasis with which, at the very outset of the letter, he over and over
again pours out his confidence and affection on them 'all,' as if aware
of some incipient rifts in their brotherhood. There are always forces at
work which tend to part the most closely knit unities even when these
are consecrated by Christian faith. Where there are no dogmatical
grounds of discord, nor any open alienation, there may still be the
beginnings of separation, and a chill breeze may be felt even when the
sun is shining with summer warmth. Wasps are attracted by the ripest
fruit.
The words of our text present no special difficulty, and bring before us
a well-worn subject, but it has at least this element of interest, that
it grips very tightly the deepest things in Christian life, and that
none of us can truly say that we do not need to listen to Paul's
pleading voice. We may notice the general division of his thoughts in
these words, in that he puts first the heart-touching motives for
listening to his appeal, next describes with the exuberance of
earnestness the fair ideal of unity to which he exhorts, and finally
touches on the hindrances to its realisation, and the victorious powers
which will overcome these.