Flourishing Affection

I thought it might be appropriate
this morning to select and provide for you
a special eclipse message from God’s word. I knew that we were going to
be thin this morning and given the fact that we are preparing
to get into arguably one of everybody’s favorite chapters, John chapter
14, I put off John 14 one more week and I wanted to return to
a portion of scripture that we have considered before in literally
years past. I think it was 2008 that we preached
this section. And it came about during the
course of our Wednesday prayer that I began really from the
the start of this, just thinking about the prayers that are offered
up in scripture and for what did they pray? How does that
shape our own prayer life? How should it shape our prayer
meetings? And I was really, um, this past week I recited a portion
as we, uh, read and, and again, as we prayed, I I’m really, uh, quite moved by the things that
Paul particularly prays for in his epistles. I want you to first
turn to the book of Ephesians. We’re not going to stay in Ephesians,
not very long. But I want you to just hear the
heart of this great apostle, this great, arguably the greatest
pastor, the greatest evangelist the church has ever known. And
I want you to hear that for which he prays. And as you come into
the book of Ephesians, we’ll touch just on a couple of different
prayers, and then ultimately we’ll land in the book of Philippians. Paul in his prison epistles is
particularly prayerful. And if you think of the situation
what else did Paul have to do but to write letters and to pray
for his various churches? Well in the book of Ephesians
as it opens you know that it’s an intensely doctrinal section
and yet Paul cannot keep from praying in that context for his
little Ephesian churches. If you would look beginning at
verse 15 at the first of four prayers that we want to look
at this morning, where Paul says, for this reason I too, having
heard of the faith of the Lord Jesus, which exists among you,
and your love for all the saints, do not cease in giving thanks
for you. That’s one thing that I think
is oftentimes very elusive in our prayers. gratitude for what
God is doing in other people’s lives. It’s elusive. In fact, sometimes it’s altogether
absent. But I would suggest to you that
if we were more focused on what God is doing in and through other
people, we would certainly know how to pray, more effectively. We would certainly be more gracious
towards them after all at the end of the day. They are God’s
servants. I do not cease in giving thanks
to you. There’s a lot in there, isn’t
there? Every time Paul thought about the Ephesian believers
with whom he had probably spent no more than about four years,
and this is a region that he’s speaking of, Paul had traveled
itinerantly through the entire region, occasionally dipping
into everything from small house churches to these large city
churches that had begun flourishing. And literally, he says, every
time my mind lands upon you, every time I think of you, I
give thanks. I do not cease in giving thanks
for you while making mention of you in my prayers, there’s
another check for us, isn’t there? How often time do we pray through
our entire list of people? A phone book, if you will, it’s
an effective tool. How often do we pray through
the entire list of saints that are present at least on our prayer
lists? I do not cease in giving thanks
for you while making mention of you in my prayers that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give
you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. He basically
says, I want you to know God better. I want you to know Christ
better. And it’s on that point that he
elaborates in verses 18 and 19, I pray that the eyes of your
heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope
of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power
toward us who believe. Three things he prays that these
saints would know. the hope of his calling, that
God from eternity past set his love on you, in time called you
to himself, to a hope. And it’s a living hope, and it’s
a hope in Christ, it’s a hope of heaven, it’s a hope of eternity,
and it’s not just like we think of hope, wishful thinking. This
is a settled confidence in the soul. It’s a hope. that regardless
of who’s protesting what and regardless of what’s going on
in our fallen world, we have a hope, a settled confidence
in God Almighty. And then he says, I pray that
you would know what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints. We talked a few weeks ago about a home that Christ is going to
build. That He’s going away and He’s
going to build us a home. We’ll speak more about it hopefully
next Lord’s Day. A lot of times people get real
crass about that idea that their mansion, because they’ve been
so incredibly faithful, their mansion is going to be the mansion
to beat all mansions. That’s the word I believe that
King James uses to describe the Lord’s efforts in heaven even
as we speak. That he’s gone away to prepare
a mansion for us. We’ll talk more about that mansion,
but the riches have nothing to do with wood and stone and what
kind of a dwelling we may have in heaven. The riches are none
other than the Lord Jesus Christ. We have Christ in his fullness
throughout eternity. The last thing for which Paul
prays there is the power towards the greatness of the power towards
us who believe. If we only knew what kind of
power, what kind of availability God has given to us, what opportunities
are there just for the asking. It is absolutely unlimited because
God himself is unlimited. But that’s not the only prayer
that Paul prays. If you would, turn to Ephesians
chapter 3, just a couple of chapters over. Paul prays another powerful prayer
at the end of Ephesians chapter 3, which he caps off with a doxology. I’m not going to, having spent
time in Ephesians 3, 20 and 22, 21, I’m not going to spend any
time in it today. instead to read the prayer. Beginning
in verse 13 of Ephesians chapter 3. Therefore I ask you not to
lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf for they are your
glory. For this reason, I bow my knees
before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on
earth derives its name, that he would grant you, according
to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through
his Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the
breadth and length and height, and depth, and to know the love
of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to
all the fullness of God.” Paul prays for three things here for
the Ephesian believers, that they would have more of the Spirit’s
power. Look at verse 16, to be strengthened
with power through His Spirit in the inner man. That’s what
we tend to do is resort to our own resources, resort to our
own energy, our own strength, our own intelligence, our own
plans, our own wisdom. And Paul says, if only you would
tap into the greatest source of power in all the universe,
the Holy Spirit. If only you would be strengthened
with His power, with the Holy Spirit’s power. And then he prays
that we would have more of Christ’s love. Look at verse 17. That Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith. That’s where it begins. That’s
where it ends. And that you being rooted
and grounded in love. He’s not saying that they didn’t
love one another. He knew that they did. But what
he wants them to do is grow in their love as we’ll see even
in a moment. that you may be able to comprehend
with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height
and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses. It’s
not that he wanted them to have some kind of intellectual knowledge.
This is the knowledge of experience. He wants them to become a conduit
for the very love of God. He wants them to be used and
he wants them to impact the world in which they live, to know experientially
the love of Christ. more of the Spirit’s power, more
of Christ’s love, more of God’s character. Look at the very end
there of 19. That you may be filled up to
all the fullness of God. One day, and I know, if you’re
like me, it seems like a long way off. One day we will be glorified. We are in the present, little
by little, being sanctified. But one day, by God’s grace,
we will be perfected. We’re a long way off right now. I’m a long way off. But one day,
one day we will be perfected in Christ. God will complete
His work of sanctification in us. We will be like Christ. Paul prays here thirdly that
we would have more of God’s character, that we would be filled up to
all the fullness of God. There’s another prayer I want
to consider this morning, the third of four. If you would turn
to Colossians chapter one. These are a little different,
aren’t they? Than our prayers. They’re a little more substantive
They’re a little more directed. They’re a little more specific.
They’re a little richer than sometimes the feeble prayers
that we throw at God. Colossians chapter 1, Paul presents
another prayer before the throne of grace. For this reason also,
beginning in verse 9, for this reason also, since the day we
heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you. A lot of times
we will take up a prayer matter with great earnestness. And within
hours or days, that earnestness fades. We consider in our minds
that we did, after all, bring it up before the throne of grace.
But Paul says he keeps on pressing in this request. He keeps on
bringing it up before the throne of grace. Like the importunate
friend, remember, who comes constantly knocking and will not go away. This is Paul, the importunate
friend, constantly knocking at the door of God’s throne of grace. We have not ceased to pray for
you. I’m not going to quit, essentially,
Paul says, until God answers this request. We have not ceased
to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge
of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. So
that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please
him in all respects. You see, if we don’t know God,
if we don’t know his word, we don’t know whether we’re really
pleasing to him or not, right? to please him in all respects,
bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge
of God, strengthened with all power according to his glorious
might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously
giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share
in the inheritance of the saints in light. Now, some of you know
there is so much there, that’s probably at least three months
worth of material, just 9 through 12. And if God wills, I purpose
to preach the book of Colossians when we’re done with the Gospel
of John. There will probably be several more eclipses before
we get there. What one pastor summarized of
these prayer requests He said, when we combine these prayers,
we notice that the apostle prays that those addressed may abound
in wisdom, knowledge, power, endurance, long-suffering, joy,
gratitude, and love. We don’t typically pray for those
things for others, but we should. If we’re gonna pray like Paul
prays, if we’re gonna pray intensely as Paul prays, if we’re gonna
pray as biblically as Paul prays, We should pray these kinds of
prayers. There’s a fourth and this is where we want to land
this morning. The fourth is found in the book of Philippians chapter
one. Philippians chapter one. And it begins in verse three
and Like the others do, this also begins with thanksgiving,
which should serve as a model to us. I love the old acrostic,
ACTS, adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and then supplication. We burst right in, usually, immediately
with supplication and leave it at that. When in reality, we
should begin with extolling the glories of the God to whom we
come, that he is indeed sovereign, that he is indeed holy, that
he is almighty God. What a great reminder those serve
for us. Once you see God for who he is,
how can you not pause and confession? Lord, I don’t even deserve to
be here at this prayer meeting. Lord, my heart’s not right. And then, having praised God
for who He is in adoration and having confessed our sins, how
can you not come out of that with a heart of thanksgiving?
Thank you for sending the Savior. Thank you for putting the Holy
Spirit resident within my heart. Thank you for convicting me of
sin. Thank you that I have an avenue for which to confess that. Thank you for the forgiveness
that I have in Christ. Thank you that now I am ready
to look out and see your incredible handiwork in the hearts and lives
of those people here in our midst. Thank you. That’s where Paul
starts. I thank my God, verse 3, in all
my remembrance of you, Always offering prayer with joy
in my every prayer for you all. I will tell you, this is one
of the hardest sentences in all of the New Testament. To diagram,
to really understand as Paul has written it. I thank my God
in all my remembrance of you, just as he had said to the Ephesians.
He probably remembered back to the very first morning where
he met a group of women by the river. That was his church planting
method. Thank my God in all my remembrance
of you, I think of that Philippian jailer, who no sooner had he
been converted, he couldn’t wait to bring Paul and his companions
back to his home to tell his own family about Christ. I thank
my God in all my remembrance of you. He was even thankful
that, remember when he got run out of town. And there stood the believers
whom God had brought to faith, there anchored in the little
city of Philippi. I thank my God in all my remembrance
of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for
you all. Every time I pray for you, I
pray for all of you. And every time I pray for you,
joy comes to my heart. And every time I pray, I pray
for all of you, always, in view of your participation in the
gospel from the first day until now. You’ve heard me talk about
missions work as the privileged partnership. This is partly where
I get it, that in 2 Corinthians 8, where Paul repeats what God
had done through the Macedonian churches. and that the Philippian
believers, the Macedonian believers, among whom were the Philippians,
had stood with him steadfastly at every point. They were his partners. They
considered it a privilege to be partners with Paul the missionary. I thank my God in all my remembrance
of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for
you all in view of your participation in the gospel from the first
day until now. They never quit. For I am confident of this very
thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until
the day of Christ Jesus. You see, Paul’s theology was
not only rock solid, it was consistent. He says the same thing here that
he said to the Ephesian believers, God will complete this work.
God will glorify you in time. God will see through this process
of sanctification and he will bring you to perfection in Christ. Look at verse seven, for it is
only right for me to feel this way about you all because I have
you in my heart. About how many people could you really truly say that
about? I have you in my heart. It better be true of our spouses.
It probably is true of our children. And that’s about the extent of
it, isn’t it? Not for the Apostle Paul. These weren’t relatives
of his, this wasn’t his spouse, this isn’t a love letter per
se. But he says to the Philippian
believers, you are deep down, you have put down roots in my
very soul. I have you in my heart since
both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation
of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. He loved them. They were in his heart because
they too had come to Christ in faith and were now drawing on
the same source of help and hope, the very grace of God. For God
is my witness how I long for you all with the affection of
Christ Jesus. Now that’s a word. that we reserve
almost exclusively for someone we’re dating, someone to whom
we’re married. Perhaps we speak of a family
affection, but it doesn’t go beyond that, not typically. Paul is talking about a kind
of love, this graphic example of affection that itself was
a witnessing tool. that as the unbelieving world
looked at the church and the way they interacted with one
another, the way they loved one another, people couldn’t help but take
notice. And I would say that, by and
large, this idea gives men the heebie-jeebies, right? If we are huggers, maybe that’s
what we have in our mind when we think of this affection in
Christ. Well, we’re willing to hug a
brother in Christ. But I would say to you that.
From what Paul describes here, I think it’s largely absent in. Not just our churches, but I
think it’s largely absent in our church. And it needs to be
cultivated. It’s not just going to happen.
It needs to be recognized. It needs to be prayed for. We
need to call on God and His grace to produce it in our midst. We
need to have it. And that’s what Paul addresses
in verses 9 through 11. Look at verse eight again, God
is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of
Christ Jesus and this I pray. That your love may abound still
more and more in real knowledge and all discernment so that you
may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere
and blameless until the day of Christ. Having been filled with
the fruit of righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ to
the glory and praise of God. Paul wasn’t rebuking them. Paul isn’t rebuking them because
they were unloving towards one another. That was a chief characteristic
of the heathen. Remember Romans chapter 1? In
a sense they loved one another but they needed to grow that
love and affection for one another. In a sense the unbelieving world
was looking and taking notice but It wasn’t so great, this
love, this affection for one another that it had become an
exportable product that others could look at it and say, there
is something different. There is something totally unique. There is something that I must
have, this affection. And so I wanted to spend some
time today on what I have entitled a flourishing affection, that
we are to be about cultivating an eternal fellowship. We tend to think of church in
this static sense, that it’s here and now. This is the church
that I happen to be part of now. But we don’t tend to think of
our brothers and sisters as extending beyond these walls into eternity. That’s exactly what Paul is talking
about here. We are in fellowship in the here
and now, but that fellowship is going to endure into all eternity. Do you realize that? And it should
matter. And it should look different
and be different. I wanted to look at the glories
of Christian affection toward that very end. How do we cultivate
an eternal fellowship? Well, it starts with at least
acknowledging what Paul has written here, the glories of Christian
affection. First of all, look at love’s
increase. This was a faithful church, the Church of
Philippi. It was a loving church. It was
a hospitable church. We talked about hospitality last
week. This is a church that, in Lydia’s case, no sooner was
she saved, she insisted that Paul and his team come to her
home for a meal. The Philippian jailer, likewise,
who I just mentioned, immediately had Paul and his companions into
his home. Well, that kind of hospitality,
that set the tone, that would continue on throughout the existence
of this church. It was a loving group. And to
a degree, they loved one another. But Paul says this in verse nine,
this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more. It’s there, but I want it to
grow. I want it to flourish. I want it to abound. That’s one of Paul’s favorite
words. And I’ll give you a few, and I mean a few examples. Paul uses this word in every
one of his epistles, and he uses it many times, multiple occasions. Thank you, brother. To the Romans, Paul said that they abound in
the grace of God. Later on in that same epistle,
chapter 15, they abound in hope. First Corinthians, he urges them
to seek to abound for the edification of the church. Later on, as he
closes that incredible book with that arguably one of my favorite
verses in all of scripture, be steadfast, immovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil
is not in vain. Our comfort is abundant in Christ. The ministry of righteousness
is abounding in glory. The giving of thanks abounds
to the glory of God, 2 Corinthians, all of them. Over and over again,
Paul uses this word. And you know what it reminds
me of is in this day and age, all I can do is observe the trends
and then in time, as I hear it enough times, seek to emulate
what the young people are doing, right? Paul would say, if Paul
were alive today, he would have observed our culture and observed
the young people and heard them talk and say, I want you to super
love one another, right? Because everything is, if we
just add super to it, then it’s like the nth degree of whatever
it is we’re talking about. In this case, love. And he begins
by talking about the fellowship in the Philippian church. And
he very clearly points to the fact that, yes, you have a love
for one another, but I want it to grow. It’s got to flourish. It’s got to abound. It’s got
to increase. And it’s the love, not for the
Apostle Paul. He’s not saying, look, I’m not
feeling it. You need to really show me the
love. It isn’t about him. Paul says,
you need to love one another more. The love that you have
for one another needs to be cultivated. It needs to flourish. As one beloved pastor put it,
it is love for Christ’s image and work. Do we really believe I mean,
really and truly believe that we are a body. Because I could,
I could promise you most people, it just doesn’t seem like it.
We don’t really believe that we are a body of Christ. We can’t. The way that we treat one another
sometimes, the way that we think of one another. In the first place, he says,
it is Christ’s image. that they have been made in the
image of God, that they are God’s servants. But then he says it
is love for Christ’s image and work, that they are one of those,
as my brother said at the start of the service, they are part
of the joints and sinew. It is according to the proper
working of each individual part that the church is what the church
should be. He says, It is love for Christ’s
image and work, for all that represents Him on earth, His
people, His cause. It is that holy affection which,
while it unites all in whom it dwells, it impels them to sympathize
with all suffering, cooperate with all effort, in connection
with the defense and confirmation of the gospel. He says you need
to love one another more. Your love for one another needs
to grow. But love has its limits. And Paul wants to talk about
that as verse 9 continues. Glance at it if you would. The
second glory of Christian affection not only love’s increase and
that it should be an abounding love, but it should be a bounded
love. Love has its limits. This I pray
that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge
and discernment. There’s a limit to our love. We don’t love sin. We don’t love
foolishness. And basically, he prays that
their love would become bounded in knowledge. You see, as someone’s love begins to grow,
if there is no discernment in that love, it’s going to be just
enthusiastic, kind of giddy like a puppy, embracing everything
that comes, finding truth under every rock. And soon they begin giving money
to all kinds of various causes. After all, the guy was on the
TV and he asked politely, so we give enthusiastically. And in that sometimes we We not
only are foolish, but we sometimes do more harm than good, don’t
we? Paul says that this abounding
love should be bordered with parameters, knowledge and discernment,
that we should have an intelligent investigation into the things
which come our way, that we should pick what is not just better,
but what is best, what is truly good and right. One pastor said,
even natural love has a quick perception and intuitive knowledge,
but without the regulative principle of the spiritual reason, it is
not secure against a partial seeing and a misconception. In
other words, he says, we need to really know what we’re doing. We need to really know those
with whom we’re involved. We need to know what we’re reading. And so he says, real knowledge.
There’s all kinds of false knowledge. Paul uses this word 15 times
in his epistles. We’re not going to look at but
a few of them. And it’s a frequent prayer. We
heard it in several of the prayers that we talked about, right?
Knowledge. He prays that they would know God better, know Christ
better, that they would be the fruit of sound instruction and
sound doctrine in the knowledge of God, in the knowledge of the
Son of God, in the knowledge of His will, in the knowledge
of Him, in the knowledge, as he says in Philemon, of every
good thing. That’s what we wanna know. In
this day of information, it’s amazing, you can Google almost
anything and at least have some knowledge instantly. But Paul
says, I want you to know God, I want you to know Christ, I
want you to know how God thinks, what is his will. It’s not just facts. It’s God’s
operation. It’s God’s plan of redemption
in the world. It’s truth. I want you to know
the truth, Paul says. I want you to have the blessing
of knowing the deep, deep things of God. so that you can evaluate the
world in which you live, so you can evaluate the circumstances
that come across your path, so you can interact with the individuals
and discern the spirits and know who is true and who’s false. And that’s why he says, not only
knowledge, it doesn’t matter how much knowledge you have if
you don’t apply it. And so he says, in real knowledge
and all discernment. That word is often used in Proverbs,
isn’t it? You remember it. One of the purposes
of the Proverbs in the very opening chapter, to give prudence to
the naive. We tend to say it this way, you’re
allowed to be naive once. Fool me once. To give prudence to the naive,
to the youth, knowledge, and discretion. Discretion is that
ability to apply knowledge. To say, you know what, this isn’t
good, this isn’t right. This does not please God. Proverbs 1.22, later in that
same chapter. How long, O naive ones, will
you love being simple-minded? You see, that’s the problem.
We eschew, we don’t want the knowledge to begin with. We don’t
want to be burdened with knowing right and wrong. How long, O naive ones, will
you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves
in scoffing, and fools hate knowledge. Later on in Proverbs chapter
five, he urges that we would observe discretion. Observe that
discretion must be exercised, observe that it must be fed with
knowledge, and observe that we must exercise discretion, that
there’s call and cause for it. This discretion is what one called
spiritual perception. It’s the ability to see and recognize
something for what it is. Something to be avoided, something
to be put off, something to be shunned, something to be confessed
and repented. Another described it as the insight
which recognizes a truth as the eye recognizes an object. This is the ability to discern. It’s judgment. And what we have to cultivate
as believers is a correct moral perception,
a spiritual perception of the world around us. Individuals,
books, movies, songs. We need to know the true nature
of a thing. We need to be able to determine
whether it’s good and wholesome and right. and to distinguish if needed,
to discriminate. That’s a dirty word in our vocabulary,
isn’t it? To discriminate, to set aside
something that we know is bad. One pastor described it very
clearly when he said that if love grew in mere capacity, we
just began to love everybody and everything, right? If love
grew in mere capacity and without the increase of these safeguards,
it would be a hazard of forming unworthy and unprofitable attachments. We would love things that God
hates. We would love behavior that God
hates. Love without that guidance, he
continues, might form unworthy attachments that might wound
itself in its blindness and hinder gospel interests. It must understand
the gospel in its purity and learn to detect unwanted additions. We have to be careful. We want
to be loving, we want to grow in that love, but it’s love with
knowledge and it’s love whose knowledge is applied in discernment.
And of course that comes, it comes from experience, doesn’t
it? It comes from our missteps and it comes from falling on
our knees to confess those things. to begin to work through the
process of discriminating and discerning between good and bad.
That’s why so often when I pray following confession, we do pray. I don’t ever want to go back
there again, Lord. We pray for the grace, I don’t
want to go back there. Proverbs 14, the naive believes
everything. but the prudent man considers
his steps. There’s a third glory of Christian
affection. Not only love’s increase that
results in an abounding, a growing love, love’s limits, abounded
love, but love’s discrimination. This is essentially the application
of what he just said. It is a discriminating love. Look at verse 10. Take it at
a running start from verse 9, this I pray that your love may
abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment
so that you may approve the things that are excellent. If you don’t
come at it from that approach, you’re going to just approve
anything that comes along. This whole idea, this word and
the idea behind it was used of assaying metals, weighing them
out, determining the validity of a particular metal, burning
off the dross. And what it refers to is proving. Testing, investigation, examination,
and then essentially a stamp of approval. This is the real
deal. This idea is throughout scripture,
you’ve heard it, you know it. Proverbs 17, the refining pot
is for silver and the furnace is for gold, but the Lord tests
the hearts. First Corinthians 3.13, which
first we preached a number of years ago, each man’s work will
become evident For the day will show it because it is to be revealed
with fire. But this discriminating love
that he’s talking about is part of our effort. We need to have
a fire. We need to put our opportunities,
we need to put our ideas, we need to put our habits, our practices. Sometimes we even need to put
our choice of friends Not the friends themselves, mind you,
but the choice of friends in the fire. To have that examined
by God Himself. 1 Corinthians 11, a man must
examine himself and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and
drink of the cup. We don’t come to the Lord’s table
indiscriminately. Galatians 6.4, essentially the
same thought. Each man must examine his own
work and then he will have reason for boasting. We need to be careful
what we approve. We need to be careful what we
do, how we live. As one said, this love must be
able to determine by judicious discernment what things really
matter. What is the best and the most
virtuous? What is of most importance? What
is really of value? We can’t just meander through
life uncaringly, foolishly, aimlessly. Ephesians 5.10 says that we are
to be trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Is that
what you woke up with this morning? How can I be more pleasing to
the Lord. It doesn’t just happen. There’s
an intentionality here. Paul says the same thing to the
Thessalonians when he said, examine everything carefully. Hold fast
to that which is good. Which means there’s a whole lot
of bad out there that needs to be weeded out Charles Bridges, one of my heroes
of the faith, said it this way, an indiscriminate faith, faith
that just believes everything, loves everything, reads everything,
imbibes everything, an indiscriminate faith is fraught with mischief. Look at the fruit of this folly
in the church. When our faith stands on the
wisdom of men and not in the power of God, The novelties of
fancy, accredited by some favorite name, readily pass for the revelation
of God. Do you know what he just did?
He just described most books that are in the Bible super stores.
Right? Most of the books in there are
novelties of fancy, accredited by some favorite name, readily
passing for the revelation of God. And they’re not. They’re
not. We do not sit down to our food blindfolded not knowing
whether we take food or poison. But here men are ready to drink
any cup that is presented to them like children who think
that everything that is sweet is good. Thus our unstable souls
beguiled and corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. We need to be careful. In cultivating this eternal fellowship,
in this flourishing love that we are to have, we can’t just
embrace every idea that comes out. It’s a discriminating love. And fourthly, it is a productive
love. The fourth glory of this Christian
affection is found in verses 10 and 11. And it really forms
the closing thought of this entire prayer that Paul prays. Starting
in verse nine, this I pray, that your love may abound still more
and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you
may approve the things that are excellent. And this I pray, Paul
says, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of
Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which
comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
That’s our goal. We want to be the real deal when
we stand before the Lord Jesus, don’t we? We want to be sincere.
We want to be blameless. That word sincere just speaks
of being disentangled from the world and all of its allures.
We want to be real. And believe me, I know this,
that there is a lot that we need to work to set aside in order
to be sincere. There’s a lot of self-presentation
that goes on that presents an image that isn’t entirely accurate,
right? The word literally means unadulterated.
He is what he is. What you see is what you get. And then this idea of blamelessness.
That almost sounds impossible. That’s an impossible standard
to some degree. But it means that we are not
those who stumble, nor are we those that lay a stumbling block
in our stumbling in another brother’s way. Paul was concerned about the
way the Philippians lived, not only inwardly, but outwardly. Paul said that for believers, they need to lead not only an
inwardly pure life, but they need to think about the outward
effects of their life. Because sooner or later it’s
going to be seen. That’s what it is to be blameless. To live
a life when all is seen that neither stumbles itself nor causes
others to stumble. That’s the goal. That’s the goal
of this entire section. And then Paul adds these
three little phrases. Descriptive, powerful. They’re
not unimportant. First he says how. By what means? having been filled with the fruit
of righteousness. I kind of think of it like this,
that when we come to Christ, we are given, bestowed the righteousness
of Christ. It’s not actually us. We have
the righteousness of Christ, but it isn’t seen in its fullness
in our lives, not yet, certainly not initially. And sometimes
even after a long time, we don’t see a lot of that, do we? I kind
of look at it as a grid that slowly needs to be filled up
block by block, that is slowly being built by God’s grace in
our life. And each block must be established
by God himself. Each block of that grid must
be filled in by God itself. Here’s an area of righteousness
in this individual. next block, right? And the work
continues. That fruit begins to grow. Love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control. Those areas of our life where
the Holy Spirit is resonant and active and working. It is the
fruit of righteousness. It is the result, really, of
seeing and knowing that God is at work in our life. This is
one of the encouragements that we have, to kneel down on our
knees before Almighty God and pray through our life how far
God has taken us. Because I think if you begin
to see the grid and see how God has filled in that grid, that
there are areas of our life that God has granted victory, right? God has given us grace. We have
overcome many areas. And for those black squares that
still need to be filled in by God Himself, He’s able and He’s
willing and He’s interested It’s the fruit of righteousness. How long? How long indeed? Until the day of Christ. Whether you grow up and ultimately
die to go home to glory or whether Christ returns, either way, we
need to be working until then. We need to be looking until then.
We need to be longing for the fruit of righteousness Until
then, for whom and to what purpose?
Paul lays it out there very plainly, to the glory and praise of God.
It’s in order to please God that we live the way that we do, that
we live this aggressive Christian life, looking to grow our love,
our brotherly love, Looking to flourish in that love,
ultimately it’s to God’s glory. It’s to God’s praise that the
world sees different people, not just the church. But as the
church sees, as the world sees the church functioning in its
one another love, that’s when it becomes a witnessing tool
in God’s arsenal. Would you join me in prayer? O merciful God, we humble ourselves
before you knowing that in so many ways we fall woefully short
as we consider this passage. Our love, if it is present at
all, has not abounded. It is not flourishing. And even
as we read this, we would long for it to do so, but we know
that that’s going to take work, substantial work. Lord, we know that even in that
love, even in that desire to see our love flourish, we know
that we must be careful. We know that we must be knowledgeable
and discriminating in what we approve. Lest we undo all of
your work. Father, we thank you that you
are ultimately at work within us, cultivating and growing until
the very day of Christ. Father, we pray that you would
take these words and apply these prayers to our hearts. We pray,
Father, that you would even inform and correct and stir our prayer
life. Lord God, we thank you and we
praise you for the privilege to serve you. It’s in Jesus’
name that we pray. Amen.