Philippians 1:8-11: “For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” (ESV)
Our small group Bible study is in Philippians this semester, and this week we reached the small portion of verses quoted above. The turn of phrase most often used is that “much ink has been spilled over these words”, but my group met virtually, and there was no ink involved. So instead I’ll just say that much time was spent discussing these words, in particular verses 9 and 10: “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offense until the day of Christ.” to use the KJV phrasing. We seemed to especially focus on the knowledge and judgment, and also the approval. Someone pointed out that her personal approval should mean very little, and it is ultimately the approval of Christ that matters. While she’s not wrong, I don’t think that’s the emphasis of this passage, especially when considering the different phrasing utilized by the KJV. Further, one of our study questions was about why it matters that love abounds with knowledge and discernment. Why it matters is that we cannot approve things that are excellent without first knowing what is excellent.
This sort of approval I think is less approving things ourselves, and more judging or evaluating how something, anything, aligns to a standard. A couple weeks ago at work my boss gave me a lease amendment to review, analyze, and make a recommendation as to whether we should sign the amendment or not. I could spend all the time in the world reading the amendment, tallying the total payments over the covered five years, and I could even discount them to the present value if I needed to or that was applicable. But unless I have the original lease – the standard by which the amendment needs to be evaluated – I really have no idea whether that amendment is excellent or not. In much the same way, if we don’t know the standard – if we have no or limited knowledge of God and his ways and what he has already stamped as excellent so to speak – we’ll have no standard by which to evaluate whatever comes across our path, whether that be a book, a movie, changes in culture, or the influence of another human. Growing in knowledge and discernment is vitally important, even as we grow in love. It is knowledge and discernment that transforms love from a trait, shallow, fluffy love that tolerates error and grievous sin into the self-sacrificing, suffering, convicting and ever-present love, the affection of Christ.
The end of verse 10 further explains why it matters that we rightly evaluate that which crosses our path as excellent or not: accurate judgment will guard us from sinful action, enabling us to live pure and blameless lives*, and that progressively right living is the natural fruit born of the righteousness that is ours in Christ Jesus, all of which praises and glorifies God.
With the understanding that there is always a tension between the work of the Holy Spirit and human responsibility, and growth is neither entirely dependent on nor entirely divorced from our efforts, how can we grow in knowledge and discernment? It’s a duh answer, but don’t discount the straightforward and simple: immerse yourself in the standard. In order to approve what is excellent, or make right judgments about whether this thing (widget, to continue with the accounting examples) is excellent, we should be examining what we already know to be excellent: the Word of the Lord, in which His character and His priorities and His ways are revealed to us. Sometimes it’s a difficult task to understand how to practically apply Scripture to our daily lives, but this is not one of those times. Go read your Bible.
*I am aware of the debate regarding the practical possibility of perfection here on earth; this simply isn’t the time to address that issue. Paul, writing to believers who were already justified and thus deemed pure and blameless legally by God, indicates that growing in knowledge and judgment and making accurate evaluations plays a part in purity and blamelessness; as one either is justified through the blood of Christ or is not, and one cannot grow in justification, I believe Paul is speaking of sanctification, the process in which we progressively become more like Christ here.
I agree that my knowledge and judgement is sometimes swayed by my human response, mostly to me chagrin. Thanks for the reminder that sanctification is a process, your insights are right on!