Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer for love to abound still more and more reflects the heart of what Paul prayed for the believers in Philippi, and it is a beautiful and biblical request.
The love Paul speaks of in Philippians 1:9 is not the love that is only physical or only emotional. One kind of love is centered on the body and on desire, another is centered on the emotions and on friendship and is often reciprocal, loving because we are loved in return. The love Paul prays for is different. It is divine love, a giving and selfless love, the kind of love God has shown to us. Scripture says God is love, and that love is of God. Everyone who loves in this way is born of God and knows God. Its greatest picture is not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the payment for our sins.
That is why this love is greater than spiritual gifts or knowledge alone. A person may have prophecy, understanding of mysteries, or great knowledge, but without love it loses its meaning. Knowledge by itself can puff up, but love builds up. The gifts and even our present knowledge are partial and will pass away, but love remains. Faith and hope are encompassed within love, for love believes all things and hopes all things, and that is why love is the greatest.
So Paul prays that this divine love would abound in real knowledge and all discernment. This is not knowledge that only inflates, but knowledge that is joined to love and therefore edifies. As love grows in that kind of knowledge, you are given discernment to approve what is excellent, to choose what is best and to walk in what pleases the Lord. The purpose is that you may be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, living a life that is genuine and without offense as you wait for His return.
And that life will be filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ. That fruit does not come from your own effort alone, but through Him as you abide in Him and He dwells in you. When we dwell in love, God dwells in us and His love is made complete in us. That fruit is to the glory and praise of God, not to our own credit.
May the Lord answer this prayer in your life, causing His love poured into your heart to grow deeper in true knowledge of Him, to give you clear discernment for what is excellent, to keep you sincere and blameless, and to fill you with the righteous fruit that comes through Jesus Christ for His glory.
The love Paul speaks of in Philippians 1:9 is not the love that is only physical or only emotional. One kind of love is centered on the body and on desire, another is centered on the emotions and on friendship and is often reciprocal, loving because we are loved in return. The love Paul prays for is different. It is divine love, a giving and selfless love, the kind of love God has shown to us. Scripture says God is love, and that love is of God. Everyone who loves in this way is born of God and knows God. Its greatest picture is not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the payment for our sins.
That is why this love is greater than spiritual gifts or knowledge alone. A person may have prophecy, understanding of mysteries, or great knowledge, but without love it loses its meaning. Knowledge by itself can puff up, but love builds up. The gifts and even our present knowledge are partial and will pass away, but love remains. Faith and hope are encompassed within love, for love believes all things and hopes all things, and that is why love is the greatest.
So Paul prays that this divine love would abound in real knowledge and all discernment. This is not knowledge that only inflates, but knowledge that is joined to love and therefore edifies. As love grows in that kind of knowledge, you are given discernment to approve what is excellent, to choose what is best and to walk in what pleases the Lord. The purpose is that you may be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, living a life that is genuine and without offense as you wait for His return.
And that life will be filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ. That fruit does not come from your own effort alone, but through Him as you abide in Him and He dwells in you. When we dwell in love, God dwells in us and His love is made complete in us. That fruit is to the glory and praise of God, not to our own credit.
May the Lord answer this prayer in your life, causing His love poured into your heart to grow deeper in true knowledge of Him, to give you clear discernment for what is excellent, to keep you sincere and blameless, and to fill you with the righteous fruit that comes through Jesus Christ for His glory.
