Philippians 1:9-11 | Learning to Love

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Woodworking

A couple of years ago I picked up the hobby of classical woodworking. Meaning, I am building furniture and other items, mostly without the use of power tools and theoretically with more precision than I could accomplished with power tools. I considered myself relatively handy. I know my way around a circular saw, and have become pretty proficient with my compound miter saw, but what I learned very quickly is that the skills I had learned for using power tools to build large things like deck frames, shelves and workbenches didn’t really transfer to fine woodworking.

With each project, new skills started to become second nature. Cutting to measurements so prices that you use a knife to mark the line, because a pencil mark is too wide became a matter of muscle memory. How to hold a saw correctly, and using a hand plane with concern for the grain of the wood became is now instinct rather than deliberate thought. Now, I have long way to go in this hobby, but with each project I pick up new skills and refine those I have previously learned.

The Skill of Love

Love is like learning a new skill, especially this Greek idea of Agape that we find all over the New Testament, translated as love. See we usually associate love with an emotion that we have no control over, a strong desire, or emotion. But our bible speaks of love as something that is commanded and cultivated.

In Ephesians 5:25 Paul says to husbands:

Ephesians 5:25 KJV 1900

25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

And Jesus doesn’t say that love is something that flows out of us, rather he instructs us to make a decision to love when he say:

Matthew 22:37–39 KJV 1900

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

These are commandments, orders, not recommendations or requests.

If you would turn your Bibles to Philippians 1 starting in verse 9, our passage today is Paul’s prayer for the Philippians. And in in this prayer his desire for them to grow in love.

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.

Our message today is entitled “Learning to Love”

Pray

Tension

A Track Record of Love

There is no doubt that the church in Philippi had great love for the Apostle Paul and for the work of God. Paul even bragged on them to the In the book of 2 Corinthians where he said:

2 Corinthians 8:1–2 KJV 1900

1 Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; 2 How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.

Studies have shown that the poorest Americans give to charity on average, around 4.3 percent of their income, while the wealthiest give only 2.1 percent. Macedonians, people from the province where Philippi reside are mentioned here and and in Romans 15:26 for their generosity. Even from their deep poverty.

But Even as they are known for their love and charity, Paul prays for the love of the Philippians to:

abound yet more and more

This assumes that the Philippians had love that abounded prior to Paul’s letter, and we see that love demonstrated in scripture on more than one occasion. But there was still space for their love to mature and grow, and Paul gave them two areas to consider

Abound in Love with Knowledge

First Paul prayed that their love abounded in knowledge. Here we are speaking about the givens, things that are known without question. In the massive, 10 volume Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, it is pointed out that this word ἐπίγνωσις (epignosis)

become almost a technical term for the decisive knowledge of God

A Human understanding of Love

The problem we have with love, is the problem we have with everything else. We have a a fallen view of it, because we have a fallen nature. When the world thinks of love, they think of something that can be fallen in and out of. It is easy to love someone, when they are a blessing.

Even the popular hymn that we all sang as children, is based on our fallen view of love.

Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus.

Why?

Because he first loved me

Now don’t get me wrong, this is exactly why you love Jesus. It is because he first loved you, but it demonstrates the fickleness of man’s heart. Godly love doesn’t love this way. I had mentioned earlier that we are talking about Agape love.

The Greeks had 6 words that translate to “Love”, 3 of which are found in the books of the New Testament:

Eros, which was a romantic love. C.S. Lewis commented in his book “the four loves” about Eros, he wrote:

Eros involved a loss of control that frightened the Greeks. Which is odd, because losing control is precisely what many people now seek in a relationship. Don’t we all hope to fall “madly” in love?

Phileo, Which is a deep friendship, This is the word that the city of Philadelphia is named after, the city of brotherly love. It is a love that could be defined as a camaraderie that is forged between people with common interests and values.

And Agape, which is the word we most often find in our Bible. This idea of a universal love. Again referencing Lewis, he refers to this kind of love as a “gift love”. it is a love that is given without anything in return and comes out of a heart that values others.

The song says that we love Jesus because he first loved us, and while this is true, we would be hopeless if God’s love carried the same criteria. False systems of religion are this way. Their deities only extend favor to those who appease and honor them, But the earthly ministry of the messiah begins with

Peace, Good will towards men

and concludes with

While we were yet sinners, Christ died.

Godly love

As we grow as Christians our love changes. We no longer love only by romance or camaraderie, but we love because people have value. Because they are souls with life given by our God. As our knowledge of God increases and we grow in sanctification, how we love will change also.

Abound in Love with Judgment

Not only should love be matured by knowledge, but also judgment. That is a tough word for us as Christians. As soon as it comes up everyone jumps to Matthew 7:1:

Matthew 7:1 KJV 1900

1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.

And while I am sure that this is a subject we will tackle in greater detail at a later date, let me just say that context and the initial language is very important here. In Matthew we are talking about religious leaders, who thought they were better than everyone else condemning, pretty much everyone else around them. This judgment is the idea of being able to perceive clearly and understand the nature of something.

That reality is that people love people and things ignorantly all of the time.

Sports

Today people pledge their love and fidelity to sports, I think more than anything else. They obsess over their favorite teams and allow their victory or loss to drive their attitudes. Children are more likely to spend time on a sports field than in church, or even the dining room table.

Politics

The love of politics is so great that we have allowed political views to break apart families. Our love for our candidates or ideologies can become so intense that it prevents us from even reaching people with the gospel.

Music

I am sure it is no different today than when I was teenage, but people can become obsessed with musicians. We have all seen footage from long before I was born of countless teenage girls loosing their mind when the Beatles first came to America.

Selfishness

But far and away, the place people place their love, more than anywhere else…is in themselves. 2 Timothy 3:2 begins with

For mens shall be lovers of their own selves

This takes the form in greed, covetousness, substance abuse, video game addiction, and any other way you can think of which by people might satisfy their flesh.

There is sad trend among young people today of shying away from marriage; and even more so choosing not to have children. This speaks to peoples lack of judgment, their lack of understanding when it comes to love. So many people today come from families where the parents are broken up if they were ever together to begin with. So many come from families where the parents don’t treat eachother well. So man children either don’t know what it is like to have examples of godly parents in the home, and so they reject the whole notion of a family being something that is valuable.

Often times when I am in the workplace and some young man is about to get married or expecting a child, other men make cracks about how awful their life is going to be, from that point on. I am hear to tell you that the most rewarding thing for me, in my life, is the love of my wife and the love of my children. I always try to tell these young people that marriage is one of the greatest things in the world, getting to spend your life in love with someone who cares about you more than anyone else in the world, who you can spend your experiences with and share life’s joy. People often act like having children is like they have caught some sort of infectious disease, but I am here to tell you that there is nothing like having the love of your child, or seeing their joy as they experience life. There is no greater feeling of accomplishment than seeing them walk in the way you have taught them.

Love in Understanding

When people begin to love more like the way that God loves, it changes everything. Nobody loves their children because they first love us. There is an entire world out there that doesn’t know Jesus, that rejects and hates the things of God; and we aren’t going to ever reach them if we wait around for them to first love us. No we have to love them. Even when it is difficult. Just like how Christ loved us you and I first.

We can’t get around the truth. “Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus. Because he first loved me.” 1 John 4:19 says

1 John 4:19 KJV 1900

19 We love him, because he first loved us.

That is the human condition. That is the entire capacity of our love prior to conversion, because what does Romans 3:11 say

Romans 3:11 KJV 1900

11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

It’s not until God reaches into our lives that we can gain judgment and understanding in love. And as we grow in Christ that ability to love also grows. And then Matthew 5:44 doesn’t feel like such a foreign concept

Matthew 5:44 KJV 1900

44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

We don’t love them because they first loved us, we love them because they are the created and loved work of God. And they are valuable, and worthy of our love, regardless of how they reciprocate that love.

Result

Paul continues his prayer for the Philippians that their lives demonstrate the results of having love, both in knowledge and in judgment.

Approve things that are excellent

First in v10 that they

approve things that are excellent

just mean to allow, but it means to verify the genuine nature of something by testing.

When I set up the church facebook page, and then made it so that I could advertise from that page, facebook didn’t just take my word that I was who I said I was. They started by requiring me to set up a username and password, as the first steps in verifying my identity. And then because of the nature of what I would be advertising they sent a code in a letter to my house, requiring me to enter it online to verify that I was honest about where I lived. Finally, because fraud and page hijacking has become so prevalent, they require me to pull up a third party program on my phone that gives me an authentication code every time I try to log into facebook from a device that I haven’t logged into before.

Facebook spends a lot of time and energy verifying that my claims about my identity are genuine. But if our online identity is that important, how much more important is it for us to prove out the genuineness of how we choose to love.

It is nothing for us today to find teachers in churches that love themselves more than God, and are motivated by their love of self rather than the truth of God. If you ever get the opportunity, and you would be better off if you didn’t, to hear preachers that spew hatred rather than the truth from the pulpit, it can be a shock. What can be more of a shock is to hear the hooting and hollering in the background of those in the congregation cheering on that vileness.

It is important that we as a church major on love. If we focus on love with at least the same fervency that some churches place on standards that can be measured against love, they would have matured enough in their Christian walk that when they hear words of hate, they could test it’s genuineness against the love of God and would summarily reject it as the false rhetoric that it is.

Be sincere and without offence

And then Paul continues that they would be

sincere without offence

A woman, Lori Palatnik, who is a leader in the Jewish community once said

Those who say they are brutally honest, are usually more brutal than honest

The Greek word εἰλικρινής (eilikrenes) means to be judged by sunlight.

Pot making was a huge industry in the ancient world. Often times if the pot was damaged in some way, a merchant would patch the pot with wax and it would be indiscernible in doors. A careful customer could take the pot out doors and inspect the pot in the daylight, if wax was used to cove an imperfection it would show darker than the rest of the pot.

Today many people have engaged in what is referred to as discernment ministries. In reality this is nothing more than someone sitting in front of a keyboard and pointing out every perceived theological flaw that they can find in the world. The more famous and well regarded the persons that they go after, the better. Now I do think that as error enters the church, and as false teachers make themselves apparent, it is right for the church to address them by name. But I take exception to people who make their occupation bashing everyone who they don’t agree with. Proverbs 15:1 tells us that

Proverbs 15:1 KJV 1900

1 A soft answer turneth away wrath: But grievous words stir up anger.

Our culture has become less and less capable of disagreeing civilly, especially when we are a step removed from those who we are communicating with by the internet. We can’t read peoples facial expressions, we can’t see their body language and it is difficult to have compassion when we see someone only as a profile picture followed by some words. We forget that their is a person on the other side of the screen.

Love isn’t blind to error. Love isn’t incapable of correction. But Paul prays that the love of the Philippians has abounded, to such a degree that they are honest, but not brutally. He says, without offence, meaning blamelessly.

Some of you have heard this story before, I don’t think I have ever mentioned it in a message, but it is something that effected me so much I have told this story many times. My wife and I went to a marriage conference, sort of a pep rally for marriage, that was put on by Kirk Cameron. At the end of the program, they opened it up to Q&A and a women asked a question that honestly made me squirm a little as she was asking it. She asked something along the lines of “I spend a lot of time away doing missions work and leave my children with family, I have been criticized for neglecting my children. How do explain to the people who are criticizing me about this that ministry is important and has to come first”. So, I hope that you, without me explaining it, see the error in her thinking. Kirk’s response is what impacted me. He stopped for a second and you could tell he was trying not to tear down this woman in front of everyone. And he responded by turning it back on himself, and relating an experience he had making a similar error. He told her that when he had strained his family by too aggressive of a film career, he defended it as ministry and serving the greater good. His wife told him to go ahead and make another movie for the devil. You get the point, he was going to let himself and his family become shipwrecked by his ambition. What struck me wasn’t necessarily the answer but the way he delivered it. He was compassionate. He made the correction about himself and allowed himself to look bad by pointing out his own similar error. It wasn’t just him yelling from the stage…listen Lady, you are an idiot, get your priorities right. He related with her. He said, yeah I have been there to, and when I was there I was wrong. Learn from my mistake. And so he brought light to the situation in love, without offence.

Filled with the fruits of righteousness

Finally Paul prays that this abounding love will cause them to be, as it says in v11

Philippians 1:11 KJV 1900

11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

There are certain expectations out of the life of a maturing Christian:

We of course know of the fruit of the spirit in Gal 5:22-23

Galatians 5:22–23 KJV 1900

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

And in Romans 1:13 Paul tells the Romans

Romans 1:13 KJV 1900

13 Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.

Clearly indicated that the work of God produces converts to Christ, for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I think it would be wise to share Warren Wiersbe’s insight on this passage when he wrote:

The fruit tree does not make a great deal of noise when it produces its crop; it merely allows the life within to work in a natural way, and fruit is the result.

Action

Where are we in our love? Does it abound more and more? If you haven’t decided to love Jesus because he has first loved you, then now is the hour of your salvation. You could never love yourself as much as he loves you and so I implore you today to put your life in his care. If you know that you don’t know the love of God in your life, I ask that you not leave here today without making the decision to repent of your sins, and to put your faith and trust in the Lord. In a few moments we are going to dismiss in prayer. After, If you have questions about salvation, or if you just need someone to pray with about your salvation, I will be here as long as need be, please grab me after the service.

For those of you who are Christians. My prayer for you is the same prayer Paul has for the Philippians. That your love abounds more and more in knowledge and in judgment. That your live a Christian life driven and directed by the Love of Christ and that you are constantly striving to see that love increase. Today is a good time to make that commitment to the Lord.

Pray