A Prayer for Abounding Love

For years it was the tradition - although many churches are letting it go by the wayside - I’m glad we still do it - that is to track Sunday School activity.

On our board we post How many attended, what was the offering, and compare it to last weeks -

It began as a way no doubt to track growth and cycles in Sunday School

Our Sunday School secretary typically makes a weekly and annual report of those activities

I wonder if it would help if we had a board or tracking system for how much love we have and compare it to last week or last year or ten years ago?

While that might turn into something competitive or legalistic and dangerous - but the Bible does talk about our love in somewhat of terms of measurable and tracking terms

"We don't track love to see if we are 'better' than our neighbor, but to see if we are 'better' than we were yesterday—to see if the grace of God is actually moving the needle in our lives."

in two separate places we find the Apostle Paul praying for those he is ministering to - to abound in love

We will probably only have time to look at the first one tonight -

The first one is found in:

Philippians 1:9–11 KJV 1900

9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; 10 That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; 11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

Paul is praying - praying specifically for them not with fillers and just words - Paul never prayed for trivialities - we should take note of what he prays.

A. F. Harper calls this Transparent Holiness

and he then borrows McCumber’s outline of Paul’s fivefold prayer - I am going to borrow his outline as well - or at least adapt it to talk about this -

The education of my love in spiritual knowledge

Love in the Christian life is not merely emotional—it is to be educated, enlightened, and ethically guided. Paul does not pray for mere increase of affection, but for instructed affection.

The education of love involves: two things - the two words that Paul uses here is “knowledge” and “judgement”

Knowledge - (epignosis) {eh-pig-nosis} - Normally when someone in this time was talking about knowledge they would use the word “gnosis” but Paul does not use the ordinary word gnosis (knowledge), but epignosis — a strengthened, intensified form.

“means coming to understand something clearly and distinctly or as true and valid” MENTAL COGNITION

He’s not asking for abstract information but for the kind of deep, personal understanding of God and truth that transforms how believers love one another.

Someone may “know” that “God is Love” that is gnosis -

But when he passes through suffering and learns the faithfulness of God — that becomes epignosis.

This prayer is that their love would abound in epignosis - an intensified and experiential knoweledge

Judgement - (aisthesis) {es-thesis} - “the mental ability to understand and discriminate between relations” - discernment

Epignosis knows the Bible.

Aisthesis senses: “My heart is cooling.” “My prayer life is thinning.” “I am becoming impatient.”

It is like a spiritual nerve system — it feels what is not yet visible.

You could differentiate between the two this way:

Knowledge = Instruction — Love taught by truth (epignosis)

Judgment = Illumination — Love guided by discernment (aisthesis)

The regulation of love by spiritual discernment

Discernment is The Ability to Distinguish

Seeing — knowing the difference

Approbation The Ability to Choose and Embrace the Best

Selecting — choosing the best

The perfection of love

1. “That ye may be sincere” — Inner Purity

The word translated sincere (eilikrinēs) {eely-krinase} is made up of two Greek words the first means “sun’s rays” and the second “to judge” and it carries the idea of:

Tested by sunlight

In the olden days some Items Tested by the Sun

1. Fine Pottery and Ceramics

This is the most famous example associated with the term "sincere" (which in Latin is sine cera, or "without wax").

The Flaw: When a potter fired a vessel and it cracked, unscrupulous merchants would fill the crack with a hard, pearly-white wax that matched the color of the clay.

The Test: In a shaded marketplace, the bowl looked perfect. However, a wise buyer would hold the vessel up to the direct sunlight. The sun would either make the wax appear darker/more transparent than the clay, or the heat would cause the wax to melt, revealing the deception.

2. Textiles and Fabrics

Ancient dyes were expensive and often inconsistent.

The Flaw: Shoddy merchants would sell fabric that appeared to be a deep, expensive "Tyrian purple" or pure white in the dim light of a tent.

The Test: Buyers would take the cloth into the sun to check for uniformity of color and to ensure there were no thin spots or "filling" used to make the weave look tighter than it actually was. Sunlight also revealed if a "pure white" garment was actually a yellowish, unbleached wool that had been temporarily powdered to look brighter.

3. Precious Stones and Glass

Glassblowing and gem-cutting were high-stakes trades in the Roman Empire.

The Flaw: It was common to create "doublets"—gluing a thin slice of a real gemstone (like an emerald) onto a piece of colored glass.

The Test: Holding the stone up to the sun allowed the light to pass through the object. This revealed internal bubbles, cracks, or glue lines that were invisible in ambient light.

Judged in clear light

Found pure when examined

It suggests transparency — nothing hidden, nothing mixed.

Here’s the flow:

Educated love knows truth.

Regulated love chooses excellence.

Perfected love becomes pure.

Love refined by knowledge and discernment produces a life that can stand in the light.

This is heart holiness language.

Not merely right choices — but right motives.

THE PERFECTION OF LOVE IS SINCERE AND ...."Without offence"

a. Actively, not causing to stumble

b. Passively, not caused to stumble

The manifestation of love

Being filled with the fruits of righteousness

This is love made observable.

1. The Meaning — “Fruit of Right Relations to God”

“Fruits of righteousness”

Notice Paul does not say “acts of religion” or “works of effort.”

He says fruits.

Fruit implies:

Life, not labor

Growth, not strain

Nature, not mere activity

Fruit grows because the tree is alive.

So what is “righteousness” here?

Not merely imputed righteousness (legal standing), but practical righteousness — right living flowing from right standing.

In simple terms:

Right relation to God

Producing right conduct toward others

When love is educated, regulated, and purified, it naturally bears fruit.

You might say:

Righteousness is not something we manufacture — it is something we manifest.

Make It Concrete

The fruit of righteousness looks like:

Patience under provocation

Generosity without applause

Integrity in private

Mercy toward the undeserving

Faithfulness in small things

Unity in the body

Joy in hardship

These are not forced behaviors. They are organic outcomes of love rightly formed.

2. The Measure — “Being Filled” (peplērōmenoi)

The verb is powerful.

It is a perfect passive participle.

Meaning:

Having been filled

Brought to fullness

Continually in a state of fullness

Not a little fruit. Not seasonal fruit. Not sparse fruit.

Filled full.

The picture is abundance.

Like:

A tree so heavy with fruit the branches bend

A vineyard overflowing at harvest

A life crowded with evidence of grace

Paul is not praying for occasional righteousness. He is praying for saturation.

THE SOURCE MUST BE STATED - BY JESUS CHRIST!!!

The consummation of love

“…till the day of Christ.”

Paul is not merely concerned with present maturity — he is praying for future readiness.

Love is to be so educated, regulated, perfected, and manifested that it stands confident at the final evaluation.

Abounding in love - to be abundant - plentiful - generous - overflow- think of a creek or lake or river that has overflown its banks -

Paul is praying for an overflowing love that:

Thinks clearly

Sees accurately

Chooses wisely

Lives purely

Produces fruit

If we could look at our boar or meter how would we do?

God help us to be an answer to Paul’s prayer and that we would abound in this love.