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Philippians 1:6-11, For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. 7 For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. 8 For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; 11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
What is the top priority in your Christian life? Is it to know more? Do more? Study more? Read more? Give more? Go to church more? Attend more Bible studies? All these are good, but if these are the top priority pursuit of your Christian life, you’ve missed the target. One day a lawyer came up to Jesus and asked this simple question: What is the greatest commandment? What did Jesus say? The greatest commandment is to love God with all that you are and your neighbor in the same way you love yourself (Matthew 22:36). The believer’s top priority is to pursue God’s kind of love. That’s what Paul emphasizes in his prayer for these Philippians, “I pray that your love may abound still more and more. You’ve got some love flowing out of your heart, but my prayer is that it will overflow, abound more and more.” And he’s talking about love defined by God, not love defined by the world.
GOD’S KIND OF LOVE: THE BELIEVER’S PRIORITY PURSUIT.
This passage is rich with describing and defining God’s kind of love, but let’s stand back for a few moments and listen to what the Bible says about love that honors God.
Luke 6:27-28, “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”
Romans 13:8-10 says love fulfills the law, since love never does wrong to others.
Galatians 5:13 says through love serve one another.
Galatians 5:22, love leads in the fruit of the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 13 gives us a 15-point list of what biblical love looks like – patient, kind, and so on.
2 Peter 1:7, love caps off the godly qualities we are to pursue: applying all diligence, add to your faith moral excellence, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and agape, or God’s kind of love.
1 Timothy 1:5 says the goal or purpose of our ministry of preaching, teaching, discipling, and counseling is love out of a pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith.
Hebrews 10:24 says we are not to forsake gathering together, but to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.
I want you to know the weight of what Paul prays here in Philippians 1 – that their love may abound more and more. The word “abound” speaks of a fountain overflowing. Paul said where sin abounded and overflowed, grace abounded even more, even super-abounded (Romans 5:20). Thank God for that. Paul recognizes the only way we are going to grow and abound in love is by God’s grace poured into our lives through the gospel and His truth growing us and changing us. We desperately need his grace to grow in love because we are naturally self-serving, self-loving, self-justifying, and just plain selfish. We love other people’s approval. We love to be noticed when we do something good for others. We can study God’s Word, teach it, witness, be busy in serving, and give much money. But Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:1-4 that no matter what we do in the name of Christ, if we aren’t abounding in love more and more, we’re just a huge clatter of pots and pans!
Paul loved these Philippians. He had a large heart. In verse 7 he says, “I have you in my heart.” That’s love. He recognizes the grace of God in them. In verse 8 he calls God as his witness to his love. He wants them to know how sincere he is. And then he says he longs for them or loves them with the affection even of Christ. The word affection is interesting. Splangnois literally means your innards, your gut, your bowels. It could mean liver, lungs, or heart. Your wife won’t be impressed if you assure her that you love her with all your “liver” or your “lungs,” but that’s the word the ancients used to express strong affection. So, Paul says, “I long for you, I love you, with the same affection that Christ has for you.”
What is this love that is to be our priority pursuit? God’s kind of love wants the best for others, and that’s how Paul prays for them. He’s not lashing them with the whip of the law but nurturing them with the love of Christ. He wants the best for them. And the best for them is to grow and abound in God’s kind of love. Paul’s prayer for their love includes definition and direction on what biblical love really looks like. It’s not what the world calls love, which is often a love that affirms what God calls sin.
ABOUNDING IN GOD’S KIND OF LOVE.
Philippians 1:9, And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more.
They are pursuing love, but Paul says, “I want your love to abound still more and more.” You’re loving, but you can love more and more. God has poured His love into your hearts and now you need to let that love, that concern for others richly abound, not just some but much and even more. This is your priority pursuit. It’s overflowing love that wants the best for others in your life. That’s what Paul is praying. That’s what we should be praying for one another. This is a great model prayer for every dad praying for his family – for God’s best in their lives and that their lives will count for God.
Now what characterizes this love, this priority pursuit, this God’s kind of love? You’ll notice a sequence as we go through these verses.
GOD’S KIND OF LOVE IS GUIDED BY KNOWLEDGE.
Philippians 1:9, And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge.
When Paul prays that their love might abound in real knowledge, he means a love that doesn’t just react emotionally. It’s not a feeling that I feel when I feel the way I feel with you. God’s kind of love isn’t blind to right and wrong. Love never approves what God hates. If you want to get somewhere in a car, you need to know how to drive. You need to know the rules. You need a steering wheel and brakes. You need to stay in your lane. That’s what Paul means. Your love must be guided by knowledge or biblical truth, not emotions or feelings. When a young man or young lady is looking toward a life partner, they shouldn’t just go by feelings. Before their affection gets stirred, they need to learn something about this person. They must take off their rose-colored glasses to see clearly what’s going on. You’re going to vow to stay with them until death parts you, so you want to ask good questions to learn and know about him or her. Is this guy honest? Industrious? Caring? Does he love the Lord? Is he humble and self-controlled? This is love guided by knowledge. Does he have godly standards of purity? As Pastor Bill Goode used to say, “When the physical gets involved, passions are aroused, and reason flies out the window.” The Bible doesn’t tell you who to marry, but it tells you the kind of person to marry or not marry. You certainly don’t want to marry a fool. (I have a list of characteristics of a fool from Proverbs).
So, this priority love is guided by knowledge, by God’s truth, and anchored in convictions based on the Scriptures. Paul prays for their best, love guided by truth.
GOD’S KIND OF LOVE IS DIRECTED BY DISCERNMENT.
Philippians 1:9, And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment.
If knowledge is one rail, discernment is the other rail for loving others. Love without knowledge or discernment is not love. When we’re told no one can tell us who to love, that’s not really love. God gives us discernment through biblical knowledge so we can love wisely. Biblical love applies God’s Word to every relationship. A husband who develops affection for another woman and calls it love is deceived and lacks discernment. “I fell in love,” he insists. No, he didn’t. That’s not love; it’s selfish desire. If God says marriage is between a man and a woman, then same sex attraction is not love. It’s feeling driven by sinful desire. It’s never loving to affirm and encourage what God says is sin.
This verse is incredibly appropriate for our day. What God calls the loving thing to do the world calls hate. Speaking God’s truth is always the loving thing to do. We won’t give an account to the world. We need biblical discernment to sniff out what is the right thing, the good thing, even the best thing. Dogs have a powerful sense of smell. I read that if the wind is right, a dog can smell his owner eleven miles away. A dog’s smell is 1000 to 10,000 times better than people. They have up to 300 million smell receptors. They can sniff out drugs and cancer and that snack you’re trying to hide. That’s why their nose is so long. If we had long noses we’d smell better too.
Discernment is the capacity to sniff out the right and good way to go and to make decisions that please God. One of the sure marks of spiritual maturity is discerning love. Proverbs is full of this counsel, distinguishing right from wrong, good from evil. This is a father or mother’s prayer for their children. Commit to praying for your children’s best, that they might love with a growing knowledge of truth and deepening discernment. That they may follow the good and right and reject what is wrong or harmful. Discernment gained from God’s truth is really the opposite of being foolish. When you read an article or listen to a co-worker, you must have God’s knowledge and discernment in order to know how to respond wisely. College students need to apply knowledge and discernment in the classroom. Is this true? Is this right? Is this good? We’ll see more of this in Philippians 4:8. Knowledge needs discernment to be wisdom. We’ve all known people with a head full of knowledge but no discernment. They know everything but make dumb decisions.
So, God’s kind of love always functions with solid biblical knowledge and keen discernment. A mother’s love for her children must be guided by knowledge and discernment. First, you know they are little sinners. If you doubt that, spend some time in the nursery. You don’t give them everything they want. When they scream in the store because they don’t get what they want, don’t give in, no matter how embarrassing it is! That’s loving with knowledge and discernment. The same is true with marriage. First Peter 3:7 says “Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way or according to knowledge.” Understand she is a weaker vessel and treat her with honor – that’s discernment. Of course, the same is true for wives. Proverbs 31:12 says she does him good and not evil all the days of her life. That’s love guided by knowledge and discernment.
GOD’S KIND OF LOVE CHOOSES THE EXCELLENT.
Philippians 1:10a, so that you may approve the things that are excellent…
The New Living Translation: “For I want you to understand what really matters.” Approving is that word dokimadzo, which means testing and discovering if it is really good, or even better, excellent. Sometimes the good takes the place of the better or the best. Paul is praying for their best here. Mary chose the better thing by sitting at Jesus feet listening to His Word. I want to grow in approving and choosing what is excellent. Some things are easy to figure out. Spending all your money on toys while bills pile up is obviously not excellent. What really matters? So many people are deep in debt for failing to evaluate and approve excellent things. Do we really need this? How do I use my time? God gave us this one life, this one body, this one day to do the best. Watching all your time drain away on Facebook reels or watching TV every night isn’t an excellent use of your time. Paul will tell us to do all things in moderation. Evaluating and choosing the best thing is a challenge. I like to kick back and watch a good football game – especially the Eagles. But I’m not going to be watching every Sunday night, Monday night, Thursday night, and Sunday afternoon football. There are more excellent things to do.
Let’s apply all this to our responsibilities as citizens in this country where God has sovereignly allowed us to live. We have an election in a few weeks. Who do you vote for? Bringing God’s knowledge that gives discernment and wants the best, you realize America is not the kingdom of God. Your worldview begins with God and creation, the image of God in humans, two genders only, marriage between a male and female, parents are responsible for their children. This is a fallen world and every candidate is a sinner. The only righteous king will be Christ when he rules this entire world in the millennium, so you must ask with knowledge and discernment and wanting the excellent who has the greater concern for the well-being of the citizens? Who pledges to protect children from the influences of Planned Parenthood, critical race theory, the LGBTQ2+ agenda, gender transitioning. Who pledges to deal justly with criminals and illegals, to use taxpayer money for better things, to support and encourage the nuclear family and give parents full rights and responsibilities for their own children. God’s kind of love extends to our responsibilities as citizens as we apply biblical knowledge and discernment.
GOD’S KIND OF LOVE PREPARES YOU TO MEET CHRIST.
Philippians 1:10b, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.
Do you see Paul’s point? He wants us to grow in love guided by biblical knowledge and good discernment so we might be prepared to stand before Christ at the judgment seat of Christ. Paul was keenly aware of our final standing before Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:10, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Paul prays that we will be prepared for that accountability with two qualities of being sincere and blameless. Sincere means to be judged in the light of the sun and found genuine. The English word sincere means without wax. People who sold pottery had a slick way of covering up blemishes. If there was a crack in the pot, they’d fill it with a special wax so it looked perfect. Wise customers would hold up the plate or vase to the sun to see if there were any wax-filled cracks. God’s kind of love means you don’t cover up anything, no closets to hide sin, no messing with sin when others aren’t looking, no hiding stuff on your computer, no leading a double, fake life. Instead, your life is genuine and honest and not hypocritical.
Blameless means you aren’t causing anyone else to stumble. Don’t you hate to be tripped? I hate it when I trip myself! The godly father is living a sincere and blameless life at home as well as in public. He isn’t a monster behind closed doors, abusive, yelling, scolding, belittling. He’s a lover, learner, and leader in his home. Godly wives are loving that man with a gentle and quiet spirit, not demanding, resentful, or bitter. Paul prays for our best, that we would be sincere and pure on the inside, so our outward actions won’t cause others to stumble. When we do mess up, which we will, we need to be quick to repent. Sometimes that means going to someone you offended and asking forgiveness.
GOD’S KIND OF LOVE PRODUCES A FRUIT-BEARING LIFE.
Philippians 1:11, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
When is the last time you prayed for others to be fruitful? God has planted you as a tree in His garden to bear fruit. God doesn’t plant fruitless trees. Paul prays we might not only have a few fruits here or there, sometimes hard to find. No, he says filled full with all kinds of fruit hanging on every branch. How do you bear all this fruit? Jesus told us in John 15.
John 15:2-5, Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the words which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
How do you abide in Christ? You walk consciously trusting and obeying Him. It’s the hymn, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to bear fruit for God’s glory, than to trust and obey!” Your biblical knowledge-and-discernment-filled love will keep on bearing fruit for the glory and praise of God. And there’s no retiring from fruit bearing. Psalm 92:14 says, “They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green.”
Paul prays for the Philippians best! His greatest desire for them is to have a rich spiritual harvest to God’s glory. Let’s pray along with Paul, that God would truly grow in us this God-honoring, Christ-exalting love. How can we nurture this love?
Saturate your mind with Scripture like 1 Corinthians 13 or Galatians 5:22-23. Pray through these characteristics of love and these fruit for your own life: “Lord, help me to be patient with that person who is irritating me. Give me joy in serving You.” Then obey your gracious and loving Lord. Love even your enemies. Look for ways to bless others with encouraging words and kind actions.
And let’s remember, the greatest display of God’s kind of love was at the cross. John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.” Christ dying in the place of sinners is God loving sinners and calling us to believe in His Son.