II. Prayer for the Church (1:3-1:11)

3. Pastoral Prayer (1:9-1:11)



Some Key Words (04/09/24-04/10/24)

Love (agape [26]):
love shown in such benevolence as does what is needed even when what is needed is not desired by the one loved.  Love which does what is best for the loved one. | affection, benevolence. | good-will, affection, love.  Love for your fellow man, your fellow Christian, or God.
Abound (perisseue [4052]):
[Present: Action viewed from internal viewpoint, ongoing, progressive, continual.  Active: Subject performs action.  Subjunctive: Action contingent, probable, or eventual.]
| to superabound, have in excess. | over and above, exceeding in measure.  To abound, overflow. To have in abundance, be great in.
Real knowledge (epignosei [1922]):
clear and exact knowledge, thoroughly participated in.  Such knowledge as powerfully influences religious life, and influences the person.  Suggests the relation of the knower to the known. | recognition, full discernment. | precise and correct knowledge of God and that which he has bestowed on man through Christ.  True knowledge of Christ’s nature, dignity, and grace.
Discernment (aisthesei [144]):
perception.  To be aware of.  Having experimental, experiential knowledge.  Where epignosis speaks to penetrating knowledge, here it is lived knowledge. | discernment. | perception, discernment.  Understanding of ethical matters.
Approve (dokimazein [1381]):
[Present: Action viewed from internal viewpoint, ongoing, progressive, continual.  Active: Subject performs action.  Infinitive: verbal noun, often used adverbially.  May supply object or explanation.]
To test, discern, prove the worth of.  To prove and bring forth the good. | To approve. | To examine, scrutinize, so as to recognize as genuine, approved, and worthy.
Excellent (diapheronta [1308]):
| to bear apart, to differ, with implications of surpassing. | To carry to different places.  To differ.
Sincere (eilikrineis [1506]):
sincere, pure, bearing examination in full light.  Usually used in relation to the lives of believers, and connected with discernment.  Clearness of mind reflecting in clear judgment in faith and practice. | tested as genuine. | found pure when examined by the sun’s light.  Pure, unsullied, sincere.
Blameless (aproskopoi [677]):
not stumbling, not failing in the path of duty and faith.  Of clear conscience. | active: inoffensive, not leading to sin.  Passive:  faultless, not led into sin.  [Usage here is passive.] | having nothing to stumble over.  Not leading others to sin by one’s example.  Not led into sin.  Blameless and without offense.
Righteousness (dikaiosunes [1343]):
The essence of what is just.  Fulfilling the claims of justice, in our case, God’s claims.  In any case, conformity to higher authority.  The state commanded by God, appointed by God, with Himself the standard.  “The righteousness of God is the right which God has upon man.”  For us, received as a gift from God. | equity of character.  Christian justification. | The state of one who is as he ought to be.  Acceptable to God.  Such righteousness as is unobtainable through obedience to Law, but comes only through faith, a gift of God’s love.
Through (dia [1223]):
| the channel of action, through.  Can have a causal sense. | through, with, during.  Indicative of the author, efficient cause, or instrumental cause.  By the service of, with the help of.  [This being a genitive usage, accusative definitions won’t apply.]
To (eis [1519]):
into, toward.  Indicative of intention, purpose, or aim. | to, into.  Figuratively used of purpose or result. | into, for, among.  Entering into, changing into.  Used of ethical direction or benefit.  Denotive of end, extent, degree, purpose, goal.

Paraphrase: (04/11/24)

Php 1:9-11 My prayer for you is to see you fully apprised of all that God has revealed of Himself, fully equipped to live in the light of that knowledge, overflowing with God’s own love, and wise to the perceiving of what is excellent and holding to it.  I pray you shall prove sincere and blameless right through to the day of Christ, as you bear the full fruit of that righteousness which has its source in Christ Jesus and which is given you to the glory and the praise of God.

Key Verse: (04/11/24)

Php 1:9 – I pray that your love may overflow in full and accurate, fully experienced knowledge of God both known and applied.

Thematic Relevance:
(04/10/24)

Throughout, this passage speaks of real connection with Christ, walking with Him.  The knowledge is of experience, and applied.  One has seen the difference and chosen the good, held by this knowledge in the power of Christ so as to bear examination in His light with no fault found.

Doctrinal Relevance:
(04/11/24)

Our righteousness comes through Christ.  He is the efficient cause of any righteousness in us.
Our sanctification is likewise by His agency.

Moral Relevance:
(04/11/24)

If we would glorify God, it must be in and through Christ.  And if indeed we have that righteousness which is ours in Christ, then it ought to be that we are bearing fruit in righteousness.  What is that fruit?  The real, selfless compassion of agape; the life lived in application of that true knowledge of God which has been gifted us in Christ, and which the Holy Spirit continues to bring to mind day by day, that we might indeed walk in the Way.

Doxology:
(04/11/24)

That day is coming!  There will come that day when the heavens part and our Lord is revealed in His fulness.  That revelation must come as a cleansing fire upon all iniquity, consuming before His glory every trace of sin.  There is death in His coming, even for us.  But it is death only of the physical body, only of the old nature.  And the new shall be brought forth, that body reborn as our spirit has been reborn, to join Him in His heavenly abode to dwell in His heavenly city together with Him, and together will all who have believed on Him forevermore.  This is our glorious hope, and it is a hope that is certain, more certain than the hard rock of reality around us, as certain as God Himself.  Mountains may fall, and the seas may roar, but our God is forever, and we shall be with Him.   Glory and praise be to Him, for He has done it!

Questions Raised:
(04/10/24)

N/A

Symbols: (04/11/24)

The Day of Christ
[ISBE] equates to the OT Day of the Lord, that time at which God will consummate His kingdom and destroy those who attack it.  The OT depiction of this day is always of a dark and foreboding day.  With the NT, the picture changes to one of hope and joy in God’s victory.  And whereas the OT speaks of yom Yahweh, in the NT it is the day of Christ, the day of the Lord, the day of His return in fulness of glory.  This is closely tied with His identification as the Son of Man.  That day remains, in the NT, a day of judgment and terror for the unbeliever.  But for the believer, is a day of great joy, of entry into full life in our resurrected, eternal bodies.  That day is the day of Christ in that it is entirely centered on Him, the fulfillment of His eternal kingdom and His victorious eradication of all sin.  It is a day ‘in which the antithesis between Nature and grace will be changed into an everlasting synthesis’.  It is, as well, the ‘only day worth counting in all the history of the world’.  [Me] This day is our great and certain hope.  As noted, there remains a very real dreadfulness to it, but that is not for us.  If we find ourselves dreading that day, it may perhaps be that our conscience is yet aware of unaddressed, unrelinquished sins to which we have need of attending.  Or, perhaps it comes of concern for loved ones whose standing with God is unclear to us, or worse yet, who remain clearly opposed to Him.  But this ought not to be our perspective.  It is well to have compassionate interest in our fellow humanity, and right that we should.  But when it comes to this day of Christ, knowing that in this day, our Lord and King comes to see His will and His purpose complete, there ought be no place for sorrow in us.  Indeed, if we are to believe the scenes we are shown of that day (and we should), there will be no more tears, no more sorrow.  There will be only the rejoicing that life, Life worthy of the name life, has come to us, and we have come to abide forever with our Victorious King.

People, Places & Things Mentioned: (04/11/24)

N/A

You Were There: (04/11/24)

N/A

Some Parallel Verses: (04/10/24)

1:9
1Th 3:12
May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all, as we abound in love for you.
Col 1:9
We have not ceased praying for you since first we heard of your faith, asking that you might be filled with the true knowledge of His will, and might live in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
2Th 1:3
We should always give thanks for you brothers.  It’s only fitting.  For your faith is greatly enlarged, and your love for one another grows ever greater.
Col 3:10
You have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created you.
Phm 6
I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for the sake of Christ.
1:10
Ro 2:18
and know His will, approving the essentials and instructed from the Law.
Php 1:6
For I am confident of this:  That He who began the good work in you will perfect it to the day of Christ Jesus.
Php 2:16
holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may have cause to glory, having not run in vain or toiled in vain.
Ac 24:16
Seeing this, I do my best to maintain a clean conscience before God and man alike.
1Th 3:13
May He establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.
1Th 5:23
May the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit, soul, and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1:11
Jas 3:18
The seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Col 1:6
This has come to you, as in all the world it is ever bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has in you since the day you first heard and understood the grace of God in truth.
Col 1:10
So that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.
Jn 15:4-5
Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, but must abide in the vine, so you cannot bear fruit unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  Who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit.  But apart from Me you can do nothing.
Eph 1:12
To the end that we who were first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
Eph 1:14
The Holy Spirit is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

New Thoughts: (04/12/24-04/15/24)

Real Knowledge Lived Out (04/12/24-04/13/24)

The chief commandment, as Jesus gave in answer to the question, is to love God with all your heart, your soul, your mind (Mt 22:37-40).  This, along with real and compassionate love for your fellow man are the sum of the Law and the Prophets.  Yet, somehow we manage to persist in this idea that faith is apart from knowledge.  Certainly, those who have not faith in Christ write off that idea of faith as blind and baseless.  You believe because you want to believe, want it to be true, but it’s just wishful thinking.  Now, I would have to say to such as these, look around you!  Look at this whole pursuit of self-actuation, of believing you are whatever it is you feel like you are.  You’re white but you want to be thought of as black?  Just claim it!  You’re male but you wish to insist that one and all account you a female?  Just get loud, and believe strongly enough, and it must be so!  You wish to be thought competent at a task you’ve never been trained to perform?  Just exude confidence.  Fake it ‘til you make it.  Isn’t that the clarion cry of modern life?  And isn’t that blind faith?

But faith in Christ is not a blind faith.  It’s not merely accepting what you were told as a child, or being sufficiently indoctrinated so as to have formed a worldview that, were it put to the test, must eventually prove an empty, vacuous thing.  Indeed, the very derivation of the word pistos, faith, speaks of being convinced by the evidence.  It’s the very opposite of blind.  It is the result of being fully informed.  Modern culture has taken to that description from ‘The Matrix’ of being red-pilled, pulled from these dreams and delusions to see things as they really are.  In political circles, you might hear of the communist mugged by reality.  All those nice, utopian ideals, depending as they do on a human nature that simply does not exist in real life, tend to fall apart, even become abject evils, when put into any sort of real practice.

So, let us observe Paul’s prayer here.  It is a prayer exactly in line with that chief commandment of the Law.  And it leads, as the Spirit gives direction to Paul’s words, to application, to purpose.  Quite naturally, the first object of his prayer for them is for love to abound.  Here, we are in contact with that particular love which is solely associated with Christian faith, the agape love which knits us together as one.  This love is unique first in that it comes from God Himself.  And as we consider the acts of His love towards us, we gain a sense of what this sort of love is all about.

It is the most well-known piece of Scripture, I expect, at least from the New Testament.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).  To be sure, you will find plenty who will attack this as evidence of a perverse nature in God, that He would kill His own Son.  But the fact remains that this was the utmost act of love.  The fact also remains that Jesus, the Son of God, pursued this end of His own free will – not without significant agony of soul, but neither coerced.  As Paul writes later in this letter, “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Php 2:8).  The author of Hebrews puts it this way.  “For the joy set before Him [he] endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb 12:2).  So, one thing would be that we cannot properly appreciate the purpose of His death apart from perceiving the reality of His resurrection, and the glory of His ascension.  This was no pointless infliction of pain by Father upon Son.  This was the grand purpose of Creation from before the outset, a purpose agreed upon and covenanted amongst the Persons of the Trinity from the beginning.  It was always the plan.  It is ever the plan.

So, we have love of this same sort, being of the same source, poured into our hearts by God. What sort of love is it?  I have long appreciated the perspective Zhodiates gives on this.  It is that sort of love which is willing to do what is needed for that one who is loved even if that one who is loved wants nothing of the sort, indeed, even if acting upon that love might well lead to rejection by the one so loved.  It is at once compassionate and selfless.  It wants the best for this object of love, even if that best must be in parting.  Look again at the Cross.  As is pointed out by others, Zhodiates being one of them, when Christ undertook to take upon Himself the full penalty of the sins of the world, the world in general wanted nothing to do with it.  We weren’t asking for rescue.  By and large, we weren’t even convinced there was anything from which rescue was particularly needed.  “For all have sinned and gone astray” (Ro 3:23).  “There is none who seeks for God.  They have all turned aside to futility” (Ro 3:11-12).  And while we were yet sinners, opposed to God to the degree we even gave Him a thought, He demonstrated His love for us in that Christ died for us (Ro 5:8). 

This is love of that agape sort in action.  This is the love of God displayed, and it is this love which Paul prays would abound in us.  Honestly, abound doesn’t do it justice.  It’s a super-abundance that is prayed for, such an abounding as must overflow, and overflowing, to pour out from us towards those we know as brothers, and likewise towards those we account but neighbors, barely even acquaintances.  And this is exactly the nature of God’s love as we see it expressed daily.  Jesus pointed this out as He called upon His hearers to be such as prove to be sons of the Father.  “He causes His sun to rise on evil and good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous” (Mt 5:45).  His love is not a response to those who have already loved Him, but rather, the self-initiated expression of Who He Is.  As John would later observe, “We love, because He first loved us” (1Jn 4:19).

Well, considering that I came here primarily with an eye to considering knowledge, I have spent a good deal of time on the subject of love.  Lord willing, I shall take up the next few terms in this prayer for the church tomorrow.

Now, this gets interesting, in light of having read the end of Ephesians 3 last night.  There, Paul encourages us to “know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge” (Eph 3:19).  There, he speaks of ginosko, perception and understanding.  And it’s interesting that we are called to understand that which surpasses understanding in this agape love of Christ.  But it seems to me that we overplay Paul’s point and try and make Christianity all about love and nothing of reason, and that’s unreasonable. 

Back here in Philippians, it is not ginosko that is in view, but epignosis.  This is far and away the least common term for knowledge that we come across in the NT.  Eido, with its dual meanings of knowing and seeing, is everywhere found, and ginosko also finds wide usage.  But epignosis has but twenty occurrences, almost entirely contained in Paul’s writings, apart from one case in Hebrews, and four in 2 Peter.  We have it in Romans 1:28, where it pertains to the failure of sinners to retain a real knowledge of God, or as the NASB translates it, their not seeing fit to acknowledge God any longer.  It’s there again, as Paul explains that the Law brought us to knowledge of sin (Ro 3:2).  And going back to Ephesians, we have Paul’s encouragement to press on to the unity of faith, ‘and of the knowledge of the Son of God’ (Eph 4:13).   All this to say that no, Paul is not suggesting we set aside knowledge in preference to love.  Neither, I would say, are we encouraged to pursue fellowship with God as something in opposition to pursuing real knowledge of Him.  I tend to see this in the propensity to try and set religion and relationship at odds with one another, as if one cannot have both.  One should have both, just as real knowledge of God cannot come apart from relationship with Him, nor can it be held without that love in which He has poured out knowledge to us.

But I have gotten, perhaps, a step or two ahead of myself.  Let’s define, just a bit, this knowledge of epignosis.  Zhodiates gives the sense of clear and exact knowledge, and adds this key factor:  it is a knowledge thoroughly participated in.  In other words, it’s moved beyond theory into practice.  It’s not just collecting facts in a notebook.  It’s internalized.  Thayer speaks of this knowledge as true knowledge, in particular, such knowledge as regards Christ’s nature, dignity, and grace.  Let me switch back to Zhodiates.  He observes that knowledge of this sort has a powerful influence on our religious life, and is such as deeply influences the person.  Again, it’s relational in this regard.  It’s gone beyond merely knowing, having awareness of, or even that matter of acknowledging.  Plenty of people may prove willing to acknowledge God to the degree that they will admit the possibility, or even the necessity of some higher power.  They may even accede to the point that the God revealed in the Bible is in fact this higher power.  And yet, they will not shift from old ways in light of this admission.

We recently encountered Simon the magician in our readings for men’s group.  Simon saw what the apostles were doing, saw the impact they were having, and was moved at some level.  He even claimed faith and was baptized.  And yet, when Peter and John came up and began laying hands on folks, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit, he revealed his condition.  Still the magician, he thought to obtain for himself this magical power, offering to pay.  And when rebuked by Peter for such corrupt feelings in regard to God’s gift, it seems he fell short of repentance, and still played it as if dealing with a more powerful magician (Ac 8:13-24).  I confess that as we were reading this, I inclined to read his response in a more positive light, but since then have read of his connection with the Gnostics whose twistings of Christian doctrine so plagued the early church.

Why do I bring him up?  Because here we have an example of knowledge that is received, even acknowledged, and yet, not truly participated in.  Here is knowledge failing to penetrate, failing to have its due influence on the person.  He knew what he had experienced, and perhaps grasped somewhat of what he had heard.  But it seems it call came to him filtered through expectations and desires of his own, and so, even with this knowledge imparted, he had not come to a “true knowledge of Christ’s nature, dignity, and grace.”  Had he done so, I don’t suppose it could have occurred to him to offer money for that which comes of grace.

Okay.  Back to our text.  Here is a prayer for love abounding in knowledge – real knowledge, knowledge such as so influences the person as to produce real change.  That, I think, gets me to the core of this term.  It is life-changing knowledge.  It is clear and exact.  It is full and precise.  And it is, as such, penetrative.  It has been internalized, made part of who we are.  It has informed our worldview, become our worldview, and now, it is so much a part of who we are that we cannot but see all of life through the lens of this real, accurate, and tested knowledge of God in Christ.  Knowing that He has created all that is must surely shift how we perceive what is around us.  Knowing He has made even our meanest neighbor must surely color how we respond to said neighbor.  Knowing that He, as our Creator, has full right over us must surely encourage in us an appropriate response of obedience.  And knowing He is Holy, Love, True, Justice, and all those other superlatives of His essence must create in us, who love Him, a hunger to be of like essence ourselves, and alongside this, a frustration and even disgust for those aspects of our being which continue to fall so very far short of this desired goal.

But Paul continues to pile up terms for us.  To this life-changing, clear and exact knowledge of God through His self-revelation, he now adds aisthesei, discernment, understanding.  We might suggest ethical application of that knowledge.  Zhodiates offers us a distinction here.  Epignosis, he notes, speaks to penetrating knowledge.  Aisthesei gets us to experiential, lived knowledge.  I might call it applied knowledge.  Or, we might associate it with wisdom.  As I have often observed in these studies, it’s one thing to know the facts and formulas.  It’s quite another to perceive their application to a given problem.  That, I suppose, is why so much of our math training consists in word problems.  It trains us to see how the formulas and rules we are learning in regard to mathematics pertain to real life situations.  They may be contrived, as we see them in homework assignments, and of course, they are.  But get beyond the contrivance, and you begin to see that indeed, they are matters of knowledge that will have use to you in daily life.  If all goes well, they will be so ingrained that you may not even be aware of thinking about them, or applying them.  This, I think, gives us a good model of the goal here in the combined force of epignosis and aisthesei.  To know and know deeply, fully integrating that knowledge into the very fiber of one’s being, almost has to result in this experiential knowledge and application to such ethical matters as we may face on any given day.  It ought not to require any great deal of agonizing introspection to discern the correct course.  It should be coming to be second nature to us.  And what is that second nature?  It is this over-abounding, overflowing outpouring of that love of God which He has shed abroad in our hearts.

This all comes as one deal, you notice.  Love abounding all the more in real knowledge, and in all discernment.  And still he’s not done piling up ideas for us.  What comes of such discernment?  We make distinction.  We gain judgment.  After all, what is discernment but judgment?  Real discernment must surely lead us to be such as ‘approve the things that are excellent’, to follow the NASB’s rendering.  Do you see the flow of this?  In verse 9, we have this build up:  I pray that your love of God may overflow in love to man in the full and accurate, fully experienced knowledge of God known and applied.  This is the love of God fully known and applied.  And how does this present?  We come to verse 10.  The result is that you will ‘approve the things that are excellent’.  Here, I actually found the rendering of the Apologetics Study Bible offers a bit of perspective on the intent.  “So that you can determine what really matters.” 

This is something beyond applause for a fine performance, or oohing and aahing over some natural wonder.  I am in that period where I can open my window during these morning times and hear the peepers out back in full chorus.  And, if time is right, I will soon hear the added notes of various birds awaking to the day.  It’s a wonderful sound, and something I truly look forward to this time of year, longing for the nights to be warm enough to allow that sound to pour into the bedroom overnight.  I can look upon landscapes in wonder, enjoy the sight of various plants and animals, mountains and oceans, and so on, and appreciate the splendor of them.  But I can do so without a thought for God.  Something in us has been trained to separate the two.  This is real life, that is spiritual life.  And this is a terrible thing!  No!  They are one.  How greatly we need to become more holistic, much though I find that term overused anymore, in our faith.  We are not called to compartmentalize, but to harmonize.  We need, more than ever, to have this knowledge and discernment for which Paul prays, that we, in our terribly modern, oh, so scientific and technological present, might discern what really matters, and having discerned, might carry with us that which his excellent, that which differs from the mundane, that which, to jump to the next term, will stand examination in the full light of day.

We have this idea, don’t we?  It’s something of an aphorism, that sunlight is the best disinfectant.  Expose the corruption.  Insist on reality.  Let folks speak their minds that we might hear their real selves, and then, let truth be likewise laid bare for all to see.  Let everything be made evident, and discernment will surely lead to the approving of what is excellent, what is best.  But here, we are pushed to the superlative as concerns our own character, our own faith and belief; that these would be sincere, and, to take a clarified piece of Tyndale’s translation, “such as should hurt no man’s conscience.”

This is our goal.  This is God’s goal for us.  And it is for this reason that we have this as Paul’s prayer for the church.  We are intended to be, to make ourselves fully apprised of all that God has revealed of Himself.  This is the encouragement of, “Study to show yourself approved, accurately handling the word of God” (2Ti 2:15).  But observe well, it is what God has revealed of Himself, not what we have speculated as concerns those things He chose not to reveal.  It is God’s knowledge given us, and it is His prerogative to withhold such as He sees fit to withhold.  He is wise beyond our capacity for wisdom, after all, and His ways, for all that He has revealed Himself to us, remain far and away above and beyond our own.  He knows what He wishes us to know, and He has made this known in His Son, in these things the Holy Spirit has caused to be written for our benefit, who live at the end of the age.  Don’t push it.  Don’t exceed what is written.  Abound in what is written.  Abide in what is written.  Live in the truth, and live out the Truth.

What comes of such a determined goal?  We are refashioned under the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit of God, so as to be fully equipped to live in the full light of this knowledge He has revealed, overflowing with God’s own love, poured into us in order to pour out of us, and informed by that love, enwrapped by that love, walking in such wisdom as truly perceives what is excellent, what really matters, and holding fast to that, holding fast to God.

This is real knowledge.  It is more real than anything we have known previously.  For it is knowledge of God.  It is knowledge that has its source in Him, and it is knowledge that makes Him known to us.  It does not come apart from relationship.  After all, the more we have revealed of the God Who Is, and the more we come to grasp the enormity of His love for us, the more we are drawn to know Him more, to love Him more, to spend more time with Him.  For He truly is wonderful.  Who, looking clear-eyed upon loveliness, will choose instead to pursue ugly?  I acknowledge that it is quite evident that a large portion of the populace around us has chosen ugly.  But I would maintain it is because their eyes have been clouded to loveliness.  Perhaps they have seen it and been convinced by the devil that it is unattainable for them, and so, in spite and resentment, they determine to be as ugly as they can be.  But such hopelessness cannot satisfy, can it?  And into this ugliness, the love of God still pours forth, and the grace of our Lord says yes, you actually can be beautiful, you truly can possess loveliness.  It need not be this way.  Open your eyes to the love of God.  And I would pray, that He would so open your eyes that you may see Him, come to know Him, and come to love Him.  May it be so.  Amen.

Real Connection (04/14/24)

As we come to verse 11, relation is added to reason.  We have been looking, after all, at matters of knowledge and discernment.  But now Paul, having indicated the purpose in this knowledge, that we might be tested and found blameless at Christ’s triumphant return, turns us around to look backwards just a bit.  If indeed we have come to be so filled by the love of God and are growing in our fully incorporated knowledge of our Lord and God, there is a reason for this.  It is because we have already been filled not only with the forensic status of righteous standing in the court of God, but also with the fruit of said righteousness.

That’s a lot to contemplate already.  For one, this idea of a fruit of righteousness is not terribly familiar.  Fruit of the Spirit we understand, and we have Paul’s helpful list of descriptors for that fruit.  Perhaps we could equate the one with the other.  But a quick search for that phrase indicates only three occasions where it is found.  The first comes from the prophet Amos, in the midst of him decrying the state of godliness in the people of Israel.  He writes, “You have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood” (Am 6:12b).  Now, I have to say the immediate comparison is not terribly helpful, as wormwood is already a bit of an enigma.  But, as is the fashion in Hebraic writing, we have the parallel thought given us, of justice turned to poison.  So, we might begin by associating justice with this fruit of righteousness, which seems pretty reasonable, really.  One who is righteous will do justly.  It’s in keeping with Micah’s well known instruction.  “He has told you, O man, what is good.  What does the Lord require of you?  Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God” (Mic 6:8).  Righteousness and doing justice walk hand in hand.

The other place we find this phrase is in Hebrews 12:11, with its observation that, “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful.  Yet, to those trained by it, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”  So, now we find that peace has attachment to righteousness as well.  Indeed, James makes the observation that “the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace” (Jas 3:18).  This is connected to mention of heavenly wisdom, which is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, merciful, full of good fruits, and devoid of hypocrisy” (Jas 3:17).  Here is perhaps where we are going.  “Lovingkindness and truth have met together.  Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.  Truth springs from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven” (Ps 85:10-11).

So, can we bear all of this back into verse 11 here?  You have been filled with this fruit of righteousness, joined with truth.  You have come to love kindness as you walk with God.  For the Philippians, that would certainly seem to have been the case, as witnessed by their freehanded support of Paul both in his ministry to others, and now, in this predicament of imprisonment.  And we may presume that they were just in their behavior, else we would no doubt be hearing notes of rebuke in this epistle to bring them back in line.  What is, to me, most vivid in this, though, is the association with peace and peacemakers.  Go back to that great sermon of our Lord, introduced, at least in Matthew, by the Beatitudes.  Blessed are those who hunger for righteousness.  Their hunger will be satisfied.  Blessed are the merciful, who shall in turn receive mercy.  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God (Mt 5:6-9).

Let’s turn that around just a bit.  The sons of God shall be peacemakers.  Having received of God’s mercy, and having been filled with His righteousness, they are merciful to others, such as plant these merciful seeds of righteousness.  And where God waters, those seeds grow.  Righteousness bears fruit.  Peace abounds.  What is this peace?  It’s not just, everything’s mellow, man.  There’s absence of strife, certainly, but primarily – and most importantly – absence of strife with God.  We are no longer at war with Him.  We are no longer under threat from Him.  We have entered into His love, said love having been poured into us to overflowing.  We’re right back to the start of this prayer.

But look at the cause and effect here.  Love abounds because the fruit of righteousness has been packed into you.  There is a rich supply of which we are, in many ways, merely the conduit.  And Paul points us to the source here.  This righteous fruit comes through Jesus Christ.  The TEV is helpful at this point.  “Your lives will be filled with the truly good qualities which only Jesus Christ can produce.”  I have but one issue with that, which is that it sets us back in a future-facing position.  But what we have here is a perfect participle.  The perfect tense, of course, points to a present result of past action.  In other words, the action is complete, but the ramifications continue.  It is a concluded action with continued result.  In other words, “You have been filled,” rather than, “You will be filled.”  Add the nature of a participle, and what we are presented with here is a state of being.  This is who you are, how you are.  It’s already been done, and because it has been done, you are, as sons of God saved by grace, already filled with this fruitful righteousness.

And then, too, we must fully grasp the reality that this can only come about through Christ Jesus.  Here, the TEV is spot on.  Only He can produce such fruit in you.  You certainly can’t produce it on your own.  You certainly could not have come to be in such a state of righteousness, love, and knowledge by your own power.  Faith is reasonable, but the reason and our understanding of it are still such as can only come as God reveals to us the truth of what He has been saying.  We all know, I suspect, how readily we can read Scripture and gain nothing from the experience.  Many of us likely read the Bible, or at least portions of it, long before coming to faith, and found it to be little more than a literary challenge of sorts.  It didn’t have discernable impact on our beliefs or behaviors.  But then comes that point when God reveals Himself, when in His love, He pours faith into our hearts, the Holy Spirit has come, and lo!  Our eyes are opened to His truth.  Our ears, our minds, finally begin to perceive the reality of His being, and the implications of these words we have been reading.  And like the Ethiopian eunuch, having learned who Isaiah was talking about, we want in.  What prevents us being baptized?  Where do I sign?  What must I do to be saved?  But no, it’s already moved beyond that question.  It’s more, what ought I do, now that I am saved?  For salvation has already come, it’s just that now we finally realize.

So, then, we have this fruit of righteousness which, to the chagrin of the Pharisees, proved unobtainable through obedience to the Law, because we were and are utterly incapable of maintaining that obedience.  It only comes through faith.  It is ever the gift of God’s love, this righteousness.  There is a reason that God covenanted in Himself to bring events to that critical moment with Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son, which is to say, God Himself, taking to the cross to bear the full penalty for the sins of all humanity.  The wages of sin is death, as Paul bluntly reminds us (Ro 6:23), but the free gift of God is eternal lief in Christ Jesus our Lord!  This is amazing!  God Himself took upon Himself His own punishment of our sins.  Why?  So that He could justly justify those He has called His own (Ro 3:26).  Why are they justified?  Well, fundamentally because God has chosen to make it so.  He has said it, and so it is.  But we have also this reason appended, that they have faith in Jesus.  And why do they have faith in Jesus?  Because God has chosen to make it so.  He has sent forth the Holy Spirit to refashion our stony hearts, to open the airwaves, that we might recognize and receive this marvelous gift.  And gift it is, given us by God, quite entirely apart from any works of our doing, leaving no believer any position to boast (Eph 2:8-9).

Let me swing over to the Darby translation here, as they present us with this verse.  “Being complete as regards the fruit of righteousness, which [is] by Jesus Christ, to God’s glory and praise.”  There is purpose to our righteousness, as well as source, and they both direct us back to God.  We have these little prepositions in our passage, dia and eis.  The first points us to our Lord Jesus Christ as the author of this righteous fruit, the efficient cause of our righteousness.  Hear his words elsewhere.  “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2Co 5:21).  There is the source of your righteousness.  It’s not in your corrective action.  It’s in Him.  You have been made righteous.  You have become righteous in the righteousness of God.  It’s not your righteousness.  It’s His.  But it’s been made yours by His gift of it to you, by His providing Himself the course by which He might do so without impugning His own righteousness.

And this righteousness which He has authored in us has purpose, it has a goal.  It is eis Theos.  It is in order that God’s glory may be made evident in and through us.  It is in order that our lives may be to the praise of God.  Now, we might take a first step towards this in suggesting that all of this has made us such as take opportunity to glorify God and praise Him with our own voices.  But I think this intends to go much farther than merely presenting us as joyous members of His body.  No, we have a grander purpose:  To be such as instigate or encourage those around us to praise God and give Him the glory.  We shouldn’t need to make bold announcement of our being His workmanship.  It's cute, and all, to have that old song, “Look what the Lord has done!”  But honestly, we are called to live such lives as causes those around us, upon witnessing the change in us (they, who knew us beforehand), and seeing the good fruits of righteousness in our present propensity for being at peace with all men, so far as it lies with us to do so, that they themselves point us out and say, “Look what the Lord has done!”

We are called to live such that even those who spitefully use us, and revile us for our faith in the present day will, when Christ returns, find it necessary to confess that indeed, we were His all along, and their abuses visited upon us were entirely unjust.  But behold the connection we have here.  That which we would be in glorifying God can only be brought about in us through Christ Jesus.  So, here we are.  We are called to live in close connection with Christ.  Back to Micah 6:8.  Walk humbly with your Lord.  We cannot, having received this outpouring of God’s love, resulting in faith, proceed from that point to simply walk away.  We may well wander, for w remain sheep.  But walk away?  Never!  It is, quite simply, impossible.  I’ve come to those verses often enough.  “No one shall snatch them out of My hand.  My Father has given them to Me.  He is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of His hand” (Jn 10:28-29).  God does not lose sheep.  Period.  End of story.  But we sheep can and do vary in connectedness.  We vary with each other, as we are at different stages of development.  We vary with ourselves, day by day, depending how greatly we are attending to this relationship.

And this is, I guess, my point here.  Real knowledge encourages us to real relationship.  Turned the other way round, real knowledge requires this real relationship.  Of course, I could as readily insist that real relationship requires real knowledge.  You can’t truly love a God you don’t truly know.  What you have is an infatuation with your imagined conception of Who He Is.  God would have you in love with the reality of Who He Is, the totality of Who He Is.  He, after all, has loved you in spite of your totality.  Face it.  There are parts of our character that are entirely unlovable.  For some of us, those parts are pretty huge.  And yet, God loves us, pours out His love upon us, chooses us in spite of our significant defects.  And we, if we are wise, respond to love in love.  We respond to His sometimes painful discipline by maturing, growing in likeness to this One Who has loved us.  We see what He is writing in our lives, and we rejoice to know this is our story.  We rejoice in the grand finale, when He returns and we are found completed works in Him.  And we rejoice the more knowing that this isn’t the end of the story, but only the prequel.

So, hear again the instruction of our Lord.  “Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, but must abide in the vine, so you cannot bear fruit unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  Who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit.  But apart from Me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:4-5).  It’s a call to real connection, a steadfast, purposeful connectedness to our life-giving Lord and Savior.  Casual acquaintance won’t do.  A passing reference to the Vine won’t serve.  It’s a call to abide.  Incorporate.  Come into close union with your Lord, and welcome Him.  Make Him your center.  Make it your mission to come to know Him more and more each day.  He is there.  He is making Himself known.  He has revealed Himself in full, living color.  These things He has revealed of Himself are written down for your benefit, that you may avail yourself of His Truth without recourse to unreliable appeals to flashy dreams and visions.  Such may come, but here is the bedrock of faith.  Here is faith firmly established on reason, reason fully informed by love, and love flowing out in that peace which is found as the fruit of righteousness.

Real Life (04/15/24)

There is a last aspect of this passage I wish to consider, and that is the notice given to the day of Christ.  Having just traveled through the two epistles to Thessalonica, this day has often been in view in recent studies.  Here, it is almost a side note, a marker in time.  But I should have to concur with the ISBE in its assessment of this day, that it is ‘the only day worth counting in all the history of the world’.  Now, I would have to add a caveat in that it is one of two such days, the other being the death and resurrection of our Lord, apart from which this latter day could not transpire.  That is to say, had He not come already, taking upon Himself the life of humanity with all its trials and limitations, lived out a life of perfect obedience to the Law as federal head of a new humanity reborn in the Spirit, and died for the sins of those who would become this new humanity, there could be no return from heaven in future to claim His own, to establish His kingdom in fulness, and to see us made part of that fulness.

There was much of dread in the ancient perspective on this day of Christ.  The Old Testament, as is noted in that ISBE article, did not generally present the day of the Lord (which is our Lord, Jesus Christ) as a day of excitement and joy, but rather a day of deep darkness and dread.  But then, the Old Testament was generally turning attention to this day in consideration of those whose sins had mounted to the sky, assuring for themselves that this day would be to them a day of holy punishment, the day of God’s vengeance.  I have to say that for many today, even in the church, this remains the case.  The fascination with end times prophecies, and with those events John explores in the Revelation have led to a general perception that the Church itself must undergo and weather the terrible times of the Tribulation.  Perhaps so, but I still find it questionable.  Or, at the very least, we ought to recognize that the Church has been going through those times since Christ first ascended to heaven.  The blood of the martyrs, after all, has often enough marked the ground where the Church has most vigorously grown, and there’s no particular reason to suppose that has changed in our case.  We are not by any means immunized against suffering.  We’re simply unused to it.  We have, perhaps, been found insufficiently mature in our faith to face such things, and as such, spared the trial of them, at least for the present.  But if I look back across church history, I don’t see this as a thing to be celebrated, but rather, a cause of concern.  Suffering, as we shall see later in this letter, is a gift.  It is something of an honor done us by God, a recognition that indeed our faith has grown and our confidence in Christ matured such that we can face that suffering as Stephen faced his death, in all godliness and dignity.

All of this to say that this day of Christ, though it assuredly means vengeance of eternal punishment to those who have rejected our Lord, is not a day of dread for those who believe.  It is the day of final victory.  It is the once for all, eternal defeat of sin, the final downfall of Satan, the accuser of the brethren.  It consummates the kingdom, as John also informs us, purging all sorrow, all pain, all memory of sin and our tendency to submit to sin from our lives.  It is a day, for the majority of those who will constitute the kingdom populace, when bodies long since returned to dust shall be made new, souls reunited with flesh, and that flesh of a new and sinless sort, cleansed of the effects of sin, and refit for eternity.  For those few yet alive when He comes, this same process shall transpire, as Paul makes clear in 1Corinthians 15.  The dead shall rise first, but we shall all be changed.  We must be.  “For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1Co 15:52-53).

Honestly, were eternity to be experienced with this body, I’m not sure I would sign on for it.  The aches and pains of age alone would discourage the idea.  Fading senses, slowing abilities, scars from past events, and over-heightened response to the stimuli of lust and longing do not seem the sort of things one wishes to carry with them forever and a day.  Now, it may very well be that some of the marks of former wear may remain.  We do see, for example, that Jesus bore the marks of His crucifixion even after His resurrection, and even to the end, is visibly evident in heaven as the Lamb Who was slain.  But whether this is a standard by which to set our expectations in our own regard, or whether our future bodies are significantly remodeled remains to be seen.  Jesus did observe that in the resurrection, we are not as we were.  We no longer, for example, continue in marriage, suggesting that the male/female distinction has been done away in these new bodies, which would certainly address issues of lust and its tendencies.  But we really don’t know.  We are given to understand that those who have gone to their rest in the grave, those saints who rest in the presence of our Lord awaiting this day are recognizably who they are.  Moses and Elijah, for example, were clearly recognizable when they met Jesus on the mountaintop.  We could go farther back, and consider Samuel’s post-death encounter with Saul.  There was no question in Saul’s mind as to who he was addressing.

All of this to say, though, that for us who believe, this day of Christ is no cause for dread.  If indeed we have been gifted the gift of saving grace, all cause for dread of our God should long since have been washed away.  That is, after all, rather the point.  Our enmity with God has been brought to an end.  We are no longer enemies, but rather, sons and daughters of His own household!  He has adopted us as His own.  And can you readily suppose that as His own children, He will see us undergo those same terrors as await the ones who have signed on with Satan?  I think not!  We may undergo disciplinary actions in this life, but they have been for our eternal good.  And this day, this return of our Lord in the fulness of His majesty and power, is the ushering in of our eternal good.  Indeed, it is, at least measured from this point, the only say worthy of our attention.  As far as the future goes, this is our future.  This is our welcome home.  This is the day in which we enter into the fulness of our inheritance in the Lord.  What dread can there be in that, for those who have believed on and loved our Lord Jesus Christ?

I would also bring to bear, as touching on this subject, the example of Aaron in that day when his sons, having offered strange fire before the Lord, doing such things as occurred to their own imagination, rather than serving in obedience to the office entrusted to them by God.  They died, Moses tells us, ‘when they offered strange fire before the Lord’ (Nu 26:61).  What was the issue?  They had done something not commanded them (Lev 10:1-7), and fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them.  There was no justice delayed here!  But my focus is on Aaron.  A father’s grief, after all, is inevitable, and even the worst crimes on the part of his child would hardly suffice to displace grief at their death.  But Moses had instruction from the Lord for Aaron.  “It is what the LORD spoke.  He said, ‘I will be treated as holy by those who come near Me.’”, and Aaron, hearing this, kept silent as his relatives came for the bodies, carrying them outside the camp to be disposed of.  And the instruction continued, both for Aaron, and his remaining sons.  “Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, lest you die, and lest God therefore become wrathful against all the congregation.  Others shall mourn your kinsmen, the whole of Israel shall do so, but you?  Don’t even leave the tent of meeting, for the LORD’s anointing oil is upon you.”

What is happening in this scene?  There is some suggestion that we are still back at the initial consecration of Aaron and his sons to be priests before our Lord.  This comes of that note of the anointing oil still being upon them.  But whether during that first commissioning or later, this remains the case:  They stood as God’s representatives to the people.  They stood, particularly Aaron, with that gold medallion upon his turban, declared as ‘Holy unto the Lord’.  This was an act of God’s holiness.  This was a preservation of His glory (not that His glory was threatened by the acts of Nadab and Abihu), but He would be duly honored by His servants, the priests.  That was the whole point of this event.  God will not be mocked, and their doing as they pleased in the course of serving Him was mockery.  He had declared just how the incense for His altar was to be composed, and they had come burning whatever happened to suit their fancy.  Perhaps it was the right composition at the wrong time.  The details of what made that fire strange are left unexplored.  The details aren’t the point.  Obedience is the point.  Honoring God as God is the point.  It was for them, and it remains so for us.

For those of us involved in the organization and presentation of worship on the Lord’s day, this should come as stern warning.  Again, not as cause for fear, for our enmity with God is done away.  But if our purpose is to honor God and proclaim His holiness and His goodness before the congregation, then our methods and our manner ought to proclaim our own submission to His will and His instruction.  It is not a time to assert individuality.  It is not a time to just make a joyful noise, and give not thought to His desire, so long as we’re enjoying it.  It is a time to serve Him as He would be served, else it is an exercise not merely in futility, but truly, playing with fire.

Back to this day of Christ.  Here is the day in which our Lord and King returns.  Here is the day in which He sees the purposes of God made complete.  Sin and death are done away.  All those who have continued in opposing Him, seeking to usurp His throne and seeking to destroy or disturb His own people, shall be cast into eternal darkness, eternal death, apart from God and without hope forever.  There is no appeals process.  There is no possibility of pardon.  The time for repenting has passed and there is only the certainty of punishment, such punishment as sin has truly deserved.  And these are those whose sins have reached their full measure.  Here is God, the All-consuming Fire.  Why was that bush in the desert not consumed by the fire of His presence?  Because His presence had rendered the ground holy, so holy that Moses must not even defile it with the soles of his sandals, but must come barefoot before his Maker.  There is the exception, such as there is one:  The all-consuming fire of God purifies.  It does not consume what is holy, else He Himself must be consumed.  But it burns away every impurity.  There’s a reason we are given the image of a crucible.  What happens in the crucible?  The precious ore of gold or silver is heated to such extremes of heat that every impurity in that ore must be burned away.  What remains after that all-consuming fire is pure.

For us, who shall come forth as silver, the cleansing fire of God’s all-consuming presence has burnt away every last trace of iniquity.  Already, the record of our sins in the courts of heaven have been erased, blotted out such that there can be no charges brought.  The case has been closed, the debt paid, and as such, the records of the case have not only been sealed, but deleted.  There is no record of past sins our accuser can make reference to.  All that remains is the new man, brought forth through the fire, reborn and made whole, perfected and blameless, as Paul describes the case here.  We shall be found sincere – so thoroughly purified and perfected that standing there in the full light of day, in the full light of the full revealing of God’s glory, no stain, no shadow remains to mar the image, no shortcoming spoils the workmanship.  For that workmanship has been by God’s own, perfect hands.  And He has created a masterpiece.  Indeed, He has filled His kingdom with masterpieces, masterful reworkings of humanity after the original design, a perfection so marvelous that even angels, we are told, shall marvel at what is then revealed in the sons and daughters of our King.

This is the day of Christ for those who believe.  It is the day when the new shall be brought forth.  It is the day when the New Jerusalem shall come down out of heaven and take its place in a new creation, a creation cleansed of sin and of sin’s fallout, a creation, a city in which nothing of evil can so much as set foot, for its sun is the Lord Himself.  The guard upon its borders is the Lord Himself.  Here we shall rest for eternity in the joy of His companionship and in the fellowship of all those who, like ourselves, have loved Him and had this fellowship of real, relational, experienced knowledge of Him and of His love.

Thank You, my Lord, that this is so, that this is my hope and my future.  By rights, I should spend the next hour or two in thanks for Your magnanimity towards me.  But honestly, words fail.  The wonder is too great.  And I am held in Your peace.  May it be so through the day, through the week.  May this be a new beginning this morning, as You deal with that anxiousness, that frustration, that short-fused temper of which You reminded me last night.  Let the peaceful fruit of righteousness abound in me as it should.  But I know that if this is to be the case, it can only be by Your hand.  May I prove a willing coworker in that labor of Your love.  Amen.

picture of Philippi ruins
© 2024 - Jeffrey A. Wilcox