And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11
In his letter to the church at Philippi, Paul penned the lines above in his opening statements. The apostle had a great affection for the church there and he wrote with an almost sentimental tone that we don’t always get from Paul. “It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart” (Phil.1:7). Paul is proud of this little church and writes, perhaps, the most positive letter in all of scripture to them. His heart for them is that their love for God and for others might abound more and more. Paul often speaks of that quality. He knows that abounding love will be a work of the Spirit on our lives because the natural man only loves those who loves him first and benefits him. He writes a whole chapter on love in 1 Corinthians 13. But here he adds a couple of interesting qualifiers.
Paul said that he wanted their love to abound more and more but also to be guided by knowledge and a depth of insight. In essence, Paul wants us not only to love, but to love wisely. What Paul prays for this church to receive, we should pray for ourselves as well. First of all, we should pray that the Spirit of God would increase our love. Jesus said that the two great commandments are to love God and to love our neighbors. He would say that all of the Law and the Prophets hung on those two commands. If you think about it, the entire Bible is simply a set of instructions teaching us how to love God and how to love others. John tells us that God is love (1 Jn. 4:8) and although a number of other attributes describe God in scripture, love seems to be his paramount and most striking quality.
If you scan the Old Testament to see what endures forever, that phrase comes up a frequently. We are told that God’s throne endures forever; his name endures forever; his works endure forever; his word endures forever; and his righteousness endures forever. But the descriptor that is quoted dozens of time more often that the ones just mentioned is his love endures forever. Everything else flows out of that. God is good because he loves. God is merciful because he loves. God hates sin, because he loves and sin destroys the people he loves. Jesus himself defined his mission by love. Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for a friend. The cross was the ultimate act of love and God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…to redeem us from the universal mess we are in.
If we are to become like the Father and like the Son, then we must grow in love to the point that we abound in it so that it drips off of us wherever we go and saturates our environment. But Paul attaches the conditions of knowledge and insight that are to guide our expressions of love. Knowledge, in this context, is the knowledge of God – his character, his will, and his ways. Insight is seeing to the heart of a matter.
Love can be misunderstood and misdirected. Biblically, love (agape) is not a feeling or the idea of doing everything we can to make someone happy. It is not just a heart that goes out to others. Instead, it is a constant decision to always act in the best interests of another person. That may include saying no, applying discipline, or a little loving confrontation at times. In our present church culture, love has, in many ways, been redefined to mean tolerant, non-judgmental, and accepting of everything and every lifestyle. The knowledge of God informs me that I can love a person without tolerating a sin that will eventually destroy him or her and infect others on the way. Depth of insight is spiritual discernment that helps me see to the heart of a matter so that I can apply love in constructive ways that touch the deepest need or issue rather than living like a permissive parent who never says no to the demands of immature believers.
Not only is my insight for understanding people and situations around me, but it is also for me to discover which things are best, so that I can live a pure and blameless life. Scripture often tells us that our guide for living should not be simply avoiding sin or staying away from bad things. That is certainly a start, but in numerous contexts we are told that our goal is to always discern and choose what is best – not just good, acceptable, or tolerable – but best.
God wants the best for his children. If you are investing for retirement, you are not looking for average investments or adequate mutual funds, you are looking for the best – the funds that are most stable and that pay the best dividends year after year. God want his children to invest in the things of life that pay the best dividends in heaven. Paul says that the fruit of love guided by knowledge and insight is righteousness. Righteousness is where true freedom is found because it means we have mastered the flesh and the enemy has no claim on us whatsoever. We are aligned with the Father in every part of our life. When we walk in righteousness, we constantly sow to the Spirit and we reap life in everything we do (Gal.6:8).
So, we find that increasing love directed by knowledge and a depth of insight is the door to increase – more of God, more of Jesus, more of the Spirit, more effective ministry, more righteousness, more freedom, and greater harvests. Paul prayed for God to grant that to the believers in Philippi. We should do the same. Paul offered a similar prayer for the church at Ephesus where he prayed that God would give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so they might know him better (Eph.1:7). I encourage you to add both of those prayers to your heavenly requests as well. It is God’s will for us to request those things and he is glad to give when we are hungry enough to ask. Be blessed today and may you abound more and more in love in knowledge and depth of insight.
