Overflowing With Love

Prayer

A Life of Divine Joy is a Life Marked by Love

This love has the following characteristics: It is

What are different ways that we can show love for one another? This week as we were finishing up eating dinner, I asked my children the different ways that they could think of to show someone that they loved them. Here were some of their responses (and I got permission to share this with you, by the way):

Hugs. Kisses.

Draw them a picture

Send them a valentines day Card

Send a mothers day card

Send a Fathers day card.

Send a birthday card. (they like cards)

Tell them they look beautiful

Tell them you love them

Be nice to them.

The mind of a child is amazing. Though they are young, they were able to recognize and see that there were many ways that love can be expressed, and each answer reveals a little peak into their minds.

It’s also amazing that God has given us so many ways to express love for one another. There are words we can say, actions we can do, gifts we can give, time that can be spent…the possibilities are endless.

We are working through the book of Philippians. Philippians is about having Divine Joy for our Earthly Journey. Though Paul and the Philippians were suffering for their faith, Paul’s overall tone and theme is one of joy! Last we we saw how he was so grateful for the Philippians, how they were his partners in ministry. Paul’s love and joy for the Philippians was because they were willing to engage in Gospel ministry and be an encouragement to him, even at great personal cost. So he tells them he is thankful for them.

Today we come to the end of Paul’s opening statements of the letter where Paul details out to us what it is specifically that He prays for the Philippians. Does he pray that their suffering would end? Does he pray that they might be free from hardship? Does he pray that God would provide for their needs?

No.

Paul’s prayer for the Philippians is that they would overflow in love, so that they might pursue the best things with the result that they be found blameless and pure at the day of Christ.

A life of divine joy despite life’s difficulties is a life that that is marked by love. There are three characteristics of love that Paul gives here. What sort of love ought we to pursue? What sort of love does Paul pray for?

A Love that is ever increasing

A Love that is informed by knowledge

A Love that is future oriented

Let’s read our text together:

Philippians 1:9–11 ESV

9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

A Love that is Ever Increasing

God’s Word has much to say about love. We are told of God’s love for us.

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 5:8 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We are told of the power of love:

1 Peter 4:8 ESV

8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

We are told that love is the greatest of the great Christian triad of faith, hope and love:

1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

As as a result, we are told to “Pursue love” in the very next verse (1 Cor 14:1)

Love is listed as the first of the Fruit of the Spirit in Gal 5

And we are told to love one another as brothers and sisters:

Romans 12:10 ESV

10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

So we have all this talk in the NT about love, that God loves us, that we ought to love one another, that one of the identifying marks of being a Christian is love, and that our love ought to be increasing.

But what is love?

I also asked my children to tell me what love itself is.

It means you like someone

It means you think they’re cool

and my personal favorite response: “I don’t know, but I love cantaloupe”

Defining love has been a challenge, and this has only become more difficult because of the different ways we use the word love. My son might say he loves cantaloupe, and this means he greatly enjoys the taste of the fruit. Some might say “I love my favorite sports team” but they don’t mean they are eating them. And a man might say “I love my wife” and he will mean something different than when he said he loves his baseball team....or at least, he should right?

And so we end up with different ideas about what love is:

Some say that love is a feeling. You know it when you have it. You know when it’s not there. But relationships built on the feelings that love can produce are not going to stand the test of time.

Some say that love is a skill. It’s something that is cultivated through practice. Some people are better at it than others. and you can increase or decrease in you skill based on how you practice the discipline.

Others say that love is a choice. You don’t have to feel like you love someone, you don’t have to be good at it, you just have to make the choice to do it. You are called to love, so you must love. You may feel that you hate that person, but you need to make the choice to love them anyway.

The biblical picture of love is multifaceted. 1 Cor 13 gives a list of what love looks like (it is patient and kind, not envious, boastful, arrogant, rude, or selfish, but rejoices in goodness and truth) but it doesn’t really tell us what it is. So we are left with collecting all the information about love and the things it produces to see the big picture.

The concept of love seems to revolve about a mindset or a disposition toward someone that affects our behavior toward them. It is a mindest or disposition that affects behavior.

So while we might view someone as unlovable by fleshly standards, if we have a disposition of love, a mindset that sees them as individuals made in the image of God, individuals that God calls me to treat with dignity and respect, then that will affect how we interact with them. It means we will serve them. Speak graciously to them. be patient with them and their failings. be generous with them. etc. even if that treatment isn’t recprocated. Even if they don’t treat me with love, I still love them.

It is a mindset or disposition that affects our behavior toward others.

And Paul prays that the Philippians love would grow. That it might abound still more and more!

The concept of abounding refers to having something in such great measure that is overfills the storage capacity. Think of a pool of water that is fed by an underground spring. The pool fills up, but the water keeps coming. There is an abundance of water and the pool is not only full, but it overflows its brim and the water spills out.

Paul not only wants the Philippians to abound, to overflow in love, but to do so more and more.

You think you’re overflowing right now, but just wait, there’s more. I can remember family barbecues at home growing up and I might have a plate full of food. My dad would ask “Do you have enough food there?” and I would say oh yes. to which he would reply “Good! have some more” while putting additional food on my plate. One time in particular he did it when I wasn’t watching and the extra weight from the food caused it to slip out of my hands onto the ground. Abounding still more and more.

You might think you love is abounding, its overflowing, but here, have some more!

That’s the idea here. A love that is ever increasing. That we be so full of love for God and love for others than when we bump into people, love spills out.

This can take a variety of forms. Acts of service. Kind words. Hugs. Co-laboring alongside one another. Generosity. Etc.

Love will look different depending on your relationship with the person. The ways I love my wife will differ from the ways I show love to my children. How I love my children will be different from how I love my parents, and it will look different from how I love the folks of Pillar Fellowship and the stranger I pass on the street.

But the mindest and disposition of love should be present in all these relationships.

So Paul wants us to be ever increasing in love, but how do we go about doing that? This love is to be ever increasing, and it is to be a love that is informed by knowledge. It is informed by knowledge.

A Love that is Informed by Knowledge

Philippians 1:9 ESV

9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,

Love is improved by knowledge. Love is improved by knowledge.

So we might ask, knowledge of what?

In the context of Paul, he often uses this word for knowledge to refer to spiritual knowledge. In fact, later in this letter he is going to talk about the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ in chapter three.

The more we learn about God, the more we learn from His word, the more we learn about how He would have us live, the more we will grow in our love for others.

But! there is a danger! In another place Paul noted that knowledge tends to puff us up, but love edifies. He almost seems to pit them against each other.

Knowledge can lead someone to pride, but that ought not to be the case. Instead of allowing knowledge to puff us up and make us arrogant, we also need to know how to apply that knowledge, and that’s where discernment comes in.

Paul says I want you to grow in your love in knowledge and all discernment.

The word for discernment is interesting because this is the only time it is found in the NT. But it speaks of having sound judgment, insight into situations, an accurate perception of what is needed.

Knowledge is information. Discernment, or insight, is the application of that knowledge to life.

I used to work with an electrician who went through some Electrical Code classes and passed the test with flying colors and eventually earned his Electrical License. Brilliant mind! Knew the code book incredibly well.

Terrible electrician. The crew I was working with frequently had to go behind him and fix his mistakes.

How does that happen? He had incredible knowledge of the code book! But he lacked discernment. He did not know how to apply the code book to life.

There are many Christians who are not unlike him. They may know their Bibles. They can tell you chapter and verse on some key texts. They might be able to win trivial pursuit, Bible edition every time!

But can they apply that truth to life? Has that knowledge puffed them up without impacting how they live?

I know this has certainly been the case at points in my life, and I hope and pray that it is not the case today. Because the truth is, knowledge tends to puff us up....but it realy ought to humble us. The more you know, the more you learn there is more to learn. The more you know of God’s Word, the more aware you should of God’s grace in your life, and that is not a cause for pride, but humble gratitude before God.

Paul’s prayer was not just that we would gain knowledge, but also that we would learn how to apply it!

Why should we do this?

Why should we desire to love more and learn more?

Paul gives us the answer in verse 10:

Philippians 1:10 ESV

10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

Approve what is excellent.

That’s an interesting phrase. Grow in love in knowledge and discernment, so that, for the purpose of that you may approve the things that are excellent.

The idea here is that we pursue the best things.

As our love is informed by knowledge and discernment, that enables us to pursue the best things. It give us the ability to discern between what is wise and foolish, necessary or trivial, helpful or useless, primary or secondary. The things that are best, we approve. This means we embrace them for what they are: the most excellent thing in a given situation.

And that only makes sense, right? The more you know.

This really is a critical point.

We live in a a day with so much division. So many people are dividing over things that are of really trivial importance. Many have chosen to make secondary matters of first importance, while others have sought to downgrade matters of first important to make them secondary.

There is a remedy to this: pursue a love that is informed by knowledge and discernment! Get into God’s Word! Study it! learn what God says are of first importance! Make those things the emphasis.

Paul was in prison. The church was being persecuted. We are in a precarious place in our nation right now where we are seeing increased pressure upon Christian ideals. We cannot afford to allow ourselves to get caught up in things that don’t really matter. We need to be able to stand along side our brothers and sisters regardless of secondary or tertiary differences.

But how are we to know what really matters and what doesn’t?

It’s here! It’s all in here. When we take the time to allow our love be informed by spiritual knowledge that can only come from a careful study and application of God’s Word, we will learn what things are excellent and we will pursue that.

So a life of divine joy is marked by a love that is ever increasing, a love that is informed by knowledge, and finally, a love that is future oriented.

A Love that is Future Oriented

Notice the end of vs 10:

Philippians 1:10 ESV

10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

As we grow in love, Paul would have us look forward to the day of Christ when we will stand before him.

This phrase speaks of the result that comes from growing in love and pursuing the most important and best things: we will be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.

The idea of being pure means it is unpolluted. The NASB and KJV translate this word as “sincere”. The idea is that there are no hidden motives or secret desires. There is a genuine sincerity in our actions.

Blameless. Being without fault.

Paul says that this is going to be the result of growing in love that is informed by spiritual knowledge and discernment: we are going to grow in our purity, sincerity, and blamelessness.

This does not mean we will attain perfection on this earth, and Paul’s prayer for the Philippians indicates that there is work that needs to be done.

But it does mean that as we grow in love, this will be the result to an increasing degree until we are made perfect when Christ calls us home.

But we live this way, in anticipation of that day.

And he says that when that day comes, we will be pure and blameless before him, because he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ, and so the result will be that of verse 11:

Philippians 1:11 ESV

11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

the word “filled” emphasizes the reality that on that day, we will have been filled with the fruit of righteousness. It will be a past reality with effects felt in the present.

This is not our own righteousness, for we have none. But we, having received the righteousness of Christ, and here it says”which comes through Jesus Christ” we are filled with the fruit of that righteousness. Jesus is the source.

And all of this, growing in love, knowledge, and discernment so as to be found pure and blameless at the day of Christ. all of this to the praise and glory of God.