Philippians 1:9–11
9 It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Even the most basic studies of Paul’s letters to the churches in the New Testament reveal how much emphasis he placed on spiritual growth, both for the church in a corporate sense, and also for individual believers.
And nothing has changed during the last 2000 or so years. It is of vital importance that we grow in our faith and understanding of the nature of God, for the simple reason that the opposite of growth is decay. Drifting away from God as our faith slowly but surely weakens can happen even without us realising it is happening.
We should jealously guard our faith in Jesus. The word jealous often has negative connotations, but God Himself says that He is a jealous God. In fact, in Exodus 34:14 He says, “You shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”
So in the context of our relationship with God, asking Him to help us jealously protect our faith in Him is a good thing.
Paul understood the challenges we all face, and this is the reason for his prayer in Philippians 1: “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.”
The early Christians in Philippi that Paul was writing to had grown tremendously in their faith and work for the Kingdom, but Paul prayed for more progress.
He prayed first for a growth in their love for each other, and the word he used for love in verse 9 was agape - divine love.
He also prayed for this love to “abound.” This is not just a one-time event, but rather a continual activity. He speaks of the way God loves us in Romans 5:5. “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” There is an abundance in these words, and the love that Christians are to have for each other is to be the same.
When we love each other with God’s agape love, we move our relationship with each other to a whole new level. It directly confronts the me-first attitude of the sinful heart, because agape love is an others-centred love. It looks for needs in the lives of others and seeks to meet those needs with no thought of expecting favours in return.
It is also a love which is characterised by knowledge and discernment. This is such an important point that we often miss. Many people today want to focus on love with no discernment. That’s the way of the world, especially today.
The world has got love all wrong, because to the non-believing world, love means tolerance, and accepting anyone and everything without questioning right and wrong. This does not mean we are to hate those who stand opposed to God’s truth. Remember, Jesus died for them too. For God so loved the world… It is love that will bring the lost into the Kingdom. For far too long the church has been critical and judgmental of others, rather than an instrument of the love of Christ.
Once people have had their eyes opened to the truth and have accepted salvation in Christ, the task of the church is, as 2 Timothy 3:16 says, to teach, rebuke, correct and train in righteousness. What this means is that the correcting and training happens within the church as we grow in faith and love together. Those who are on the outside need to be loved, rather than have stones thrown at them.
Love must be based first and foremost on truth, which leads to verse 10 in Philippians 1, where Paul prays for a deeper discernment.
He understood the struggles we face in our choices, and so he wanted believers to evaluate the things of life correctly. Many things in life have no ultimate, eternal value, and the Bible reminds us that to find the real worth of things, we must weigh them in the light of eternity and approve the things that are excellent.
If only we would learn to have the question, “how important is this in the light of eternity,” in the forefront of our thinking when making decisions. We would undoubtedly make much wiser decisions than we often do!
There must be an ultimate standard for us to follow – a standard not to be found in the varied philosophies of mankind, but arrived at only through a knowledge of God’s Word. As Hebrews 4:12 says, “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Genuine, mature love, when making a decision, asks questions like:
• Does the Bible speak against it?
• Will it glorify God?
• Will it harm me physically or spiritually?
• Could it cause others to stumble?
It takes a tremendous amount of spiritual maturity to not only ask ourselves those kinds of questions in the first place, but also to arrive at a different decision than we would have, had we not asked them.
It’s quite simple if you think about it. The closer we are to Jesus, the more we are in tune with His will for our lives, rather than our own.
Paul goes on in his prayer when he prays for righteousness in the church.
He prayed that we would be pure and blameless, filled with the fruit of righteousness. You can sense Paul referring here to the opening verses of Psalm 1: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.”
Jeremiah 17:7-8 says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
God wants a bumper crop of righteousness in our lives. This is not self-generated or self-produced fruit. It only comes as we remain grafted into Jesus, the true vine, as He describes Himself in John 15. Righteousness does not come naturally to the sinner. It is something God gives to us.
I love the way Paul ends this brief prayer. Here he tells us the purpose of it all: The glory and praise of God.
That was Paul’s goal, and it should be ours too. Again, the world has it all wrong. In our sinful state we think it’s all about I. It’s my life, and I want to have the freedom to live my life the way I want to. Well, the world has tried that philosophy, and it is continuing to try it. Do you think it’s working? What does the state of the world teach us?
Everyone is doing exactly as they please, and all it’s doing is adding to the misery and heartache we already have enough of.
As Christians who are growing in grace and love, God is opening our eyes to the truth that we were created by Him, and for Him. As He changes our hearts and our minds, we learn just what it means to live for His glory instead of our own. It’s a long process which lasts an entire lifetime because we remain stubborn. We are slow learners, but when we see this prayer in Philippians 1 as God intended us to see it, the words of Jesus in Matthew 5 will begin to make sense: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
We cannot afford to rest on our laurels though. The dangers we face are real, and the stakes are immeasurably high. We just cannot afford to relax and think that we’ve got this whole spiritual warfare issue sorted. We have to keep growing. The alternative is to go backwards – back into our old lives where we become so desensitised to God’s truth, that we can no longer discern the difference between His truth and the devil’s lies.
We need to deepen our walk of faith with Jesus. If we want to grow, we will. But we need to ask Him to do that.
Peter ends his second letter with a command to grow. “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
As you read through the New Testament letters, you’ll see this recurring theme. Spiritual growth is not an optional extra for the Christian. It is meant to be a vital component of our daily lives.
In the three verses we’ve looked at in Philippians 3 today, the Bible sets a standard for each of us in several areas. And it is no coincidence that in this case, these principles are in the setting of a prayer.
This should serve as a reminder to us to pray for these characteristics to be realities in our lives.
Pray it for yourself. But you can also take it further. Have you ever wondered how you should pray for someone else? We’ve all promised at one time or another to pray for other Christians. Sometimes the need is obvious, and we know what we should be praying, but what about the times when so-and-so just says to you, “Please pray for me?”
If you promise to pray for someone, or if they ask you to pray for them, if the circumstances mean that you pray there and then, then do so. But later on, when you have time on your own, pray for that person again, and use Paul’s prayer in Philippians 1. Just try it, and you may be surprised at how your own prayers will deepen in their meaning and maturity, and you will also be praying a wonderful prayer for that person and their needs.
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.
9 It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Even the most basic studies of Paul’s letters to the churches in the New Testament reveal how much emphasis he placed on spiritual growth, both for the church in a corporate sense, and also for individual believers.
And nothing has changed during the last 2000 or so years. It is of vital importance that we grow in our faith and understanding of the nature of God, for the simple reason that the opposite of growth is decay. Drifting away from God as our faith slowly but surely weakens can happen even without us realising it is happening.
We should jealously guard our faith in Jesus. The word jealous often has negative connotations, but God Himself says that He is a jealous God. In fact, in Exodus 34:14 He says, “You shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”
So in the context of our relationship with God, asking Him to help us jealously protect our faith in Him is a good thing.
Paul understood the challenges we all face, and this is the reason for his prayer in Philippians 1: “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.”
The early Christians in Philippi that Paul was writing to had grown tremendously in their faith and work for the Kingdom, but Paul prayed for more progress.
He prayed first for a growth in their love for each other, and the word he used for love in verse 9 was agape - divine love.
He also prayed for this love to “abound.” This is not just a one-time event, but rather a continual activity. He speaks of the way God loves us in Romans 5:5. “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” There is an abundance in these words, and the love that Christians are to have for each other is to be the same.
When we love each other with God’s agape love, we move our relationship with each other to a whole new level. It directly confronts the me-first attitude of the sinful heart, because agape love is an others-centred love. It looks for needs in the lives of others and seeks to meet those needs with no thought of expecting favours in return.
It is also a love which is characterised by knowledge and discernment. This is such an important point that we often miss. Many people today want to focus on love with no discernment. That’s the way of the world, especially today.
The world has got love all wrong, because to the non-believing world, love means tolerance, and accepting anyone and everything without questioning right and wrong. This does not mean we are to hate those who stand opposed to God’s truth. Remember, Jesus died for them too. For God so loved the world… It is love that will bring the lost into the Kingdom. For far too long the church has been critical and judgmental of others, rather than an instrument of the love of Christ.
Once people have had their eyes opened to the truth and have accepted salvation in Christ, the task of the church is, as 2 Timothy 3:16 says, to teach, rebuke, correct and train in righteousness. What this means is that the correcting and training happens within the church as we grow in faith and love together. Those who are on the outside need to be loved, rather than have stones thrown at them.
Love must be based first and foremost on truth, which leads to verse 10 in Philippians 1, where Paul prays for a deeper discernment.
He understood the struggles we face in our choices, and so he wanted believers to evaluate the things of life correctly. Many things in life have no ultimate, eternal value, and the Bible reminds us that to find the real worth of things, we must weigh them in the light of eternity and approve the things that are excellent.
If only we would learn to have the question, “how important is this in the light of eternity,” in the forefront of our thinking when making decisions. We would undoubtedly make much wiser decisions than we often do!
There must be an ultimate standard for us to follow – a standard not to be found in the varied philosophies of mankind, but arrived at only through a knowledge of God’s Word. As Hebrews 4:12 says, “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Genuine, mature love, when making a decision, asks questions like:
• Does the Bible speak against it?
• Will it glorify God?
• Will it harm me physically or spiritually?
• Could it cause others to stumble?
It takes a tremendous amount of spiritual maturity to not only ask ourselves those kinds of questions in the first place, but also to arrive at a different decision than we would have, had we not asked them.
It’s quite simple if you think about it. The closer we are to Jesus, the more we are in tune with His will for our lives, rather than our own.
Paul goes on in his prayer when he prays for righteousness in the church.
He prayed that we would be pure and blameless, filled with the fruit of righteousness. You can sense Paul referring here to the opening verses of Psalm 1: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.”
Jeremiah 17:7-8 says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
God wants a bumper crop of righteousness in our lives. This is not self-generated or self-produced fruit. It only comes as we remain grafted into Jesus, the true vine, as He describes Himself in John 15. Righteousness does not come naturally to the sinner. It is something God gives to us.
I love the way Paul ends this brief prayer. Here he tells us the purpose of it all: The glory and praise of God.
That was Paul’s goal, and it should be ours too. Again, the world has it all wrong. In our sinful state we think it’s all about I. It’s my life, and I want to have the freedom to live my life the way I want to. Well, the world has tried that philosophy, and it is continuing to try it. Do you think it’s working? What does the state of the world teach us?
Everyone is doing exactly as they please, and all it’s doing is adding to the misery and heartache we already have enough of.
As Christians who are growing in grace and love, God is opening our eyes to the truth that we were created by Him, and for Him. As He changes our hearts and our minds, we learn just what it means to live for His glory instead of our own. It’s a long process which lasts an entire lifetime because we remain stubborn. We are slow learners, but when we see this prayer in Philippians 1 as God intended us to see it, the words of Jesus in Matthew 5 will begin to make sense: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
We cannot afford to rest on our laurels though. The dangers we face are real, and the stakes are immeasurably high. We just cannot afford to relax and think that we’ve got this whole spiritual warfare issue sorted. We have to keep growing. The alternative is to go backwards – back into our old lives where we become so desensitised to God’s truth, that we can no longer discern the difference between His truth and the devil’s lies.
We need to deepen our walk of faith with Jesus. If we want to grow, we will. But we need to ask Him to do that.
Peter ends his second letter with a command to grow. “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
As you read through the New Testament letters, you’ll see this recurring theme. Spiritual growth is not an optional extra for the Christian. It is meant to be a vital component of our daily lives.
In the three verses we’ve looked at in Philippians 3 today, the Bible sets a standard for each of us in several areas. And it is no coincidence that in this case, these principles are in the setting of a prayer.
This should serve as a reminder to us to pray for these characteristics to be realities in our lives.
Pray it for yourself. But you can also take it further. Have you ever wondered how you should pray for someone else? We’ve all promised at one time or another to pray for other Christians. Sometimes the need is obvious, and we know what we should be praying, but what about the times when so-and-so just says to you, “Please pray for me?”
If you promise to pray for someone, or if they ask you to pray for them, if the circumstances mean that you pray there and then, then do so. But later on, when you have time on your own, pray for that person again, and use Paul’s prayer in Philippians 1. Just try it, and you may be surprised at how your own prayers will deepen in their meaning and maturity, and you will also be praying a wonderful prayer for that person and their needs.
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.