Abound More and More
There once was a crew of Narnian’s who set sail for the east. Further east than any map of theirs had ever chartered, further east than any of their people had ever gone. Eastward all the way to the division between their world and Aslan’s country.
They took off, aboard the Dawn Treader, past the lone islands, past dragon island, past burnt island, and deathwater, and dark island. By the time they arrived upon Ramandu’s island, many of them were beginning to feel ready to turn round and go back home. Although they hadn’t reached Aslan’s country, they had gone a fairly good distance, further than any other ship and its crew had ever gone before. And they were feeling content about that, satisfied with that. That is, most of them.
There was still one member of the crew who had yet to speak up, which was surprising, since that member of the crew was usually the one always speaking up. That member of the crew was a mouse, named Reepicheep.
His friend Lucy, wondering why he had yet to say anything, finally asked him, “Aren't you going to say anything, Reep?“ She’s thinking, “All these guys are ready to turn round, ready to say, “Good enough,” and go back home to “Life as usual” — Reepicheep, are you cool with that? Is that what you’re going to do? Reepicheep chose to answer her at a level of volume loud enough for all to hear, saying:
“My own plans are made. While I can, I sail east in the Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I shall paddle east in my own boat. When it sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan's country, or shot over the edge of the world, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise.”
Reepicheep was not one for, moderation. Not one for “life as usual.” Certainly not one to give up on adventure. Neither was the apostle Paul. Writing to his beloved Philippians, he gladly affirmed that they had already come so far in terms of their faith and conduct. Nevertheless, Paul sought to urge them onward, with a prayer to the tune of, “Philippians, grow deeper as Christians. Grow further as Christians. There is still more to be had before you.” Sail east, then paddle east, then swim east, until you hit the shore.
His words this morning, I pray, will have a stirring effect upon us. That God, through his word, would create in us an eager fervency to go on further, and further, and further as followers of Jesus. Let’s pray, and ask once more, for the Lord’s help toward that end.
Verse 9: Abounds more and more…
So, Paul’s prayer is for the Philippians to grow, all the more, as Christians. We see it right away in the words of verse 9,
“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more.”
That phrase has such a delightful cadence to it, doesn’t it? Abound, more, and more. It rolls along so smoothly, in fact, that it can slip right past us, tiptoe into the sentence nearly unnoticed. But make no mistake, my brothers and sisters, this is no moderate, inconspicuous, tiptoeing concept.
Abound, more, and more is immense. Far-reaching. Excessive. At a size or in a quantity that not only fills the space around it but then flows over, and spills out, and rushes onward, and then keeps right on going.
Abound more and more comes with no off switch, no handle with which to close the valves and stop the supply. It progresses onward, wholly unencumbered by the drag of “moderation” and the weight of being far too easily satisfied.
For love to abound more and more, is to have a love that increases on and on and on in glorious surplus.
Paul’s prayer regarding love is on a scale and to a degree we rarely fathom, let alone pray for.
If that’s the quantity of love he’s wanting to see within these Philippians, then what is its kind? What kind of love is Paul praying for? The immediate context would suggest we’re at least talking about love for other people — and especially so people within the church.
The verses before resound with Paul’s great love for these Philippians, describing how he held these brothers and sisters in his heart, and yearned for them all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
Some verses later will reveal what can come about as a result of a lack of love for others. Philippians 1:15,
“Some preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love.”
The former, thinking not to love Paul, but afflict him.
So Paul’s prayer for the Philippians to abound in love is very much sandwiched between an example of love for others, on one side, and lack of love for others, on the other.
That said, I don’t believe Paul is praying only for the Philippians love for others. One reason simply being that he doesn’t define it as a love for others. He just says love.
“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more.”
Love, in the most comprehensive sense. Love with a capital L.
The kind of love that, as one writer puts it, “pervades ones entire being…and marks every attitude and action” (Motyer).
Paul is praying that the Philippian church would become a people who are entirely marked by love. Love in their everything.
As an aside, I believe he’d pray much of the same for us — Cities Church.
That we, in an age of skepticism (Is love even real?), shallowness (I love with one foot in and one foot out), and apathy (Love is lame, love is optional, love is whatever).
That we, in a world like that, in a world rife with dulled and shrunken hearts, would be a people bright, blazing, and alive with love! A people with love coursing through every fiber of our beings. A people secured in God’s love, and thereby set free to love. A people eager to grow and abound in love, more, and more, and more, and more — never letting up, and ever wanting increase.
Would we want him to pray such things for us? Are we, in our minds, already loving enough? Brothers and sisters, moderation in some things, sure, but love?
“With knowledge and discernment…”
Now, Paul isn’t praying for love to abound, period. But for love to abound — look with me, verse nine — “with knowledge and all discernment.”
Some of us in the room maybe just breathed a huge sigh of relief: “phew, knowledge and discernment.” Some of us felt a sense of reassurance now that knowledge and discernment have walked in the room. I get it. I do.
But, why do you think you feel that way?
Is it, perhaps, because you’re imagining that knowledge and discernment has a subduing effect upon love? That knowledge and discernment comes in and reduces loves down to a more manageable, less lifestyle-interfering size? Offers a sort of shield, safeguard, from ever really needing to feel love, ever really needing to act upon it, and mainly only ever needing to give it a nod here and there?
Is that, my brothers and sisters, how we think Paul understood the relationship between knowledge and discernment and love? Is that what we think Paul really desired for his beloved Philippians — that they would abound in a sort of semi-muted and tempered love? A convenient, only when comfortable love?
No … It is a lie that love and knowledge clash with one another. It is a lie that love and knowledge hinder one another. It is a lie, hear me, that to grow in knowledge is to lessen in love, and vice-versa. In other words, if you are holding on to the claim that, “Hey, I’m kind of a knowledge guy. Other people do that love stuff — I’m exempt from that.” Or, if you are holding on to the claim that, “I’m just a lover, I leave that knowledge stuff to others, I just love people, I don’t need to do the knowledge thing.”
Consider that God abounds in both. He, the most knowledgeable and discerning being in all the universe is also, at one and the same time the most loving being in all the universe, and he sees no contradiction in that. In fact, he calls us to become more like him. We, every single one of us, no exceptions, are called to abound in both. You got a certain personality, certain inclinations, yes, of course, nevertheless, God calls you to abound, and even want to abound, in both.
And note, if you do abound in both, what you’ll then be enabled to do: verse 9 into 10…
“Approve what is excellent”
“9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent.”
Love that abounds with knowledge and discernment, enables a person to approve what is excellent. And how helpful, for not all that’s in our world is excellent. There are some things in our world that are — certain behaviors, certain ideas, certain actions, certain words, certain possessions. There are many things in our world that are not.
Without knowledge, our love, at best, would get evenly distributed between the two. We’d love some things that are truly worth loving, and we’d love some things that aren’t — without knowledge that’d be the best we could do. What we’d be far more likely do however, without knowledge — because we’re not morally neutral, but sinful — is devote the majority of our love toward what the world calls lovely, but is, in fact, a distortion of true loveliness. I’ve been there, perhaps you have as well. It is misguided love. Detrimental love. Love in vain.
Enter knowledge, like a beam of light into the dark. When our love begins to abound with knowledge, we find ourselves suddenly able to discern “what is good and acceptable and perfect” versus what isn’t. Suddenly able, as one writer notes, “to put our highest affections on the highest virtues and not get distracted by lesser, peripheral matters” (ESV Expository).
In other words: not less love, not muted love, not love spread thin, but love perfectly aimed and sent fully into motion — Sign me up, right?
And it just keeps getting better. Just think … What happens when you begin eating better? You get healthier, right?
What happens when you start moving better, like better posture, better form? You reduce injury, avoid sore muscles, grow in physical ability.
What happens when you begin sleeping better? You have more energy, feel more alert and focused… At least that’s what I’ve read.
What happens when you start loving better? When you start regularly loving and approving what is excellent?
Again, Paul tells us. See it in the second half of verse 10. Look with me there.
“Be Pure and Blameless, filled with fruit”
“10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.”
Be conformed to the image of His Son, who is, in himself, pure and blameless. Be transformed into that same image (of the Son) from one degree of glory to another. Be, in your character and conduct, pure and blameless.
Now, I want to be absolutely clear, this does not earn us a righteous standing before God — that’s not what inward purity and blamelessness is for. That’s what Jesus’ death and resurrection is for, that’s what our faith in him is for.
We receive the gift of righteous standing before God, by faith. We don’t work for it. We don’t earn it. But we do, after we’ve received it, begin to reflect it. And this to comes not from us, but from God.
See in verses 10-11,
“so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.”
See, it’s all from him. It all comes through Jesus Christ. Our state of righteousness before God, our fruit of righteousness that reflects God — God is the source of both.
Consider for a moment that: any love you have, any joy you possess, any peace you maintain, whatever patience you exhibit, whatever kindness you extend, every ounce of goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness within you, every last ounce of self-control, any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy … It all, every bit of it, has been given to you through Jesus Christ. You have only ever received the fruit of righteousness that comes through Christ.
And why? Paul’s logic is still progressing here. There’s still more. What’s the aim of it all? What’s the purpose? What’s the motivation? It is, quite simply, the glory of God.
See it at the end of verse 11?
“To the glory and praise of God.”
That is the ultimate end, the goal. But there’s one last phrase for us to look at in this text. And this will be our last point. One final phrase that notes the specific context of our ultimate end of glorifying God. What’s the context?
Verse 10:
“So that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.”
For the great and holy day when Jesus comes to judge the living and the dead.
So, our love abounds with knowledge and discernment. We’re enabled to approve what is excellent — And so we do. We approve what is excellent, and it begins to change us. Grows us in the sense of subtraction: Purity and blamelessness drive out our love for sin. Grows us in the sense of addition: Fruits of righteousness take root and grow. And all for the day of Christ! For the day our Master returns. For the day that the bridegroom comes to receive his bride.
See we want to be a kind of people who live our entire lives in anticipation of that day … constantly, unrelentingly fastened upon that day … straining, longing to grow in purity and blamelessness, to grow in fruits of righteousness, for that day because when he comes we want to offer him our very selves and say:
“For the day of Christ”
“Look! See what has happened in my heart, see the changes that’ve taken place in my mind, remember the trails of sin that were built there? The highways of sin that were paved there? Look now, how they’ve all eroded.
Those stains caused by all my “yesses” to lust, all my nursing of envy, all my obedience to greed, all my contentment with pride, look now at how they’ve, through time spent with you, all faded away. Not even noticeable anymore.
Those fields that used to be covered in weeds, thorns, and briers which so choked out my love for you. See how you’ve taught me, you’ve caused me to pull them each up, by the roots, and set them in the sun to whither and die.
You had made me yours before any of this improvement in me.
You had loved me at a time when I was still yet a sinner.
You had called me child and given me with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, when I had yet to do anything to deserve it.
And for love, for love, for love, I wanted my heart and mind on this day to be pure for you, blameless for you, filled with fruits of righteousness for you, beautiful for you.
That you might be glorified in this, my spiritual worship — the transformation by the renewal of my mind, the testing and discerning what is your will, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
How worth it would it be to say such a thing to your Savior? How excellent?
To the glory and praise of God: My brothers and sisters, abound in love. Abound in knowledge. Refuse to treat either of the two as optional. And put them to work.
To root out every single thing from your mind and heart and habits that is not excellent, that is not growing you in purity, that is not cultivating in you blamelessness, that is not producing in your fruits of righteousness.
If it is the way you use your phone, the way you relate to others, the way you talk, the places you let your mind wander, if it’s not excellent, not preparing you for the day of Christ — why, why, why keep them in your hand, keep them in your conduct, keep them in your heart, keep them in your mind?
A great day is coming, aim to present your very best to Jesus on that day. Sail east, paddle east, swim east, and sink your nose to the sunrise. It will be worth it, it will be excellent.
Now, in just a few moments, we’re going to have a few individuals coming forward to be baptized as a display before you, their church family, of the faith that they have in Jesus. Their being baptized is also a fruit of their faith in Jesus, a desire to obey him in all things, including the call to be baptized. Their being baptized is also a proclamation that their life from here on out is not their own, for they now belong to God, and aim to live their lives for the glory of God.