Shared experiences bind people together across time and space. The COVID19 pandemic creates a globally shared experience, while here in Philippians, we read of experiences we share with the early church and the church in Philippi in particular.
The prayer that Paul prayed for them applies to us as well. He begins with love, the central truth of God, who is Himself love. Specifically, Paul asks for love bounded by knowledge and discernment, like a river that rises, with cliffs on either side, channeling it where it needs to go. Love must have boundaries – but it must still be love. It is easy to err on either side of that, but Paul prays that the Philippians will indeed learn to love and love well.
Likewise, if you want to know what to pray for your spouse, children, parents or self, that their love grows in knowledge and discernment is a great place to stay because it is a lifelong journey. We are all facing the need to apply our love intelligently as we approach all the various circumstances we run into. As it says in Frozen 2, we are called to “do the next right thing”. The difficulty can be knowing what that right thing is. “There are two sides to every issue, but there are two sides to fly paper, too.”
But why does it matter that we make wise, right choices? Verse 10 tells us – in order that we may be pure and blameless. The word for “pure” here means “tested by sunlight” like a piece of clothing being looked at in the light.
Similarly, we ourselves are going to have a moment of testing when we come before the throne of God.
So pray that we grow in love, pray we make wise choices and pray for growth of character.
Paul did not tell this to the Philippians purely for theoretical purposes. We know from later in the letter that there were real conflicts between members of the church. Love isn’t theoretical, it must be practical to be real. And that means it is messy and complicated – and that’s why we turn to prayer, just like Paul did.
We can also consider this goal of helping other people love well in our own behavior. Do our actions help people love better, in knowledge and discernment? Or do they somehow lead them to sin and unkindness? We cannot be responsible for the actions of others, but we should always be seeking to be the kinds of people who make others better.
– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, May 17, 2020