We are in the third week this morning of a sermon series through the New Testament book known as Philippians, which I am calling “To live is Christ and to die is gain,” a line which Paul writes in chapter 1, verse 21 of this letter. Philippians is a letter written by the Apostle Paul while he was in prison, most likely in Rome, sometime between 60-64 AD, to a church in Philippi that he had started about 10-15 years earlier.

 

I’m going to begin reading from the beginning, but we will be focusing this morning on verses 9-11, Paul’s prayer for the Philippians:

 

Philippians 1:1-11 - Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:  ² Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  ³ I thank my God every time I remember you.  ⁴ In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy  ⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,  ⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  ⁷ It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me.  ⁸ God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.  ⁹ And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,  ¹⁰ so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,  ¹¹ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-- to the glory and praise of God.

 

This is an incredible prayer for something that we could all use answered in our own lives, so let’s turn to the Lord and ask for His insight this morning.

 

Of all the things Paul could have chosen to focus on in his prayer for the Philippians, he chooses to pray for the quality of their love. He asks God to give them a love that is continually growing in knowledge and depth of insight, because he says that this will have three results: they will be able to discern what is best, they will be pure and blameless, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, and they will bring glory and praise to God.

 

Do you understand how amazing it would be to have this prayer answered in your life, to have the ability to love in a way that is full of knowledge and depth of insight that can discern what is best? Let me just lay out seven scenarios:

 

You pull up to a stoplight and there is a woman begging for money with a sign that says “homeless mother, please help.” What is the loving thing to do?

 

Your adult 25-year-old son or friend is struggling with a drug addiction or serious mental illness and is asking you for money or to live with you. What is the loving thing to do?

 

Your spouse is verbally abusive to you, but is also often apologetic for his or her behavior and seems to have a genuine relationship with Jesus. What is the loving thing to do?

 

Your gay cousin invites you to his wedding, but you believe that God created marriage to be between a man and a woman. What is the loving thing to do?

 

A young woman with serious disabilities comes to your church and makes loud noises occasionally during the worship service. What is the loving thing to do?

 

Someone in your life who was born a man now claims that he is a woman and asks you to treat him/her as a woman. What is the loving thing to do?

 

A family member or friend has entered into a romantic relationship with someone that you think is a terrible fit for them. What is the loving thing to do?

 

These are some tricky situations, and in each situation, there is no option to pass, no “none of the above” option. Driving by the homeless woman is a choice. Not responding to the gay cousin’s wedding invitation is a choice. Not saying anything to your friend in the romantic relationship you disapprove of is a choice. So what is the most loving choice? The truth is that every day we are faced with so many scenarios and relationships that challenge us with what love looks like. Parenting in particular is filled with judgment calls about when to honor your child’s wishes and support their dreams and when to say no, I know better than you do what is best for you. And being a part of a church family also challenges you to decide how to love the newcomer, or the person you haven’t seen in a month, or the overworked ministry leader, or the struggling mom with four kids. There’s a great book by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert called “When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor… and Yourself.” They wrote a similar book called “Helping without hurting in Short-Term Missions.” Often what we think is helping is actually not the most loving thing to do. Developing a love that is growing in knowledge and depth of insight that can discern what is best is so important. So how do we develop an abundantly wise and discerning love?

 

Let’s look again at Paul’s prayer regarding the quality of their love in verses 9-11.

 

Philippians 1:9-11 - And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,  ¹⁰ so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,  ¹¹ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-- to the glory and praise of God.

 

• Get to know the love of God, especially as displayed in the life of Jesus

 

Paul begins by praying that their love would abound more and more in knowledge. Remember that this letter was originally written in Greek, and so sometimes nuances get lost in translation. Knowledge is epignosis, specifically knowledge of spiritual things and knowledge of the things of God. It’s the kind of knowledge that can see right to the heart of the matter and grasp something as it really is.

 

Make it your life’s work to know the love of God. Listen to John’s words:

 

1 John 4:15-19 - If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.  ¹⁶ And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.  ¹⁷ In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.  ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.  ¹⁹ We love because he first loved us.

 

God is love, and we love because when we believe Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in us by His Holy Spirit, driving out fear and working to perfect us in love. We love because He first loved us.

 

There are certainly way too many passages to list that help us to understand the love of God, especially as displayed in the life of Jesus. Here are a couple of the most important ones:

 

Romans 5:6-8 - You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

 

Philippians 2:1-8 - If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,  ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.  ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  ⁴ Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.  ⁵ Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:  ⁶ Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,  ⁷ but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!

 

1 John 4:7-10 - Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

 

Look at the eternal Son of God, who owed you nothing but Hell, willingly going through the suffering of this world and dying a horrific death on the cross as a sacrifice for your sins. Look at Him and grow in the knowledge of who He is and how He loves, until you are transformed more and more into someone with an abundantly wise and discerning love.

 

• Ask the Holy Spirit to help you discern what is best

 

Philippians 1:9-11 - And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,  ¹⁰ so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,  ¹¹ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-- to the glory and praise of God.

 

Depth of insight is aesthesis. It is discernment, practical understanding, using your knowledge to make a moral or wise decision. And “discern what is best” is dokimazein – recognizing worth and putting it to the test of experience, approving what is right or best. It’s not just knowing what is best but doing it. It’s a recognition that a wise and discerning love is not possible apart from God’s supernatural work.

 

1 Corinthians 2:14 - The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.   

 

If you just love on instinct, doing what feels best, you will undoubtedly be loving from ignorance, from experience, not from the leading of His Spirit. There are plenty of great parents out there who might produce great kids, but apart from Christ, the ends are not eternally significant. As Jesus said in Mark 8:36 – “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”

 

And so we ask the Spirit for His insight into what is truly best. To see the woman begging for food and can see what is truly going on and what she really needs. To see the young man who says that he/she is a woman and know what is truly going on and what he/she really needs. To see what is truly going on with the child, the spouse, the friend, the brother or sister in Christ, and know what he or she really needs, and then act accordingly. Oh Lord, give us this kind of love.

 

We will spend time at the end of this sermon in prayer for those people and situations in our life.

 

• Make it your goal to love like Jesus and bring glory to God

 

Philippians 1:9-11 - And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,  ¹⁰ so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,  ¹¹ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-- to the glory and praise of God.

 

Paul tells us that the abundantly wise and discerning love will make us increasingly pure and blameless, filled with the fruit of righteousness, and bring glory and praise to God. Our goal in love is not to just give people what they want or boost their self-esteem, but to see ourselves and others become pure and blameless in God’s sight, without sin, filled with the fruit of righteousness, bringing glory and praise to God. The pure life is like Christ, the sinless one, and the blameless life is the life against which no charge can be justly laid.

 

Filled with the fruit of righteousness. Fruit that results from being right with God and displays itself in right living. Think the fruit of the Spirit:

 

Galatians 5:22-23 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

 

This brings to mind Paul’s teaching on love in 1 Corinthians 13:

 

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 - Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  ⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  ⁸ Love never fails.

 

That is what we will look like as we grow in the love of God. Pure and blameless, filled with the fruit of righteousness. And nothing brings praise to God like the way we love each other.

 

John 13:34-35 – “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

 

Matthew 5:14-16 – “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

 

1 John 3:16-18 - This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  ¹⁷ If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  ¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

 

As you love as Christ loves, you bring glory and praise to God.

 

Pray and look at how Jesus loves.

 

Let’s spend time in prayer. Pray for how we love our families. Pray for how we love our church. Pray for how we love others in this world.