If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
Parallel translations
- WEB If there is therefore any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion,
- BSB Therefore if you have any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,
- NKJV Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy,
- NASB Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,
- NLT Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul appeals to the encouragement, love, fellowship, and compassion they have in Christ. The blessings they have received become the basis for unity.
Overview
Through a series of "if" clauses (each assuming a true reality), Paul stacks up the comforts of the gospel: encouragement in Christ, the consolation of love, the fellowship of the Spirit, tender affection. These are not hypotheticals but realities every believer enjoys. They form the foundation for the call to unity that follows.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 40
- Col 3:12Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
- 1 Jn 4:12No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
- 1 Jn 4:7–8Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
- 2 Cor 13:14The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.
- Col 2:2That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
- Ps 133:1Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
- 1 Cor 12:13For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
- Eph 2:18–22For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
- Gal 5:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
- Gal 4:6And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
- 1 Jn 3:24And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
- Acts 4:32And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
- Eph 4:30–32And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
- Rom 8:9–16But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
- John 17:13And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
- 2 Cor 1:5–6For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
- John 15:10–12If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
- 2 Th 2:16–17Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
- Acts 2:46And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
- Phil 3:3For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
- Rom 15:12–13And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust.
- 1 Cor 3:16Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
- Rom 5:5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
- 1 Jn 4:16And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
- Rom 8:26Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
- Rom 5:1–2Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
- Heb 6:18That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
- 2 Cor 2:14Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
- Eph 1:13–14In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
- 1 Cor 6:19–20What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
- John 14:18I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
- 1 Cor 15:31I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our LORD, I die daily.
- John 16:22–24And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.
- Phil 1:8For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.
- Eph 4:4There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
- John 14:27Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
- 1 Pet 1:2Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
- 1 Pet 1:22–23Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
- 1 Pet 1:6–8Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
- Luke 2:25And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
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