Advent Reflection: Philippians 2:1–11
Then make my joy complete There are themes to all our lives. People say others are all about, for example, integrity, friendship, helping others, travel or family. The apostle Paul was all about joy. His letter to the Philippians mentions joy or rejoice at least 14 times out of about 2400 words in the whole letter. Why? Because those in Philippi really needed to hear the message--they had lost their joy and don’t know where to find it. Paul uses joy to refer to their friendship, financial giving, resolving conflict by being humble toward each other. And Paul had experienced joy in surprising ways in his own life. Years before he was a self-righteous pharisee authorized to kill Christians and eliminate the message of Jesus. Who would have thought Paul would find joy in knowing Jesus? We are left with a short letter that hits us hard with joy and challenges our deeply held beliefs about how and where we find joy. One way of looking at the whole letter of Philippians i