Philippians 2:1-2 “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete…”

Sometimes the smallest words in Scripture deliver big messages. Are you struck by Paul’s repeated use of the word “if” here? He lists these gifts and blessings of faith. But he seems to cast a shadow over their enjoyment with the word “if.” He almost seems to be questioning whether we have experienced these things.

I think the apostle is on to something. Sometimes our faith and our practice, or our faith and our experiences, don’t line up with each other. We believe the things God promises, but then we fail to make the connection with our lives. We really mean it when we say we believe God forgives us. But then we carry our guilt around anyway. Maybe we even act as if we have to pay for our sins ourselves. We sincerely believe God when he tells us he will make everything work for our good and provide everything we truly need. But then something goes wrong, and we worry just like the people who don’t believe they have a great big God to take care of them.

This is why repentance, the transforming change of heart and mind over our ungodly way of thinking and acting, isn’t a one-time event from our conversion. It is a daily way of life for the child of God. I need God to change my heart every day.

Then we will know the comforts Paul describes here. “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ…” “You remember,” Paul is reminding us, “that when Jesus lived his perfect life of love, that was your perfect life of love. God gives you credit for his spotless record. When Jesus died on the cross, you died there with him. Justice was served on all your crimes and sins. When Jesus rose from the dead, you were raised with him. You have a glorious new life in God’s eyes, and someday you will leave your grave or tomb just like Jesus did.”

“But where? How?” we might ask. “You have been united with Christ,” is Paul’s reply. “All he is and all he did is yours.” That’s more than a cold, hard fact of history. If you listen, if you consider the things it changes for you and me, it is a word of supreme encouragement.

It also speaks volumes about the way Jesus feels about us: “…if any comfort from his love.” “No greater love has anyone than this, that he lay down his life for his friends,” Jesus told the Twelve the night before he died. So that is what we have from Jesus. He laid down his life for us. You and I could not be loved more than the love we have from him. My wife gave up the life she loved as a stay-home mom and went back to work so that her children could get a Christian education in high school and not be saddled with debt in college. It is a sacrifice of love. But it is not greater than the love we have from Jesus.

I know a man who sold his Ferrari and his Rolex watch to help build a church. It was a great act of love for his Lord, but it was not greater than his Lord’s love for him. There is no more basic and dear message of the Christian faith than this: “Jesus loves you.” You know, the very first thing a faithful Muslim parent whispers in his child’s ear is “Allahu akbar,” “God is great.” But practically the first thing a Christian parent teaches his child to sing is “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Jesus loves me. Can you believe that, and not find some comfort from this love?

In order that we might realize these encouragements and comforts, God has given us his Holy Spirit. If we have “any fellowship with the Spirit,” if he is our friend, and teacher, and guide, then all of this becomes life-changing. Our own hearts turn toward Jesus’ own heart. More and more “tenderness and compassion” become features of our own lives.

“In view of Christ’s comforts,” these blessings of faith, Paul says, “Make my joy complete.” Let your life, transformed by this gospel, bring joy to others, too.