Phillipians 1:Prayer In Affliction.

We continue our series on Philippians. The letter written from a nasty dungeon in Rome where Paul was chained to an imperial guard. Last week we saw that Paul in spite of his horrific circumstance was not thinking of his circumstances but was thinking of the church. Paul considered himself Christ’s slave and was more concerned about others that himself. Paul wrote to the church that was faithful in supporting him.

I. Prayer In Affliction.

Now this leads to this glorious prayer that we have in the following verses.

Phil 1:9-11 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-to the glory and praise of God.


Love
His primary concern is that the church demonstrates love to one another-- but an interesting part of this love is that the love is informed by something. What kind of love are we talking about? Again the word is "Agape."

Paul is always concerned about love. The word agape love is the selfless kind of God love that the Holy spirit creates in us. It is distinguished from eros, the romantic love, and phileo, the brotherly love. Both of these have a reciprocal component--"I love you if you love me." But agape has this giving selfless, sacrificing aspect to it. Paul wants this love to abound more and more among them.

Where do we get it? God . In order to have agape love for others we must be immersed in God's agape love for us. If our agape account is full , we can make deposits in other's bank. If not, we can't .

But then he qualifies the Agape by saying that it should grow in ….

Knowledge. – the word is epignosko. It is to be a love that is fully informed . Not a blind love. A love that is not based on feelings, but on facts. See, usually we think of love as primarily a feeling, but Paul is talking about self sacrificing actions based on facts.

What facts? Obviously the facts about the gospel. The fact that God sent his only son for them. That they have been adopted into his family, made new creations, and that they worship an incredible God who is faithful and true full of love and mercy and faithfulness.

Depth of Insight- The word there is aisthesis. Wisdom, discernment. In other words, not only is the love supposed to be based on knowledge. But the knowledge will lead to understanding about the application of that love. In other words, the Who, The What and the How of demonstrating love. Love does not mean giving drugs to a drug addict. It means using wisdom in your love. This will lead to a

Approving—the word here is dokimzo which means to test and approve. He is praying for the ability of the Philippians to test things. So that they may be discerning about all matters. That they would know the difference between right and wrong and what things are of more value. ….

Sincere and In offensive- the word here means literally “judged by sunlight." – If they are sincere they are sincere unto God and if that is the case they also will not cause others to stumble. Finally this leads to ……

The Fruit of righteousness. This is in the singular and refers to the righteous conduct of the Philippians . Notice that this is near the end. It is a RESULT of all that has gone before. All of these things seem to be built on one another.

To the glory and praise of God- This righteousness will lead to the glory of God and receiving commendation from him.


So look at the progression. His prayer is that we love with a love that is informed about God, and that as we do, we will gain more discernment about right and wrong. Therefore,we can test all things accordingly, and therefore make right choices and therefore glorify God. This is really a great "life" prayer.

Are you richly getting love deposits from God in your bank so that you can make plenty of deposits in others lives without asking for something in return. ?