I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (ESV)
If you are new to this reading plan, follow the instructions on the right side of this page or click here to read the "Why Just One Letter" introduction article.
Throughout each month, we will post short articles to give some depth of understanding regarding our text (see the archive links on the lower right of this page for review). Today we will discuss...
Protected by Love
In a previous article, we saw how Paul was in constant prayer for the Philippian Church. And while his prayers were prayers of thanksgiving, they were also prayers for growth and protection. Today we will look at the verse where Paul writes, "And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ..."
The result that Paul hoped for...
It was Paul's desire that the Philippians would be able to approve what is excellent. The Apostle knew that the Philippians had been as sinful as the rest of humanity before they came to faith. He also understood that they were living in the midst of a corrupt and twisted culture that was at odds with Jesus on every front.
Paul prayed for the believers' love to grow with knowledge and discernment in order to help them battle against drifting back into sin or approving of others' sins (see Romans 1:28-32).
Paul prayed for the believers' love to grow with knowledge and discernment in order to help them battle against drifting back into sin or approving of others' sins (see Romans 1:28-32).
Closely connected to their approval of what was excellent, Paul prayed for their love to grow with knowledge and discernment so that the Philippians would be found to be pure and blameless for the Day of Christ.
We have already seen in past articles that this Day of Christ, or Day of the Lord, points us forward to the day when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead. Those without Christ will be on the hook to receive the judgement due for their sins - this will be the group that is cast out into Hell. For those of us who have taken Christ as our Savior and Lord, this will be the day when we see our sins fully paid for by the work of Christ on our behalf and we will be given entrance to His Kingdom to live with God forever.
When Paul writes that he desires to see the Philippians as pure and blameless on that day it is not that he expects that they will be seen that way because of their own merit, but only because of the great exchange in which God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin - so that in Him (covered by Jesus sacrifice on our behalf), we will become the righteousness of God.
On that day, it will be Jesus' pure blamelessness that we will be clothed in, if we stay in the faith.
How do we get that result?
Just like the Philippians, the way that our church is able to make it to the end of this life and enter eternity with Jesus is by growing in LOVE with knowledge and discernment.
Paul prayed this way because he knew that the most dangerous thing that a Christian could encounter was NOT an enemy's sword. The most dangerous thing that we face is a lesser thing fighting to take our our affection off of Jesus.
In another letter Paul described this as worshipping the created thing rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25). Paul's method of protecting the church from this sin was to pray for a LOVE that was shaped and grown by sound doctrine.
While "Doctrine" is a bad word in some circles, the genuine Christian faith is built upon what we believe about who God is, who we are, what God has done for us in Christ and what it takes to receive His gift of Salvation. Those are all doctrinal issues.
So, while we should have an emotional attachment to Jesus, we should feed that Love by constantly learning more and more about who He REALLY is as He has revealed himself in the Bible.
As we grow in our knowledge, we will be able to discern when false teaching comes at us - whether it comes from advertisers and the media, or from smooth-talking preachers or teachers who try to simply tickle our ears with lies or half-truths.
Is Your Love Growing?
A way to gauge whether or not you are growing in your love in knowledge and discernment is to look back over the course of the last six months or so and see if there has been a noticeable difference in the way you have been:
- Loving God (through repentance of sin, Christ-like living, prayer, Bible reading, etc)
- Loving the Church (through service, prayer, interaction with the local church in weekly services and daily life, giving, etc) &
- Loving the Lost (through helping the "least of these," sharing your faith, demonstrating hope and gentleness, etc).
If you find yourself drifting in any of these three areas, don't beat yourself up, just repent and believe the Gospel. Talk to a Christian brother or sister where you see your love lacking and ask them to remind you of God's greatness, gloriousness, goodness and graciousness.
And your elders will join Paul in praying that OUR love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.
