Sermon Tone Analysis

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Remember that all of Paul’s letter really hinges on this encouraging thought that we spoke of last week: His confidence in Christ to continue to work in and through the lives of individuals in the local church.

Let’s take note of the tone...

Paul mentioned in verse 4, that he prays regularly for these people - His people.

That he prays with joy!

Now we see an example prayer that he wishes to include in his letter.

This three-verse prayer is one long, complicated sentence in Greek.

It has a three-fold structure: (1) request, (2) purpose, and (3) final result.

(NOTE: The lexical and conceptual parallels to Colossians 1:9-11 are astounding)

1.

The Request - Here are the specific things I’m asking for (v9)

2. The Purpose - Here is the ultimate reason I’m asking (vv 10-11a)

3. The Final Result - Here is what will happen if this is answered (v 11b)

Let’s look at the REQUEST:

1. LET LOVE ABOUND

Just like in other letters, it’s a major theme:

Biblical love is not mushy gushy.

The Bible is not a hippie manual (“All you need is love!”).

Biblical love is sacrificial (agape¯) love.

It involves action (1 John 3:11-18).

For the Thessalonians’ love to have this type of reputation has to mean that their love was visible.

Do you want your love to be known throughout the entire region?

Their love was known by others, and Paul says, “Come on, let’s love even more.”

You have to admire his zeal for more impact!

[Merida, Tony.

Exalting Jesus in Philippians (Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary) (p.

39).

B&H Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.]

THIS LOVE HAS NO OBJECT.

Is it love for God?

Is it love for the church?

Is it love for the lost?

taking his cue from Jesus

What’s so courageous about that?

We know the starting point is love - he wants it to abound so much that it colors the way they learn.

He didn’t ask for stuff, or power, or position.

This Courageous love is...

2. LET KNOWLEDGE & DISCERNMENT ACCOMPANY LOVE

Just like in other letters, Knowledge is a major theme:

Knowledge with Love = OUTREACH & EVANGELISM = Making Disciples

DISCERNMENT - “Depth of insight (NIV)”

to have the capacity to perceive clearly and hence to understand the real nature of something—‘to be able to perceive, to have the capacity to understand, understanding.

The idea of testing is clearly in view in the Greek word dokimazō, translated “discern.”

The testing is with a view to approving.

The word was used in testing metals and coins, to determine whether they met the specified standards.

This kind of “more and more” growth helps weed out apostacy, false doctrine, false converts,

What’s so courageous about that?

It isn’t distracted by the tyranny of the urgent, temporary needs, it’s a sniper-like focus - dialing in what matters most - our maturing in a way.

We’ve seen the Request, now...

LET’S LOOK AT THE PURPOSE

Philippians 1:10-11a

10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11a filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ...

1. APPROVE WHAT IS EXCELLENT

The purpose of this love is to “approve what is excellent.”

The verb here means to “test and approve” (dokimazō).

The closest parallel is Romans 12:2, where Paul calls for renewal of the mind so that “by testing you may discern [dokimazō] what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

A discerning type of love will enable the Philippians to set their highest affections on the highest virtues and not get distracted by devoting themselves to lesser, peripheral matters.

Love would weigh matters in view of the deeper purposes of God, and thus make decisions and carry them into action.

To “be able to discern what is best,” as this verse indicates, required that some things would be rejected by love as not being best.

Love was therefore a thinking thing, which, like wisdom, observed, and sifted, and decided.

There may be many ways to make decisions, but Paul prayed that their way would be the highest; the way of love.

Thus the pure and blameless quality of life came through prayer, as did the righteousness indicated in the next verse.

The pure person was one who was sincere and honest and whose mind was not polluted by those things which did not come from God.

(The College Press NIV Commentary: Philippians Colossians & Philemon B. Prayer for Love Growing toward Glory (1:9–11))

How do you get the mind of Christ?

“Read your Bible, Pray every day and you’ll grow, grow, grow”

This first purpose mentioned was “near” or a more immediate purpose.

Now, we should be approving what is excellent; testing every system and thought...

So that when the day of Christ comes, we can be pure and blameless, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.

Alec Motyer beautifully writes:

To Paul, then, the life of the Christian is a life of programmed growth.

His vision is clear as he looks forward to the completion of God’s handiwork (verse 6) in a life that is pure and blameless, completely filled with the fruit of righteousness.

But all this is in the future, an ideal reality to which the believer progressively approximates.

If there were any other way, any easier path, any shorter route to perfection, would not the yearning love of the apostle say so?

But there is no such thing, no sudden righteousness.

The contrast between what we might wish and what the all-wise providence of God has decreed is perfectly touched off in Psalm 126:4–6.

The people of God feel their need for a new and restoring work of the Lord and long that it should happen with all the suddenness and fullness exemplified by the rains which, at an instant, fill the dried-up river-beds in the Negeb.

But this is not the Lord’s way: sowing in tears must precede reaping with joy; the seed must be carried out before the sheaves can be carried in.

We might well wish it otherwise; we sometimes hear different programmes proposed by preachers; we may be offered this experience or that technique as a quick way to holiness.

But of such things Paul knew nothing—not even for his beloved Philippians.

Kent Hughes says,

Life for everyone, and especially believers, is a series of choices.

What we choose day to day will shape the course of our lives.

Foolish choices will leave us unprepared for the coming King.

It is the little choices that determine our spiritual vitality because they in turn govern bigger choices.

Most of us have little trouble distinguishing the big issues.

We know that theft and murder are wrong and that generosity and justice are right.

But in the gray area, choices involve a range of options that are not so clearly moral or clear-cut.

It is here that we find difficulty in discerning the best.

What confused lives so many Christians lead because they do not have the wherewithal to discern what is best.

...

...“if God’s children overflow with love to God and others, along with a growing personal knowledge of God and Christ and practical insight, they will be able to discern and choose what is superlative—the best over the second best—the best over the good—the best in knowledge of God—the best in priorities—the best in habits—the best in pleasures—the best in pursuits—the best course of action for themselves and for their families.”

2. BE PURE AND BLAMELESS

The result of a love rich in knowledge and discernment, firmly fixed on excellent things, is moral purity and completeness.

“Pure” (eilikrinēs) has the sense of being morally unmixed, while “blameless” (aproskopos) focuses more on being faultless in respect to external actions.

The combination of these two terms conveys a sense of completeness, covering both internal (“pure”) and external (“blameless”) aspects of Christian holiness.

This purity is not a moral achievement but a divine gift.

Christians will be pure and blameless only by being “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ” (1:11; for this theme in the OT, see Ps. 1:3 and Jer.

17:8).

“Fruit of righteousness” probably refers to fruit that flows from righteousness, identified as the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22–23.

This moral fruitfulness flows from the righteousness from God found in Jesus Christ (Phil.

3:9).

This verse thus portrays the Reformation truth that the faith that alone justifies does not remain alone.

Pure and blameless.