‘And this I pray, that your love may abound yet
more and more in knowledge and all discernment;
10. So that ye may approve the things that are
excellent; that ye may be sincere and void of
offence unto the day of Christ; 11. Being filled
with the fruits of righteousness, which are
through Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of
God.’–PHIL. i. 9-11 (R.V.).
What a blessed friendship is that of which the natural language is
prayer! We have many ways, thank God, of showing our love and of helping
one another, but the best way is by praying for one another. All that is
selfish and low is purged out of our hearts in the act, suspicions and
doubts fade away when we pray for those whom we love. Many an alienation
would have melted like morning mists if it had been prayed about, added
tenderness and delicacy come to our friendships so like the bloom on
ripening grapes. We may test our loves by this simple criterion–Can we
pray about them? If not, should we have them? Are they blessings to us
or to others?
This prayer, like all those in Paul’s epistles, is wonderfully full. His
deep affection for, and joy in, the Philippian church breathes in every
word of it. Even his jealous watchfulness saw nothing in them to desire
but progress in what they possessed. Such a desire is the highest that
love can frame. We can wish nothing better for one another than growth
in the love of God. Paul’s estimate of the highest good of those who
were dearest to him was that they should be more and more completely
filled with the love of God and with its fruits of holiness and purity,
and what was his supreme desire for the Philippians is the highest
purpose of the gospel for us all, and should be the aim of our effort
and longing, dominating all others as some sovereign mountain peak
towers above the valleys. Looking then at this prayer as containing an
outline of true progress in the Christian life, we may note:
I. The growth in keenness of conscience founded on growth in love.
Paul does not merely desire that their love may abound, but that it may
become more and more ‘rich in knowledge and all discernment.’ The former
is perhaps accurate knowledge, and the latter the application of it.
‘Discernment’ literally means ‘sense,’ and here, of course, when
employed about spiritual and moral things it means the power of
apprehending good and bad as such. It is, I suppose, substantially
equivalent to conscience, the moral tact or touch of the soul by which,
in a manner analogous to bodily sense, it ascertains the moral character
of things. This growth of love in the power of spiritual and moral
discernment is desired in order to its exercise in ‘proving things that
differ.’ It is a process of discrimination and testing that is meant,
which is, I think, fairly represented by the more modern expression
which I have used–keenness of conscience.
I need spend little time in remarking on the absolute need of such a
process of discrimination. We are surrounded by temptations to evil, and
live in a world where maxims and principles not in accordance with the
gospel abound. Our own natures are but partially sanctified. The shows
of things must be tested. Apparent good must be proved. The Christian
life is not merely to unfold itself in peace and order, but through
conflict. We are not merely to follow impulses, or to live as angels do,
who are above sin, or as animals do who are beneath it. When false coin
is current it is folly to accept any without a test. All around us there
is glamour, and so within us there is need for careful watchfulness and
quick discrimination.
This keenness of conscience follows on the growth of love. Nothing makes
a man more sensitive to evil than a hearty love to God. Such a heart is
keener to discern what is contrary to its love than any ethical maxims
can make it. A man who lives in love will be delivered from the blinding
influence of his own evil tastes, and a heart steadfast in love will not
be swayed by lower temptations. Communion with God will, from its very
familiarity with Him, instinctively discern the evil of evil, as a man
coming out of pure air is conscious of vitiated atmosphere which those
who dwell in it do not perceive. It used to be said that Venice glass
would shiver into fragments if poison were poured into the cup. As evil
spirits were supposed to be cast out by the presence of an innocent
child or a pure virgin, so the ugly shapes that sometimes tempt us by
assuming fair disguises will be shown in their native hideousness when
confronted with a heart filled with the love of God.
Such keenness of judgment is capable of indefinite increase. Our
consciences should become more and more sensitive: we should always be
advancing in our discovery of our own evils, and be more conscious of
our sins, the fewer we have of them. Twilight in a chamber may reveal
some foul things, and the growing light will disclose more. ‘Secret
faults’ will cease to be secret when our love abounds more and more in
knowledge, and in all discernment.
II. The purity and completeness of character flowing from this keenness
of conscience.
The Apostle desires that the knowledge which he asks for his Philippian
friends may pass over into character, and he describes the sort of men
which he desires them to be in two clauses, ‘sincere and void of
offence’ being the one, ‘filled with the fruits of righteousness’ being
the other. The former is perhaps predominantly negative, the latter
positive. That which is sincere is so because when held up to the light
it shows no flaws, and that which is without offence is so because the
stones in the path have been cleared away by the power of
discrimination, so that there is no stumbling. The life which discerns
keenly will bring forth the fruit which consists of righteousness, and
that fruit is to fill the whole nature so that no part shall be without
it.
Nothing lower than this is the lofty standard towards which each
Christian life is to aim, and to which it can indefinitely approximate.
It is not enough to aim at the negative virtue of sincerity so that the
most searching scrutiny of the web of our lives shall detect no flaws
in the weaving, and no threads dropped or broken. There must also be the
actual presence of positive righteousness filling life in all its parts.
That lofty standard is pressed upon us by a solemn motive, ‘unto the day
of Christ.’ We are ever to keep before us the thought that in that
coming day all our works will be made manifest, and that all of them
should be done, so that when we have to give account of them we shall
not be ashamed.
The Apostle takes it for granted here that if the Philippian Christians
know what is right and what is wrong, they will immediately choose and
do the right. Is he forgetting the great gulf between knowledge and
practice? Not so, but he is strong in the faith that love needs only to
know in order to do. The love which abounds more and more in knowledge
and in all discernment will be the soul of obedience, and will delight
in fulfilling the law which it has delighted in beholding. Other
knowledge has no tendency to lead to practice, but this knowledge which
is the fruit of love has for its fruit righteousness.
III. The great Name in which this completeness is secured.
The Apostle’s prayer dwells not only on the way by which a Christian
life may increase itself, but in its close reaches the yet deeper
thought that all that growth comes ‘through Jesus Christ.’ He is the
Giver of it all, so that we are not so much called to a painful toil as
to a glad reception. Our love fills us with the fruits of righteousness,
because it takes all these from His hands. It is from His gift that
conscience derives its sensitiveness. It is by His inspiration that
conscience becomes strong enough to determine action, and that even our
dull hearts are quickened into a glow of desiring to have in our lives,
the law of the spirit of life, that was in Christ Jesus, and to make our
own all that we see in Him of ‘things that are lovely and of good
report.’
The prayer closes with a reference to the highest end of all our
perfecting–the glory and praise of God; the former referring rather to
the transcendent majesty of God in itself, and the latter to the
exaltation of it by men. The highest glory of God comes from the gradual
increase in redeemed men’s likeness to Him. They are ‘the secretaries of
His praise,’ and some portion of that great honour and responsibility
lies on each of us. If all Christian men were what they all might be and
should be, swift and sure in their condemnation of evil and loyal
fidelity to conscience, and if their lives were richly hung with ripened
clusters of the fruits of righteousness, the glory of God would be more
resplendent in the world, and new tongues would break into praise of Him
who had made men so like Himself.
Bible Scriptures
Bible Verses About love – Genesis 27:4
And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring [it] to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.
Bible Verses About love – Deuteronomy 11:22
For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;
Bible Verses About love – Isaiah 56:6
Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
Bible Scriptures – Isaiah 40:31
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint.
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Bible Scriptures About blessed – Revelations 16:15
Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed [is] he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
Bible Scriptures About slain – Isaiah 14:20
Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, [and] slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.
Bible Scriptures About seen – Ecclesiastes 10:5
There is an evil [which] I have seen under the sun, as an error [which] proceedeth from the ruler:
Bible Scriptures About mind – Kings-2 9:15
But king Joram was returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) And Jehu said, If it be your minds, [then] let none go forth [nor] escape out of the city to go to tell [it] in Jezreel.
Bible Scriptures About lay – Hosea 2:3
Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
Bible Scriptures About art – Luke 2:29
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:
Bible Scriptures About names – Exodus 28:29
And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy [place], for a memorial before the LORD continually.
Bible Scriptures About tent – Samuel-2 11:11
And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? [as] thou livest, and [as] thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing.
Bible Scriptures About world – Luke 4:5
And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
Bible Scriptures About back – Kings-1 19:20
And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and [then] I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee?
Bible Scriptures About spake – Deuteronomy 2:1
Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the LORD spake unto me: and we compassed mount Seir many days.
Bible Scriptures About foot – Leviticus 13:12
And if a leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of [him that hath] the plague from his head even to his foot, wheresoever the priest looketh;
Bible Scriptures About trouble – Psalms 83:17
Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:
Bible Scriptures About image – Chronicles-2 34:3
For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images.
Bible Scriptures About prayers – Peter-1 3:12
For the eyes of the Lord [are] over the righteous, and his ears [are open] unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord [is] against them that do evil.
Bible Scriptures About egyptians – Exodus 14:27
And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.
Bible Scriptures About ground – Samuel-1 8:12
And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and [will set them] to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
Bible Scriptures About multitude – Acts 15:12
Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.
Bible Scriptures About gathered – Matthew 2:4
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
Bible Scriptures About trespass – Ezekiel 18:24
But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, [and] doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked [man] doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.
Bible Scriptures About faith – Timothy-1 6:21
Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace [be] with thee. Amen.
Bible Scriptures About peace – Zecharia 6:13
Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
Bible Scriptures About wife – Exodus 6:20
And Amram took him Jochebed his father's sister to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram [were] an hundred and thirty and seven years.
Bible Scriptures About fear – Proverbs 1:29
For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
Bible Scriptures About hope – Job 27:8
For what [is] the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?
Bible Scriptures About husbands – Ezekiel 16:45
Thou [art] thy mother's daughter, that loatheth her husband and her children; and thou [art] the sister of thy sisters, which loathed their husbands and their children: your mother [was] an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
Bible Scriptures About fathers – Judges 2:22
That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep [it], or not.
Bible Scriptures About poor – Isaiah 3:15
What mean ye [that] ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
Bible Scriptures About wisdom – Daniel 5:14
I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods [is] in thee, and [that] light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee.
Bible Scriptures About clean – Samuel-1 20:26
Nevertheless Saul spake not any thing that day: for he thought, Something hath befallen him, he [is] not clean; surely he [is] not clean.
Bible Scriptures About joy – Isaiah 52:9
Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
Bible Scriptures About salvation – John 4:22
Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
Bible Scriptures About women – Samuel-2 15:16
And the king went forth, and all his household after him. And the king left ten women, [which were] concubines, to keep the house.
Bible Scriptures About healing – Luke 9:11
And the people, when they knew [it], followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing.
Bible Scriptures About money – Kings-2 23:35
And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give [it] unto Pharaohnechoh.
Bible Scriptures About trust – Psalms 31:19
[Oh] how great [is] thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; [which] thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!
Bible Scriptures About strength – Isaiah 30:2
That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
Bible Scriptures About anger – Isaiah 10:25
For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction.
Bible Scriptures About grace – John 1:16
And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
Bible Scriptures About water – Acts 8:39
And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.
Bible Scriptures About heart – Job 10:13
And these [things] hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this [is] with thee.
Bible Scriptures About wind – Job 8:2
How long wilt thou speak these [things]? and [how long shall] the words of thy mouth [be like] a strong wind?
Bible Scriptures About arise – Mark 3:6
And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.
Bible Scriptures About rain – Jeremiah 14:10
Thus saith the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
Bible Scriptures About david – Psalms 144:1
[A Psalm] of David. Blessed [be] the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, [and] my fingers to fight:
World English Bible
Bible Verses About salvation – Psalms 116:13
I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.
Bible Verses About anger – Mark 3:5
And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched [it] out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.
Bible Verses About trust – Jeremiah 12:5
If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and [if] in the land of peace, [wherein] thou trustedst, [they wearied thee], then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?
Bible Verses About friend – Luke 23:12
And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves.
Bible Verses About prayer – Isaiah 26:16
LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer [when] thy chastening [was] upon them.
Bible Verses About joy – Job 29:13
The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
Bible Verses About wife – Peter-1 3:7
Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with [them] according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
Bible Verses About women – Titus 2:3
The aged women likewise, that [they be] in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
Bible Verses About money – Genesis 31:15
Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money.
Bible Verses About life – Luke 14:26
If any [man] come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Bible Verses About hannah – Samuel-1 1:19
And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the LORD, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the LORD remembered her.
Bible Verses About backward – Genesis 49:17
Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.
Bible Verses About seat – Leviticus 16:15
Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that [is] for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat:
Bible Verses About consecrate – Ezekiel 43:26
Seven days shall they purge the altar and purify it; and they shall consecrate themselves.
Bible Verses About boat – Acts 27:16
And running under a certain island which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat:
Bible Verses About bribe – Job 15:34
For the congregation of hypocrites [shall be] desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.
Bible Verses About skill – Chronicles-2 2:7
Send me now therefore a man cunning to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue, and that can skill to grave with the cunning men that [are] with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father did provide.
Bible Verses About ahithophel – Chronicles-1 27:34
And after Ahithophel [was] Jehoiada the son of Benaiah, and Abiathar: and the general of the king's army [was] Joab.
Bible Verses About astray – Matthew 18:12
How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?
Bible Verses About raven – Jeremiah 50:38
A drought [is] upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it [is] the land of graven images, and they are mad upon [their] idols.
King James Bible
Bible Verses About merchandise – Ezekiel 27:15
The men of Dedan [were] thy merchants; many isles [were] the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee [for] a present horns of ivory and ebony.
Bible Verses About governor – Matthew 27:15
Now at [that] feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would.
Bible Verses About plead – Isaiah 1:17
Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Bible Verses About testify – Ephesians 4:17
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
Bible Verses About word – Matthew 22:22
When they had heard [these words], they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.
Bible Verses About learned – Philippians 4:9
Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.
Bible Verses About west – Daniel 2:31
Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness [was] excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof [was] terrible.
Bible Verses About destroyed – Joshua 8:26
For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
Bible Verses About towers – Chronicles-2 26:10
Also he built towers in the desert, and digged many wells: for he had much cattle, both in the low country, and in the plains: husbandmen [also], and vine dressers in the mountains, and in Carmel: for he loved husbandry.
Bible Verses About righteousness – Proverbs 25:5
Take away the wicked [from] before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness.
Bible Verses About eighth – Numbers 29:35
On the eighth day ye shall have a solemn assembly: ye shall do no servile work [therein]:
Bible Verses About compassed – Hebrews 5:2
Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.
Bible Verses About kish – Samuel-1 9:1
Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name [was] Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power.
Bible Verses About looking – Luke 6:10
And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other.
Bible Verses About uttered – Nehemiah 6:19
Also they reported his good deeds before me, and uttered my words to him. [And] Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.
Bible Verses About deep – Job 33:15
In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed;
Bible Verses About destruction – Matthew 7:13
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide [is] the gate, and broad [is] the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Bible Verses About ignorant – Peter-2 3:5
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
Bible Verses About testimony – Exodus 30:26
And thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation therewith, and the ark of the testimony,
Bible Verses About roar – Chronicles-1 16:32
Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof: let the fields rejoice, and all that [is] therein.
Bible Verses About elisha – Jeremiah 36:20
And they went in to the king into the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the ears of the king.
Bible Verses About vengeance – Hebrews 10:30
For we know him that hath said, Vengeance [belongeth] unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
Bible Verses About captivity – Ezekiel 30:18
At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity.
Bible Verses About whore – Ezekiel 16:26
Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.
Bible Verses About ministry – Timothy-1 1:12
And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;
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