A2 Phil 1.9-11 Love 08.Dec.2024 SJO. 8&10.30
Malachi 3:1-4; (Luke 1:68-79);
Philippians 1:3-11; Luke 3:1-6.
Unto God be the glory,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
This morning’s epistle is the opening paragraph of St Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi.
Some years ago, I set myself to read the opening paragraphs of all of St Paul’s epistles.
I commend the exercise to you. Various themes recur.
Abundant thanksgiving
- for God’s goodness in Christ,
- but also, and more especially, for the different church communities –
- their vibrant faith,
- their companionship in ministry,
- their support and
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His opening paragraphs are also marked by joy –abundant joy, resilient joy –joy that evidently informs St Paul’s every waking moment. Thanksgiving and joy.
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And the third constant – is prayer.
I’ve often observed we draw near the heart of Jesus – what really makes him tick – when we recognize him as a man of prayer.
St Paul, from the moment of his conversion, resembles his master.
Recall St Luke’s account of our Lord’s sending Ananias to attend to Paul just hours after his conversion: …the Lord said to Ananias, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire …for one called Saul, of Tarsus: idou gar proseucetai behold, he is praying….(Acts 9.11)
One of the surest evidences of a living faith in Christ is prayer: believers desire to pray, and are sustained by prayer.
So it is with Paul, here, in these opening verses of Philippians.
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But not only do we see that he prays, we learn also what he prays.
Verse 9:
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment….
The prayer is for love – love that is informed –
sustained – by knowledge and insight.
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Why is that his prayer?
Because, as he immediately goes on to say – such love brings
further benefits with it.
He identifies three. Verses 10 and 11:
- discernment – …that you may approve things that are excellent;
- integrity – …that you may be sincere and without offence;
- and holiness of life – …being filled with the fruits of
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Reading that, I found myself wanting to know more about this love. What’s love when, in the words of our text, it abounds in knowledge and in all judgment? What does it know? What does it judge? What is its peculiar insight? In pursuit of an answer – look with me at three other passages where St Paul writes about love.
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First, from his earliest epistle –1 Thessalonians.
Chapter 4, verse 9:
Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another….
We love one another because God has taught us to.
How has he taught us? In the gospel.
The story of Jesus – the love of God manifest in his life all the way to the cross and beyond – reproduces itself in those who believe the gospel, those whose lives have found their new centre and focus in Jesus Christ.
That the recipient of God’s mercy and love should prove loveless, merciless, in relation to others, is absurd – in the words of Karl Barth, “…the impossible possibility”.
(Karl Barth, CD 2.1, 505; cf., Prayer,
- W. L. Jenkins [Westminster: 1952], 74)
Hell is reserved for just those in whom the experience of God’s love and mercy in Christ proves barren:
- failing to reproduce itself in a corresponding love and mercy;
- meeting instead with only hardness of heart and meanness of
(Cf., Mt 18.23ff.)
… concerning love of the brothers and sisters [then], you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another….
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For the second thing about love I turn to what is probably the most familiar of all Pauline texts: 1st Corinthians 13.
It’s a verse in the third part of that chapter I draw to your attention.
The apostle has just informed us, verse 8: Love never ends.
By contrast, he writes: our knowledge will end – …it shall vanish away.
Why?
Because – verse 9 – …we know [only] in part.
Love never ends; but knowledge, being partial at best, will end.
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But then, why does the apostle in this morning’s epistle pray that our love may – …abound in knowledge?
What does he want our God-given love to know?
To paraphrase Socrates, he wants us to – ‘…know that we know not’!
(Plato, Apology 22d)
Know not what?
That we know not anywhere near as much about one another as we presume to know!
We make assumptions about each other. We jump to premature judgments of one another. I’ve got you figured out; I pigeon-hole you; I box you up into a predictable package!
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What happens to our love for one other when we presume to know more than we know? Our love becomes – intrusive, controlling, restrictive. It finds fault, is critical, judgmental. And eventually, it grows weary, indifferent…, until finally – it withers away.
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How different is the love that knows that it does not know – that it knows only … in part.
It is … – well, how can I do better than to recite St Paul’s radiant description?
Love is patient; love is kind;
it isn’t envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
It doesn’t insist on its own way;
it's not irritable or resentful;
it doesn’t rejoice in wrongdoing,
but rejoices in the truth.
(1 Cor 13.4-6)
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Two things then about the love for which St Paul prays in this morning’s epistle.
Its teacher is the Lord God – the God of the gospel.
And it knows that it knows not; it knows the limits of its knowledge; – that our knowledge of one another is partial at best.
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For its third element, I take you to Galatians 5, and St Paul’s distinction between what he calls – …the works of the flesh (everything that comes naturally to us), and …the fruit of the Spirit (everything that comes super-naturally to us)!
Chapter 5, verse 19: … the works of the flesh are obvious: …strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels…, factions, envy, and the like.
By contrast, he tells us, verse 22:
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
I want to suggest – provocatively I admit – that, all too often, our love is …of the flesh, ‘natural love’.
It’s what comes naturally to us.
Even in the church, our love for one another is, more often than not, ‘natural’ love.
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What do I mean by natural love? What are its hallmarks?
- It’s
- It's ‘us and them’
- It’s conditional – ‘if you/then I’
- ‘You scratch my back I’ll scratch your back’ love!
Or, taking a more sinister turn, it's possessive, manipulative; deceitful, unfaithful.
This kind of love – love which (whether we care to admit it or not) comes all too naturally to us – produces St Paul’s works of the flesh: … strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels …, envy … and the like.
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In stark contrast…, the love for which St Paul prays is not natural, but supernatural:
…the fruit of God’s Spirit.
It’s the love that manifests itself in every moment of the life of Jesus: the love that radiates from the manger in Bethlehem; the love that rescues the adulteress from her self-righteous pursuers; the love that takes the little children into his arms and blesses them; the love that weeps at the grave of his friend, Lazarus; the love that pleads for the forgiveness of those who’ve nailed him to the cross; the love that – after his resurrection – seeks out and restores to his love the faithless and guilt-ridden Simon Peter.
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God’s purpose in sending his beloved Son into the world, Jesus’ purpose in his life, death, and resurrection, is:
- that we might be rescued from our corrupted loves,
- and – by the grace of God the Holy Spirit – find reproduced within us the love that is our Lord’s very
“My song is love unknown, love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be”.
(Hymn by Samuel Crossman, 1664)
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To conclude.
What have we learned of the love St Paul prays for in this morning’s epistle?
It’s a love that knows it's taught by God – learned of God, in the Gospel.
It’s a love that knows the limits of its knowledge – that we know much less than we think we know – even of those nearest and dearest to us.
And…, it’s a love that knows it's not to be confused with what comes naturally to us, but must be sought, ever anew, in prayer – as the gift and fruit of God’s Spirit.
I finish where we began – with St Paul’s words: I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all insight… being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. Amen.
(Phl 1.9, 11)