Pastor Chris’ Corona Quarantine Epistles to the Flock of AIC Ngong Road, in Dispersion and Isolation. 13th. Edition.
Dear Saints,
Yesterday we looked at Philippians 1:7-8, how sincere love demonstrates. Today, we look at verses 9-11. These verses are characteristic of Paul’s style, in his letters. Pretty much each of his letters has a section, in which he prays for the recipients. These prayers are very different from the prayers offered by most of us. Someone has said that the content of one’s prayers is indicative of the condition of one’s heart.
Verse 9 begins with a recap of the subject of love, dealt with prior. Paul prays that the love of the Christians will abound – increase by great margins. But he adds an interesting twist to it, that the love will be with knowledge and discernment. These words are related, in that a knowledgeable person is also discerning. When we love without knowledge and discernment, we may easily be deceived (conned, for instance), or we may offer help that is not needed or relevant. We also may have the wrong motives in our exercise of love.
So often, people give a gift to a servant of God with a request, “Please pray for me that…” How sad! What are they trying to do, buy blessings, answers to prayer? The first part of verse 10 concludes this thought – that you may approve what is excellent. Knowledge and discernment lead to wise choices. This further leads (in the 2nd part of verse 10) to the Christian being sincere – meaning pure or unpolluted; and without offense – meaning blameless, until the day of Christ. Some choices we make lead to pollution and offense. To the unwise, they look harmless. Armed with knowledge and discernment, though, we can sift through the maze of deceptive options and choose what is excellent.
Verse 11 concludes this section with a picture of what the results of making excellent choices will be – we will be “filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ.” God intends to make saints out of us. That is the goal of sanctification. This can only be achieved through the work of Christ, through the Holy Spirit in us.
A yielded heart achieves much more than great effort. All this is for one purpose – “the glory and praise of God.” We are often of the mistaken view that our comfort is the goal of God’s work of grace in us. How wrong! The ultimate purpose of everything God does is to glorify himself. When that is not happening, what we are seeing is not the grace of God, but the works of men. Where are you at on this one? Have you focused on your needs and wants, to the point of obscuring God?
Your loving Pastor Chris.