Can our joy be complete without unity? According to the Apostle Paul in Philippians 2:1-4, perhaps not.

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.  Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

After affirming the ways the Philippians were individually seeking God, he immediately says “complete my joy by…” (ESV), “make my joy complete by…” (NIV), “fulfill my joy by…” (NKJV), followed by descriptions of how they should further their faith in unity with one another. Perhaps Paul had experienced joy in watching their spiritual growth, but it was incomplete and unfulfilled. The fullness of joy would come when they sought God as one.

In American Christianity, our ingrained individualism and self-sufficiency distort what oneness is. We are not against the idea of unity, we simply settle for an inadequate approximation of it. For us, Philippians 2:2 is satisfied as long as we are participants in a church; by engaging in a service most Sundays, we are a part of a body and fulfilling the call of unity.

Sitting in a seat alongside other seat-fillers while singing the same songs and hearing the same message can be unifying, though it does not guarantee what Paul describes here. “Being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” becomes more involved the deeper we honestly consider it; it is profoundly more than thinking similarly, liking each other, getting along, and making the same decisions.

Paul affirms their individual journeys, and in the same sentence calls them further. He knows seeking God in isolation will never match what happens when we seek Him in true spiritual unity, not side by side but as one entity.

“If you are experiencing this,” he says, “then y’all should.”  I remember being in a room of adults from around the world when I said “y’all” and learned many were hearing that word for the first time.  Growing up, “y’all” — short for “you all” — was our way of speaking to a connected group, a plural “you.”  In addition to the plurality, it conveys a familiarity and connection; I may say “Would all of you like to get lunch,” after a business meeting, but to my friends, “do y’all want to get lunch?”  Based on his letters, Paul saw the Philippians not as a random congregation, but one to which he held affection; “I thank my God every time I remember you.” (1:3 NIV)

Paul sees a spiritual opportunity for this congregation he loves, and he exhorts them — and us — towards oneness.  Not only does this make his joy complete, but I suspect ours as well.

To step into this, we must understand what this is; a right understanding of unity and oneness will shift our perception of scripture. Over the next few weeks we will sit with singular elements of this short passage in hopes of breaking from our default understanding and glimpsing what God has prepared for us.  Perhaps you are encountering God on your own; great!  Now let us discover the “immeasurably more” He has for us when we do so as one.