Love From Knowing Him – Philippians (NIV)
Love From Knowing Him – Philippians (NIV)
Paul starts this letter as others: a greeting to the readers, believers in Philippi, and wishing them grace and peace. He thanks God for them and their partnership in the gospel. He shares his confidence in God’s working in them and that He’ll finish what He started:
1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
His confidence comes from his confidence of his own state in God’s grace: they share it.
He also shares his prayer for the Philippians:
* That their love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight
* So that:
* They may be able to discern what is best
* They may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ
* They may be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ
* To the glory and praise of God.
Discernment, purity and fruit of righteousness from Jesus Christ coming from love based on knowing God.
My take on it is simply the more you know God, the more you love, can love and do love God. Through this love, we gain discernment, purity and produce more fruit of righteousness. And all of this glorifies Him.
I love these prayers because I think they concentrate core aspects of life with Christ. Knowledge leading to love leading to doing what is best, remaining pure, producing righteous fruit and glorifying God. Godly living based on love from knowing Him.
It also somewhat changes the question from what should I do to what should I know. And the answer is Him. And when you do that (i.e., know Him), the results will follow which primarily is love. The rest follows naturally.
We tend to work so hard at godly living in our actions. We focus a lot of application (I’m guilty above all others there). I’m speaking for myself. I know others seek emotional highs or "book" knowledge or other things based on their personality. I look for acts. Ironically, the best and right way to acts for God is knowing Him.
And knowing Him comes from all of the above. But that should be the core, foundation and cornerstone. Knowing Him. From depth there, we get breadth of all else.
Paul could have stopped with "that their love may abound more and more" but he gives a bit of a sales pitch to attract. As usually, my eyes are caught by the flashy lights and move past the core of the idea: love. And it’s from knowing Him.