Words'nTone

Paul’s confidence in God’s ability to build the Church unshakable and unconquerable motivates him to pray that the Philippians’ “love may abound” (1:9).  He knows that if the love they already possess continues to grow, it will overtake and subdue existing pride and rivalry.  Their Christlike character will overflow in kindness, caring and humility—attitudes that will resolve the problems that hinder the work of the gospel.

Our character will be measured by our love for others, a commitment that produces concern for people other than ourselves (cf.  2:1 4).  Paul told the Galatian believers that the Holy Spirit produces an inner love that humbles rather than exalts selfish pride (Galatians 5:19 23).  He declared to the Corinthians that loveless Christianity is tantamount to a “resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1).  Prideful convictions and loveless orthodoxy produce friction in the household of God and disinterest among the unchurched.

The ambiguity of the word love makes talking about it difficult.  John Stott rightly says,

“Nothing perhaps is more harmful than the easy good nature which is willing to tolerate everything; and this is often mistaken for the Christian frame of mind.  Love must fasten itself on the things which are worthy of loving, and it cannot do so unless it is wisely directed.”

Paul gives weight to the Christian concept of love by telling the Philippians what he is praying for.  “This is my prayer,” he says: “that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight” (1:9).  The NIV renders the Greek words pase aisthesei as “depth of insight.” This leaves the idea vague.  Insight into what? Literally, the Greek intimates “in all—or extensive —perception.” This is the only occurrence of aisthesei in the New Testament, although it is found in the Greek translation of Proverbs (1:4, 7, 22; 3:20; 5:2).  The idea in secular Greek is “common sense.” Thus Paul probably means “depth of insight into making the best moral choices possible.” Love that feeds on the desires of selfishness will produce a weak and malnourished character that cannot withstand the pressures of life.  True Christian love will be tempered by biblical knowledge and godly common sense.

Our love must be rooted in the fear and reverence of God (Proverbs 1:7).  If our gospel is to have relevance and our witness integrity, our Christian love will produce actions that benefit others.

Paul is not praying for mere head knowledge but knowledge that flows from a reverence for God.  It is knowledge manifested by a biblically informed, godly common sense.  Our love is not all embracing and touchy feely.  It is a love that flows from our Christlike character, permeating the fabric of our church and community life.  A wise love “trained .  .  .  to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14) gives us the ability to make proper moral decisions in the face of conflicting choices.

Philippians 1:10 points out the result of such love tempered by genuine, godly knowledge and common sense: “so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ.”

In order to be the best people possible and to make the best choices in life, Christians must grow in the knowledge of God and the wisdom of heaven.  In our church and public life we will be called upon to make a multitude of choices.  We are to be motivated by the broad plan of God to influence and win the world for Christ (1:5 7).  So our choices in this life must stem from our commitment to the Church’s task of proclaiming the gospel.  We must place our selfish ambitions underneath our concern for others.  Godly love for others enables us to discern not only the good from the bad, the moral from the immoral, but also the important from the unimportant.

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This is a excerpt from my book, Destroying Our Private Cities, Building Our Spiritual Life.  See the previous post for a summary of the book and a link to a free downloadable chapter.

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