I recently began a sermon series in Philippians. You can listen to the sermon here.
How’s your prayer life? When you pray for other believers, how do you pray for them?
In our text today, Paul gives us a wonderful prayer to pray for believers – especially Christians who are young in the faith.
Philippians is a letter that Paul sent to a church that he had planted about 10 years earlier. He was writing to the Christians in Philippi who were discouraged and concerned about his imprisonment.
We saw last week that despite being in prison because of his faith, Paul had great joy because of his relationship with Christ and the Christians at Philippi.
Philippians 1:9-11 (click for text)
BIG IDEA: We should pray for other believers to grow in love and purity as we prepare for the return of Christ.
The request of Paul’s prayer (9)
“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more”…
Paul wants the Philippians to grow in love – in their love for God and in their love for one another. The latter is probably what Paul has in mind.
As we will see in the rest of the letter, the church was struggling to maintain unity. Later in chapter one, Paul wanted the church to have one spirit and one mind, and to stand firm side by side for the sake of the gospel.
In chapter two, Paul encouraged the church to have unity and to put the needs of others before themselves.
In chapter four, Paul specifically addressed two women in the church and told them to agree in the Lord.
It should be the prayer of all of us that our church would grow in love for God and for one another. Every church should be marked by a love for one another. Jesus said it this way:
John 13:34-35
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Jesus said that the way that people know that we are His disciples – that we are Christians and we belong to Him is by how we love one another. Paul prayed for this church to grow in love because a church will never be unified if the church members do not love one another.
On the flipside, if Christians are growing in love for one another, then there will be unity. Notice I said unity, not uniformity. Though we may love one another, it does not mean we will all have the same preferences or agree on everything. My wife and I love each other very much, but we don’t agree on everything. She likes her bacon a little more crispy than me. She loads the dishwasher differently. But we are unified because of our love for Christ.
Paul writes of this kind of love in the church in First Corinthians.
1 Cor 13:4-7
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
As a church, let’s pray that:
- We will be patient with one another.
- We will be kind to one another.
- We will not envy or boast.
- We will not be arrogant or rude.
- We will not insist on our own way.
- We will not be irritable or resentful.
- We will not rejoice at wrongdoing but will rejoice with the truth.
When we do sin against each other, we should be quick to forgive.
Eph 4:32
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
If we will commit to loving one another, then will be able to endure anything this world throws at us and the world will know that we belong to Jesus.
Also, notice that Paul wants the love of the Philippians to grow with knowledge and discernment:
“…with knowledge and all discernment…”
Paul doesn’t just want the Philippians to grow in love – he wants their love to be filled with knowledge and discernment.
This is such an important topic today because the world says that if we don’t celebrate certain behaviors that the Bible calls sin, then we are not loving.
The world embraces homosexuality, transgenderism, co-habitation, fornication (pre-marital sex), no-fault divorce, and pornography.
The world says, “All you need is love” and, “If it feels good, do it.”
Many individuals make this argument – “This person makes me happy. I wish you would just love me.”
I had a conversation with a relative years ago that said, “I know I’m just supposed to love people.”
Here’s the problem with that statement: without the Bible, we wouldn’t know how to love someone. Love must be rooted in the knowledge of God, because God is love (1 John 4:8).
To truly love someone means that we tell them the truth. We just read 1 Cor 13:6, which says that love rejoices with the truth. We tell them the truth about God and what His Word says. We point them to Jesus. We speak the truth in love.
Of course, we are called to love our neighbors. The best way to do that is to tell them that they are sinning against God, destroying their lives and their families, and that they need to repent.
To enable someone’s sin is not to love them – it’s to hate them. The Bible says it this way – “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him” (Pro 13:24).
Our love must be filled with knowledge and discernment. We are to love the things that God loves and to hate the things that God hates.
We are called to be loving people who are biblically informed. We must submit to the authority of God’s Word – not to our feelings or the opinions of the culture.
Paul wants the Christians in Philippi to be able to ask and answer this question: “What is the best way to love this person based on what God’s Word says?”
“What is the best way to love this person based on what God’s Word says?”
How would our church be different if we prayed this prayer regularly – “Lord, based on what your Word says, help me to love my church family well.”
What if we prayed this about every relationship?
“Lord, based on what your Word says, help me to love my son or daughter that is watching pornography, or living with their boyfriend/girlfriend, or having sex before marriage.”
See how that prayer changes things. Instead of trying to indulge someone’s happiness, which is based on their feelings, we speak the truth in love, knowing that God’s way is what is truly best. They may not like what you say. They may even despise you for a time. Guess what – many people didn’t like Jesus either and they crucified Him for telling the truth.
Let’s side with Jesus, not our feelings or the culture.
Before we go further, let’s pray:
Father, please increase our love for one another. Help us to be faithful to love one another based on our knowledge of Christ and His Word. Help us to speak the truth in love. Amen.
In verse 9, we see The request of Paul’s prayer.
In verse 10, we see The purpose of Paul’s prayer (10a) – “to approve what is excellent.”
The purpose of Paul’s prayer (10a)
“…so that you may approve what is excellent…”
The verb that is used here means to “test and approve.” It’s the same Greek word used in Rom 12:2.
Again, Paul wants the Philippians love for one another to abound more and more. But this love is not a worldly, hippie love – it is a love that is discerning and is based on a knowledge of biblical truth.
What Paul means by this phrase “so that you may approve what is excellent,” is that the Philippians are to set their affections on the most important and excellent things rather than things that distract us.
Aren’t churches prone to get distracted and do this? Here are a couple of quick examples:
We tend to focus on the style of music and our own preferences when the real purposes of singing in church are to glorify God and encourage one another.
Sometimes churches fight over using a hymnal or using a projector. However, the important thing is not the way we read the lyrics, but that we are truly worshipping the Father in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24).
The purpose of Paul’s prayer is that we would be able to approve what is excellent – that we as a church will be so focused on glorifying God, making much of Christ, and being filled with the Spirit that we don’t spend time arguing and fighting about trivial things.
We’ve seen The request of Paul’s prayer. We’ve seen The purpose of Paul’s prayer.
And finally, we see the desired results of Paul’s prayer (10b-11)
The results of Paul’s prayer (10b-11)
“…and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ…”
When we are able to approve what is excellent according to God’s Word, then we will be pure and blameless when Christ returns.
This phrase speaks of moral purity and completeness. In plain English, when we know the Word of God, we can judge what is right and wrong and live pure lives. Paul wants the Philippians to live in a pure way and to be spiritually mature as the return of Christ approaches.
The fact that Jesus is coming back should encourage us to live this way.
When Jesus comes back, I hope that He will find us pure and blameless. The word blameless means to not cause offense. We should not be doing anything that might cause division in the church – whether it’s gossiping, complaining, or arguing.
Look at the next phrase. Not only should we be pure and blameless, but Paul says we should be
“…filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ…”
Paul means here that as Christians, we should be producing spiritual fruit because of our relationship with Christ. If we have been made righteous because of Christ, then we should be producing spiritual fruit.
During John the Baptist’s ministry, he told the Pharisees to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt 3:8).
As Baptists, we believe there’s nothing we can do to earn our salvation, but we recognize that those who have come to know Jesus should produce spiritual fruit (John 15:8).
Just as you can recognize an apple tree because of its apples, you should be able to recognize a Christian because of their love for God, their love for others, and the fruits of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23.
As you read this:
- Are you someone that is filled with the fruit of righteousness?
- Are you growing in your love for God and other Christians?
- Are you growing in your knowledge of God’s Word?
If you’re not, then you need to repent of your sin and believe the gospel.
All these things that Paul has prayed for the Philippians point to one overarching goal. Look at the last phrase in verse 11.
“…to the glory and praise of God.”
The glory and praise of God is why we exist and why our church exists. We exist to make much of Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
This morning, that is my prayer for our church.
Prayer
Father, help us to pursue what matters most – knowing Christ, loving others, and fulfilling the Great Commission. Give us pure motives. Help us to be people that seek to be blameless. Above all, help us to seek to glorify You in all that we do. Help us to live for Your glory in how we love, by the way we think, and by the way we live. Help us to live in view of the return of Your Son, Jesus. In His name we pray, amen.