https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Phil+2%3A1-4&version=NIVUK

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

Philippians 2:2

It is amazing how quickly we tend to forget what we have reflected on almost every day. Had we remembered, by the end of each evening we would have been more thankful, humble, and submitting. Nevertheless, we keep going in the hope that today or some day we will be better at being constant in remembering and standing fast on our Foundation, our Lord Christ. Despite our recurring foolishness, we are still in Christ, irrevocably united to him by our Friend, Helper, and Lord, the Holy Spirit, through the meek faith we have, created graciously by him.

This union, or ‘remaining in him’ (v. 1), encourages us so that we may go on and make someone else’s joy complete by acting, living, and breathing out of the same mind with my Lord. What is joy a sign of? Just as our Lord was joyful when he was filled with the Spirit (cf. Luke 10:21), a believer’s joy is the outcome of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Did Paul lack the Holy Spirit so much that he needed someone else to fill it up for him? Rather, seeing others in union with Christ is the pinnacle of one’s being filled with the Spirit, praising the Father, who, in the same Spirit, is pleased to reveal the mystry of union to the unwise and unintelligent as myself. Mysterious spiral of union that goes round and round.

Lord, forgive me that I always boast about the little knowledge I have of your word but still forget it so readily. You make my joy complete not by my own doing but through someone else’s obedience to you, driven by your Spirit. Lord, let me be thankful and humble before you and all your saints that I owe you and them what I have now. Thank you for this union.

• Think of a person who helped you come to faith. How has your development in faith pleased that person?
• Do you have anyone in mind who you would like to see grow in faith? What is the best way to help them in light of today’s passage?
• How can you tell your own wish for a person as opposed to a wish that belongs to the Spirit’s union?