MinistryMessages
January 20, 2016
This entry is part [part not set] of 2576 in the series Daily Words for the Christian Life
Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion….
—Philippians 2:1
The consolation that Paul was seeking in 2:1 is “consolation of love.” The Greek word for “love” here is agape. The verb form of this word means “to love out of an intelligent estimate of the object of love”; it “contemplates the attributes and character” of what is loved (Vincent, 4:167). In other words, it is a love that treasures its object.
Adapted from Philippians: That I May Gain Christ, page 92.
Tomorrow: “Consolation of Love” (4)