Light Brings Salt
Volume 2, Issue 16 April 25, 2004
Dedicated to the
Systematic Exposition of the Word of God
What
is Love?
Today we're going to examine Paul's prayer in Philippians 1:9-11. We find
here Paul's desire for these believers spelled out very clearly, what he sees
as the objective that they should be actively pursuing as growing, advancing
believers who are committed to Christ. Read these verses carefully before proceeding.
It may come as a shock to some of you but God did not save you just to
keep you from eternal judgment in the LOF, but that the character of Christ,
the fruit of the Spirit might be manifest in your lives.
We live in the flesh in this material body but we are to live not of
the flesh since the
sin nature doesn't have to rule and enslave us any longer.
We are to produce "good works" so that Christ might be
glorified in time. Eph 2:10
In this prayer Paul prays for three basic things for them.
#1 - That
their love may abound in full knowledge and discernment.
#2 - That their lives would
be free from hypocrisy, that is genuine, blameless.
#3 - That
they would be filled with the fruit of righteousness.
Today we'll examine the first one which flows from Phil. 1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound
still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,
Paul introduces an
important purpose of his prayer and its related to
love, that your love. In
referring to love Paul recognizes something as existing in them.
Love in the believer we know is a fruit of the Spirit who indwells
every believer and is related to His empowering ministry.
The indwelling of Spirit is related to our position in Christ in that
it occurs at salvation and is something that is always true in the life of the believer
His empowering ministry is related to the experiential ministry of the
Spirit in the life of the believer - at any point, any moment, is He empowering
your life? Are you in fellowship?
This Love, then, that Paul speaks of is the result of the ministry of
the H/S in our lives and it refers to a state whereby He enables/empowers us to apply any and
all spiritual truth, values, and characteristics properly towards others and
our selves.
There is nothing here in the context to limit this love to being
directed toward God or to others or to Paul himself.
It is unrestricted in that it refers to a continuing demonstration of
the spiritual fruit of love in all directions by the believer.
SO WHAT IS LOVE?
Need to define love, that is, as viewed from Scripture.
Love is an attitude that
motivates us to do what is best for another, in the light of Word of God
[eternity], no matter what it costs you.
Therefore love is knowing what is right and
best for another and doing it, even when you would rather do something else.
The more that I've look at passages dealing with agaph love,
the more convinced I am that agaph love has absolutely nothing to do with feelings, or
emotion. (there
will be emotion with it, accompanying it - can't have real love and not
appreciate it)
Love is an action that flows from an attitude that says we must do
what is best for another, no matter what it costs us.
An attitude that results in action says its a
product of ones decisions, the will, not emotions.
Since God is Love, one of the
numerous characteristics of His essence, that is, that defines who He is, He can never do anything that violates that love, right?
Would you agree then that God can not do anything that is not loving? (that is from his viewpoint)
Look at Lam. 3:1-16
Is this done out of love? Human viewpoint says, How could it? If we are understanding love properly than we
must say that at the pointing view of the context that what is described was
the best that God could do for Israel, that is judge them for their
unfaithfulness and rejection of truth. He
did this because He loved
Look at Acts 13:9-11
This also is not done out of vengeance or
vindictiveness on Paul's part at all. This was again what was best for this one
in the light of eternity. In fact the proconsul believed the gospel as a result
of what occurred (
What is done by so many today is to attempt to
define Biblical love by the cultural use of the term love. What is considered
to be love in our present culture where it is defined by the movies, TV, the soaps. Cultural love is not Biblical love, it is totally
different and we must not confuse them. Unfortunately far too many Christians
do.
In fact this is a common mistake made by many in
other areas of interpretation of Scripture, take something out of our culture and
zap it back into the Bible and try to read the Bible in the light of our
culture instead of the culture being read in the light of the Bible. This violates
basic hermeneutics, isogogics (principles for interpretation of Scripture).
Love as
directed toward God is the mental attitude of appreciation for His character and
plan as revealed in Scripture, which manifests itself in obedience. Having
correct thinking based on the Word results in the capacity to make correct
actions in life.
Love as directed towards others is the mental
attitude that demands
that we do what is best for them in the light of eternity no matter what it costs us. (have thinking then action)
What Paul is saying is that knowing what is right
and best according to the standard of the Word of God for someone else and then
doing it, even when you would rather be doing something else.
That this love existed in the Philippian believers
is seen in the phrase "your love".
It
is something that never reaches a saturation point and this is seen in that
this love is to grow and increase continually, that it may abound more and more. Paul is stressing here that this love is not to
become static but to continue to increase to overflow.
Did you notice what the love is related to or based on? Not feelings
or emotions. Definitely not what most are referring to when they use the word
love - libido and hormones.
Paul points out that this love is to be based "on real knowledge and all discernment."
Real knowledge (epignosis
evpi,gnwsij) speaks of a developed, full
knowledge of truth. The Word of God sets
the boundaries and the parameters of love. The emphasis of epignosis
here is practical knowledge which provides the basis for discerning what is
right, what is correct. The bottom line is that it speaks of filtering our
aims, objectives, ways you choose to live in life, thru this developed
knowledge of God's Word. Look at Col. 1:9-10.
All discernment (pas aisthesis pa/j ai;sqhsij) perception or discernment here is used
in reference to moral and spiritual perception with an emphasis on practical
application of truth, the developed knowledge in one's life. (applying epignosis in real life
situations)
Notice just how
neatly this all fits with verse 10 so that you may
approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless
until the day of Christ;
OBSERVATIONS
1. The love that Paul refers to that we are to have and express
towards God and others is something that is to be constantly increasing. This is true both in capacity that is thru an
increase in knowledge and also in application.
The greater
your knowledge of truth the greater your ability to filter life's experiences
thru it and to put them into perspective, that is from the Divine viewpoint.
2. Without a developed and expanding knowledge of truth, love easily becomes
flabby and misdirected. This puts
relationships on the wrong basis - wrong standards.
3. The lower the amount of epignosis, this developed knowledge, the lower
the capacity one has to express this love in their life.
4. This knowledge is to be prayed for as seen here and in Col. 1:9-10
and Eph 1:17.
5. It is acquired primarily thru face to face teaching in a
6. Knowledge without love is nothing. 1 Cor
13:2 (ouqen = worthless, nothing - an
absolute zero from God's perspective)
7. Knowledge without love leads to arrogance, 1 Cor 8:1-2. Together leads to edification - building one up spiritually.
Note: Knowledge is proud that it has learned so
much. While wisdom is humble that it knows no more!
8. Knowledge plus love leads to the manifestation of the fruit of the
spirit Gal 5:22-23 and the character traits listed in 1 Cor 13:4-7.
9. Love never acts in disregard of the scripture, of truth. If we do, we
are no longer operating in the sphere of this love.
10. Love must also be applied with great discernment, spiritual
insight and perception.
- what may be the correct way to approach and
to deal with someone may be totally inappropriate with another; must evaluate
each situation. [result
of discernment]
- Love is not always doing what others want you to do but what is best
for them doctrinally.
- you must assess each situation very
carefully before jump.
- Often things, opportunities appear to be legitimate, but after
closer scrutiny are not worthy of your support.
11. Proceed with caution, confer with others and pray for wisdom. So that you make sound applications on the basis of discernment.