KCC June 2016 The Philippians Love Prayer Philippians 1:9-11 Turn to Philippians 1 please. There s a prayer there that we ll read today. In Greek it is all one sentence, so we ll use the ENV which keeps it all as one sentence. (Ed Neufeld Version) This prayer probably tells us more about how love fits into the big picture than any other NT text. Other Scriptures like 1 Corinthians 13 tell us more about what love actually is. But Php 1:9-11 describes what love accomplishes, what happens when people love others, like no other text. Paul prayed this for a church, the church at Philippi. So I take two things from that, since this prayer is in our Scripture. One, we this is what God wants for churches. This is where he like to see our church go. And two, we should be praying this for our church. If Paul had visited our church a few times, he would have prayed this for us. So let s listen to this as an apostolic agenda for our church. What would the apostles want for KCC? This prayer will tell us. It also tells us how to pray for our church, and for each other. I have divided these three verses into nine phrases, and we ll go through the prayer looking at each of the nine. Here they are (Php 1:9-11): (1) And this I pray: (2) that your love would still more and more increase (3) in knowledge and all insight, (4) so that you can understand what really matters, (5) so that you will be pure and blameless (6) for the day of Christ s return, (7) being rich in right choices and actions (8) produced through Jesus Christ, (9) to the glory and praise of God. We ll go through these one at time, more or less in order. (1) And this I pray: that your love would still more and more increase. What does it mean that this is a prayer? That Paul asks God to do this? It means that our love will not increase without God s help. It won t happen without his working in us. It also means God responds to prayers like this. He wants to answer prayers like this. In Php 2 it says, It is God who works among you, both to will, and to do, what pleases him.
The Philippians Love Prayer (Philippians 1:9-11) 2 This prayer tells us where God wants to take us. It will not happen without our choice. If we don t cooperate, it will not happen. But our choice is not enough, our cooperation is not enough. That s why Paul tells believers to love, and why he also asks God to increase our love. Two sentences before this prayer, Paul wrote, God, who began a good work in you, will complete it for the day of Christ. God began this work in us, by saving us, and God will see it finished. He who began it will complete it. God works among us, both to will, and to do, what pleases him. And that is why this is a prayer. (2) that your love would still more and more increase. Whom do we love? Later in Philippians Paul writes about brotherly love, so perhaps that s the most important. But here it is pretty wide. May the Lord increase and multiply your love to each other and to everyone. (Note that the Lord increases and multiplies our love 1 Thess 3:12.) Gal 6:10 when you have opportunity, do good to all, especially the family of faith. And love for God himself is bound up in this as well. We do good to each other and to everyone because this is what our Father in heaven says we ought to do, and we love him, and we obey him because we love him. But the main concern of this prayer is not who we would love more and more, but that we would love more and more. Just that there would be more love. The Philippian church already shows love. Paul prays that God will more and more increase their love. Don t make this too heroic. Love is patient, love is kind. Love is considerate, and courteous. Can we be patient and kind when we re stressed? Can we be considerate and courteous when we re discouraged, when we re irritated? Can we be patient and kind when we are afraid day after day? Can we be courteous, and considerate of others, when we re sad? When we re hurt? That s what increasing love does. That s where God would like to take us, the prayer he answers. And this I pray, that your love would still more and more increase (3) in knowledge and all insight Love, even genuine love, needs guidance. It is possible for genuine love to be foolish, by which I mean I genuinely want to help you but because I am foolish, I does as much harm as good. You ve had people trying to help you but not really helping. That s happened to me, and I can assure you I myself have harmed many others. So we learn better ways of loving people.
The Philippians Love Prayer (Philippians 1:9-11) 3 But even more, in knowledge and all insight means that our love is guided by God s ways, it is directed by God s ways. Love is always good. When you look at a person, you say, what would God want for that person? In God s eyes, what would be good for that person? Sometimes that s obvious, and sometimes it is not. But that s what Paul wants: love to increase more and more, and to be guided by God s ways, steered by what we know is important to God. And this is actually the end of the prayer. The other six lines are the result of God answering this prayer, the result growing love that is guided by knowing what s important to God. (9) to the glory and praise of God. I will go ahead to the last line for a moment. When we love more and more, guided by knowing God s ways, the end result is the glory and praise of God. That s where this is going. There are several important steps in between, but finally it produces glory and praise for God. So think about being patient and kind and helping others when we re irritated or frightened, stressed or discouraged, or in pain. If that kind of love grows, God will be thanked and honoured. Now here are the results of increasing love that is guided by God s ways: (4) so that you can understand what really matters. That is, so we can know what is best. Understanding what matters does not start with study, it starts with love. Knowing what is best does not start with information, it starts with love. If we want to make the best possible choices in life, if we really want to know what the priorities are, it will start with increasing love. Paul s prayer was for increasing love that is guided by knowing God s ways. If God answers that prayer for each other, for our church, then we will know what is best. If God answers that prayer for you, then you will understand what really matters. And this I pray, that your love would still more and more increase in knowledge and all insight, so you can understand what really matters (5) so that you will be pure and blameless This kind of language scares the daylights out of us, but it does not need to. The Greek word for pure is also often translated sincere. So pure does not mean sinless, it means sincere, genuine, not faking, not pretend to do good while planning harm.
The Philippians Love Prayer (Philippians 1:9-11) 4 And blameless means not stumbling, it means steady, it means that every day you want to trust God and follow the Lord. We do better some days than others, but that s not the point. So pure and blameless does not mean sinless and perfect. Rather, it means sincere and steady, or genuine and faithful. If our love increases, then we will understand what really matters (and act on it), and that will result is our being pure and blameless, sincere and steady. (6) for the day of Christ s return. And this I pray, that your love would still more and more increase In knowledge and all insight, so you can understand what really matters, So that you can be pure and blameless (genuine and steady) for the day of Christ s return. If God answers this prayer now, and our love increases now in knowledge and insight, then we will be pure and blameless for the day of Christ s return, ready for Christ to return, prepared for Christ to return. The explanation for this prayer takes us to the future. Having one eye always in Christian hope is not just for the dying, it is also for the living. In the Scripture it is normally for the living. This growing love will show us what really matters, and if we live by what really matters, what s most important, we will be ready for Christ to return, we ll be prepared to me Christ the judge, and even more so prepared to meet the groom coming to get his bride. The groom will come for the bride, and we the bride will be ready, because our growing love made us a genuine and faithful bride. (7) being rich in right choices and actions In this prayer, this is line (5) in different words, it is pure and blameless in different words. We will be rich in right choices and actions. That is another way to describe the result of increasing love that s directed by God s ways. There is an interesting parallel in Revelation 19:7-8: For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. 8 She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear. For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God s holy people. I used to be upset with the bride s finest pure white linen being the good deeds of God s holy people. It sounded like works, and I did not want us to be clothed by our works when we meet Jesus.
The Philippians Love Prayer (Philippians 1:9-11) 5 Then I read more carefully. We re clothed only in our right choices and actions, our good deeds. What happened to the sins and failures? They ve all fallen away. This bride in Rev 19 is the very same as the 7 churches in Rev 2-3. Lots of troubles there. But on that day the sins and garbage have fallen away, and the church is clothed with its righteous acts, its good deeds. Let s pause to make an observation: how do we get to be pure and blameless, rich in right choices and actions. What would need to change for us to be pure and blameless, rich in right choices and actions? Not complicated, boys and girls: increasing love. That still might feel impossible to you, but at least understand how we ll get to pure and blameless, how we ll get to rich in right choices and actions: by an increasing love that s guided by God s ways. If our love increases, we will be pure and blameless, ready for Christ s return, being rich in right choices and actions (8) produced through Jesus Christ, Being rich in right choices and actions: that kind of wealth gets produced in us only through Jesus Christ. Remember, my brothers and sisters, that this is a prayer. Paul asks God to do this for a church, and we are asking God to do this for our church. This has to be a work of God. We need to cooperate, and line up with this plan of God, but this will be his work. That s why it is a prayer. Remember Php 1:6 God, who began a good work in you, will complete it for the day of Christ s return. Php 2:13 God works among you, both to will, and to do, what pleases him. And here, our wealth of right choices and actions comes from Christ. Christ s death makes it even possible at all, and he leads and helps day by day to see this happen. And the goal is (9) to the glory and praise of God. This is the normal end point of biblical teaching like this. The glory and praise of God is certainly the last word in the Book of Psalms, and in many other important Scriptures in both Testaments. Why does God get the glory and praise, if our love increases? Because he made us to do this. Humans are made in the image and likeness of God, and in our deepest selves we are designed exactly for this. And God gets praise also because he makes it happen day by day. Through Jesus Christ, God makes it happen. That s why this is a prayer.
The Philippians Love Prayer (Philippians 1:9-11) 6 In my email introducing this sermon, I spoke of a domino effect, beginning with our increasing love. 1, First domino: our love will more and more increase, in knowledge and insight. 2, first result line (4) we will then understand what really matters, what is best in that situation 3, second result built on the first lines (5) to (8) if we understand what s best (and act on it, then we will be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, rich in right choices and actions produced through Christ. 4, third result line (9) God will be glorified and praised. If we are pure and blameless for the day of Christ, rich in right choices and actions produced through Christ, then God will be thanked and praised. Amen. Prayer: Father in heaven, we ask this for our church: May our love more and more increase in knowledge and insight. May our love increase and be guided by knowing you and your ways. As a result, we ll know what s most important, and we want that. And if we know what s most important, we will be pure and blameless, ready for Christ s return. And we want that, too. If we know what s most important, and act on it, we will be rich in right choices and actions. And Father, we want that. And if that happens, it will happen because of Jesus Christ, it will happen because you heard and answered this prayer and prayers like this. Then you will be thanked and praised. And we would be delighted, Father, to thank you and praise you on that day for answering this prayer. Amen.