Philippians 1:9-11 November 30, 1998 As we enter that hectic time of the year called the Christmas season, we may be confused by the name often used to describe this frenetic time of the year which people refer to as the holiday season. The term "holiday" has images of vacation, relaxation, recuperation. But for many of us the push between Thanksgiving and Christmas is anything but relaxed. Between shopping and partying, concerts for kids and calling on relatives, we find ourselves being pulled in so many directions, we don't know how to respond. During the Advent season, a time of preparation and anticipation of Christ's birth is often filled with apprehension and trepidation. This may be a good time to take a stress test to see how you are fairing so far. But stress and tension are not reserved just for the so-called "holiday season" for tension knows no boundaries. You know you are under stress if:
The stresses of our daily life, be they big or small, are wonderful opportunities to see God's grace at work. It is during times of stress that our response to that stress says far more about our lives than what we may say if asked. What we need to face our everyday life is a wisdom that far exceeds our problems. We need to know how to respond to the spouse that does not respond, how to handle those kids that seem to only add to the tension in the home, how to juggle final exams and at least a few hours of sleep.What we need is God's grace to guide us through our daily lives. Paul prays for the Philippians that they would obtain this kind of wisdom, that they would be able to face life's challenges with an understanding that will far surpass common wisdom.
We began a
few weeks back looking at Paul's prayer for the Philippians in verses 3-8 where Paul gives
thanks for God's work of grace moving them to participate with Paul in spreading the
gospel. Yet with the foundation Paul lays in the thanksgiving it may be easy for us to
conclude that his request in verses 9-11 are superfluous. If God has begun a good work and
God will complete that work, human reason may conclude that we are relieved of any
responsibility. It would be easy to be lulled into spiritual indifference by such
reasoning. Our tendency is to say that if God does the work, we have nothing to do. Paul's
logic is the reverse: Because God is at work, we have a responsibility to respond to his
work. OUR LOVE MUST BE INCREASED To begin with love may surprise some. It is important to remember that love is not the impulse, emotion or sentiment so often portrayed in our culture. Love is the volition; it is an act of will. Love is a choice to give without thought of return. People talk about "falling in love." No, you fall into a hole or trap. You don't fall into love. When Scripture says that because of God's love for the world He gave His one and only Son, we are not to think that God's emotions got out of hand and He lost His senses and killed His Son. Rather, God loved us before time began and determined that we would be His sons and daughters. Love as a choice is the basis from which God has acted throughout history. The same is to be true with us. We must never be content with the status quo. Thoreau said "There is no remedy for love, but to love more." The cardinal principle of Christian growth is that growth must never stop. We are to be fountains, not drains, constantly loving more today than we did the day before. Love that is stagnant stinks. Can you imagine a husband, who after twenty years of marriage has lost every romantic bone in his body. The most giving thing he's done in the last five years is let his wife hold the remote when he raids the frig rather than demanding his wife retrieve the food. But when confronted with his coolness toward his beloved, he says: "But I bought you flowers when we were dating!" Paul is not accusing the Philippians of lacking in love, but that where there is to be love, there must be more love. God is not content with the love you have had, but wants your love to overflow. We should run out of places in which to show love before we run out of love. Far too often we mouth the words of love, but the actions vanish like cotton candy in the mouth. We may profess love for people in general, but love few in particular. I grow concerned here that we remain aloof from one another, smiling politely but refusing to become involved with each other beyond the superficial politeness. But all the while, we struggle with how to live the Christian life. When facing the uncertainties of life, when we need to know what to do, the first answer is to love. In Galatians 5:6 Paul also summarizes the Christian life stating: "the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." When faced with choices in life, the first question asks: "how is this loving toward God and others?" Augustine's dictum works here: "love God and do as you please." But does
this love flow without any limits? Do we love indiscriminately? OUR LOVE MUST BE INSTRUCTED Love that
is formless is useless, for love must be shaped by God's Word. Our love must be instructed by right knowledge. The means by which God desires our love to be guided is through knowledge. But Paul uses a word here which means more than just a collection of facts. The word here for knowledge always refers to the knowledge of the things of God. It is knowledge that sees to the heart of the matter, is able to grasp something as it really is. This practical knowledge informs love as to the right circumstances, aims, ways, and means to be applied in concrete situations. Without this kind of knowledge, love is easily misdirected. For this reason Paul often prays for his readers to have this kind of knowledge: Ephesians 1:17; Colossians 1:9-10; Philemon 6. To clarify this knowledge, Paul adds the word translated "depth of insight." This insight refers to the perception, the ability to grasp the significance of an issue. This is the by-product of knowledge: the ability to make a moral decision. Here we move from the knowledge of truth to the application of truth; this answers the question "how does what the Bible says apply to my life today?" These two must function together; it is not enough to handle the cold facts, but to know how they impact the situation. As your response to the gospel must flow out into ever widening circles of love toward others, you need to know what God's Word says about how to act and then you need to know the concrete, practical ways this applies to your life. How should you respond to the bum on the street? How should you best discipline your kids, what should you say or not say? How do you respond to your in relatives at family gatherings who act like jerks? Love working through knowledge seeks insight into the situation. Instructed love discerns what is best. When we allow our love to be guided by knowledge, then we are able to discriminate in our choices. The word "discern" or "approve" here means we can recognize the value of something. This word was used in commerce to test whether coins were genuine or counterfeit. What one must discern is the superior quality. Literally: "to be able to discern that which differs" that is, to know the differences between items, to know what is superior and inferior. During the silver craze in the early '80's when the Hunt brothers from Texas were hoarding silver to drive up its value, I thought it wise to invest. But like most investors, I bought at the peak and found myself stuck with silver that was depreciating. But I was not worried, for I wisely bought silver dollars that would ensure the numismatic value. I bought rare coins which would increase whether the price of silver went up or down&ldots;or so I thought. I had the desire, the love, but lacked the knowledge. While the dealer from whom I bought the coins promised they were what he claimed, I soon found I was the proud owner of some relatively worthless coins. I lacked the knowledge and insight to be able to discern what was best. To be able to set proper values on things, it is not so much the ability to distinguish good from bad, but good from the best, to focus your time and energy on what really matters. It is the ability to prioritize, to test for the purpose of approval. The majority of believers don't test anything; they live by their moods and not by their minds. Let's face it, we don't want to think, but be amused. We won't know how to approve things that are excellent when we can't control our minds but just react. How much are we are like the pilot who said to the people, "I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that we have lost all instrumentation and don't know where we are. The good news is we have a tail wind and are making great time." That's how too many believers live: by mood and emotion. How has your knowledge grown since you've been here? If it has, great! But now let me ask a more important question: "How has your love grown since you've been here?" If you've only become more calcified in your love, if you know more and love less - watch out! What you've taken is not biblical knowledge, but trivia. Biblical knowledge will affect the affections, it will involve your emotions, it will produce pathos. The absence of love will keep us from responding to life's stresses in a way which pleases God. If we have love, but lack the knowledge as to how to respond, we are just as lost. Love and truth must be combined to face the trials we have, be they big or small. OUR LOVE MUST BE IMPECCABLE Impeccable love is pure. It is hard enough that Paul prays that our love would keep growing, that biblical love necessitates biblical knowledge. But in verse 10 he turns the heat up even more. The reason for Paul's prayer that their love would increase in knowledge and insight is not only so that they would be able to make the right decisions, but also so that they would be pure and blameless. Growth in wise love produces a moral quality in the one in whom the love grows. The word used here for pure literally means to be sun-tested. It's root is the same as the word the KJV uses here: "sincere," which is Latin for "without wax." In the ancient world clay pots were the vessel of choice, as they contained everything from food to drink, grain to scrolls. But their quality varied. Cheap pottery was thick and solid and did not require much skill to make. Fine pottery was thin. It had a clear color, and brought a high price, largely because it was very fragile. Often this pottery would crack in the oven. Cracked pottery should have been thrown away. But dishonest dealers were in the habit of filling in the cracks with a hard pearly wax that would blend in with the color of the pottery. This made the crack practically undetectable in the shops, especially when painted or glazed. But the wax was immediately detectable if the pottery was held up to light, especially to the sun. In that case the cracks would show up darker. It was said that the artificial element was detected by "sun-testing." Honest dealers marked their finer product by the caption sine cera - without wax. (Boice, Philippians, p55) When it comes to responding to the stresses in life, our response, being controlled by a love that grows in knowledge and moral insight, must be pure, free from the mixed motives and questionable qualities. Do you respond to stress in ways that are far from pure? It is easy to bite back, to reply in anger. We may even seem loving, say it with a smile, but our motive is our comfort. Paul is saying that the flaws in the lives of believers must not be covered up with wax. But this is not to say that our lives are perfect. In this life we will always have flaws. We must not disguise them artificially, but be sincere. Love that knows God's Word will be pure, that is, it will not try to market itself for what it is not: perfect. One of the best witnesses you can give is to allow the power of Christ to shine through you, a cracked pot. The life of the hypocrite is one who lives more purely and more falsely than is real. For the Christian, purity, sincerity, is a transparent life, that shows warts and all to a world which desperately needs not perfection, but honesty. How often do you try to cover up your sin, rather than admit your error? The most loving thing you can do for those around you is to acknowledge your sin and look to Christ. To be pure certainly means you must repent of sin in your life, but it also means you won't try to fake a perfect life by platitudes and external formulas. Impeccable love is blameless. The word "blameless" means not to make others stumble. This complements the previous result of wise love. When we live sincere lives before others, they will not stumble as they try to live their lives. But when we try to mask our sinfulness by downplaying its reality and denying its power they'll soon think that being a Christian has to do with a lifestyle more than a relationship. I've counseled many believers whose biggest struggle was overcoming the hypocrisy of other Christians. They were told that if they just believed more, prayed more, read more Scripture, that they too could ascend to a more holy life. But they only saw sin more. They then became bitter and angry. Why wouldn't God help them? The trouble was not that God would not help them, but that other believers constantly set up a performance based faith that only frustrates. Impeccable love reflects Christ. Verse 11 not only summarizes the prayer, but the Christian life. It explains the means by which this changed life comes about. The love which grows in wisdom, that is pure and blameless, is a love which we must see at work in us, but is ultimately because of God's work of grace in us. Paul uses language of an abundant harvest; they are to be filled to overflowing with the fruit of righteousness. Their lives are a cornucopia of faith working itself out in love toward others. The authentic character of our love is not because we can produce better love than the world. Rather our love is authentic because it is the fruit of Christ's righteousness produced in us. Our righteousness comes from Christ; this great theological truth becomes immediately practical as Paul places the cookies on the lower shelf. The right standing before God that is declared to be ours will have a result in your life. The root of righteousness will produce a fruit of love. We know how impossible it is to respond properly to stress in our life, to respond with love to those who are unlovely. This is exactly where the Gospel works in us. It is not enough to dwell on the fact that we are in right legal standing, that our sins are acquitted. As crucial as that may be it forces us to the next issue: how will this affect our lives? Our standing before God must issue forth in evidence. The chief evidence: love that is growing, love that is informed, love that is discerning, love that is pure and blameless. The ultimate purpose for which Paul prays is not their benefit, but for the glory of God. Paul concludes his prayer on a note of praise. His thanksgiving returns to the divine basis on which it had begun. God's saving work in you, the love He produces in your is all for His glory. As you face the crowds at the mall, as you find yourself cornered by Uncle Harry spouting off his latest conspiracy theory, as you wonder how you'll make it through another holiday season alone, when others have their friends, their mates, when you just wonder how you should respond - pray this prayer. |