Published With Thanksgiving

“If you have received any consolation from Christ, any comfort of his love, any fellowship with the Spirit, any compassion or sympathy, then fill me to the brim with joy by thinking as one, having love for each other. Live in harmony, thinking as one. Don’t act as if someone is your rival or out of your own vanity. Instead, act out of humility as though everyone was greater than you” (Philippians 2.1-3).

Paul doesn’t ask for much here. He wants nothing more than for those in Philippi (and us) to love each other and act as if we were a single entity who is guided by Christ. He longs for us to put aside our ego and to stop thinking that life is some kind of competition. Act, he’s saying, as Jesus did.

This was not said into a congregation of happy-clappy people. The congregation at Philippi was not a hippie commune or this blessed company of faithful who got it. They were fussing and arguing and…not being of single mind or humble or, particularly, putting aside their own ego. No one usually needs to say these things to people who are.

But what I love about Paul’s exhortation is why he’s asking for this. What he’s guiding them toward is the way of love and in harmony with the life of Christ. He could offer no more reason than to say, this is the Way that Jesus showed us. This is how we’re supposed to act. That’s a valid enough reason.

Paul, though, doesn’t take that route. Instead, his words are less a condemnation than a request. We could even call it a prayer to the people of Philippi: Do this for my joy, please. Act in

harmony, love, and humility for my joy. Fill me to the brim with joy, he says. In good Southern we could translate this as, “It’d jus’ make me so happy if you’d be compassionate and loving to one another.”

I get where he’s coming from.

Our leadership is not acting out of compassion these days. Vanity and rivalry seem far more important than acting out of some sense of empathy and love. It doesn’t mean that our country lacks these things, but the example, from the top, is not in that direction. And all cries and pleading for compassion toward those who are sick, who are dying, who are suffering under injustice, who are the victims of our continued abuse of this planet are going unheard.

I’m wondering if Paul is pointing a way for us. Maybe, as we near the final quarter of this difficult year, we need to remind our leaders as well as one another how much we long to see and hear compassion in their words and actions. Maybe we should pray not that they should or ought to act in this way, but that to act in this way would fill us with joy.

I do not know if Paul’s words worked on those at Philippi. I’ve no idea if his exhortation moved people to put aside the idea that there are enemies and rivals. Who can say if our words to those who lead and those around us will move them toward compassion and love.

But I believe it is worth it for the chance that, in these difficult days, we—all of us—might find ourselves overflowing with joy.