141012 Abounding Love

Philippians 1:3-11 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, ⁴ always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, ⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. ⁶ And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. ⁷ It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. ⁸ For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. ⁹ And 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.

Paul, without a doubt, loved the Philippian believers with all his heart. He is very transparent in his prayer for them. First of all, every thought of them caused him thanksgiving. And then, as he prayed for them, they made his prayer a matter of joy. He was grateful to God for their partnership in the gospel and rejoiced that God would finish what he had started in the Philippians’ lives. Now he moves to his request of God for them. He wanted their love to abound more and more complemented by knowledge and discernment so that they could approve that which is excellent and be pure and blameless when Christ comes again.

The Christian church should be characterized by love. Not the “syrupy”, “touchy-feely”, kind of love we see in the world today. Instead, the love that characterizes the church should be the kind of love that Jesus demonstrated on the cross and in his day-to-day living. This kind of love speaks the truth, feels compassion, takes action when wrong is seen and is willing to lay down one’s life for another. Jesus did not hesitate to speak against evil or commend good anywhere it is seen. I am grieved any time I see a church acting in an unloving manner.

Paul’s prayer for the Philippian church included the idea…

That your love may abound. Turn with me to John 13:34-35. Let’s see Jesus’ command to his disciples.  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵ By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

The measure of our love for each other should be Jesus’ love for us. The measure of our love for the world should be a reflection of God’s love that sent his only Son to die on the cross so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. One product of that kind of love will be that those on the outside of the church will know we are his disciples. Paul describes love as being patient; not envious or boastful; not arrogant or rude; not self-centered nor irritable or resentful. Such love does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. This love bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and never ends. (1 Corinthians 13) This love, when seen by the world around, is evidence that we are Christians. The lack of this kind of love causes the world doubt our Christianity. Our love will increase as we draw closer to our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul’s goal for all believers is found in 1 Timothy 1:5. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

The love we share is God’s kind of love AND that reflects a pure heart. A pure heart always produces a good conscience and grows out of a sincere faith. Such love is always linked…

With knowledge. Turn with me to Colossians 1:9-10. Listen while I read. And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰ so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Christian love grows out of our knowledge of the truth. Once we have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ our level of knowledge will increase as we study the word of God. However, the kind of knowledge that is required is always motivated by godly love. The apostle Peter encourages us to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is the kind of knowledge that counts! Such knowledge is linked…

With discernment. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 2:14-16. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵ The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ¹⁶ “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

“Discernment” is the ability to make good decisions or show good judgment. When we fall back on our human reasoning we can get into serious trouble because we will not be guided by the Spirit of God. In fact, our human reasoning often causes us to outright reject God’s way because it will seem foolish to us.

If we are not very careful the standard of the world becomes our standard and we fail to be guided by God. The Proverb tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

We need to recognize the mind of Christ in our mind. Good judgment may not be natural to us but it is to Him! When a person comes to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit of God comes to live in that person and, if we are responsive, can guide our decisions in all things. We need our love to abound more and more with all knowledge and discernment. We need to be characterized by…

Understanding what is excellent. Turn with me to Philippians 4:8.  Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Our lives should be marked by excellence! When we seek after excellence we will focus on the truth that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. We will always respect those things that are honorable. To be honorable is to show honesty and good moral character. Excellence causes us to seek justice, purity and beauty. As our love grows for one another we will always act in a way that will reflect a love that will cause the world to view us as positive examples of good character.

We need our love to abound more and more with all knowledge and discernment. We need to understand what is excellent and if we cultivate such character traits we will be…

Able to be pure and blameless. Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13.  Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, ¹² and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, ¹³ so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Notice that Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians calls for the Lord to make them increase and abound in love. That love is to be for one another. In every possible way the Thessalonians are called upon to show love for each other. Remember, love is how you act not how you feel! So Paul’s request that they love one another in an increasing manner means that they will act more lovingly toward each other day- by-day. And then, having asked for God to make their love abound, Paul says that their love is to be “for all”. “All” includes unbelievers in their community and people on the outside of the church across the world. Remember, God’s love is shown by His sending His Son to die for us. Jesus came to die for the ungodly and to bring us to God.

Purity is a matter of decision-making on our part. We are to be sure that we guard our speech and communications with other people. We are commanded to avoid anything that is questionable! Purity begins with our thought life and shows itself through how we act and what we say. Every Christian needs to work hard at avoiding all appearance of evil. The world must never be able to charge us with impurity — and we be guilty of the charge. Again we go to Proverbs and look at chapter four verse 23. “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

Now being blameless would seem to be a difficult thing. But we need to think about what that involves. On the surface it is hard to imagine that we, you and I, could be considered “blameless”. It seems that there is a lot of blame to pass around and each of us have our share. We need to remember that Jesus Christ took our sins into his own body on the cross. He paid the debt for us and set us free. Though there might still be “fault” from time to time in our life there cannot be any “blame”. The old song tells us, “Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe; sin had left a crimson stain, He washed in white as snow.”

Let me share with you something from Bill Gillam’s book, Lifetime Guarantee.

Set your mind (by faith) that you are holy, blameless, righteous, and accepted, with all your needs (not greeds) supplied. Simultaneously set your mind that Christ is expressing His life through you to meet your daily circumstances. You and I are not to worry about life: “Be anxious for nothing” (Philippians 4:6). That's not something to be felt, but believed; it's the act of setting your mind. You can't set your feeler. Let your feeler be God's problem.

Since we have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ our sins are atoned and our debt has been paid. We are no longer under condemnation! The law of the Spirit of life has set us free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1) Jesus has taken away our blame and we are now…

Filled with righteousness. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1:30-31.  And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹ so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

God has been so good to us. As a result of this our love should abound with knowledge and discernment and we should rejoice in that which is excellent because He has made us able to be pure and blameless and He has filled us with righteousness. Remember, these virtues are not recognized by “feeling” they are spiritual facts that God has promised to us.

I am so grateful to God that the Bible does not say that we are to be pure and blameless in our own righteousness. Instead, the Bible says that because of Him, God the Father, we are in Christ Jesus and He has become to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. It is by grace that we are saved through faith and that not of ourselves it is the gift of God. Not by works of righteousness that we have done but instead it is solely what He has done on our behalf that counts.

Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 5:21. For our sake he (God) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Because of our need, and His love, God the Father laid our sin on Jesus Christ. Jesus did not commit sin, nor did he become a sinner, he became SIN for us. He did that so that we could become the righteousness of God in Christ.

We are born with a problem! Each of us have inherited indwelling sin from our first ancestor, a condition that causes us to be separated from God from the beginning. We have a kind of righteousness of our own and the Bible calls that righteousness “a polluted garment” or “filthy rags”. We cannot claim for ourselves anything that remotely resembles righteousness. Yet, Paul prayed for the Philippians, and we can pray for each other, that our love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that we may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. Because of his work in our life, when Christ comes again, we will be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

Paul’s prayer for the Philippian church was filled with a request for them to grow in qualities of grace. As we look at each one of these qualities we see that they are all interwoven with love. And we need to remember that Jesus’ command to his disciples was that they should love one another and Paul’s goal for his instruction was that love should grow out of a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. The fruit of the Spirit is love enhanced by joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We should make that our personal goal. Having received Christ as Savior and Lord we need to continue to grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you accepted him as your Lord? Today may be the day for you..

All scripture quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.