Will you please turn to the letter to the Philippians, chapter 1? We shall read the prayer of the apostle Paul for the Philippians, chapter 1, verses 9 through 11.
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more, in full knowledge and all intelligence,
that ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent,
in order that ye may be pure, and without offence for Christ’s day,
being complete as regards the fruit of righteousness, which is by Jesus Christ,
to God’s glory and praise.
May we have a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, how we do praise and thank Thee for so loving us in giving Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus, to us. And through Him, we can come to Thee, to wait upon Thee, to look at Thy face, and to hear Thy voice.
So, Father, we just open our hearts to Thee this morning and pray that Thy Spirit will breathe upon Thy written Word and make it living and operative in each of our hearts, and that Thou mayest be able to obtain all that Thou dost desire to have through Thy beloved Son. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
In Paul’s prison letters, we find that he always prays for the people to whom he writes. Prayer in his letters is an integral part of those letters. Prayer in these letters is God’s Word as much as the teachings in these letters.
You know, in the letter to the Ephesians, Paul is dealing with this matter of the mystery of the Christ, which is the church. And in trying to share with the people this mystery, he prayed for them.
He prays that God will give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation for the full knowledge of God. And he prays that the inner man will be strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit, that they may be able to apprehend, with all the saints, the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
And then, when he writes the letter to the Colossians, he is dealing with this matter of the mystery of God, which is Christ—the fullness of Christ. And again, you will find that he gave himself to pray for these people: that they may be filled with the full knowledge of God in wisdom and spiritual understanding; that they may walk worthily of the Lord, strengthened to endure all sufferings and trials, giving thanks to God.
Now, in this letter to the Philippians, he is dealing with this matter of the mystery of godliness. Now, godliness means being like God. How can we be like God?
And, of course, the secret is Christ in us, the hope of glory. Or, to put it in another way: “For me to live is Christ.” That is the mystery of godliness.
And for them, he also gave himself to pray. He prayed that their love might abound in all knowledge and intelligence.
Now, this morning, I would like to share with you, dear brothers and sisters, on this prayer of Paul for the Philippians. We call it the prayer for discerning love.
Now, you have also to understand his prayer. As a matter of fact, you will find that the prayers in these letters really give us the keys to these letters—not only the keys, but also the power to enter into these teachings.
But before we go into this prayer, we would like to go back and know a little bit of the background.
If you go to Acts 16, you will find that Paul and his company travelled through Galatia and Phrygia. They were thinking at that time of going to Asia. Now, Asia there is not Asia as a continent; Asia there is Asia as a Roman province. It is in Asia Minor.
So they were thinking of going to Asia to preach the gospel because there were many people there. But strangely, the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go to Asia. So they went on, and they thought they would go to Bithynia, another province. Again, the Spirit of God did not permit them to go there.
So they were not able to go either to the north or to the south. They just went straight on until they came to Troas, which is a seaport. Before them was the Aegean Sea, so they had nowhere to go.
It was when they were in Troas that Paul saw a vision. He saw the vision of a Macedonian saying to him, “Come over and help us.”
So the next morning, Paul and his fellow workers decided that it was of the Lord that they should cross the sea and go to Macedonia. Now, brothers and sisters, you know, this is the first time that the gospel was preached from Asia to Europe, because Macedonia is in Europe.
So this is how the Holy Spirit led Paul and his fellow workers to cross the Aegean from Asia to Europe.
When they arrived in the first big city of Macedonia, which was a Roman colony called Philippi, on the Sabbath day they went to the riverside. There was no synagogue in that Roman colony, but only a few women who feared God. They gathered together on the Sabbath day by the riverside to pray.
So Paul went there, and there he preached Jesus Christ to these women. The Spirit of God touched one woman especially. Her name was Lydia.
She was not a European. Actually, she came from Asia. She was from Thyatira. She was a woman who sold purple, and at that time purple was considered a very valuable commodity—clothing. So she was actually a businesswoman. She was doing business in Macedonia, in Philippi.
The Lord touched her heart, and she believed in the Lord Jesus.
Then she told Paul, “If you really know that I believe in the Lord Jesus, then come and live in my home.” So Paul and his fellow workers moved to her home and stayed there.
It was during that period that a slave girl with an evil spirit was following them. Because she had that evil spirit upon her, she enabled her masters to get wealth out of her prophecies. She followed Paul and said, “These are servants of God.”
You know, the enemy tried to confuse the people. So after a few days, Paul turned back and cast the demon out from her. The slave girl was converted.
Now, probably she was a Greek, because the evil spirit—the false god she was worshipping—was a Greek goddess. And because of this, her masters saw that their means of profit was gone. So they accused Paul and Silas and raised a riot in the city.
Paul and Silas were taken, beaten, and taken to the dungeon and jail.
But it was during the night. You know, if you have wounds, usually in the depths of the night, that is the time when you will feel your wounds most painfully. And yet you find these two servants of the Lord, in spite of the fact that they had been beaten, praising the Lord.
As they praised the Lord, the earth shook, all the gates of the jail were opened, and all the chains fell off.
The jailer woke up, and when he saw the situation, he thought that all the prisoners must have escaped. So he took a sword and tried to kill himself.
Paul called out and said, “We are all here.” So he came in, fell before Paul, and asked that important question: “What should I do that I may be saved?”
Paul said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house.” So the jailer believed in the Lord Jesus, and the whole household believed in the Lord Jesus that night. Now, he probably was a Roman government official.
So you find that the church in Philippi began in this way: an Asiatic, a Greek, and a Roman. But in Christ there is neither Greek, nor barbarian, nor Gentile, because in Christ Jesus we are all one.
Paul stayed there for a little while, and then he moved on. But evidently someone was left behind.
You know, if you read the book of Acts, you will find that from Acts 16:10 onward, this is what we call the “we” section—W-E, “we” section. Now, who is the writer of the book of Acts? The beloved physician, Luke.
So evidently Luke joined Paul at Troas. He joined Paul at Troas, and “we crossed over the Aegean, and we came to Philippi,” and these things happened. The church in Philippi began.
It was the result of the travail of Paul and Silas. They suffered, and out of their sufferings the church in Philippi began.
Then they left Philippi and went onward to Thessalonica and other places. But you find, at the end of Acts 16, that the “we” section ended. The “we” section does not continue until you come to Acts 20:6. That is when Paul was again in Philippi, leaving Philippi and going on his way to Jerusalem, and the “we” section begins again.
So evidently, when Paul left Philippi the first time, he left Luke, the beloved physician, behind. Luke stayed in Philippi all this time until Paul came back again. Then he left with Paul, and together they travelled back to Jerusalem.
So you find that it was the beloved physician, Luke, who was there helping the brothers and sisters, trying to build them up.
This is a church that is full of love. It began with love. You know, as soon as Lydia was saved, she urged Paul to move into her house that she might serve them. Now, that is love—practical love.
And there you find that the one who was caring for that church was the beloved physician, a physician who was full of love.
When Paul was in Thessalonica, if you read the letter to the Philippians in the fourth chapter, you will find Paul said, “In the beginning, when I left Macedonia and came to Thessalonica, you were the only church that sent contributions, giving once and twice.”
In other words, it was a church full of love—love not in word, but love in deed also. It was that kind of a church, and they had such a good relationship with Paul.
Paul says, from the very beginning, from the first day even until now—that is, when Paul was in Roman prison—they were his partners in the gospel. They were always with him in the gospel. Such a beautiful church, such a church full of love. Paul was able really to open his heart to that church.
But even so, that church was not perfect. There was love there, but it was not perfect. Somehow, you find there was an undercurrent in that church.
Not only was there opposition from outside, and they suffered because of Christ; not only were there the Judaizers—you know, they were everywhere trying to bring people away from Christ under the bondage of law. Now, that happened in the church in Philippi too.
But these were not the main problems with them. They had a main problem, and the problem was that there were two sisters, two leading sisters: Euodia and Syntyche.
These two sisters were very zealous for the gospel, and evidently they had some influence among not only the sisters, but even the brothers. But these two sisters, even though they loved the Lord and were zealous in the gospel, did not know the cross.
In other words, they were zealous, but they still served God in their flesh. Because of that, you find there were ambitions. They strove against each other. They wanted to be the higher one, the greater one. Because of their striving against each other, they created a kind of confusion among the brothers and sisters.
So a cloud, a shadow, came over that church. They lost the joy of the Lord. Now, that is the situation in the church in Philippi.
They loved Paul, so they sent Epaphroditus, travelling from Philippi. You know, in those days travelling was not very easy. But they sent Epaphroditus to travel through the long distance to visit Paul in Roman prison, to bring Paul supplies.
They were also thinking of leaving this brother there in Rome to serve, to minister to Paul. So you see, there was still love among these brothers and sisters, and yet there was a cloud over them. They lost the joy of the Lord.
So Paul wrote this letter to them, not only to thank them for their giving, but also to send Epaphroditus back. After the long travel, he was sick—very sick, even almost unto death. But the Lord restored him.
Paul was anxious to send him back to comfort the hearts of these brothers and sisters. At the same time, he used this opportunity, trying to clear the air through the church in Philippi, to restore them into the joy of the Lord. Now, that is the background of this letter.
Now, having known the background, we would like to go into this prayer. In verse 9, he said, “And this I pray.”
Now, brothers and sisters, when we pray, if we really have a burden, if we really know God’s will, if we really know God’s people, then when we pray, our prayer will not be just a kind of general type of prayer. Our prayer will be very specific and very definite.
So here Paul says, “And this I pray.” He is not just praying a general prayer. You know, oftentimes we pray a very general prayer. The reason is because we do not know the condition of God’s people. We do not have that discernment, and we do not know God’s will concerning His people.
When we are ignorant of God’s will and of the people’s condition, all we can do is pray a general prayer: “Lord, bless this one. Lord, bless that one.” That is all we do.
But you know, real prayer is always very definite. It is not general at all. You remember when people came to the Lord Jesus, the Lord said, “What do you want? What do you want?”
You do not come to the Lord and not know what you really want to ask of Him. You come to Him knowing exactly what you want. You know the will of God, you read the people of God, you know their needs, and you pray accordingly. In other words, there is a burden.
So Paul prays with a burden. Because there is that burden, you will find that his prayer is very definite: “This I pray.”
I do hope that, by the grace of God, our prayers will be like that. Not only in our private prayers, when we pray for our brothers and sisters, pray for God’s work, and pray for God’s interests everywhere; but even when we come together to pray together, may our prayer be with burden.
May we know how to read the condition of God’s people, and then know the will of God concerning His people. When we know that, then a burden will come upon us, and our prayer will be with definite purpose and objective. Such prayer God will answer.
And what did he pray for these people? He said, “This I pray, that your love may abound.”
In the church in Philippi, they had love. Now, this love is not human love. This love is agape, divine love. It is the love with which God loves us.
You know, “God so loved the world.” Now, that love is agape. In other words, He loves not because we are lovely or lovable. He loves because He is love. It comes out of Him.
Human love usually is influenced, affected, and bound by outward circumstances. They affect our love. But divine love is not affected by outward situations, because it comes right from the heart of God.
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. God is love, and He demonstrated His love to us by giving His only begotten Son to us. Christ loved us and gave Himself for us.
When we believe in the Lord Jesus, actually we believe in God’s love. So when we receive the Lord Jesus, we receive God’s love into us. The Bible says the Holy Spirit has shed abroad in our hearts the love of God.
So, brothers and sisters, everyone who really believes in the Lord Jesus has received the love of God in him. There is that agape, that agape love, in every believer.
You know, when you first believe in the Lord Jesus, there is a love there that is not yours, that is not natural to you. Naturally, you will not love God. But when you believe in the Lord Jesus, there is a love for God naturally in you—supernaturally natural in you.
The love of God is planted in your heart. When you believe in the Lord Jesus, graciously you find that you spontaneously, without effort, love all those who are the Lord’s.
You may meet them for the first time, and yet there is some kind of love going out from you. There is love flowing back and forth among God’s people. God has planted that love in us.
So every believer has that love in him. This is what the Bible calls first love. You know, when we first believe in the Lord Jesus, there is a first love there. It is very pure, very genuine, very supernaturally natural, spontaneous. We love the Lord, and we love our brothers. There is that love there.
The greatest thing in this world is receiving the love of God. That is the greatest thing in this world.
Now, brothers and sisters, love is living. Any living organism must grow. Whenever a living organism ceases to grow, death sets in.
This is the same thing with love. When we first believe in the Lord Jesus, there is a love there. God has planted that love in us. But that love needs to abound; it needs to grow. If that love does not grow, then death will set in. Love will cool off.
So Paul prays for these Philippian believers. They do have love there, but he prays for them that their love may grow—ever growing. You know, love has no limit. Love knows no end. As our brother read this morning, love never fails.
Whenever you feel that you have enough love, something is wrong. When you feel that you love God enough now, something is very wrong. If you think that you have loved your brothers and sisters enough now—no more, that is enough—something is drastically wrong.
The Bible says, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another.” We should not owe anybody anything, but in love you are always owing people. You never come to a point when you feel that there is enough. Love is never enough. It is living; it has to grow continually.
The word abound, in the Greek original, means above measure—enough and to spare. That is the meaning of abound: ever abounding, ever increasing.
That is how love is. So, brothers and sisters, we need to love the Lord, and this love must continue to grow.
In one sense, when we first believe in the Lord Jesus, there is first love. But actually, you know, first love—the word “first”—is more a matter of quality than a matter of time.
It is true: when we first believe in the Lord Jesus, there is first love. It is pure, but it is very young, very ignorant. That love needs to grow.
We need to grow and grow in that first love. Eventually, your first love is not a matter of time; it becomes a matter of quality—first love.
O, retaining our first love with the Lord! After we have been saved ten years, twenty years, forty years, fifty years, still retaining our first love.
You cannot go back two years, ten years, twenty years, or forty years. But there still needs to be that version of love. It is first in authority, and as a matter of fact, it is much more mature than when you first loved the Lord. But it is still first love—pure.
Now, how does love grow? In what areas must it grow? By what measure can you measure the growth of love?
Here you find the apostle Paul saying, “Now, you do have love. It is evident. It has been proven. But now your love must abound in full knowledge and all intelligence.”
The problem with the Philippian believers is here: they have love, but they are lacking in full knowledge. They have love, but they are lacking in all intelligence.
You know, we think that love is ignorant. If you know too much, you cannot love anymore. Do you find that problem?
If you do not know a brother or a sister, you can love him or love her. But if you know more of him, more of her, you find that you cannot love anymore. We think that love and knowledge are opposites.
Now, it is true: mental knowledge and love are opposites. You know, Paul in 1 Corinthians 8:1 says, “Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up.”
Mental knowledge puffs you up. You think you know everything, and when you know everything, love is gone. You cannot love anybody. Nobody is worthy of your love. You know too much.
Knowledge puffs up. Love builds up. It is love that can build people up from their low situation and help them up into higher ground.
Now, it is true: love and mental knowledge are opposites. But there is a knowledge that is complementary to love, and it is what Paul means by full knowledge.
The word “knowledge” here is not the ordinary word. It is a Greek word with a preposition: epignosis. In other words, it is full knowledge. A little knowledge is dangerous, but full knowledge is a great blessing.
Now, what is this full knowledge? In some versions it is translated as spiritual knowledge. This full knowledge has something to do with the eternal purpose of God.
In Ephesians 1, he says, “May God give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.” The full knowledge of God is related to God’s eternal purpose.
What is God’s eternal will? His eternal will is that His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, may have the preeminence, the first place, in all things; that Christ may be all and in all; that the church, which is the Body of Christ, may be the fullness of Him who filleth all in all.
Now, that is the eternal purpose of God. That is the full knowledge of God. Such knowledge increases the measure of life. Such knowledge nourishes love. Such knowledge directs love in the right direction. You love what you should love.
Sometimes we think that love is ignorant. The more ignorant you are, the more you are able to love. But you know, if love is ignorant, you may love the wrong object. You may love what is not loved by God. You may be out of God’s will. It is dangerous. It can easily be deceived, misdirected, and misguided.
Some people even say ignorant love is cruel.
So, brothers and sisters, our love must increase in full knowledge. It is important that we know God’s eternal purpose.
Now, how do we come to know God’s eternal purpose? How do we come into this full knowledge of God? There are two ways.
One is by revelation. We will not be able to know the will of God, the full knowledge of God, unless we receive revelation from above.
It is not mental knowledge. It is not something that you just acquire by information. No matter how many books you read or how many messages you have heard, you do not really get into that full knowledge until the Spirit of God reveals it in your spirit.
Just like Job said, “I heard of Thee before, but now I see.” Now, that is important. Every believer needs to receive that revelation from above.
Thank God, it pleases God to reveal His Son in us. It is the good pleasure of God to reveal His Son in us. So if we really open our hearts to Him, He will reveal His Son.
Then Christ is to be your all in all—your life, your King, your home. He will reveal this to you. When that full knowledge arrests you, brothers and sisters, your love is increasingly measured.
The scope of your love is broadened, but even the direction of your love is rightly directed. You will love what God loves, and love only what God loves. Otherwise, you may love what God hates.
Now, that is one way: by revelation.
Another thing is that this spiritual knowledge comes through practical dealings. In other words, how do we really know God, know His mind, know His heart? So, brothers and sisters, we need to be dealt with by God, and we need to deal with God.
If we do not have this kind of intimate, personal dealing with God—being dealt with by Him and dealing with Him—we will never come into that full knowledge of God.
The more you are dealt with by God—the Holy Spirit within you, He is the anointing, He is the Comforter, He is the Teacher—and clearly He will teach you. He will remind you of something with which you need to be dealt.
When the Holy Spirit is moving in your spirit, learn to obey the teaching of the Holy Spirit. That is being dealt with by God.
We need to deal with God too. Bring every question and every problem to Him. Deal with Him through prayer, intercession, and thanksgiving. The more you deal with Him, the more you enter into God’s mind and God’s heart.
In such knowledge, love is nourished.
Now, not only in full knowledge, but in all intelligence. This phrase, “all intelligence,” is used only once in the New Testament. Nowhere else. That is the only place where this word is used.
It is very difficult to translate. Some people translate it “intelligence,” other people translate it “perception,” and others translate it “discernment.” In other words, we need spiritual discernment.
Spiritual discernment is a kind of sensitivity in your spirit. Your spirit is sensitive, tender, soft. There is a spiritual taste there, and when things happen to you, immediately you can sense whether this is right or wrong, whether this is of God or whether this is of man. In other words, there is a kind of perception. It is discernment.
Now, spiritual discernment is very important in this matter of love. Sometimes we say love is blind.
Well, in one sense, that is true. Love is blind because it does not discriminate. In other words, we do not choose whom to love. God does not choose whom to love. He loves everyone.
He loves the righteous; He loves the sinful. God’s love is universal. It is not discriminating. He loves everyone.
In a sense, we should be like that too. Our love should not be discriminating: “I love this brother; I do not love that brother. I love this sister; I do not love that sister.”
Because of what they are, you begin to make your choice as to whom to love and whom not to love. We cannot do that.
We love God without discrimination. In other words, however God deals with us, we love Him. If He blesses us, we love Him. If He disciplines us, we love Him. It is blind; it is not discriminating.
The same thing is true of our love to our family. That is why the Bible says, “Brotherly love.” Love the brother not because he is lovable; you love him because he is a brother. He may be a very difficult brother, but you still love him. It is not discriminating. You are blind. Love covers a multitude of sins. That is true.
On the other hand, love is very discerning—more discerning. It is not blind at all.
God loves us without discrimination, and yet He is very discerning. He loves the sinner, but He hates sin.
If we are not discerning, you will find our love will be such that we love everything, and we love evil things too. We will endorse what ought not to be endorsed.
God forgives, and yet He does not clear the iniquity. That iniquity has to be paid. It was paid by our Saviour, our Lord Jesus, but it had to be paid.
So, brothers and sisters, here you find Paul’s prayer for the Philippian believers: you have love, but why is it that your love gets into problems? Why is it that your love grows cold? Why is it that you enter into perplexity? Why is it that you cannot solve your problems or rise above your problems?
Why is it that your love does not grow as it should? It is because you do have love, but you are lacking in full knowledge and all perception. That is what you lack.
You need spiritual knowledge and spiritual discernment. If you have that, then your love will not be frustrated. Your love will not be laid down, as it were, by outward circumstances. On the contrary, your love will be able to build, to solve problems, and to help people.
So Paul’s prayer for the Philippian believers is that their love may abound in spiritual knowledge and spiritual discernment.
When that happens, when you have these elements in love, what will happen? He said, “That ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent.”
Now, there are different translations, because again this Greek word is very rich. If your love is in spiritual knowledge and spiritual discernment, then what will happen? He said you will be able to test everything, and you will be able to approve what is more excellent.
In other words, love with knowledge and discernment proves all things, proves the things that differ, and approves the excellent. That is the result.
The word here in Greek has the concept of testing a metal to see whether it is genuine or false. That is the idea here.
In other words, we think love is blind: you do not test anything; just love, and love, and love. We often hear people say, “Love, love, love.” Now, if you even try to discipline anybody, they say, “Love, love, love—no discipline.” They think that is love. Not at all.
Love tests things out, to test whether a thing is genuine or whether it is false. After you test it and prove it, then you approve the excellent.
In certain versions it says, “Prove the things that differ.” Now, there are things that differ. There is a difference not only between the bad and the good, but there is a difference between the better and the best.
Sometimes we think, well, if we can prove the bad from the good, that should be enough. As one commentator said, it does not take much wisdom to do that. But it is more difficult to see the difference between the better and the best.
Oftentimes we substitute the better for the best, and it does not satisfy God’s heart.
So what is mentioned here is that love with discernment will prove the things that differ. You can weigh the things, you can see the difference, and always take the best. You do not stay at anything on the lower level.
“That ye may be, in order that ye may be pure and without offence for Christ’s day.”
Now, the word “pure” here—we are told that in Greek there are two different roots. One meaning of pure is to be found in the sunlight. You put a thing under the sun, and it can stand the sunlight.
Now, the reason is that in the old days, when they made a sculpture out of stone, or made a statue, sometimes when they worked on that stone or marble, they made a small error which you could hardly see. The way they fixed up the fault was to put wax in it.
People looked at it and could not see any defect. But when you held it against the sunshine, the wax would melt. So that is one root of the word. It can stand the sunlight. There is no pretension there, nothing trying to hide, but everything is pure.
Another root is like putting something in a sieve and whirling it until all the impurities fall off. What is left is the pure thing. That is the idea.
So, in other words, brothers and sisters, if our love is a discerning love, then we can see the things that differ. We will always take the excellent, and the result is that before God we may be pure.
We may be transparent. We are transparent before God. Now, how important that is.
You know, brothers and sisters, we are always trying to hide something—our shortcomings, our faults. We try to hide them. That is why, when you hold it before the sunlight, it gets worse. Before God, you cannot hide anyway.
It is much better to be dealt with, so that we may be transparent before God.
Then he says, not only pure, but without offence. So far as before God is concerned, you are pure; so far as before man is concerned, you are without offence.
The word simply means that you are not a stumbling block. You do not stumble anybody. On the contrary, you are a stepping stone. They can step on you and get into higher ground. Now, that is the idea.
Then, “being complete as regards the fruit of righteousness, which is by Jesus Christ.”
So far as we ourselves are concerned, there will be the fruit of righteousness by Jesus Christ.
You know, Christ is not only our righteousness. When we believe in the Lord Jesus, we put on Christ as our righteousness. This is our best robe; it gives us our standing before God.
But Christ is not only our righteousness. There is another thing called the fruit of righteousness. In other words, the righteousness which is of faith is our wedding garment.
In Revelation 19, the bride has made herself ready, and she is clothed with bright, shining, clean linen, which is the righteousness of the saints. In other words, it is Christ our righteousness being really woven into our life, and it becomes a practical righteousness out of us.
That is the fruit of righteousness. It is by Jesus Christ, but it is Christ incorporated in us, Christ working in us, Christ being expressed in us. So the character of Christ begins to characterize us.
It is character building. There is nothing that builds character more than discerning love.
Then you find it is for the day of Christ. Brothers and sisters, we are living every day for the day of Christ.
What is the day of Christ? The day of Christ is the day when Christ shall return, and we shall all appear before Him at His judgment seat. That is the day of Christ.
That is the day Paul was always looking forward to. He was looking forward to the time when he should see Christ, that there would be no shame and no reproach. He would be approved. That was Paul’s desire.
He prayed for the Philippian believers that this would be the same thing with them: that when Christ shall return, we may see Him face to face without shame and reproach, until the day of Christ.
So, brothers and sisters, we need to live daily with the day of Christ in view. Or, to put it another way, we need to live in the light of the judgment seat of Christ.
One day we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and we will be judged for our works. If we build with gold, silver, and precious stones, it will be tried by fire and will glow with glory. If we build with wood, stubble, and hay, we will be saved, but so as through fire.
Now, this will happen at the day of Christ. So Paul is encouraging the Philippian believers: look at the day of Christ; live for the day of Christ.
Finally, what is the ultimate purpose? He says, “To God’s glory and praise.”
Everything is for God’s glory and praise, because everything comes from God and everything will return to God. Glory belongs to God. Praise belongs to God. It is not for ourselves; it is for His glory and praise.
So that is the prayer of the apostle Paul for the Philippian believers.
The problem with the Philippian believers, number one, was Euodia and Syntyche. They loved the Lord. They were zealous for the gospel. But they did not know the things that differ.
They did not know the difference between the Spirit and the flesh. They served God with selfish ambition. They served God, and they served themselves. Because of this, they strove against each other.
That is the problem. They did not have the full knowledge of God. If they had the full knowledge of God, they would see that it is Christ—all of Christ and none of self.
But they did not have that knowledge. If they had spiritual discernment, they could discern what is of the flesh and what is of the Spirit. But they did not have that discernment. So their zeal, their energy, their work created problems in the church.
So far as the church was concerned, they did not have the knowledge and the discernment. Because they did not have them, the result was that they did not know how to help or how to solve the problem. They lost their joy.
Now, brothers and sisters, it is a little true that even today we have the same problem. You will find either a church without love—cold and lifeless.
Now, where there is no love, there is no church, because the law of the church is love.
But at the other extreme, you will find some churches that seem to be full of love and yet have no discernment, no knowledge. They love everything, so everything comes in, and that church is completely ruined.
We find it everywhere today—everywhere. Some believers have lots of mental knowledge, and because they have lots of mental knowledge, they are very careful. They judge everything. They become very exclusive, and they are dead—legalistic.
But there are other churches, other groups of believers. They seem to have a lot of love, but everything goes in: all the heresies, all the human ambitions, all of man’s methods. Everything comes in, and they are at a loss. They do not know what to do.
What is the problem with the church today? We really need to pray that prayer: that God will enable us—first of all, there must be love—that our love may abound in full knowledge and spiritual discernment.
By doing that, you will find that, on the one hand, we will not become legalistic; yet, on the other hand, it is not lawlessness. There will still be love and order, love and discipline.
As a matter of fact, the Bible says God loves us, so He chastens us. If He does not chasten us, He does not love us.
So may the Lord give us that discerning love. Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank Thee that Thou dost painstakingly give us Thy love.
We thank Thee that Thou dost give us a heart to love Thee and to love one another. But, Lord, we do acknowledge that as we go on, we hit many walls.
We find that our love is beginning to wear off. We find that our love toward Thee has cooled off. Our love towards our brethren is hurt.
So, Lord, we do come to Thee this morning and pray that Thou wilt open our eyes to see how our love needs to grow in full knowledge and in spiritual discernment; that we may be able to prove the things that differ and approve the excellent; that we may be able to be pure and without offence for Christ’s day; that we may be perfected in the fruit of righteousness by Christ Jesus, to God’s glory and praise.
Lord, may this be true with all of us. We just commit ourselves to Thee. We know that Thou dost love the church, and we believe that Thou dost want to nourish it and cherish it, that Thou mayest present it to Thyself holy, without blemish.
We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.