Paul's Prayer for the Philippians

Introduction

Prayer is important and prayer is powerful, is it not? Many people believe in prayer even if they don’t necessarily believe in Christianity. A study released in 2011 noted that of people who pray, 75% of people are Christian, 5% say that they pray most often in their house of worship, 79% say that they pray most often in their home and only 38% of people said that the most important part of prayer is intimacy with God.

Lots of people pray, even in our postmodern culture. With that said, many people have a warped idea of what prayer is and sadly believe that prayer gets God to submit to our will or that prayer is something to only be done once or for a short period of time and then expect the answer to simply be “no”. We know that prayer is powerful, though, and that God does answer prayer. So we have to understand what prayer is and how it matches with God’s plan.

There seems to be a bit of tension between God’s providence and the role of prayer, right? On one hand, it seems that if prayer can change God’s mind then it seems like God’s plan was not fixed to begin with. Further, if someone prays more then perhaps they could get more providence from God than someone who prays less. On the other side of the coin, if God’s plan is established and set in stone, why even bother praying? These are the two extreme positions. Scripture teaches that God’s plan is certainly fixed, but Scripture also commands us to pray. How does this make sense?

Millard Erickson offers some help when he notes in his book on Christian Theology:

Christian Theology, 3rd ed. Providence and Prayer

Thus, prayer does not change what he has purposed to do. It is the means by which he accomplishes his end. It is vital, then, that a prayer be uttered, for without it the desired result will not come to pass.

Prayer is more than creating a positive mental attitude. Prayer is aligning ourselves with the will of God as we see in the Lord’s Prayer. We continue asking, seeking and knocking. Anyone can pray once about something and never do it again. Persistent prayer is different though. Paul models persistent prayer and this is something that I know many of us could do a better job with.

Paul was a passionate man, he was a passionate Jew before becoming a Christian. Whenever Paul met Christ, though, everything changed. He became a student of the Word and the Word changed him. Just as Paul was a student of the Word, we are called to be students of the Word and to grow in our knowledge of Scripture and to grow in knowledge and in Gospel love.

Paul hits on these points in our text this evening as he prays for these Christians to grow in love, discernment, knowledge and to affection. This is the type of Christian we are called to be right now, friends. Biblically informed and deeply affectionate!

Some Christians will never pursue wisdom and knowledge. Maybe they think that they know enough and that studying Scripture and utilizing resources to do so is bad. Maybe they are caught up in a section of Christianity led by false teachers who prey on emotionally-driven people who are swept away by every wind of false doctrine (). Others, though, have the opposite issue. They study God’s Word intensely and know lots of true doctrinal things, but they lack genuine affection for others.

Christ addresses these issues in with the churches of Ephesus and Thyatira. Ephesus was condemned because they were sound doctrinally but they had lost their first love. Thyatira loved others but they lacked discernment and they tolerated heresy. Both were wrong. As a result, we must pursue both doctrine and love. This is what Paul prays over this church in .

Philippians 1:9–11 NASB95

9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; 11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Paul’s Petition (9)

Paul opens this prayer with a basic petition for these believers to grow in love that is informed by knowledge and discernment. In the English language there is just one word for love and it is called “love”. We know that it is used in different ways and that there are similar words to love, but there is just one term for it: love. In the Greek, though, there are 4 different words for love. Eros, Philia, Storge and Agape. Eros means a love that is usually one of passion. Philia is a love that is one of friendship or brotherly (think of the city of Philadelphia being called the city of Brotherly-love). Storge is a love of affection often between parents and their children or members of the same family. Agape is different though in that it is an unconditional love that is especially found in Scripture to represent the love of God for His children.

The love that Paul calls the Christians in Philippi to grow in was Agape love. Paul emphasizes this love to show the self-sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. This is the type of love that benefits someone else such as when Christ gave His life in order to pay for the sins of the world. We know this love in our lives, don’t we? Whenever a person steps in front of a gunman and lays their life down for someone they love or for a child. That is this type of sacrificial love. Biblical love is not a mushy/gushy love. It’s not a “God loves you just as you are” message. Biblical love is sacrificial and personal. It involves action! The Philippian church had this type of love but Christ calls upon them to grow in it and allow it to abound more and more!

As Christians, as we’ve been studying the Sermon on the Mount lately, we know that we are called to love our neighbor, the poor, our enemies and one another. This can be difficult at times, but Paul encourages these Christians to grow in this love. We should grow in this love as well. A very fundamental question for us to ask ourselves this evening is this: Do I love my brothers and sisters in Christ? The answer should be yes. As Paul notes in , Christian love is a mark of unity. We must love one another and we must love those we come in contact with. We don’t have to necessarily like everyone, but we must love them as Christ has loved us.

How can we do a better job of loving others? By growing in knowledge and discernment. Love is biblically informed. The more and more we know God’s Word the more and more we will love others. Our culture says that we need to be inclusive of everyone and treat everyone fair and equally and give everyone participation trophies in order to make everyone feel good and like a winner. We know that Scripture tells us that a slightly different story, though. The more we study Scripture, the more that we see a distinction between the things of God and the things of this world. The world would love to see unity and inclusivity, but the Gospel message is naturally an exclusive one. Christ Himself declared that He alone is the way, truth and life. There are not multiple ways, but 1 way. Yet, there are many Christians out there too afraid to make that claim or too uninformed of Scripture to make that statement. We must grow in knowledge of God’s Word. We must never think that we know enough. As Spurgeon noted, “My evidence that I am saved does not lie in the fact that I preach, or that I do this or that. All my hope lies in this: that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. I am a sinner, I trust Him, then He came to save me, and I am saved.”

The more and more we study God’s Word, the more we realize that we are sinners. We are bad. We are wicked. Scripture shows us this. But this is actually great news because Christ didn’t come to save great people. Christ came, according to , to die for the ungodly. For the sinners! This is great news. We must study and grow in our knowledge of God’s Word.

We also grow in discernment. There are people out there who preach a watered down, feel good Gospel that says that all religions are basically the same and that there really isn’t a place called hell. This was happening in Paul’s day and it happens in our world today among “Christians” and it is growing rapidly. We need discernment now more than ever! We need to be united and the only way that we can be united in love and knowledge of God’s Word is by relying 100% on the Holy Spirit of God.

One of the statements that I have heard often in my life is “Love God. Love people.” I think this is an awesome statement and it makes for a great motto, but how can we accomplish this statement? How can we love God and love people? First, we have to know God and we have to know people. Just as Paul prays for this church to continue to grow in their love of God and others, I pray that this will be the case for our church this year. That we will truly grow in our love of God and our love of other people, but that we first will know God better and know those around us better. That requires work and hard effort, but it certainly is worth it!

Paul’s Purpose (10)

Verse 10 gives the purpose behind Paul’s petition in verse 9: so that the people would approve things that are excellent and be pure and blameless. The first item is practical as we should approve of things that are excellent and superior. Have you every tried out for a group? Perhaps as a child you tried out for a basketball team or a certain choir in school. What is the purpose of a tryout? Usually the purpose is to weed out the weak players and to get the best possible team. The coach or director does this by judging qualities and abilities. This is the idea Paul gets at here in as the Christians of this church would grow in knowledge and discernment and be able to choose the things that truly matter. Some ways that we can do this in our life today include asking ourselves if the thing that we are doing will bring glory to God or to ourselves? Bringing glory to God might not be easy or fun, but it certainly is “superior” to bringing glory to ourselves. Another question, “Do I value knowing Christ over everything?” This is a question that is convicting to think about because we all struggle with placing things above our relationship with Christ.

Paul is not calling for perfection, he is simply praying that the people would better discern between good and bad. Love seeks what is best for the other person, but sometimes it is hard to figure out what is best, right? There are some instances in our life where it might appear like there are multiple good options. An example, whenever a student graduates high school and gets accepted to 3 colleges and they are all an equal distance away from home and they will cost roughly the same to attend. This is a tough decision to make because all the options appear to be good on the surface. Likewise we face similar situations every day. In moments like this it is crucial for us to seek out what the superior option is. This requires discernment. Paul uses this word not to help determine between good and bad but between good and best.He prays that they grow and that they will be able to figure out the best way to express love towards one another.

All of this is done so that they will be pure and blameless until the return of Christ. The Bible says that Jesus is coming back and that we must be ready! This fact should energize us to act because we know full and well that we will see Him face to face and we should desire to see many other people there as well. As a result of this fact, we should strive to be pure and blameless. We’ve talked about this extensively, we will never be perfect, but we should grow in that direction. Paul prays for these people to be sincere (pure) and without offense (blameless). Did you know that one person can cause the entire church to stumble into disunity?

I once heard a story about 2 people standing on a bridge (one was about to jump off and the other was trying to talk him out of it) the man strikes up a conversation with the jumper, “Are you a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Atheist?” the jumper replied “I’m a Christian!” The man said, “No way, me too! Are you Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox?” The jumper said, “I’m protestant.” The man said, “That’s great, me too! Are you Baptist, Assembly or church of Christ?” The jumper relied, “I’m baptist.” The man said, “That’s awesome, me too! Are you Southern Baptist or Northern Baptist?” The jumper said, “I’m Southern Baptist.” The man said, “Me too! Is your church BFM 2000 or 1963?” The jumper said, “We’re BFM2000.” The man said, “My church too! Do you lean more Calvinistic or Arminian in your doctrine?” The jumper said, “More Calvinistic.” The man said, “Cool, me as well. One more question, do you believe in dispensationalism?” The jumper said, “Not really. I believe in covenantal theology instead.” The man proceeded to push the jumper off the bride and say, “Die heretic.”

While this is a funny story, do you see the irony? We have so much in common that sometimes a tiny difference can cause disunity and division in a way that it never should! The Philippian church was already united in Christ and accepted by God. Paul prays that they would grow in that regard corporately with one another rather than continue to be divided by others. So, church, are we growing in purity and in unity? Are you personally growing in these things as well. Paul encourages Christians to do so. We grow in these ways by being filled with righteousness.

Paul prays that these people, who are already marked with Christ’s righteousness as Christians, would be filled with the fruit of righteousness and demonstrate this righteousness by living righteously. Paul is praying that these people would live a set apart life as Christians and that their actions would seek to grow one another up rather than tear one another and the church down.

So, are we growing in righteousness? Are we lifting one another up?

Paul’s Praise (11)

All of this is done, according to verse 11, for the glory and praise of God. There is nothing greater in our life than to glorify the King of Kings. In watching the second American Gospel movie, the movie made a key distinction between the way that God works and the way that mankind thinks that God works sometimes. Sometimes we want God to be about us. We want Him to fit into our schedule and abide by our restrictions. But God is fundamentally all about God. God is all about Himself. At the surface that sound very narcissistic and egotistical, and it completely is, but praise God that God is all about Himself because He knows best! As a result, the very best thing we can do this side of heaven is not build up for ourselves treasures and material possessions, it’s not to have a large family and lots of cool things, it’s not even to have a huge church and reputation. Rather the greatest thing we can do is to glorify God in all things.

Church, we must be dependent upon God in all areas of life or else we will depend on something else or give the credit to ourselves whenever it rightly belongs to Him. We are to be filled with the Spirit and bear fruit not to look good in front of others but to glorify God and give Him all of the praise.

Conclusion

Paul’s prayer in these three short verses hits on a lot of major things. Paul reminds these people that they are loved by God and they have this love inside of them and that they are to simply let it grow by growing in knowledge and discernment each and every day. The reason that they are supposed to do this is to discern between what is good and what is best in order to be pure and right until the return of Christ and to be bear fruit in order to glorify our heavenly Father.

This is quite an encouraging prayer, is it not? This church is struggling with some things, but Paul prays for them and reminds them that they have everything they need. They have sound teachers, they have the Holy Spirit and they have love. All they need to do is get out of the way and bear fruit and tell others the good news.

I think there is a good application point for us in there as well, friends. We have access to the Word of God unlike any generation before us. We have so many amazing resources out there that can help us better understand the Word as well. Yet, we must grow in our knowledge and our discernment and in our love. We will never be perfect in any of these areas. The smartest person will still not know everything. The most discerning person you know will still make mistakes and the most loving person will still have bad days. The great news and hope for Christians is that God knows our shortcomings and loves us anyways because whenever He see’s us, He see’s His Son. We are united with the same Holy Spirit and we have been forgiven eternally of our sin, so let’s go out and love on others and bear fruit in order to give the glory to God and show others that we have been radically changed by His Gospel.