“For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

--- End of Scripture verses---

You won’t find a more beautiful or meaningful prayer packed in such few words. Paul prayed that the love of these Christians would “abound” in real “knowledge and all discernment” (verse 8). Biblical love is knowledge based. New Testament love is intellectual as well as emotional. Paul wanted them to grow in the understanding and knowledge of what TO love and what NOT to love.

God’s people are to NOT love the world nor the things in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life (1 John 2:15). We must be careful to not love money because it is a root of all kinds of evil, and when we chase after money it can pierce us through with many sorrows (1 Timothy 6:10).

Instead we must strive TO love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:30). As true disciples of Christ are to love our brethren (Hebrews 13:1), and even love and pray for those who hate us (our enemies) (Matthew 5:44). We must love the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:10) because we are going to be judged by the perfect word of God (John 12:48).

In short, we must learn to hate what God hates and love what God loves. And, we should aspire to “abound still more and more” in this knowledge based love, and also apply what we know and love in all wisdom and “discernment”.

Paul also prayed that they would “approve the things that are excellent” (verse 10). This phrase literally reads, “to prove the things that differ.” We are to “prove” or “scrutinize” all aspects of our lives so that we can distinguish between what is good and bad, and even between what is better and best, so that we can chose the things of the most superior quality. God wants us to grow spiritually so that we can make the best choices in life.

The Lord desires us to choose excellence so that we can be “sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.” To be “blameless” is to produce no cause for “offense” or “stumbling” in ourselves or in other people through our poor examples. To be “sincere” literally means to be “proven by sunlight”. We really want to pass the “sunshine test” as God examines our lives on earth and on the day of Judgment.

Sometimes a window looks clean and spotless when you glance at it, until the sun’s rays pass through the glass at a certain angle. Then you can see all the smudges and fingerprints more clearly. When our lives are held up to the glorious light of the Gospel, we want to make certain that there are not spiritual blemishes or defects that have not been washed away by the precious blood of the Lamb.

To summarize, Paul prayed that they (we) would continually learn God's will, discerning between what is good and evil, so that they could (we can) approve (love) the excellent things—the things that are good, better, best—and choose the most excellent things; so that when they (we) stand before the glorious Son on the Day of Judgment they (we) will pass the test, and be found without offense and without defect.

Thanks to brother L.A. Stauffer for his excellent sermon on this prayer from which I lifted most of these ideas.

Please read Philippians 1:12-18 for tomorrow.

Have a blessed day!

- Louie Taylor