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)
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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...
The Helper
This month has drawn to a close and with it, we will soon move on to the next passage in Paul's letter to the Philippians. We pray that this has been a fruitful month of studying God's Word. And we will close up February by revisiting the topic of LOVE in the Christian life.
While the part of the passage that we are looking at today doesn't have the word LOVE in it, you may have realized by looking at your life - in response to the last two articles - that God calls us to a lot IF we are trying to reflect the affection of Christ to our church family and to the not-yet-believers around us.
In fact this goal of reflecting the affection of Christ is not just asking a lot from us, it is asking the impossible
- if we try to do it on our own.
So, we will find the help we need as we study Paul's desire for us to be "filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ..."
If you remember, to show the LOVE that matches Christ's, we need to see that Jesus first DEMONSTRATED what love looks like and then He EMPOWERED us to love in the same way.
Paul's words here are pointing us to the EMPOWERING piece.
You see, the fruit of righteousness is synonymous with the fruit of the Spirit that Paul talks about in Galatians:
If you remember, to show the LOVE that matches Christ's, we need to see that Jesus first DEMONSTRATED what love looks like and then He EMPOWERED us to love in the same way.
Paul's words here are pointing us to the EMPOWERING piece.
You see, the fruit of righteousness is synonymous with the fruit of the Spirit that Paul talks about in Galatians:
"...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control..." (Galatians 5:22-23 ESV)
Don't miss that it is fruit of the SPIRIT. This kind of righteousness - including LOVE - is not something we can produce by our own strength or virtue. If we only have our sinful human ability at the root, then we will only produce sinful-human love. Even at it's best, human love in the broken world is... BROKEN.
But, our God is well aware of our limitations. The Psalms remind us:
"...He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust." (Psalm 103:14 ESV)
And at the end of His earthly ministry, Jesus - who was all too familiar with the shortcomings of His disciples - promised the EMPOWERING help that they (and we) would need to fulfill His plan. He said:
It was the anointing of the Holy Spirit that ushered in Jesus' earthly ministry of Love (Luke 3:21-22; 4:1-21).
It was the anointing of the Holy Spirit that ushered in the church age (John 20:21-22; Acts 1:8; 2:1-41).
And it is the anointing of the Holy Spirit that ushers in our ability to LIVE and LOVE for Christ today (John 15:5).
The point is, when this passage is read as a whole we see that Paul has a Christ empowered love for the Church in Philippi. And Paul prays that the Philippians would grow in a Christ empowered love for each other and the lost. That love is shaped by sound doctrine and is protected by discernment against false teaching. And, that love is nourished by the Living Water of the Holy Spirit.
May Christ continue to bless us richly with the Living Water rushing like a river from our transformed hearts into the world that needs to see Him and may we do all things "to the glory and praise of God."
Amen.
And at the end of His earthly ministry, Jesus - who was all too familiar with the shortcomings of His disciples - promised the EMPOWERING help that they (and we) would need to fulfill His plan. He said:
"I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you." (John 14:16-17 ESV)
And,
"...I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you." (John 16:7 ESV)
It was the anointing of the Holy Spirit that ushered in Jesus' earthly ministry of Love (Luke 3:21-22; 4:1-21).
It was the anointing of the Holy Spirit that ushered in the church age (John 20:21-22; Acts 1:8; 2:1-41).
And it is the anointing of the Holy Spirit that ushers in our ability to LIVE and LOVE for Christ today (John 15:5).
The point is, when this passage is read as a whole we see that Paul has a Christ empowered love for the Church in Philippi. And Paul prays that the Philippians would grow in a Christ empowered love for each other and the lost. That love is shaped by sound doctrine and is protected by discernment against false teaching. And, that love is nourished by the Living Water of the Holy Spirit.
May Christ continue to bless us richly with the Living Water rushing like a river from our transformed hearts into the world that needs to see Him and may we do all things "to the glory and praise of God."
Amen.
