Paul's Three Wishes
Tom Shrader expounds Paul's three-part prayer in Philippians 1:9-11, unpacking how abounding love grounded in real knowledge and discernment is meant to produce a sincere, blameless life visible to the world. He argues that obedience and the fruit of righteousness are not ends in themselves but natural results of genuinely loving God, drawing on John 14-15, Matthew 5, and Ephesians 2 to reinforce the point. The central challenge to East Valley Bible Church is to examine whether their pursuit of biblical knowledge and obedience is motivated by love for God or merely by duty, since only love sustains and overflows into the transformed life Paul describes.
“Love is not blind — love has eyes wide open with knowledge and discernment so lives are transformed.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Philippians
Recorded: 2008 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 48 min
Themes: love, obedience, prayer, knowledge, fruit, sincerity, transformation, motivation, going through the motions, dutiful but joyless, new believer, questioning my motivation, long time churchgoer, seeking deeper faith, young adult, struggling with legalism
Scripture: Philippians 1:9-11, Philippians 1:21, Philippians 1:23, Philippians 2:3, Philippians 2:5, Philippians 2:12-13, Philippians 3:5-6, Philippians 3:8, Philippians 3:12, Philippians 4:6-7, Ephesians 2:8-10, Acts 13:36, Romans 5:5, 1 John 4:7-10, Galatians 5:22, Hebrews 4:12, Matthew 5:13-14, Matthew 5:16, John 14:15, John 14:21, John 14:23, John 15:1, John 15:4-5, John 15:8, Luke 12:56
Theological Themes: sanctification, becoming holy, fruit of righteousness, agape love, discernment, biblical knowledge, intercessory prayer, spiritual maturity
Full Transcript
Introduction and Overview of Philippians
The book of Philippians is a book about joy. Paul is writing to this church, calling them saints at Philippi, and he communicates to them a prayer of grace and peace, telling us that this comes from God, from Christ alone. As I work through this letter, reading it once or twice each week, it strikes me that so many of the passages in this book should be familiar to you. For those who are brand new to all of this — perhaps God just did some marvelous work in your life, or perhaps you are here for the very first time — I can tell you that over a period of time I find myself coming back again and again to these huge chunks of passages from Philippians. That tells me how important this book is for encouragement, direction, and insight.
Let me give you a quick tour of what I mean. Look at chapter one, verse 21: "For to me, to live is Christ, to die is gain." Verse 23: "I have this dilemma, I'm hard-pressed in both directions. Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, for that's much better and yet to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake." Chapter two, beginning in verse three: "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. Merely look out not for your own interest for others." Verse five: "Have the attitude or mind in you that's also in Christ Jesus." Paul then unpacks that and gives us this beautiful picture of humility that we find in Christ alone.
Chapter three is where Paul lays out a bit of his résumé, and his conclusion in verse eight is: "of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord." In verse 12 he says he hasn't obtained all this yet, he is not perfect, but he presses on, forgetting what lies behind and pressing forward to what lies ahead. And look at chapter four, verses six and seven: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." That is just a sampling of the verses that, as I am teaching other passages, I keep coming back to again and again. They are so foundational — such a great source of encouragement, direction, and insight.
That makes sense, because Paul is not chastising this church. This is not like when he wrote to the church at Corinth, or in some other instances where he is highlighting trouble within a church, reprimanding them, admonishing them, and giving them a path to correction. He is writing in large part to thank them for the grace and mercy they showed him through a concrete, monetary gift, and as he does that, he expands on all of these things.
Paul's Prayer for the Philippians
Last week we saw verse three, where Paul says, "I thank my God in all remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel." He is saying: I find myself praying for you all the time, and that should come as no surprise, because we have been in this together — you are my brothers and my sisters. So what is it that Paul actually prays for these people? That is what we are going to look at today, in just three verses: verse nine, verse ten, and verse eleven.
"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."
The Purpose of Salvation: Glorifying God
Why did God save His people? The answer is much more than simply that we might escape judgment or find heaven. He saved us for the very last thing mentioned here: to glorify God. That is our catechism answer, is it not? What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. How do we glorify God? Paul calls it here the fruit of righteousness — our life begins to manifest outwardly what has inwardly taken place. There has been an inward transformation and change.
The Fruit of Righteousness
This outward manifestation is the fruit of righteousness. It is the same idea we will encounter when we get to chapter two, verses 12 and 13. Look at Philippians two. Paul writes: "So then, beloved, just as you've always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence." He acknowledges their faithfulness and their continuation in it, and then gives them this admonishment: "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."
Now, here is what Paul is not saying. He is not telling them to earn their salvation. Salvation is by grace, which by definition we cannot earn. Grace is unmerited favor, so by definition there is nothing I can do to earn unmerited favor. I have these discussions with people every once in a while — we talk about grace and salvation, they talk about what we need to do, and they bring me to this very passage and say, "Look at what Paul says: work out your salvation with fear and trembling."
Paul is not saying to earn that salvation. What Paul is saying is that because you are saved, there will be works that flow from that. Do not miss this. Salvation precedes works. Being right with God precedes trying to perform or to see God through transformation works in my life. I am right with God because God declares me right with Him, not because of anything I have done.
Saved by Grace, Created for Good Works
Turn to the left — the book right before Philippians is Ephesians. Look at Ephesians chapter two. We know this passage well, particularly verses eight and nine, but verse ten may be less familiar. Verse eight: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourself, not as a result of works, so that no one would boast."
When Paul says "saved," we need to stop and make sure we understand what he means. He means that we are now in right relationship with God. We come into the world apart from God because our sin separates us from Him. We sense something is wrong, and we may not know what it is, so we think that if we can just stop doing this and start doing that, everything will be okay. Paul says no, that is not it at all. That is religion — that is what all religion is. Do this, do not do that, move over here. Biblical Christianity is not about that. Biblical Christianity is not about religion or our works; it is about grace. God shed His grace on us. If you are a Christian today, it is because of the grace God has extended to you.
Now here is the same idea we saw in Philippians 2:12 and 13, appearing again in Ephesians 2:10: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He prepared beforehand so that we might walk in them." Why did He save us? This is way more than just escaping judgment or getting to heaven. He saved us so that He would begin to work through us — He saved us for a reason, for a purpose.
Saved for a Purpose
In Acts chapter 13, verse 36, Paul is teaching and makes a reference to David: "For David, after he served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep" — that is, he died. God saved David for a reason. He saved you for a reason, for a purpose. And when you have achieved that purpose, we will all know, because you will assume room temperature. How will you know when God is done with you, when your work is completed? There is one way you will know — you will die. That is what he says.
But He saved us for a reason, and that is the whole idea in these three verses we are looking at. Going back to Philippians 1, Paul says he is praying three things: first, that their love may abound more and more; second, that they would live free from hypocrisy — and we will show where that comes from in verse 10; and third, that because they are living a lifestyle abounding in love and freedom from hypocrisy, they become display cases for God's grace. The phrase Paul uses is that they become filled with the fruit of righteousness. Because they have been made right with God, God begins to work in their lives.
Do You Want What Is Best for You?
God has saved you for a reason and for a purpose — so that He would produce in your life these fruits of righteousness. Now let me ask an interesting question: do you want what is best for you? It almost sounds like a foolish question. We would instinctively say, of course we want what is best for us. But do we really? Because God is going to tell us what is best for us, and yet I find people all the time saying they will settle for second best. Do you want what is best for you? Here is what is best for you: that your love may abound more and more in real knowledge and discernment, that you would live a life free from hypocrisy, and that your life would overflow with fruits of righteousness.
Abounding in Love
So let us unpack it. Paul begins in verse 9 by saying he prays that their love may abound. The word "abound" carries the idea of overflowing — that your life is filled up. It is in the present tense, indicating a continuous action: that your life would be continuously filled with love, so much of it that you could not contain it, that it would spill over onto everybody around you. It becomes the motivation and the drive for all that you do. It becomes the very essence of who you are.
Abounding in Real Knowledge
Paul says there are two things about this love. It needs what he terms "real knowledge" — a genuine knowledge, a very different word from general knowledge. It means godly knowledge. James Boyce writes: "The word used here is a special word that refers to advanced spiritual knowledge. In the New Testament, the word applies only to spiritual things, to the knowledge of God, of religious things, spiritual things, doctrinal things." It is a knowledge that comes to the Christian through the study of God's Word.
So here is what Paul prays: he prays that your love would be overflowing, abounding in real — that is, genuine, not fake — knowledge of God's Word, what it is, what it means, what it says, what is truth, and all that flows out of that. Paul writes in Romans 5:5, "The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." And 1 John 4 says, "This love is from God, and everyone who loves God is born of God and knows God, and the one who does not love does not know God. For God is love. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. We love Him because He first loved us."
So this love is not primarily an emotional, sentimental, or physical attraction. It is a choice — a conscious, volitional choice to show kindness, generosity, and obedience to the people around us. Jesus said, "This is how they will know you are My disciples — if you have love for one another." He is not saying those other things are unimportant. He is saying that even within the context of love abounding, there is the idea of real knowledge, of understanding and studying God's Word, breaking it apart again and again so that it begins to affect how we live.
The whole objective, though — do you see it? — is that our love would grow. It is not the objective that our knowledge would grow. The knowledge needs to grow; we need to understand and see it. But not for knowledge's sake — for love's sake.
The Role of Discernment
Paul also says there needs to be discernment in here. This is not a matter of personal taste or individual preferences. It is a biblical, theological, and moral perception. His prayer in verse 9 is that love would be overflowing, and what motivates it is not some random sentimentality. Random acts of kindness, he would say, do not make much sense. He wants there to be an overflowing, volitional love in your life.
Does that love have feelings? It absolutely has feelings. One concern is that we can talk so much about knowledge, obedience, and discernment that we miss the fact that feelings are attached to this. If you begin to contemplate what God did for you on the cross, and what God does to sustain you each and every day — when you look back, and it can be very hard to see in the middle of it, but you can look back and say, "Look at Him work there. Look what He did here." If you can look back at that and not be moved emotionally, then something is wrong. It is intellectual, to be sure, but it is also deeply emotional.
Discernment, simply defined, is connecting the dots. It is taking knowledge and bringing it together with understanding what needs to be done. Sinclair Ferguson writes: "Love and insight need to go together. To love is to have the motivation to help. Discernment enables us to see what the real need is. Love means we have compassion. Discernment means that we see the situation clearly, realistically."
Paul is saying he wants your love to abound more and more. You begin to look around, you understand the motivation for it, you understand it is motivated by God's Word and God's transformation through the Holy Spirit in your life. All of a sudden you see things, you understand those things of God, and you know how you need to respond and how God would have you respond. You begin to feel the weight of the fact that God has placed you in different situations and brought people into your life for a reason.
When there is a knock on the door — and it may come at a very inconvenient time of day — and someone says, "Do you have a minute?" the answer is: I do not have a minute, but I will take one. Why? Because God interrupts us with these wonderful divine interruptions that allow our love to abound more and more. As knowledge and discernment grow, we begin to meet the needs of the people He brings into our lives.
What Stops It Cold
There is something that will stop that cold. Why would we not respond that way? One thing will stop you. What is it? You. Selfishness. That is what stops it. You can look around and know that a particular person needs something from you right now — a phone call, a kind word — and simply decide to let it go.
Love That Abounds Through Knowledge and Discernment
There is no greater love than this: that one man would lay down his life for another. There is no way to be a real lover unless you are selfless. To really love, to have love abound over and over again, demands that you set aside your own likes and dislikes.
I was watching Susan the other day, and you could just tell she was hurting. I looked at her and thought, she doesn't need a word right now. She doesn't need a Bible verse. She needs a hug. So I went over and I just held her. It was an act of real love, because at that moment I understood exactly what she needed and I was willing to give it to her.
This is what Paul is saying. He says, here is what I pray: that your life would be filled with love, driven by real knowledge and discernment. Why? Verse 10 tells us: so that you may approve. That word means to examine, to allow, to prove. In Luke chapter 12, verse 56, that same word is translated "analyze."
The idea is that you will look around with knowledge and discernment and discover the best possible way to obey the Lord by meeting the needs of the people around you, dealing with the most excellent things as they relate to truths and thoughts and words and attitudes and deeds.
Sincere: The Image of Sun-Tested Pottery
There are two key words Paul uses here. The first is "sincere," which is also translated "pure." The idea behind this word is best captured by the phrase "sun-tested." In that culture, craftsmen would make pottery of all kinds. Crude pots were easy enough to produce, and imperfections didn't much matter. But every once in a while, they would be making items of fine pottery, almost like fine china, which was very easy to crack.
If there was a little dishonesty in a craftsman who had cracked a piece after all that work, he might take that crack and fill it with wax, then glaze or paint over it to cover it up. But a shrewd buyer would take that pot outside, hold it up to the sun, and if the crack had been filled with wax and painted over, the sun would shine right through it. That was the idea of sun-tested. In fact, much of the fine pottery would be stamped to verify it was sun-tested.
Here is what Paul says: I want your love to abound so much in knowledge and discernment that your life is sincere — sun-tested. How would a life be sun-tested? Hebrews 4:12 tells us: "The Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow, able to judge the thoughts and the intention of the heart." To lead the sincere life is to live a life that is true, real, and pure.
Speaking of this, John MacArthur writes that the word carries the idea of cohesiveness, or oneness, or unity. In a sincere Christian life, everything fits together and works together. Nothing is unrelated to the foundation of saving faith and holy living.
An Integrated Life, Not a Divided One
The Christian life is a holistic life — an integrated life. That means I do not have my faith over here and my life over here. These things are merged together. I cannot separate the fact that I am a follower of Christ from the fact that I am a husband to Susan. If I do separate them, I am not sincere. I am not sun-tested. I am a hypocrite. And there is one thing everybody agrees on: we all hate hypocrites.
If you say Jesus is Lord, that affects every bit of your life. It affects the way you work. It affects the way you respond to the people around you. Paul says: I want you to be sincere, sun-tested, and blameless. Blameless carries the idea of not stumbling or causing offense — not stumbling in our own life, and not being a stumbling block to others.
It does not mean at all that we are without sin. We know that. But it means when we sin, we respond accordingly and correctly. I am praying that love may abound more and more in your life — not an irrational, emotional love, but love through real knowledge and all discernment.
Filled with the Fruit of Righteousness
The goal is that you will examine and understand your life and see that it is sincere, that it is blameless, and blameless until the day that Jesus comes and He judges it. How does that happen? Verse 11: "I have been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ" — to the glory and praise of God.
When we hear the word "fruit," we might think of Galatians 5:22 and assume Paul is talking about the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is something that happens inside of us — it is what the Spirit does, and it affects who we are. It manifests itself in what Paul describes there: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control." But that is not what Paul is talking about here.
Visible Righteousness as a Witness to the World
He is talking about a visible manifestation of a life that has been transformed. When people look at you, they see Jesus. If I asked whether every person here knows someone — in their family, their neighborhood, their sphere of influence — who does not know Christ or who rejects it, every hand in the place would go up. Here is the deal: how do you think God is going to reach those people? He is going to reach them through people like you.
I want you to understand that everyone around you is looking at your life, studying your life, and judging you. That is not unfair. You say you are a follower of Christ. You call Him master. And they are saying, "All right, then I should be able to look at you and understand what your Father is like. I should be able to look at how you respond and get some indication of what God is like." That is why it is so tragic when a Christian man and a Christian woman in a marriage say, "I don't want to be married anymore" — because it says to the world, on something as practical as marriage, that the Christian thing does not matter much.
They are all watching you. And their standard for judging you is likely higher than your own standard for your life. They are watching everything you say and do. That is exactly what Paul is praying. He said, "I am praying that your love would abound more and more in real knowledge and discernment, that it would be sincere and blameless" — so that the fruit of righteousness would appear all over your life, and when it did, people would glorify and praise God.
The Sermon on the Mount: Salt, Light, and Good Works
Turn to the Gospel of Matthew. We are going to look at two passages from the Gospels. Matthew chapter 5 — the Sermon on the Mount. He begins with "blessed are, blessed are, blessed are." Then Matthew 5:13: "You are the salt of the earth." Matthew 5:14: "You are the light of the world." And verse 16: "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."
You have some general sense of what that means. He said, let your light be on display in such a way that people see your good works — so much so that it prompts them to glorify not you, but God. Now here is the point: the only way they will glorify God after seeing your good works is if you tell them to, because what they will instinctively do is glorify you. They will say, "You are really something incredible. How do you do that? Are you just wired that way? Is that your personality?" And you say, "It isn't me — it's God."
Jesus lays out for us a kind of micro view of what it means to be saved, beginning by pouring His Spirit into all these attributes. And then He says, now that life becomes on display. You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, and He wants your life to shine before men — something visually distinctive about you — so that they see it and glorify the Father.
The Vine and the Branches: Fruit That Glorifies the Father
Turn to John chapter 15. Jesus is hours away from the cross. He is saying goodbye for now to His disciples. He conveys this to them — John 15:1: "I am the vine, and My Father is the vine dresser." Verse 4: "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, he will bear much fruit. For apart from Me, you can do nothing."
What is the fruit? The fruit of righteousness — everything we are talking about. And why is this fruit important? Verse 8: "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit." He says, listen, I want to see this fruit produced in your life. You cannot do it — I do it.
Bringing It Together: Philippians 1 and the Fruit of Righteousness
Now go back to Philippians chapter 1. "Having been filled with the fruit of righteousness" — where does this come from? It comes from Christ. He is the vine. We are the branches. And what is the goal? To glorify God, to praise God. Paul is praying that there would be this fruit of righteousness in their lives, and what I think he is doing here is connecting the idea of the fruit of righteousness with the idea of abounding more and more in love. What he wants to see in your life is obedience.
Let me read a few passages from John 14. Jesus said, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. He who has My commandments and keeps them, he is the one who loves Me. If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and he will come to him and make his abode in him. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love."
I got excited this week about this lesson and about this singular point — and let me see if I can bring it all together.
Love as the Driving Motivation
I think this is huge — huge for me personally, and I pray it is huge for you. It is gigantic for us as East Valley Bible Church. In my life, most of the time when I read a passage like the one in front of us — "I pray that your love abounds more and more in knowledge and discernment" — my focus goes right to the knowledge and discernment. I hear Him say, "If you love Me, you'll keep My commandments," and so all we talk about is obedience, obedience, obedience.
But the point Jesus is making there is not obedience, though that is really important. The point He is making in the fruit of righteousness is not the fruit itself, though that is important. What He is saying about obedience is that obedience is a response to our loving God. What He is saying about the fruit of righteousness is that it is the result of our love abounding more and more.
Is obedience important? Yes. Is knowledge important? Yes. Is discernment important? Yes. But the issue is not knowledge or obedience — the issue is love. "If you love Me, you'll keep My commandments." He is saying the motivation for living this transformed life is that you love Him. It is not out of duty.
My fear is that, even in my own life and certainly in my teaching, I so emphasize the knowledge and the discernment and the obedience that I miss the point: the driving motivation is love. You mean someone could be obedient for a reason other than love? Absolutely — out of duty. Been there, done that.
The Difference Between Duty and Love
In the old days when I did counseling, I would sit down with husbands and wives, and it was not at all unusual to unpack a situation where the wife would say, "I don't really love him. Am I supposed to? Do you want me to just serve him out of duty? Do you want me to be intimate with him out of duty?" I would never answer that directly. I would just turn to the husband and ask, "Would you be happy if she were intimate out of duty?" And he would say, "Better than nothing, yeah." I would prefer that love would flow, and that obedience would be driven by love rather than duty — but duty is better than nothing if love is not there.
Here is what you need to see in your own life. If you are obeying God out of duty, it will show. It is going to look like duty. There will be no smiles, no joy. It will not be contagious. You will grow tired and weary and want to quit, and you will have to gin yourself up emotionally again and again, because you have committed to this and you are a person of your word and you are simply moving out of obligation. The biggest indication of duty-driven obedience is that there is no joy in it. There is no joy.
But if love is abounding more and more in you, then what Jesus is saying becomes clear: the most natural thing in the world is to obey Him, not out of duty but out of love. All of a sudden you understand who He is, and all of a sudden you understand what He wants for you — the best for you — to be a selfless person, not consumed with your own needs and wants and desires but with His. And that transforms everything.
The Cycle of Knowing and Loving
My fear is that so much of life — and I am talking about East Valley Bible Church specifically — is driven by the pursuit of knowledge: study and study and study, go through God's Word again and again, until it becomes just duty. My motivation ought to be that I love Him. Should I study? Absolutely. But why am I studying? The end is not the study. Study is a means to obedience and to demonstrating love.
Here is how it works: I begin to understand who God is, and I begin to know Him. As I know Him, I fall in love with Him. As I fall in love with Him, I just want to obey Him. As I obey Him, I begin to know Him more. As I know Him more, I love Him more. As I love Him more, I want to obey Him more. And it begins this wonderful cycle that you never want to break — a beautiful cycle, because at its heart it is simply knowing Him.
Here is what I know about my own marriage: I need to love Susan more. I know that. But I have never once prayed, "God, help me love Susan more," without first praying, "God, I know the real issue is that I need to love You more." Because if I love Him more, Susan is going to be part of that overflowing thing. The love just pours out all over the place.
I do not set loving Susan more as a separate goal, because here is what I have discovered: when I am in right union with Him, when I am loving on God and God is loving on me and I am in His Word and we are doing this together, I just love Susan more. I love my kids more. I am a better grandfather. I am better in whatever role I am in — a better neighbor, a better driver. Everything gets better because I love Him more.
Freedom Found in Love, Not Obligation
There is something so freeing in that, because it is not ultimately about my obedience. It is about my love. Do I love Him? How do you know you love Him? You want to study Him. It is not, "Oh no, I committed to reading through the Bible in a year — it is January 20th and I am only on January 2nd, I am in trouble." I do not care what day it is. What matters is not where you are on the reading schedule. Do you see that? The love changes everything about your orientation to God and His Word.
Love as the Motivation for Obedience
I'm not saying these things aren't important. I know this can be disconcerting to some of you, and I want to be clear: I'm not saying that stuff doesn't matter. I'm saying that it's just not the measure, and it won't motivate you. You'll be driven by duty, you'll get weary, and this will feel like work.
That is what Paul prays. He prays that your love will abound, that your love will be overflowing. And that love is driven — it's rational, it has an emotional side to it to be sure, but it is rational. It is real, genuine knowledge and all sorts of discernment, so that I can understand the things that are excellent, the things that are best, the things that are from God, in order that my life will be sun-tested, sincere, pure, and blameless. I won't be causing others to stumble or stumbling myself, and that won't be for a moment or a day or a week — that will be until Jesus comes. In the midst of all of this, my life is going to be filled with visible fruit that glorifies God. That is how we are supposed to live. That is supposed to be a picture of the normal Christian life.
A Conversation About Duty and Doing What's Right
I got deep into this during the week, and Tim Monn came into my office to talk about something he was going to say at the men's retreat. He said he wanted to use a quote I use all the time: "Do what's right because it's right until it feels right." But he said he wanted to take that apart, because it could be misunderstood, and he didn't want the men to think he was being critical of me. I told him I couldn't care less — the point of that saying is simply that it's better to do what's right out of duty than not to do it at all.
I had a man come up to me one time after I was teaching on giving. I had said that if you can't give cheerfully, then don't give at all — and for those who may not follow what we're talking about, giving means taking money that is in your possession and transferring it into God's kingdom, whether through East Valley Bible Church or somewhere else. This man asked me, "Do you think giving is a spiritual issue?" I said yes. He asked, "Do you think it's a command?" I said yes. He asked, "Do you think it's a sin not to give?" I said yes. He said, "Then I don't understand your teaching. Would you say to somebody, if you can't be celibate and happy, don't be celibate at all? Would you say to someone who didn't feel like being faithful to their spouse, if you can't be faithful to your spouse, don't be faithful at all?"
He had a point, and I had to admit it. God wants obedience — but He wants that obedience to be pushed by love.
God Speaking the Same Truth to the Whole Church
I was sharing all of this with Tim and told him to go for it with the men. Then at breakfast on Friday I was talking to Tyler, and I said I had this point I was making on Sunday. He started smiling and said, "That's the same point I made to the women yesterday when I was teaching in women's ministry." Now, I don't do this very often, and it can get a little unusual to point out, but think about this for a moment. God was making this point to the men, and this same point to the women, and now here in the context of the whole church together — do you think maybe God is trying to tell East Valley Bible Church something? That He wants us to be obedient, but He wants the motivation to not be duty but love? That He wants us, just as Paul prayed here — Paul was praying for the church at Philippi, but he is praying for you too — that your love would abound more and more.
J.C. Ryle on Love as the Secret to Doing
When I was done talking with Tyler, he mentioned that he had read a quote from J.C. Ryle's commentary on Luke chapter 7 — a couple of paragraphs — and he was making this truth even richer than I thought I could. This morning I got here early, around five o'clock, and I was finished with my preparation and sitting at my desk when I noticed a J.C. Ryle commentary on Luke. I thought I'd see if I could find the paragraphs Tyler had mentioned. I'm not certain these are the exact two paragraphs, but I found these, and they serve well as we move toward our benediction today.
This was written some time ago, so the language is a little formal, but stay with it. Here is what Ryle says:
> "'More doing for Christ' is the universal demand of all the churches. It is the one point on which all are agreed — all desire to see among Christians more good works, more self-denial, more practical obedience to Christ's command. But what will produce these? Nothing, nothing but love. There never will be more done for Christ till there is more hearty love to Christ Himself. The fear of punishment, the desire for reward, the sense of duty are all useful arguments in their way to persuade men to holiness, but they are all weak and powerless until a man loves Christ. Once let that mighty principle get hold of a man, and you will see his whole life changed. Let us never forget this — however much the world may sneer at the feelings in religion, or however false or unhealthy religious feelings may sometimes be, the great truth still remains behind that feeling is the secret to doing. The heart must be engaged for Christ, or the hands will soon hang down. The affections must be enlisted into His service, or our obedience will soon stand still. It will always be the loving workman who will do the most in the Lord's vineyard."
What a wonderful truth. Here is what motivates us: love. God's love for us — He sent His Son to prove that. And we will get to this in a couple of weeks, but when you look to chapter 2, all of a sudden this starts to make a great deal of sense, because —
Love That Transforms
Paul is going to talk about love, and we need to ask: what do we need to do? Nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. We are to have the mind in us that is in Christ Jesus, who emptied Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. I know what will kill love, what will stop it: selfishness. And I simply cannot stop that on my own.
That is why love is a fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit has to do that work in my life. What God desires for you is what Paul prayed for you — that our love will abound more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, and that we will be free of hypocrisy, and our lives will be filled.
When that happens, everyone around you is going to say there is something different about them. There will be a steady flow of people coming to you and saying, "There is something about you — what is it?" And you say, "It is not me. It is Jesus. Let me tell you about Him." That is the real love affair.
What Paul is saying here is that love is not blind. Love has eyes wide open, with knowledge and discernment, so that lives are transformed. Let us pray that God does that in our lives.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for the truth of this Word. God, thank You for bringing us to this place. I pray that we would love as You love, that our love would indeed overflow — that there would be love so coming out of us that it would get on everybody who stands in our way.
Though there are feelings in this, it is not driven by feeling alone. It is driven by knowledge and discernment, and our lives would be sun-tested and proven. God, we pray that we, as branches hanging into You, our vine, would bear fruit in our lives, and that the world would see it and praise and glorify You. We pray that in Jesus' sweet name, amen.