PAUL’S PRAYER FOR ABOUNDING LOVE
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on November 13, 2024 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group: November 13, 2024 from Philippians 1:8-11
Theme: We should pray that we all grow together in a love that approves of the things that glorify God.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Paul’s letter to the Philippians is a letter of joy. In it, he lays out to his beloved brothers and sisters how it is that they can grow in joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. That ever-increasing joy is a wonderful proof to the world that our Savior is real, and that He truly transforms the lives of those who come to Him.
But this letter is also a letter of love—love in the context of that joy. That would make good sense; wouldn’t it? If you truly loved someone with the love of Jesus, you’d want them to experience the kind of joy that can only come through a deep walk of faithfulness with Him. And as we’ve seen in his introduction to this letter, Paul truly loved his brothers and sisters in the ancient city of Philippi. He made this clear at the beginning of this letter by writing;
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace (Philippians 1:3-7).
Paul’s love for the Philippian believers—and their manifest love for him—was a true source of joy to him. This leads us to the specific things that he was praying for them. In verses 8-11 he wrote;
For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God (vv. 8-11).
The Holy Spirit of our Lord—in preserving for us Paul’s wonderful example of prayer—teaches us the kinds of things that we should be praying for one another in order for us all to grow together in genuine joy in Christ. It shows us that we should pray that we all grow together in a love that approves of the things that glorify God.
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Now; if someone had read this letter in a superficial way, it might have seemed as if Paul had started his letter off by telling them something that wasn’t very complimentary: that is, that he was praying they’d become more loving. In fact, it might have seemed that he was praying that their love would become more discerning, and that they’d become more sincere about it, and that they would become more fruitful in their love. We might have felt that Paul was being critical in his letter.
But that’s why the words that came before this prayer are so important. In the things that he wrote in verses 3-7, he’d established that the Philippian Christians were already truly loving. He clearly recognized that they loved the Lord Jesus—and that the Lord Jesus loved them. In verse 2, Paul even called them “the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi”. He was absolutely confident that God had begun a good work of grace in them through Jesus—and that His work of grace would be brought to a full completion when they are glorified at Jesus’ return. He could look back at the ways that they tangibly demonstrated their love for the Lord Jesus … and for him … through the fact that they had joined Paul in his work in the gospel. He knew that their faith was the real thing. So; viewed rightly, the character of Paul’s prayer was that he recognized these realities as already existing in these brothers and sisters … and was praying for them to increase and abound to the glory of God even more.
This reminds me of a youth pastor that we had in a church that I attended many years ago. We were all eager to meet our new youth pastor and his wife; and they were eager to set the tone for their ministry to us. So; they told us that the passage of Scripture that they wanted to base their ministry upon was 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13; which says,
Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints (1 Thessalonians 3:11-13).
This youth ministry couple wasn’t coming to make us into something that they assumed we weren’t. Rather, they assumed that we were something already … and they came with a sincere commitment to help us to grow to be more of what we already were—all to the glory of God. And that feels very much like what Paul was wanting to express to these Philippian believers. They were already ‘loving’. But he prayed for that love to be more of what it already was. Specifically, he prayed for their love to do four things: (1) to abound and increase, (2) to become guided by wisdom and discernment, (3) to flow from out of a sincere and blameless manner of living, and (4) to bear the fruit of righteousness to the glory of God. What loving things to pray!
Dear brothers and sisters; these are great things for us to pray for one another. If we truly loved one another, we’d truly want these things for one another. So; let’s begin with the first thing that Paul—in his example prayer—prayed for; and that’s for …
1. A LOVE THAT ABOUNDS AND INCREASES.
Notice how he began by stressing his love for them. He said something very bold in verse 8—declaring that God Himself could testify to how much Paul loved them. He wrote, “For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.” That would be a very risky thing to declare in writing if it wasn’t true. But Paul was confident that it was true—and that he could say it sincerely. What’s more, he stressed to his readers that the earnest yearning and desire with which he loved them wasn’t something that had its source in himself. ;He solemnly testified before God that he loved them with the deep love that the Lord Jesus Himself had for them. In the original language, he used a powerful figure of speech; testifying that he loved them with the deepest inward affection and compassion of Jesus Himself—that is, with the very ‘intestines of Christ’. ;This powerful, truly visceral love that Paul had for them was from the Lord Himself—and so, Paul was confident that such love could grow and abound. ;This should make us think of the Lord’s own ‘new commandment’ that He gave to His followers:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
It might be very hard for us at times to love one another in our own power. But we’re not to love one another with merely a love that comes from ourselves. ;We’re to love one another with the unlimited, boundless love that Jesus has for us—that we love one another ‘as He has loved us, that we also love one another’. ;That’s the kind of love Paul had for his brothers and sisters in Philippi.
And it was from this love that he was able to ask of God the thing he asked in verse 9; “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more …” Notice that it wasn’t that they’d start loving one another; nor that they would start loving Paul. They already did. ;Rather, it was that their love would deepen—that it would ‘abound still more and more’. ;That’s a wonderfully encouraging prayer … and it has joy in the Lord as its ultimate goal.
As we go on to read the rest of this letter, we’ll find that there are portions of it in which Paul expands on the things that he prays for. This would be true of this prayer for an ever-increasing and ever-abounding love. In Philippians 2:1-4, he explained what this love of Jesus would look like in their lives as it ‘abounded more and more’:
Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others (2:1-4).
That kind of love is truly boundless and ever-expanding, because it comes from the depths of the being of the Lord Jesus Himself. May God help us to abound ‘more and more’ in that love … and to pray for this very thing for one another!
Now; that prayer alone would sound very appealing to this world. Who wouldn’t want ‘love to abound’? But we live in a world in which that ‘love’ needs to be carefully defined. The unbelieving people of this world often define ‘love’ as the tolerance and approval of the sinful things that people want to do. It wouldn’t be considered ‘loving’ by the people of this world to say that something someone wanted to do is ‘wrong’. And the fact is that a ‘love’ that tolerates and approves of that which God said not to do is a faux love that’s not truly loving at all. Such reckless expressions of love can’t lead ultimately to joy.
So; a second thing that Paul prayed for is …
2. A LOVE THAT IS KNOWLEDGEABLE AND DISCERNING.
In verses 9-10, he wrote, “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent …” He established the context in which the love of Jesus we’re to have for one another is to grow. It’s first to abound in “knowledge”; which suggests to us that it’s a love that’s carefully instructed and informed and directed by the revealed word of God. Second, it’s a love that’s to abound in “all discernment”; which suggests to us that it’s a love that looks carefully at things through the lens of Scripture and makes wise judgments about them. The growth of love in the context of “knowledge and all discernment” is to lead to a conscious and intentional “approval of the things that are excellent”.
In his first New Testament letter, the apostle John wrote much about love. He made it clear that the kind of love with which we love is a true test of our faith. And in 1 John 5:2-3, he wrote;
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:2-3).
Now; obviously, love that demands legalistic perfection of others isn’t truly loving. But the love that comes from the Lord Jesus is a love that knows the truth of God’s word, considers things carefully in accordance with that word, and grows increasingly to affirm and approve of those things that are pleasing to Him in accord with His revealed will. Paul Himself expressed this—giving himself as an example—when he wrote in Philippians 4:8-9;
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you (4:8-9).
This too is a good thing for us to pray for one another. Let’s seek to abound in a love that discerns in and approves of that which pleases God in one another.
Obviously, this implies that the love that has its source in the Lord Jesus isn’t just an emotion. It’s something that shows itself in practical action. And so, thirdly, Paul said he prayed for …
3. A LOVE THAT TRULY LIVES THE LIFE.
He prayed that his readers would abound in the love of Christ that approves of things that are excellent, “that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ”.
In the original language of Paul’s letter, the word for ‘sincere’ was one that meant ‘to be judged in the sunlight’. It was often used as a piece of pottery that might be sold in a market. If it had been cracked or defective—and had been merely patched up with wax by the merchant for appearance’s sake—taking it outside and holding it up to the sunlight would reveal the truth. And Paul’s prayer was that his fellow believers would grow and abound in a love that comes from a sincere life before God—a life that’s the real thing—a life that passes the sunlight test.
But it’s also to be a love that—in addition to being real—is also without offense. It’s to be a love that is careful and respectful; and that doesn’t end up unnecessarily hurting other people in the manner that it maintains righteous standards. It’s a love that follows the instruction of Romans 12:18; “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.”
Paul explained this kind of love in verses 2:12-18; where he wrote,
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain (2:12-16).
So; the love that Paul prayed for with respect to his brothers and sisters was a love that abounds more and more, and that is knowledgeable and discerning, and that flows from a life that is real before God. And perhaps as a result of these other things being true, he finally prayed for …
4. A LOVE THAT BEARS THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
He prayed for his fellow believers to be sincere and without offense until the day that the Lord Jesus returns; “being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
It’s important to notice that it’s not just that they be filled with the fruits of their own righteousness—that is, good works that flow from their lives that they themselves produce. Paul very specifically stressed that they are to be the fruits of righteousness “which are by Jesus Christ”. As Paul said in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” As he wrote in Galatians 5:22-23, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”. They are the fruit of Jesus Christ Himself—living His life in and through us by the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
In his own life, Paul intentionally rejected the ‘good works’ that he had formerly relied on, and sought instead to be characterized only by the righteousness of God that is through faith in Jesus. In Philippians 3:7-11, he wrote;
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead (3:7-11).
One of the most loving things we can pray for one another is that we will grow together in a love that abounds in the fruit of righteousness that comes from Christ Himself. His fruit alone will lead to the glory of God. And can there be anything more loving for us to pray for one another than that our lives will ultimately be—not to our glory—but to the glory of God?
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Notice how Paul begins: “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more …” And notice how he ends: “ … to the glory of God.” That’s the abundance of love that Paul sought for his brothers and sisters in Christ. So; let’s love one another in the same ‘abundant’ way—praying that we’ll all grow together in a love that approves of the things that truly glorify God through Jesus Christ His Son.
AE
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