#3 Philippians - Facing Life's Questions with Love

Dr. Ron Sumners

April 25, 2010

Philippians 1:9-11

We all live with stress. Between working and shopping and youth sports and church and civic involvements, we all have more activity than we have time and there always seems to be more month than money! We are pulled in many different directions and we have to make very important decisions about our priorities and time allocation every day.

You know that your stress level is high when:

• The school principal has your home number on speed- dial.

•  You and your dog are both on valium.

  • People have a hard time understanding your young children because they have learned to speak listening to you, so they speak with clenched teeth!

• You are trying to get your four-year-old to switch to decaf.

• The number of jobs held by the family members exceeds the number of people in the family!

• There is no time to wait for a micro-wave dinner

• "Family meetings” are often mediated by law- enforcement officials.

• Zoloft gives you a bulk discount rate!

The stresses of life; be they big or small, are wonderful opportunities to see God’s grace at work. It is during the times of stress that our response to that stress says far more about our lives than we want to say with words. What we need, to face our everyday life, is a wisdom that far exceeds our problems. We need to know how to respond to the spouse that does not respond, how to handle the children that only seem to add to the tension in the home, how to juggle work deadlines and at least a few hours of sleep. What we need is God’s grace to guide us through our daily lives. Paul prays for the Philippians that they would obtain this kind of wisdom, that they would be able to face life’s challenges with an understanding that will far surpass common wisdom. 

Last week we looked at Paul’s prayer in verse 3-8. Paul gave thanks for the fact that the Philippians had been his partners in ministry. Now he begins to instruct them about how the Christian faith helps us make our way through life with love.

Our love must be increased.

It is important to remember that love is not the impulse, emotion or sentiment so often portrayed in our culture. Love is the volition; it is an act of the will. Love is a choice to give without thought of return. People talk about “falling in love.” No, you might fall into a hole or a trap. You don’t fall into love. Love is a choice. You may fall in “like” or “appreciate” but love is a choice of the heart and the will. “I can’t help falling in love with you,” is a weak excuse for infidelity and hasty, unhealthy relationships. God loves us and gave Himself for us through love. That kind of “agape” love is not born of emotion, but rather from the heart and will of God. It is an act of His will and mind. Our love should be the same.

The cardinal principle of Christian growth is that growth must never stop. We are to be fountains, not drains. We are to love more all the time. Love that is stagnant stinks!

Can you imagine a husband, who after twenty years of marriage has lost every romantic bone in his body? The most giving thing he has done in the past five years is to let his wife hold the TV remote when he goes to get a snack from the kitchen himself rather than asking her to get the snack for him! He still loves his wife; he has simply forgotten that she needs to know that he still chooses her every day.

Paul is not accusing the Philippians of lacking in love, but that where there is to be love, there must be more love. God is not content with the love you have had, but wants your love to overflow. We should run out of places in which to show love before we run out of love!

Often, we voice the words of love, but the actions vanish like cotton candy in the mouth. We may profess love for people in general but love very few in particular. We want to love all of mankind; it’s just people we hate! We operate, most of the time, on a level of superficial politeness. People are more a burden and a bore than they are a joy!

When facing the uncertainties of life, when we need to know what to do; the first answer is love. In Galatians 5:6, Paul also summarizes the Christian life stating, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” When faced with choices in life, the first question asked must be, “Is this action loving toward God and others?”  St. Augustine’s dictum works here, “Love God and do as you please.”

Our love must be instructed.

Love that is formless is useless. Love must be shaped by God’s Word. Several years ago, the mighty Mississippi River flooded over its banks in Missouri. It destroyed whatever was in its path. The water of the Mississippi has flowed out into the Gulf of Mexico for thousands of years and it has sated the thirst of the Midwest. When the Mississippi haphazardly ignores its channels and banks, devastation results. Just like a powerful river, our love must be channeled or else there can be great damage to us and others.

The means by which God desires our love to be guided is through knowledge. But Paul uses a word here which means more than just a collection of facts. The word here for knowledge always refers to knowledge of the things of God. It is knowledge that sees to the heart of the matter, and is able to grasp something as it really is. This practical knowledge informs love as to the right circumstances, aims, ways, and means to be applied to specific situations. 

To clarify this knowledge, Paul adds the word translated “depth of insight.” This insight refers to the perception, the ability to grasp the significance of an issue. This is the by-product of knowledge: the ability to make moral decisions. We move from the knowledge of the truth to the application of truth.

These two function together; it is not enough to handle the cold facts, but to know how they impact the situation. As your response to the gospel must flow out into ever widening circles of love toward others, you need to know what God’s Word says about how to act and then you need to know the concrete, practical ways this applies to your life. For example; how should you respond to the bum on the street begging for money? How should you discipline your children, what should you say or not say? How do you respond to relatives at family gatherings who act like jerks?

Instructed love discerns what is best. When we allow our love to be guided by knowledge, then we are able to discriminate in our choices. The word “discern” or “approve” here means we can recognize the value of something. This word was used in commerce to test whether coins were genuine or counterfeit.

We must be able to set proper value on things, it is not so much the ability to distinguish good from bad, but good from the best, to focus your time and energy on what really matters. It is the ability to prioritize, to test something for the purpose of approval.

The great majority of believers don’t test anything; they live by their moods and not by their minds. Let’s be honest; we don’t want to think about moral and ethical choices; we want to be amused. We don’t know how to approve things that are excellent when we are geared to do nothing but react to stimuli! We are a society ruled by our glands rather than our minds!

We are much like the pilot who said to the people aboard his plane, “I have bad news and good news. The bad news is that we have lost all instrumentation and don’t have a clue where we are. The good news is that we have a favorable tail wind and we are making excellent time!” That is how many of us live; by mood and emotion.

Have you grown in your faith as a member of Meadow Brook Baptist Church? I hope you have but I have a more important question. How has your love grown since you became a member here?

If you know more and love less, watch out! What you have taken is not biblical knowledge, but trivia. Biblical knowledge will affect the affections; it will involve your emotions. It will produce empathy for others. Be wary of those who profess to understand the truths of God yet they become more and more exclusive and condemning of those who do not accept their supposed truths. If you know the truth of God; it will lead you to love, not the condemnation of others!

The absence of love will keep us from responding to life’s stresses in a way which pleases God. If we have love, but lack the knowledge as to how to respond, we are just as lost. Love and truth must be combined to face the trials we have, be they big or small.

Our love must be impeccable.

Paul prays that our love would keep growing, that biblical love necessitates biblical knowledge. In verse 10 he turns the heat up a little more. He says that he wants the Philippians to grow in knowledge and love so that they would be pure and blameless.

Growth in biblical love produces a moral quality in our life. The word used here for “pure” literally means to be “sun-tested,” its root is the same word the KJV uses here: “sincere”. It means “without wax.”

In the ancient world inferior earthen pots might have cracks or weak places in them. Dishonest merchants would cover the cracks with a sealing wax. After the pots were painted, it was almost impossible to tell. The test was to hold them up in the sunlight. The light would show through the wax and reveal the weakness!

If your life and love is held up to the “SON,” what is revealed? When it comes to responding to the stresses in life, our response, being controlled by a love that grows in knowledge and moral insight, must be pure, free from the mixed motives and questionable qualities.

Do you respond to stress in ways that are far from pure? It is easy to bite back and to return anger. Paul is saying that the flaws in the lives of believers must not be covered up with wax. Even if we smile and appear pious when we respond with questionable motives; the truth of God’s Word will reveal the “wax” of our hypocrisy.

Love that knows God’s Word will be pure. It will not market itself as something that it is not! We are all cracked pots, but we can allow the light of the Son of God to shine through us. For the Christian, purity and sincerity, is a transparent life, which shows warts and all to a world which desperately needs; not purity, but honesty!

How many times have you tried to cover up your sin and imperfection rather than admitting that you are a broken pot that still needs some of God’s sealing wax?

I have talked to many unchurched people through the years about faith and their biggest struggle and objection to the Christian faith was the hypocrisy of Christians.

The love which grows in wisdom, that is pure and blameless, is a love which we must see at work in us. That is true because the Grace of God is at work in us!

The ultimate purpose for which Paul prays is not their benefit, but for the Glory of God.

Paul concludes his prayer on a note of praise. His thanksgiving returns to the divine basis on which it had begun. God’s saving work in you, the love He produces in you is all for His glory.

As you face all the stresses of life; let knowledge and love lead you closer to God and to others!