Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore

1 Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; 7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. 8 For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.

You may have heard or read about some heart-melting, poetic, and rhetorical love letters. Today, in Philippians 1:7-8, we can say is one of the greatest love verses in the Bible. I realized the epistle of Philippians is not only an epistle of joy, but it is one of the greatest love letters ever written, and the depth of this verse is amazing and wonderful. I again feel so small to preach this. May the Holy Spirit help us. The deep love between Paul and the Philippians is amazing and miraculous. They had a very unusual bond with Paul; distance, time, and difficulties did not weaken that bond.

On one side, however I explain the difficulty of Paul, we will never fully grasp his terrible, sad, external circumstance in a dark jail, with his life hanging in the balance, while he hears that outside, people are saying his ministry is a failure, and he is a false apostle. On the other side, the Philippian church loved Paul and was worried about Paul’s condition. They had sent him financial gifts on numerous occasions when no one else did. There was something that bound his heart with theirs like no other church. Now, hearing he is in jail in difficulty, they send him a gift of love. The bearer of that gift is a special man named Epaphroditus, the most loved man in their church.

He comes with the money to assist Paul and with the instruction to stay with Paul, so that he may be ministered to not only in a financial way but in a personal way and in every way to help him in jail. Paul is overwhelmed by the continual commitment of the Philippians for the gospel and his ministry, and their love and affection, and he writes this letter back to them to express his gratitude and the fact that he has joy in spite of his difficult circumstances, and also to express the great love he has for them. He sends the letter back with Epaphroditus, because he feels they need him more than he does. They send Epaphroditus to comfort and help him; he sends Epaphroditus back to comfort them, and tell them, “Don’t worry about me. I rejoice. Don’t be concerned about me, I am fulfilled. God is at work; nothing touches the depth of my joy, not any negative circumstance.” So, in a very real sense, this is an epistle of love also.

Paul’s first section of the letter, verses 2-8, is all full of thanks and praise. Only in verse 9 does he come to a request; our prayers always start with a request. We have been digging into verses 2-8. We are seeing the secrets of true joy. We have seen so far six secrets; today will be the last secret, the seventh secret.

You and I will not be joyful if you just hear this and go. We have to realize permanent joy in life doesn’t come from the world or from circumstances, but it comes from knowing and constantly abiding in the truths of God’s word. John 15:11 says, “These words I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” The Lord says, “I have given my words, only when you abide in my words will you have full joy.” How many times he says in John 15, “abide in my words”? Verse 7 says, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, that you bear much fruit.” One of the fruits is joy. Just knowing these truths will not produce fruit, but by abiding in them.

Yesterday, I was very tired and a little sad with so much workload this week, and then on Saturday, not that much prepared, children’s exams next. Then I realized, “Hey, how can I be sad and preach about the secrets of joy?” I am looking at my circumstances for joy. No, joy doesn’t come from my circumstance, but by abiding in God’s word. So, I started abiding in the words, and my joy is slowly returning.

So, let us for the last time, remind you of the secrets of joy. We receive joy not just by hearing this and going, but by making our lifestyle like each of these secrets. Firstly, cultivating a heart of thanksgiving for everything. A thankful heart in every circumstance. The world and Satan want to tell us what we don’t have, how sad our situation is, and make us negative and bitter. But learn to swim against the current. As soon as you wake up, learn to thank God for everything in life. Thank him that today you are in church, not in some hospital, or an ICU in pain, or a police station, or a bar, running after the world. Look around you; there are 1,001 reasons to thank God today morning.

The second secret is to learn a lifestyle to first seek and enjoy God’s presence as all-important, valuing God’s presence as great wealth. Whatever is there or not there, realize God’s presence is the source of true joy. The more we enjoy his presence, the more we will be joyful. If you don’t enjoy his presence, like David in Psalm 51, seek his presence with confession if you have sinned. “Lord, let me hear joy and gladness, may the bone you have crushed rejoice.” Seek it, he will give his presence.

Thirdly, living among selfish, sinful, and weak people, do not allow them to rob your joy. But with God’s help, learn to forgive and forget their weakness, capture and maintain good memories, deleting others with the Holy Spirit’s help. It will not happen automatically. It is a deliberate, wise choice. It is no use thinking bad things; we decide to forget others’ weakness and bad things, and store only good memories about them.

Fourthly, the joy of interceding for them. Imagine Christ’s great ministry is now interceding. What fullness of joy will the Holy Spirit fill us with if we regularly take time and pray for others? I know it will seem boring initially, but the Holy Spirit’s joy comes in fullness when we learn to regularly pray for others in love, interceding.

Fifthly, we noticed the joy of rejoicing in the fellowship of the gospel. Paul rejoiced in the fact that they had been partners in the gospel. They supported him in the spread of the gospel in every way, came along with him, partners in the extension of the gospel. Not initially and then went off, not now and then, when they like to come, or not come. From the very first day, when Lydia was converted by the riverside in Philippi, until the present, they showed a persevering commitment to support the gospel. Those are true partners. Not when difficulty comes, they run off. They were real partners of ministry, a source of joy. What a joy for a pastor to see his people consistently faithful.

The sixth secret we saw was the marvelous truth that if nothing makes us joyful in the present, hope is a wonderful thing that can make us joyful. It is very easy to get discouraged when we see the present condition of ourselves and the present condition of the church. In fact, if we look too closely and too long at what the church is, we may feel like crying and pulling our hair sometimes. But how important to keep our minds on what the church will become. If we look at what the church will be, there is great cause for rejoicing.

A marvelous verse on the eternal security of the saints: “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

God is involved in doing the greatest miracle work of the universe in your life and my life. Do you realize the monumental thing God is mainly concerned about from all eternity? Romans says he predestined, called, and justified us to be conformed to the image of his son. God’s greatest focus is this, and according to God, there is nothing more important than that work in life. The problem is we are not seeing that work as important at all. We are worried about our job, finances, trials, and health, but God uses all these to create a great miracle in our eternal soul. We are all seeing somewhere else, but God is seeing something else.

Do you realize that God, who began a work, he just didn’t begin and leave off? He is still working in our lives. In your struggle and discouragement in the fight against sin, you may feel like giving up, but God will never give up. He will complete and bring it to perfection. Whatever pressures and pressing circumstances you may be facing in life, trials, and stress, all are part of this great miracle of God inside you. He is using all that to perfect the work in you.

Someday, you and I will stand before Jesus Christ as redeemed children of God—holy, blameless, and complete in every way. Whiter than snow. We’re a far sight from that today. But a better day is coming for the people of God. What is incomplete will be made complete. What is unfinished will be finished. What is lacking will be made full. What is partial will be made whole. What is broken will be fixed. God has promised to do it, and he cannot lie. Whatever your situation, just basking in that truth fills our heart with hope. What is our confidence that he will complete? “The one who calls you is faithful.” This little phrase is the foundation for the doctrine of eternal security. Our entire hope—both in this life and in the life to come—rests on the faithfulness of God. So, if you or someone feels discouraged about our condition and all the problems, just remind yourself that God is still working, the work is not yet done.

Today, we come to the last and seventh secret of joy in this passage. It is the joy of love. We see that love gushing out in verses 7 and 8.

7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. 8 For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.

In this journey of joy, Paul here almost touches the highest peak. Here, Paul’s great heart is gushing at that point. It’s almost a crescendo, a high point. Step by step, the first level of joy is thanksgiving, then God’s presence, rejoicing in every remembrance, and rejoicing in interceding, and next, rejoicing in the fellowship of the gospel, next rejoicing in hope of what they will be in the future. Then he comes to the highest point of his joy, the Mount Everest of joy. The joy of God’s love for others. It is like all others are small rivers of joy, and now he unveils his great heart and shows a deep ocean from where so much joy is springing. Feeling the joy of God’s infinite love for his people.

Paul is experiencing an inexpressible joy that wells up in the heart of a person who is so much filled with the love of God. It fills his heart to the full and then overflows for others. You see, there is nothing with higher, richer, and more wonderful joy than to experience God’s love to such fullness. There is no greater joy than this joy. Nothing more exhilarates the heart than the joy of affection.

These two verses are all about Paul’s love for the Philippians. Let us dig into this marvelous love in five headings. Paul’s love was intellectual. Paul’s love was very deep. Paul’s love was very genuine. The source of Paul’s love. This is Gospel bond love.

Paul’s Love Was Intellectual

He starts saying in verse 7, “just as it is right for me to think this of you all.” He says, “It is right for me to think of you like this.” It is intellectual and right love. The first thing we see is any other love in the world has no thinking, whether it is parents’ affection, lovers, or friendship. But this is intellectual love. He says it is right for me to think like this; it is not without thinking. Paul had a great sense of what was right. He was a man deeply compelled by what was right before God. I am not just thinking in a selfish way. I am not thinking in just a sentimental, blind way, not just as a duty, because it is the custom or proper. No. I am thinking of you like this because it is right. It’s morally right. It honors God, it pleases God. As an apostle, I am expressing God’s right feeling for you. It is the way I ought to respond to you.

What thinking is he saying is right? All he has been saying from verse 1: to feel thankful to God for you whenever he remembers them, verse 3; to feel joyful in praying for you, rejoicing in your fellowship with the gospel, verse 4; to feel confident God has began a work and will complete it, verse 6. All that is right to feel what I feel about you. When he says, “I think,” it doesn’t mean he just thinks of them once in a while, but this is a permanent mindset and attitude. To have such a mindset about you, this is my mindset and attitude towards you. It’s the action of the intellect, yes, but it’s the action of the intellect that touches the feelings. So, firstly, Paul’s love was intellectual.

Secondly, Paul’s Love Was Deep

Why does Paul think about them like this? What makes him thank God even in jail for them, rejoice in their fellowship, and be so hopeful about their future that he is jumping and dancing in jail? What is the great secret of his heart from which all these rivers are flowing? Notice verse 7. He says, “It’s only right for me to think about you, it’s only right, because I have you in my heart.” “I can think like this about you and I can rejoice so much because all that is because I have you in my heart.” A very deep word. You are not someone who comes and goes in my heart when I think about you. You always abide in me. You are always in my heart. I hold you always in my heart to an extent you’re woven into the length and width of my deepest being. “I have you in my heart.” Length and breadth of my being, you are woven and run across my being so much, you are part of me. “You’re a part of me.” When he says, “I hold you in my heart,” he’s talking about the depth of his person. The heart is simply the center of thought and feeling, the depth of your inner being. “I hold you deep inside myself.” And what Paul is saying is, “You’re deep in me, so deeply woven, you’re a part of my being.” It’s a beautiful thing. That is why, every time they came to his mind, he was filled with joy. Every good thing that happened to them, it was like it happened 10 times to him. So he rejoices for them. It was the joy of affection. He loved them. And it was that love that produced that joy.

In a small way, to give an illustration, how we feel about our children, right? They are woven in our being, we always think of them, our life surrounds around them. When something good happens to them, we feel 10 times more joyful than them. This love of Paul is much deeper than that. Look at what he says next. How deep is this love, Paul? He says, in verse 8, “I love you, and I long for you with the affection of Christ Jesus.” It’s a supernatural one—it’s a deep yearning. The word “affection” is a very deep word. The translators of the New American have chosen the word “affection.” The old Authorized said “The bowels.” It basically refers to what you could call the area of soft internal organs in the body. It’s an interesting term. By the way, it’s the strongest word in the Greek language to express compassionate love. When they really wanted to express compassion, they would say, “I love you with all my bowels,” the inner soft parts of the body where emotions were felt.

When you are highly emotional, all the soft parts of your body, where all of your internal organs are, react to your emotions. You get highly emotional, especially what happens with our children, our bond we have with them. When we feel our affection, filled with a very emotion, your lungs start to react, you get short of breath. Your throat clogs, your mouth cannot speak. Your heart beats very fast. Sometimes we just look at the person you love, and your heart begins to beat; it changes the palpitations of your heart. You go through some kind of stress, some kind of deep feeling, and it starts to curl your stomach, and your stomach starts sending up signals. All parts of the body start reacting to deep yearnings. That’s what the word has in mind. It’s very expressive. And what Paul is saying is, “Everything in me, even my physical body, my inner being, my soul, my heart, longs for you. I think about you, and my heart runs a little faster, and my breath is a little shorter, and I feel it in my stomach, all inside melting, because I have such a deep feeling for you.”

Have you heard about such love? All the love we know is romantic love, and that too, after three months, it goes away. Then there is sentimental, idolatrous love for children, that makes us do things without thinking. Paul’s love is not only intellectual and right, but very, very deep. All the love we only hear in words, such nice words, but we cannot know if there is really love in the heart.

Is Paul Genuine?

Is he just getting emotional and using poetry? In your sadness and loneliness, Paul, have you allowed words to say more than what you felt? Is this true? Or are you just speaking to encourage us? Is this coming from the heart? See, Paul’s love is not only intellectual and very deep, but it is genuine. Notice the verse. English starts, and the verse ends: “For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.” I call the living God, before whom all things are naked and open, to be a witness to the fact that I’ve not just used some poetry or for the sake of rhetoric. I’ve not been carried away in the heat of emotion. God is my witness. He calls on God to attest to the truthfulness of his heart attitude. He is dealing here with something that people can’t see. They can’t see his heart. They can’t see his affection. So, wanting them to understand how genuinely he feels, he says, “God is my witness. God can see it. God is the one who can attest to the truth of what I say. God is a witness, not how I simply long, but I greatly yearn after you all.” “I long for you, I long for you all.” He loves to use that word “all.” “I thank my God in all my remembrance,” verse 3. All these people were a cause of joy for him, and he expresses that. “I long for you all.”

Paul’s love is intellectual, very deep, and very genuine. It’s amazing, isn’t it? What love? The question is, where can we find such love in a dog-eat-dog world? Men living in their own selfish lives, “me, my life, eat, drink, my family, over.” No time to even think about others, forget about doing anything, praying, serving, writing a letter, and even rejoicing. How can a sinful man like you and me, with passions like you and me, have such a deep ocean of love? That too, to a people not even related, not even of the same nation, a different continent, a different culture, not seen regularly, and very far away from him. How?

The Source of Paul’s Love

The answer is Paul’s intellectual, deep, genuine love. Next, see the source of Paul’s love. The source is the infinite love of Jesus Christ. “Why do you feel this way, Paul?” Verse 8 says, “For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.” Ah, here’s the source and how deep this love is. “I yearn for you with the affection of Christ Jesus.” It’s supernatural. It’s not natural. It’s the affection of Christ Jesus. It’s not a natural, human attraction; it’s much deeper than that. It’s given by Christ to those who are Christ’s. This immeasurable longing I have for you. This love didn’t grow on the native soil of my human heart. It comes out of my union with Christ. You have heard my words, but I cannot put some things in my words. I have a great longing for you. The source of that longing he uses language that astounds us. It is the affection of Jesus Christ, it is in the tender mercies of Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus. A literal translation would be, “I long after you all in the viscera of Christ Jesus.” So that in a real sense, it is the very longing and the very love of Christ Jesus. It’s the love of God shed abroad in the heart. It is the eternal love of God he had for all eternity. What is it that made God in eternity to make an unchangeable, determined covenant to crush his son with pleasure, cheerfully? It was the infinite overflowing love of God, like in the rainy season when you see Niagara Falls, how it gushes forth with force and power. It is that love God had for you and me. That love flowed like a big waterfall into Christ’s heart.

It is this love of Christ who loved us in eternity. We saw in the Matthew gospel, the love which made him leave all glory, humble himself to the cross, even die a painful, shameful, cursed death, becoming a curse for you, sin for you, infinite sorrows in his soul and body he endured in love for you, and rose again for you, ascended to heaven, and now though he sits in heaven, he has infinite, immeasurable, eternal longing for you every second as he intercedes and works in your hearts through his spirit and word. Do you want to know how much Christ longs for you? I cannot tell you how much he longs. That deep ocean of love, a small stream flows in my heart. I am a small instrument; that longing love is flowing a drop through me. That itself I cannot bear it; it makes all my soft parts melt inside me. It is that love, even though I am in jail, that makes me thank God in every remembrance of you, that love makes me intercede for you, rejoice in your fellowship, hope about your future. This is why I hold you in my heart. This love has made you part of my being, a deep bonding between us. That is why, every time I think of you, I am filled with joy more than any parents can feel about their children. It was the joy of affection. The top source of joy is the love of Christ flowing through me. It was this love Jesus Christ produced this infinite joy in my heart.

This is the great grand secret of Paul’s heart. This is the ocean from which all the different rivers of joy flowed even in jail.

Gospel Bond Love

Paul’s love was intellectual, deep, genuine, and the source of that love is the infinite love of Jesus. Finally, this is gospel bond love. This love flows to people in gospel fellowship. Do you know this longing love is not one-sided? Yes, Paul may have a high level of love, but the Philippians had a similar longing for Paul, and that is why they sent him Epaphroditus. When he came to Paul, he became sick. In chapter 2:26, Paul says Epaphroditus was longing for you all and was distressed because you heard that he was sick. So Paul says, “I am okay, you go to comfort the Philippians, they are worried about you.” This is a longing, affectionate group. Here is this guy, he goes to be with Paul, he gets sick. The Philippians are so concerned that he is sick that they’re sad. He’s so sad that they’re sad that he yearns for them. Paul’s so sad that he’s sad because they’re sad because he’s sick that he sends him back.

I’m telling you, this is an affectionate gang. These people are really tied to each other. And he uses it again in chapter 4, verse 1, the same verb, he says, “My beloved brethren, again whom I yearn to see, my joy and crown.” He loves them. “My beloved,” he calls them. Boy, they had a wonderful relationship—wonderful. What made them love one another like this?

How can these people love one another like this? How can Jesus’ love flow like this through these people? This is love that flows from the fellowship of the gospel. Notice Paul says, “I long for you,” why? We long for one another, why? Not for any selfish reasons. Same caste, nation, background, you help me, and I help you in trouble. We like each other’s faces. “You like me, I like.” Not a selfish sentiment. No, beyond everything natural. This is the love of Jesus that flows when people are in gospel fellowship.

What was it that caused this love between this group? “just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.”

We have this love as partners in the Gospel. It’s because of your gospel involvement in my life. In whatever situation we are in, we are bonded in gospel work. Our life goal, desire, and ambition in life is to defend and proclaim the Gospel. That’s what endears you to me. It’s because we have the same goal and yearning for the Gospel. That is what brought us into this bond. It is this bond that unites us to Christ, and his love flows through us.

He told them, “You are constant partners with me in the Gospel from the first day and even to this day.” Even now in my imprisonment, though he is a prisoner in Rome, they didn’t stop their partnership and fellowship. They were compassionate toward him and sent him money and sent him Epaphroditus, instructing Epaphroditus to stay with him. And Epaphroditus was carrying out their wishes to the point that he almost killed himself. He worked so hard. He came close to death, chapter 2, verse 30, says, “for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me.” The deep, deep commitment these people had for the Gospel made them experience the infinite love of Jesus. God has brought such a bond between us. I am in your heart, and you are in my heart. God’s love overflows in my heart for you.

“You are in my heart, in my imprisonment and in the defense, the ‘apologia,’ and the confirmation, ‘bebaisis,’ which has to do with guaranteeing something.” Both of them are legal terms used in a court.

“In my imprisonment and in my defense, you were there, standing with me as I stood for the Gospel, whether I’m in prison, arraigned before judges, you are partakers of grace with me.” What he means by “the defense and confirmation of the Gospel” could be specifically referring to his trial, and he could be speaking of the wider defense and confirmation of the Gospel that was a part of the fullness of his ministry. “You are always with me.”

“You were there, and you were partaking of that same enabling grace along with me. You stood by me—you weren’t ashamed of me, you weren’t afraid of the identification, you weren’t afraid of the price or the cost. You assisted me, you were ‘sugkoinnos,’ you were partners together, of that divine enabling grace. You alleviated my suffering. You cooperated with me in the defense of the Gospel, willing to suffer. That’s why I have you in my heart, and that’s why my heart leaps with joy.”

Our bonding is not blood, liking, desires, national, community, or caste. Our bonding is a gospel bonding. In that bond, we are all in union with Christ; we experience his love flowing through us.

So, brothers, what do we learn as the top secret of joy in our lives is love? Paul’s love was intellectual, deep, genuine, the source of that love is the infinite love of Jesus, and finally, this love flows to people in gospel fellowship/partnership.

Applications

Oh, my dear people, when I read about this love, I asked myself, “Do I know anything about this love?” This love which is intellectual, deep, genuine, the source of that love is the infinite love of Jesus, this love flows to people in gospel fellowship/partnership. This love is not just words, but practical. It had deep effects in Paul’s life, made him rejoice and pray for them. They sent help to him, and he sent back Epaphroditus and this epistle to comfort them.

This is the root source of all Holy Spirit-produced joy. Because the first fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, and the second fruit is joy. It is love that produces all this joy. Just like it is said, sin is the root of all sorrow. Sin always expresses itself in selfishness. Selfishness is the root of all sorrow, and opposite to that, it is the love of God which is the source of all joy. That is the sum of the entire 10 commandments: love to God and love to men. God knows you will be supremely happy when we learn to love. Do you know my joy is that closely connected with my love for people?

It is only this kind of love of God, when it flows through us, it fills our heart with divine joy. It is only this kind of love, even when the man is in jail, with his life hanging in the balance, that he could joyfully remember others, and pray for their needs joyfully, day in, day out, as he did for so many of the churches. He had a supernatural love, enhanced and enriched by the warm affection and kind, compassionate care of the Philippians that touched him so deeply. That’s the joy of affection. That’s an element of joy. That’s an element of joy, and maybe the sweetest element of joy of all.

See, it is Paul’s love for the Philippians that made him so joyful. It’s that love that covers a multitude of sins and overlooks weaknesses. The Philippian church had weaknesses; they were human. I think they may have been struggling with the matter of unity, and that’s something he brings up almost in every chapter in this particular letter. I think there were concerns. They weren’t perfect, but his deep love for them covered over all of those things, in a sense, and just gushed out with joy, the joy of affection. It’s a wonderful thing to experience. And Paul experienced it when he thought about the Philippians.

Do we know anything of this love? If we don’t know, we cannot know the world of joy that Paul is experiencing. The question is, do we deeply feel, “Oh, how far I am from this! I want this love.” If so, when we realize we don’t know anything about such love, to our comfort, as good news, the very next verse, Paul says, “Don’t worry, if you don’t have this kind of love.” His first prayer for them is, “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment.”

That is his first prayer for the Philippians. When we are enjoying something so much, we want others to have it first. So, Paul’s secret of joy was love, and so he prays for it as his first request. May we all start praying for ourselves as that as our first prayer. “Lord, now I realize I am not happy because I don’t have this love. Please increase my love.” This should be our first prayer.

Second, learn from Paul. That love increases when we become partners in the Gospel. As a church, we are all partners in the Gospel ministry. We are all called to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the world. May we all together get more and more committed to the church in gospel fellowship. Do we realize that the stronger and more committed, more praying we are, the more the Gospel will grow? Do you realize that?

This love was a love of action. The Philippians didn’t just keep saying, “We love one another, love you, love you, love you,” with emojis and WhatsApp wishes. They showed love in action. Our love for others should also be a love of action.

• Show that love by praying for one another, not once in a while, but regularly, even when they don’t ask for it. We pray only when people ask. Make it a habit to pray for everyone.
• Yes, all of us are busy in our own lives, with no time for anyone, but this gospel love will teach us to take time to know others, get involved in others’ lives, get closer to one another, know their needs, and get involved in gospel fellowship. We can show great love by simply spending time with them.
• Show this love by serving them in gospel fellowship. Show love by serving and helping them in our church and community, encouraging them in their faith.
• This love will show itself by forgiving those who have hurt us and forgetting. The Philippian church had weaknesses; they caused pain to Paul, but he overlooked their fault and forgave them.
• Show that this is divine gospel love by being patient and understanding with others, even when they are difficult to love.

When we follow Paul’s example and love others with a sacrificial, persevering love, we will experience this glorious joy that the Holy Spirit gives.