“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.” – Philippians 1:9-11
Praying for Gospel Living
Andrew Fuller once said of Paul’s prayer in Philippians 1:9-11, “There is no prayer that I or any other could offer up on your behalf that would be better or more desirable.” I think he’s right. You might consider memorizing these three verses and using them often as you pray through the church directory in your devotional time. Notice how Paul begins in 1:9, “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment.” That Paul should pray for the Philippians love to abound is no great surprise, it is after all the law of Christ’s kingdom, the lesson of Christ’s school, and the crest of Christ’s church. What may surprise you is what Paul says love feeds on and grows from: “knowledge and all discernment.” In a world that extols blind love, we discover the Bible tells us the exact opposite: knowledge and wisdom multiply true love. Jesus said the world will know we are disciples by our love and Paul says that love will abound—fly forth before the world—as knowledge and wisdom grow. He does have a more specific point here though, notice the purpose clause in 1:10, “so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.” The purpose of abounding love is to approve, or test out, what is excellent and cling to it, so that we may be holy for the coming day of Christ. Here is a call to not settle spiritually. Cling not to what is merely ok, or not bad, cling to what is excellent. And this is all pervasive—probably more than we want to admit—Paul says, “Do the most excellent things. Think the most excellent thoughts. Hear the most excellent words. Join the most excellent causes.” Banish away casual mediocrity from Christianity, ours is an excellence-fueled pursuit of holiness unto eternity (“[until] the day of Christ”). It’s thus a good question to ask at every station, “Is this excellent?” And, of course, God’s word defines what excellence is. Paul is reminding us that settling for less than Christ-centered excellence results in shrinking holiness.
Here’s the prayer up to this point: that love would feed on knowledge and wisdom, allowing us to cherish what is excellent and so be holy unto eternity. Look at how the prayer ends in 1:11, “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” So, love, knowledge, wisdom, excellence, and holiness fertilize soil in which the fruit of righteousness flourishes “to the glory and praise of God.” There is it, joyful partnership in the gospel resounds in praise to God.
Gospel-Fueled Affections
This week saw the fall soccer season for my two older boys’ begin, and I have the privilege of coach both of their teams. To try and get the boys acclimated to the rigorous demands of keeping the ball in bounds and stopping whenever the referee’s whistle blows I had Hudson’s team—The Lion—finish with a 4v4 inter-squad scrimmage. Hudson’s squad won 2-0 and he was rather boastful in front of his teammates, probably because he’s got his daddy’s implicit pride and he happened to score both goals. So on the way home I spoke with him about this matter of boasting, saying, “Hudson, God created you to be boastful—in Him, but Satan and sin want you to boast in yourself.”
What I’m trying to do in that moment is not merely training him how to think, but how to feel. In many ways this start to Philippians is doing something similar. Our age doesn’t like being told how to think let alone how to feel, but Christ is lord over our affections. So, as we begin to close, let’s point out four gospel-fueled affections present in our text and worth pursuing in our lives (the first three I’ll briefly mention).
Grateful confidence. The savor of gratitude is all over these verses and it comes from, as we saw in 1:6, confidence in the power of God.
Prayerful joy. The letter is all about the centrality of joy in the Christian life and we see for Paul that such joy regularly overflows into unceasing prayer.
Knowledgeable love. We’ve said enough here, but we must get it straight in our hearts that, for Paul, love can only abound when knowledge and wisdom abound.
Continual hope. Twice in our text Paul thinks about “the day of Christ.” One commentator says, “Philippians is a joyful letter, but its undercurrent is the sober realization that time is running out.” I’ve found that to be true in my own life this week as I’ve studied and worked on memorizing the book. The words of Andrew Bonar were freshly impressed on me this week when he said, “I [must] strive to keep the feeling of eternity before me always.”
If you are anything like me it can be quite defeating to see the example of Paul and the call to gospel-fueled affections. So often this week I cried, “Oh, help my week affections!” My confidence, joy, love, and hope register far too small on the spiritual Richter scale. I imagine many of you would agree. What then are we to do? How are we to grow? Can we cast off affections that will lead us to death and put on those of life?
Yes, there is good news for us all—Christian and non-Christian alike. Philippians invites us into the advance of the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ. It points us to Christ (seven times in our eleven verses), both now and forever. Christ is the gospel; Christ is the Savior and Lord; thus Christ is our life; Christ is our way of life; Christ is our future; Christ is our joy. If you turn from your sin and trust in Him, He will begin the good work of transforming your affections by making you a partner in the gospel, He will complete the work He began, so that when He comes we will be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through him, to the praise and glory of God. Joyful partnership in the gospel resounds in praise to God.
This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “Rejoicing in Partnership,” on Philippians 1:1-11.