Philippians 1:9

Php_1:9

That your love abound yet more and more in all knowledge and in all Judgment

Pauls prayer

I.

Its subject matter--Your love.

II. Its burden--May abound, etc.

III. Its aim--That ye may approve, etc. (G. G. Ballard.)

Definiteness in prayer

1. Implies a deep consciousness of an intelligently apprehended need.

2. Is becoming when an intelligent being addresses the Divine Intelligence.

3. Is essential, from the very nature of prayer.

4. Affords a fixed ground for the exercise of faith.

5. Emboldens supplication.

6. Inspires hope of a definite response. (G. G. Ballard.)

Love

II. Gods love, embraced by faith into the inmost personality of man, is the central force of Christian life.

II. Christian love.

1. Receives its first impulse from Gods love.

2. Is sustained in activity by its power.

3. Moves in a refluent orbit of increasing circles which continuously grow (Rom_5:20).

III. Abounding love. As the river, although perfect, perpetuates itself only by its ever-onward flow, as the full ocean at spring tide aboundeth yet more and more, so love, in abounding, gathers that true freshness, vigour, and activity, whereby it has power to abound yet more and more. (G. G. Ballard.)

Loves spring tides

1. Roll to us immediately from the heart of God.

2. Are in harmony with His reign of grace.

3. Bring to us the fullest manifestation of His love.

4. Thrill us with holy excitement though performing monotonous duties, and inspire a holy daring though in view of the fiery trial.

5. Overleap in their impetuous progress every landmark of stern propriety set up by cold conventionalism.

6. Know no limits save knowledge and judgment (G. G. Ballard.)

Love and knowledge

Such passages as these have a peculiar value for serious Christians; for one of the great questions of Christian life is, What is it best to pray for? Here Paul gives us a regulating principle for many of our own most earnest prayers.

I. We see what St. Paul takes for granted as the underlying substance, the raw material of the divine life of the soul of man--Love.

1. He does not pray that their knowledge may abound more and more in love. Whenever knowledge and love are put in competition, the precedence is always given to love. As compared with knowledge love is intrinsically stronger, and worth more practically. To be knit to God by love is better than to speculate about Him. To enwrap other men in the flame of a passionate enthusiasm is better than to analyze rival systems of ethical, social, or political truth.

2. A personal affection for Jesus our Lord is the first step, the fundamental thing in real Christianity. What is it that provokes love?

(1) Beauty, and our Lords moral beauty acts upon the affections of a true soul just as the sun acts upon the petals of an unopened bud.

(2) One specific kind of moral beauty--generosity. The generosity of Jesus in giving Himself to die for us appeals even more powerfully than the faultless beauty of His character. The love of Christ constraineth us.

(3) It is a distinct endowment, an infused grace, shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost.

3. To love Christ is to love

(1) God; for God in Him is made apprehendible and approachable.

(2) Man, in Him the representative.

(3) Thus love to the Saviour is the common source of all that is not spiritual in religion, and most fruitful and creative in philanthropy.

II. St. Paul would have this love abound more and more in knowledge--ἐπιγνωσις--the higher knowledge.

1. There is a period in the growth of love when such knowledge is imperatively required. In its earliest stages the loving soul lives only in the warmth and light of its object. It asks no questions; it only loves. But from the nature of the case this period comes to an end, not because love grows cold but because it becomes more exacting. It cannot live apart from thought, and sooner or later must come to an understanding with it. It must know something accurately about its object, and begins to ask questions which must be wisely and truly answered, or in its deep disappointment it will sicken and die.

2. How repeatedly this truth is realized in the case of the sons of deeply religious people, and in people who have been deeply religious themselves, but have passed from fervent love to deep despair, because its training in knowledge has been neglected.

3. This law will explain what happened in the Early Church. At first love reigned alone, unenquiring, ecstatic. But when the Gentiles pressed into the fold questions could not be but asked. And so in Gods providence love had to, and did, grow more and more in knowledge. Each of the four groups of St. Pauls Epistles marks a distinct stage in the doctrinal insight of the Church. Each of the great Alexandrian teachers, Clement, Origen, Dionysius, Athanasius, and Cyril poured a flood of light upon the Christian conscience. The Church passed from the agonies of the Coliseum and the catacombs to define, and to recognize before she defined, the unchanging faith at Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon.

4. What has been said applies to education. This must begin with the heart. Until a pupils affections are won, the true groundwork of the process is not mastered. The repression of love will assuredly, sooner or later, avenge itself. Witness the case of J.S. Mill. (Canon Liddon.)

Love abounding through knowledge

This climax is unexpected. We should have thought in fervour, zeal, self-sacrifice. Instead of that the direction is upward from the heart to the head.

I. Knowledge reveals character and character draws out love. We can only love a person whom we know to be lovable. This holds especially true of our relations to God. Enmity comes of ignorance of Him. Hence, in Jesus He has given us a revelation of His heart, and to know Christ is to love God. My people is destroyed for lack of knowledge, is the epitaph written over the graves of scores of dead Christians. Neglecting the diligent study of the Scriptures they have no nutriment for their love, and it starves.

II. Knowledge of God brings us into communion with that Divine life which is the spring of all Divine love. If God is love, the more we come into fellowship with Himself the more we shall come into the exercise and experience of His love. But it is only through knowledge that we can come into this experience. (A. J. Gordon.)

Knowledge the basis of love

I. What are we to understand by Christians having the true knowledge of God. This cannot mean perfect knowledge. None but Deity can comprehend Deity. But we may have a true knowledge, and the difference between the two is that the former is a knowledge of all things that are true concerning God, and the latter of some things which are true. And what Christians know is as true as if they knew everything, They know, e.g., God to be self-existent, omnipotent, just, merciful, etc., although they do not know the ground of His self-existence, etc. No man knows everything about anything, but the little he knows is as true as though he knew all.

II. How Christians gain this true, though partial, knowledge of God.

1. By the light of nature, The invisible things, etc.

2. By Divine revelation. Though God cannot tell men in any language all things about Himself, He can tell some things in their language which they can understand.

III. Their true love for God is founded on their true knowledge of God. They do not love or worship an unknown God. Knowledge not ignorance is the mother of their devotion: which will appear if we consider--

1. That if Christians should love God for what is not true concerning Him, they would love a false character of God, which would not be true, but false love--the same as loving a false god, which is the essence of idolatry.

2. It is the knowledge which Christians have of the real and supreme excellency of God that lays them under moral obligation to love Him supremely. The more they know of God the more they feel themselves bound to love Him with all their heart.

Improvement: If Christians have some true knowledge of God from His works and Word, then--

1. They may have some true knowledge of every doctrine that God has revealed.

2. There is a propriety in preaching upon any doctrine that God has revealed.

3. Christians have no right to disbelieve any doctrine because there is something mysterious in it. If we disbelieve on this ground, we must disbelieve everything.

4. Those who have gained this certain knowledge ought to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.

5. There is no excuse for religious errors. (N. Emmons, D. D.)

The importance of Christian knowledge

I. The subjects which Christianity presents are the most important and sublime in the universe.

II. Just conceptions of the truth of God are indispensable to the possession of true holiness. What is holiness but obedience to truth; truth desired, loved, obeyed? But how is truth to be obeyed unless it is known? It is an unchanging law of our being that the heart is affected through the medium of the understanding.

III. Without the spirit of theological research it is impossible to make rapid advances in the divine life. Christians have much to learn of God that they may desire greater manifestations of His glory; of themselves, that they may be stimulated to greater attainments; of their obligations, that they may press after perfect holiness. There are, of course, instances in which growth in knowledge does not secure growth in grace; but that is because truth does not make its appropriate impression on the mind, and is opposed by sin. But the clearer our views of God the more fervent our love of Him; of sin, the more self-abasing our repentance; of Christ, the stronger our faith; of duty, the stronger our desires to perform it.

IV. The attainment of religious knowledge is the source of pure and elevated enjoyment. Of all the prospective emotions the desire of knowledge is the most exalted. The pleasures of intellect transcend those of sense. How much purer and higher the felicity consequent on advances in the knowledge of God. The veriest infant in the school of Christ finds his understanding satisfied, his heart filled with love at the discovery of every new principle in the Word of God.

V. Religious knowledge widens the sphere of Christian usefulness. A well-informed Christian possesses a weight of character and a power of moral feeling, which exert the best influence. Such a man is always ready for action. If the spirit of His master rests upon him in proportion to his intellectual attainments, he will instruct the ignorant, etc. The Church has sustained no small detriment from the ignorance of good men.

VI. The character of our age furnishes a reason for solicitude in relation to the doctrines of the Bible. There is a strange apathy to the truth. It is an age of business, and not of investigation. Conclusion:

1. Ministers ought not to be reproached for instructive preaching, and for not yielding to the demand for sensationalism.

2. The love of truth is the conclusive test of Christian character.

3. Rest not in intellectual attainments in religion. (Gardiner Spring, D. D.)

Knowledge and judgment

These are the limits which define the course of love, and thus deepen it.

I. Advanced knowledge is derived from--

1. Experience.

2. Attentive study of--

(1) The Divine perfections.

(2) The gospel mystery.

(3) The Divine claims.

(4) The principles of Christs teaching, which should pervade all Christian conduct.

II. Moral perception.

1. Results from the full exertion of every moral sense.

(1) There are many things in Christian life which cannot be formulated, but must be felt to be known.

(2) Grace awakens the moral senses. Love makes them delicately sensitive to spiritual things. Christian life appeals to them. Experience comes in the exercise of them.

(3) This experience produces a profounder knowledge and a deeper love by intensifying spiritual perceptions, because--

2. It is a medium of communication with the unseen and eternal.

3. As a medium of communication with God it makes the soul superior to, and independent of, the senses. When these close at eventide, the moral senses only open wider for the morning sun.

4. It robes the soul with a halo of light more assuring and glorious than the glory cloud emitted.

5. It imparts to the soul that delicate tact and instinct which almost instinctively perceives what is right, and almost unconsciously shrinks from what is wrong.

6. It is indestructible by death, and shall be an imperishable avenue for the souls perpetual advance in knowledge. (G. G. Ballard.)

Love inseparable from Christian life

Goethe says, We hear of a particular regulation in force in the British naval service. The whole cordage, from the strongest to the weakest, has a red thread moving throughout it, which cannot be twisted out with out undoing it all. In this way even the smallest parts are recognized as the property of the Crown. Love in the Christian character, we may say, is that which is woven into every part of it, is that which cannot be removed without destroying the whole, and is that which is enduring and indestructible evidence that the character is owned by Him who is King. (J. Hutchinson, D. D.)

Love: its critical function

Love abounding in all discernment distinguishes the wrong from the right, just as a good ear distinguishes a false and imperfect note from the true. (Webster and Wilkinson.)

The training of love

As we train the bodily senses of sight, and touch, and hearing to discriminate accurately, and bring them by exercise, voluntary or involuntary, to exquisite precision and almost unfailing accuracy, so our love must be trained to be itself a universal spiritual sense, at once the eye and the ear and the hand of the heart, seeing and hearing and touching in things Divine, with a sure and delicate feeling that seldom needs correction. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)

Regulated love

The chariot in ancient warfare had its two occupants, the warrior and the charioteer: the one could not engage the enemy unless the other held the reins and guided the course. So love, the true, the only commissioned soldier in that warfare whose every triumph is peace, can fight towards victory only when knowledge directs and controls every movement that is made. (J. Hutchinson, D. D.)

Advancement in knowledge must be constant

Spain once held both sides of the Mediterranean at the Straits of Gibraltar. So highly did she value her possessions, that she stamped on her coin the two Pillars of Hercules (as the promontories of rock were called); and on a scroll thrown over these were the words, ne plus ultra, no more beyond. But one day a bold spirit sailed far beyond these pillars, and found a new world of beauty. Then Spain, wisely convinced of ignorance, struck the word ne from the coin, and left plus ultra, more beyond. How many a man, whose conceit is great, thinks he has reached the limits of knowledge, when further investigation would open to him a continent of truth before unknown. (Bp. Simpson)

The excellence of love

We have many servants who regard their work as drudgery, and though they do their duties, they do them with no regard for our interests: but the old-fashioned servants were of another kind. If you have any such, you will prize one of such above a thousand others. They love their master, and they identify themselves with his interests. Old John did not want orders, he was a law to himself, he served from love. When his master one day spoke about their parting, he wanted to know where his master was going, for he had no idea of going himself: he was part and parcel of the household, and was worth his weight in diamonds. You may well say, I would give my eyes to get such a servant as that. I dare say you would. Our Lord Jesus gave Himself that He might make such servants out of us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Love rich in purse

A poor widow contributed to the Dorpatian Branch of the Russian Bible Society a rouble; and, to the question whether that sum was not rather too much for one in her circumstances, she answered, Love is not afraid of giving too much.

Intelligent love

Blind love fails in any sphere of action. A true-hearted boy, who finds his mother suddenly made a widow, and his young sisters and himself fatherless, and sees want coming on with fierce visage and rapid steps like an armed man, is impelled by his love to the dear ones around him to rush at once into the midst of the struggle of life; and in the place, and with the weapons, of a full-grown man, give the enemy battle. The love and the zeal are most beautiful and admirable, yet those among the onlookers who have experience of the worlds difficulty cannot but fear that the young hero may soon be brought home from the battlefield wounded and bleeding and despondent. He needs training. His love must have the knowledge of men and things along with it, before it is likely to reach its aim. So with Christian love generally, going forth to do work for God and man in the world. Having talents entrusted to us by God to lay out for Him, we must strive--by the study of our powers and opportunities, temptations and dangers; by the consideration of present circumstances, and by cautious forecast; by carefully looking in and out, and at all things in the light of Gods Word--to become wise and successful spiritual traffickers. (R. Johnstone, LL. B.)

The love of God without knowledge

The affections of the human soul are certainly not devoid of heavenly aspirations; but what if they do not clearly know God? Then, like the vine stretching up its tendril fingers and finding no support, and so falling back again to creep upon the earth from which it sprung, the heart that fails to find God, only loves the world the more desperately and hopelessly. Blessed be God, therefore, for the Cross of Christ, that trellis for the hearts affection. It is this by which the soul learns to know the love of God; and upon it the renewed affections climb higher and higher; beneath it they strike their roots deeper and deeper; upon its arms they reach out farther and farther; ever-more increasing in love by increasing in knowledge. (A. J. Gordon.)

The knowledge of Christ the mainstay of brotherly love

Two burnished reflectors can radiate the brightness from one to the other if there be a light between them. But, if each only reflects from the other, there can be no illumination: because neither furnishes any supply of light. So two Christians, reciprocating each others affections, will make but a poor exhibit of brotherly love, unless they have Christ between them as the centre and source of their life. And there is just as little to admire in mutual fellowship among Christians, unless Christ be in the midst of them as the centre of that fellowship. To exhort one another, to comfort one another, and to love one another, are all most solemn duties. But where will be the profit in them unless Christ be the central theme, and His grace and glory be the central objects of our admiration and praise? The cherubim stood with their faces one toward another; but the mercy seat was between. And it was upon faces bending in eager gaze upon those things which the angels desire to look into, that the glory of God was reflected. If we get cheer and brightness from looking into each others faces, and communing with each other in the services of Gods house, it will be because Christ stands in the midst of us, the object of all our meditations and the fountain of all our joys. This is eternal life, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent. I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. (A. J. Gordon.)

Php_1:9-11

And this I pray

The recorded prayers of St.Paul

are eight in number.

I. For the Ephesians (Eph_1:17-23; Eph_3:14-21).

II. For the Colossians (Col_1:9-14).

III. For the Thessalonians (1Th_3:10-13; 1Th_1:11-12; 1Th_2:16-17; 1Th_3:16).

IV. For the Philippians (in loco). (G. G. Ballard.)

St. Pauls prayer for the Philippians

These words contain a petition for--

I. The enlargement of the affections by the improvement of the intellectual powers.

II. An increase of love in knowledge and judgment with reference to the improvement of the moral character. (C. Lawson.)

The prayer tells us that love should be--

I. Progressive.

II. Intelligent.

III. Discriminating.

IV. Sincere.

V. Without offence.

VI. Constant.

VII. Fruitful. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

I. The apostles action of praying. The Philippians abounded in love, etc., yet the apostle prayed that they might abound yet more and more. Whence observe--

1. The continual necessity of prayer. Whatsoever graces the Lord hath bestowed on us yet we have still need to pray that we may abound more and more in Him (1Th_5:17; Jam_1:5; 1Th_3:12). And the reason why we are continually so to pray is plain; for

(1) Such is our weakness through sin, that unto whatsoever measure of grace we have attained, yet stand therein we cannot unless God uphold us (Mat_14:31; Eph_6:20).

(2) In whatsoever grace we abound, yet therein we come so short of perfection that we have need to pray that we abound more and more.

(3) This, then, may serve to condemn our great slackness, negligence, coldness, and faintness, both in private and public prayer.

2. Christians are not to stand still, or be content with good beginnings, but to grow (Heb_6:1; Php_3:12). And how should any man think otherwise, considering what enemies hinder our perfection. These continually bid us such battle, that if either we stand or give back we must generally take the foil.

(1) Many which seemed to have begun in the spirit make an end in the flesh.

(2) Others pause, and, as if they were in danger in every step, move not a foot forward. Nay, not to go forward is to go backward, and not to increase in the graces of Gods Spirit is to decrease (Rev_3:16).

(3) Others are content to make a show of going forward for advantage and gain.

II. The things for which he prays.

1. That their love to God and one another might abound.

(1) Touching the love of God, how can we love Him enough who so loved us.

(2) Love one of another (1Th_3:12).

(3) Love towards poor saints and afflicted members of Christ (2Co_8:1-24; Deu_15:7-11); which serveth to condemn the cold love of Christians in our days (1Jn_4:20).

2. That they may abound more and more in knowledge, viz., of Gods will out of His Word (1Co_14:20; Heb_6:1). This then may teach us--

(1) To beware of their leaven who would have shut us up in ignorance, on the ground that it is the mother of devotion, and that the Scriptures are hard to be understood, and perilous to read. But what saith the Holy Ghost? (Joh_5:29; 2Pe_3:18; Col_3:16.)

(2) To give diligence unto the reading, hearing, and meditating upon the Scriptures that we may abound in knowledge and understanding. Very lamentable is it to see so many thousands who are as ignorant of Gods Word as when they sat in the darkness of Egypt.

3. That they may abound more and more in all judgment, i.e., in sound judgment, that having their wits exercised through long custom, they may discern both good and evil; and abound also in an experience of spiritual things in themselves, that they might spiritually feel in their hearts that which they knew out of the word (Psa_34:8). This should teach us to so observe the mercies and judgments of the Lord that we may have an experimental knowledge of them (Psa_34:6).

4. That their love might be grounded in sound knowledge and judgment, that each having help of other, and being furnished by other, they might the better discern things that differ. Though we have all knowledge and not love we are nothing. So, on the other hand, though we have all love and no knowledge, it is nothing. Which of these soever grows up without other, like Jonahs gourd, will quickly wither. Our care then must be that our love abound in knowledge, that we may know on whom our love ought principally to be set; and in all judgment, that knowing whom we ought to love we may love them as we ought (Gal_6:10). Otherwise our love may do more harm than good; as zeal without knowledge.

III. The ends wherefore he prays.

1. That they might discern things that differ one from another, virtue and vice, false and true prophets, corrupt and uncorrupt doctrine, and so might follow the good and fly the bad (Rom_2:18). Very justly, then, are they to be reproved that in seeking after knowledge even out of the Scriptures propose any other end.

(1) Such are they that, seeing the Church to lean on the Scriptures, do by their corruptions of the text, their false glosses and conclusions, labour to overthrow the truth and to build their own errors.

(2) Others there are whose end is only a vain ostentation, that men may think and speak of them as great rabbins (1Co_8:1). The end of others is information, so that they may not appear ignorant, but who show no fruits of their knowledge in a godly life.

2. That they might be pure from any leaven of corruption in doctrine, life, or manners as white wool never dyed, fine flour never leavened. For it is not enough to know the difference between purity and impurity (1Co_5:6-7; Mat_16:12; 1Ti_5:22).

3. That they might not stumble, but hold on a constant course without falling, slipping back, or standing at a stay (Gal_3:3; Luk_9:62).

4. That they might be fruitful in all good works.

(1) The measure of good works--filled; pressed down, shaken together.

(2) The definition of good works--fruits of righteousness.

(3) Their fountain Jesus Christ.

(4) Their end--the glory and praise of God.

IV. Observations for our instruction.

1. We are not only to do the things that are good, but to abound in them (Col_1:9-10; Joh_15:5-8; Act_9:36). Why?

(1) That we may please God (Col_1:10).

(2) That we may glorify the Father (Joh_15:8).

(3) That we may abide in Christ, and Christ in us (Joh_15:5).

2. Let this stir us up and forward to every good work. (H. Airay, D. D.)

I. Christian love in its proper growth and manifestation.

1. This love is not that specially which was cherished towards the apostle. From his point of view that was already much more than he had looked for. Nor is it brotherly love, or love to all men, or love towards God and Christ, or loving activity in Christian service. It is rather love in the absolute sense of the term--the inward state of the heart, which is also the motive power of the life.

2. It is no mere rhetorical accident which makes this grace the very essence of the renewed life. It is the life of the believers soul, and the soul of his life. It is with conscious design, therefore, and perfect propriety, that he who penned 1Co_13:1-13 should here specify love as the distinctive mark of the life hid with Christ in God.

3. This love, although the bond of perfectness, is itself never perfect on earth. Here there must be a persistent going on to perfection. The manifold outgoings of love need direction and control.

(1) It cannot live forever in a cell, apart from thought (Pro_1:4). We are therefore taught that the love of the renewed heart must live in the sphere of increasing spiritual knowledge.

(a) Of Christ--a clear perception of the Saviours person, character, and work, accompanied by a heart interest therein.

(b) Of the deep things of God.

(2) This abounding of love in knowledge is, consequently, also an abounding in all discernment, in every moral sense or feeling which almost intuitively perceives what is right, and almost unconsciously shrinks from what is wrong. It is spiritual discrimination, moral tact.

4. The function of love thus regulated is to approve the things that are excellent. Love has to prove and so approve things that differ (marg.) in being better. What are those excellent things? See Php_4:8-9.

5. A practical and much needed lesson lies in this. Love may set on foot many schemes of usefulness, and yet the issue may be failure, because the abounding love has not been in knowledge and discernment. It can never be right to cultivate one central grace to the neglect of the others.

II. The perfection of the Christian life thereby attained.

1. Sincere, i.e., spotless, pure, clear. Some see here a military figure, the result of dividing an army into several sections, so as to separate the more hardy and valiant, as Gideon set apart his three hundred. According to this the word means selected and so excellent. Others see an agricultural figure. Select, pure as corn that is purged by the winnowing fan or threshing roller. But the view that it means tested or judged by the sunbeam is the most probable. Christs people as here depicted, therefore, are like the gem held up to the sunlight, and found to be without a flaw; walking in the light of truth, and the white radiance of eternity.

2. It follows that they become in relation to others void of offence, giving no occasion for stumbling. A Christian who is consistent in his own character is also inoffensive in his conduct. His unconscious example, as well as words and deeds, is a power only for good.

3. This he does unto the day of Christ. (J. Hutchinson, D. D.)

In one word the apostle prayed that the Philippians might grow. Moral dwarfs never pray that others may become moral giants. A man cannot transcend himself. Only the firmament can embrace the stars. The apostle prays--

I. That love may abound in moral tact. True love is intelligent. We are to love God with all our mind. As knowledge is the basis of faith, so is it the first condition of love.

II. For an enlargement and quickening of the discriminating faculty, that they might distinguish between things that differ, that so they might elect the right. A man is known by his verdicts. The artist sees where the clown but looks. The more we love Christ the more shall we be qualified to perceive every charm in moral life. He who approves the excellent will defend it.

III. For their sincerity. The word has a double meaning.

1. In the Greek it signifies that which is proved in the sunlight. Christians are to be so true that the solar light of infinite rectitude cannot find any stain or derangement in their character.

2. In the Latin it means without wax; clarified honey, free from all admixture. The Christian life is to be so refined as to be thoroughly free from foreign elements.

IV. Being filled, etc. (verse 11). Paul, beginning at the centre, finds his way to the circumference; beginning with the spiritual, he culminates in the practical (Joh_15:1-5). See the connection between Christ and fruit. This call to practical life shows that Christianity is not a mocking pretence, a theological dream, or a speculative science, but a sublime, vital, and vitalizing reality. The doctrines acknowledged in this prayer are--

1. That Christian life is progressive.

2. That God is ready to cooperate with His people for their moral enrichment.

3. That the entire manhood is to bear fruit. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Let it be your earnest concern and prayer--

I. That your love may abound in all knowledge and judgment.

1. The love you should aspire after is Christian love.

(1) Such as proceeds from faith (Gal_5:6).

(2) Which has for its objects God and Christ, His cause, truths, ordinances, servants, and your fellow creatures.

(3) This is the fulfilling of the law, and inspires the soul with a cheerful disposition for and activity in keeping Gods commandments (Rom_13:10; 1Jn_5:3).

2. Your being Church members supposes that you are already partakers of this love in some prevailing degree, as Paul inferred in this case. Persons lacking this ought not to be Church members; for love is the great band of union and communion.

3. The prayer intimates that it is not perfect, but that you ought to seek further progress in it.

(1) There may be something lacking with respect to its disinterestedness, impartiality, and spirituality; or in respect to some instances and exercises of it; or in respect of its constancy, and the degrees of its fervour and activity.

(2) Keep before you a humbling sense of defect, and be earnest with God to invigorate and develope it.

4. The text suggests that it should be a judicious love. Light should kindle all your warmth. Without knowledge and judgment your love will be like a land flood, that overfloweth with a rapid stream, but hath no springs to maintain it, or banks to conduct it to a regular course. Take heed of an ignorant, ungovernable, and misjudged love of you know not what, or why.

II. That ye may approve, etc. (verse 10). We are to prove all things by the unerring touchstone of Gods Word, and by a spiritual taste according to it. The more acquaintance we have with the things of God the better they recommend themselves to us (Psa_34:8; 1Pe_2:2-3).

III. That ye may be sincere, etc. (verse 10). Some understand sincere as referring to God, and without offence as referring to man. But why should not each refer to both?

1. Sincerity is not so much a distinct grace as an essential quality running through all our graces and duties, distinguishing them from false appearances in their exercise towards God and man.

2. Without offence (Act_24:16).

IV. That ye may be filled, etc. (verse 11).

1. The nature of a man must be changed in its moral frame by regenerating grace before he can bear fruits of righteousness.

2. They are by Jesus Christ--

(1) As all virtue for producing them is derived from Him (Joh_15:5).

(2) As all their acceptance with God is through Him (1Pe_2:5).

(3) As the revenue of glory which arises from them passes to God through Him (1Pe_4:11). (J. Guyse, D. D.)

True Christian love

Our power to help and bless each other is primarily the power of prayer. Prayer directs and impels to services of love; secures the efficiency and success of all other ministrations; appeals to the foundation of good, and fills the channel of blessing sometimes to overflowing. And Paul knowing all this writes not merely, I preach, teach, warn, labour, but I pray. He prays in harmony with the words of the Lord Jesus that they may abound more and more in love. Some people seem to have enough religion, and very little that enough is. Pauls cry was ever for more--if he had light, if he felt himself unusually strong, if he felt his inner life enriched from Gods fulness, his cry still was more. So he prayed--not that the Philippians were marrow-minded, thin-souled, cold-hearted people.

I. There was love in the hearts of the saints at Philippi. This was the chief evidence of their being saints. The absence of this, no matter what had been present, would have cast a cloud on their Christian profession.

II. This love was manifested. It was not stagnant like the waters of a tarn, but flowed as a stream which, descending from the hills, runs through the valleys. Christian benevolence must not Sleep in the depths of your nature. What if Gods pity had slept in His! If it be there then make ways for it, so that the living water may reach a thirsty world.

III. The love of others may be affected by our prayers. Sometimes no other agency will succeed, as in the case of a crabbed professing Christian who is impervious to speech, example, and other acts of loving kindness. We can pray that God would expand that Harrow soul.

IV. The love of a true Christian is not a stationary principle: because life underlies it. (S. Martin.)

Love--the hearts eye

Love is a faculty of spiritual knowledge. Metaphysicians think the faculty of sight is to be found principally among the intellectual powers. As a power of sight Paul says five things about love.

I. It discerns spiritually, i.e., it sees those objects which belong to the spiritual sphere. Love sees as no other faculty can--

1. The truths of the gospel.

2. God Himself.

3. The precepts of the Saviour.

4. The promises.

5. Christian duty and responsibility.

II. It discriminates. Some people say that love is blind, which is true in a sense. But love has also widely open eyes. It separates right from wrong views of God, of human character, of Christian duty. Prejudice never discriminates, nor pride, vanity, cowardice, pugnacity, ambition.

III. It appreciates. Dislike and hatred depreciate; indifference values nothing; love approves what is excellent. You will see what is excellent in others in the degree of your love. If you have not Christian love you will fail to see much that is Christian in Gods Church.

IV. It prevents mistakes. It makes a man sincere and without offence. The sincere but unloving are sometimes most offensive. The deficient in love are often most insincere. The two things in social and Church life are often separated. You have the sincere and the loving as separate classes. But why should they not be brought together? The Christian is not obtrusive, obstinate, exacting, compromising.

V. It remains unimpaired to the end. The understanding may fail, and the memory, but love never. A beautiful illustration of this we sometimes see in old Christians. Conclusion: The day of Christ comes apace. In the fires of that day love only will survive. (S. Martin.)

Perseverance to the day of Christ

The day governs the whole petition. Let us mark the ascending order and cumulative force of the supplications--

1. For the steady increase of their love in the knowledge of truth and in the moral tact of its appreciation;

2. For their perfection internal and external of moral character; and--

3. For their final acceptance thus perfected in the testing day of Christ.

I. The regulating principle of Christian life.

1. The Philippians had been already taught of God to love Himself and one another. The apostle now prays for its abundant increase, not by arbitrary and absolute effusion into their hearts, but as the result of being fed by Divine truth and diligently practised.

2. Knowledge is the apprehension or arrangement of truth in the mind, but spiritual knowledge, partly as being bound up with our spiritual nature and needs, and chiefly as being imparted by the Holy Ghost.

(1) As love enlarges and strengthens the power of attaining religious knowledge, so increasing knowledge feeds love in return.

(2) All knowledge is summed up in knowing Christ. All truth is now as the truth is in Jesus.

3. Judgment is the faculty of spiritual discernment: that moral sensitiveness of the renewed mind which is quick to perceive the good and evil in every doctrine, practice, and contingency of daily life (Heb_5:14). As knowledge is truth stored up in the mind, so judgment is the mind itself applying that knowledge to the endless occasions which arise for distinguishing between what should be sought and what shunned.

4. The approval of things that are excellent is the operation of this knowledge and discrimination in the mind itself--the precious insight of love which, using its knowledge and its tact, distinguishes in every case what is more excellent and at once approves of it. It is the inward legislator that often tells us what is the commandment where outward legislation fails. The praise of charity in 1Co_13:1-13 is little more than the praise of its marvellous discrimination. Almost all that can look like, without being, religion is there condemned by the judge among the graces.

II. From the regulating principle the prayer now passes to the perfect character, as established in the world, under the guidance and control of enlightened love. Paul exhibits the whole compass of godliness under two aspects, inward and outward--first in their separation and then in their union.

1. Sincere signifies that flawless simplicity of heart which is able to endure every test. The last and most perfect test is the eye of God. What the sun is in nature the Great Detector is in religious life. Those whom God sees thus pure in heart have it as the reward of their purity that they see God. This sacred simplicity is a pearl of great price. Hence it is made a matter of prayer; such cleanness is the express creation of God; but not so as to exclude the consecration of our own effort and habitual watchfulness.

2. Without offence. The prayer asks for preservation through the blessing of God on the wise solicitude of charity, from doing anything that should hinder the salvation of any one. The Christians thoughtful charity must show its tact in this that his conduct shall at once rebuke the sin of others, and direct them to the beauty of holiness.

3. When the prayer proceeds to the fruit of righteousness it completes the picture of this perfection, at the same time that it explains more fully the meaning of sincere and without offence.

(1) Righteousness is neither that imputed nor that implanted alone, but that which comes through our union with Christ and unites in fruit.

(2) The fruit or produce of the new method of making us right in Christ is the entire compass of godliness in all its tempers and acts.

(3) Pilled, sounds out clearly the note of Christian perfection attainable because prayed for, prayed for because attainable. It leaves no room for the notion of any necessary defect in the religious life.

III. We must go back to that central word, the day of Christ, which completes the meaning of the prayer. Jesus the Judge will in that day acknowledge the purity which He now approves, and confirm and reward the righteousness He now creates. Christian integrity, sealed in one sense by death, is to be reexamined, and finally, with the whole universe as witness, ratified in the great day. Conclusion: Those who are tempted by their creed or indolence to rely on the supposed necessity that a salvation once begun must be finally accomplished are reminded by the tone and words of the prayer that without their inward and outward holiness that blessed issue shall not be attained. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Php 1:9-11. This I pray, that your love — To God and one another, and all mankind which you have already shown; may abound yet more and more — The fire which burned in the apostle’s breast never says, It is enough; in knowledge — Arising from, and attended with, a more perfect knowledge of God, of Christ, and of spiritual things in general; and in all judgment — Or rather, in all sense, or feeling, as παση αισθησει signifies: that is, That you may have a spiritual sense and taste, or an experimental knowledge and feeling of God’s love in Christ to you. Our love must not only be rational, but it must be also experimental: we must not only understand and approve the reasons why we should love God and one another; but we must know and feel that we do so; that ye may approve — Greek, εις το δοκιμαζειν, that ye may try, or prove by experience; things that are excellent — Not only that are good, but the very best; the superior excellence of which is hardly discerned but by the adult Christian. The original expression, τα διαφεροντα, is, literally, the things that differ: that you may discern the real difference which there is in things, namely, in matters of doctrine, experience, and practice; how truth differs from, and how much it excels error; how much fervency of spirit, a life of entire devotedness to God, and continual, persevering diligence in the work of faith, patience of hope, and labour of love, differs from and excels lukewarmness of heart, negligence of life, sloth, indolence, and the being weary of well-doing; that ye may be sincere — Upright before God, truly desiring to know and to do his will in all things; and having always a pure intention, or a single eye to his glory, in the choice and pursuit of the best things; and a pure affection, giving him an undivided heart. The original word, ειλικρινεις, from ειλη, the shining, or splendour, of the sun, and κρινω, to judge, properly signifies such things as, being examined in a bright light, are found pure, and without fault. Applied, as here, to believers, it refers both to their spirit and conduct, and is represented as the proper and natural fruit of that abounding love which the apostle had asked for them in the preceding verse. And without offence — Chargeable with no disposition, word, or action, at which others can justly take offence; but holy and unblameable. The expression properly signifies, giving no occasion of stumbling, namely, to others; and may imply also not stumbling ourselves at the real or supposed failings or faults of others; unto the day of Christ — The day of death, when the time of your trial will be ended. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness — All holy dispositions, words, and actions toward God, our fellow-creatures, and ourselves; which are by Jesus Christ — Through union with him, and grace derived from him, to the glory and praise of God — To whom they are rendered acceptable through Christ’s sacrifice and intercession. Observe, reader, here are three properties of that sincerity which is acceptable to God. 1st, It must bear fruits, all inward and outward holiness, all goodness, righteousness, and truth, Eph 5:9; (see also Gal 5:22;) and that so abundantly, that we may be filled with them, or all our powers of body and mind, our time and talents, occupied therein. 2d, The branch and the fruits must derive both their virtue and their very being from the all-supporting, all-supplying root, Jesus Christ. 3d, As all these flow from the grace of Christ, so they must issue in the glory and praise of God.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. This I pray—The prayer (Php_1:9-11) is for their continual increase in love to Christ, his cause, and his people; that love which underlay their fellowship with the gospel, the subject of the thanksgiving, and also made them willing partakers with himself in suffering. Yet not in the love alone did he desire growth, but more in certain adjuncts which are always necessary to its best direction and most useful employment. Love may be very pure, honest, and full, and at the same time impulsive, misdirected, injudicious, and even injurious. So he prays for its increase in knowledge—a full knowledge of the truths of the gospel, by which they would readily detect any perversion of, or addition to, them.

And in judgment—Doubtless the moral judgment, or spiritual insight.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Php_1:9. In knowledge and in all judgment.—“Perfect knowledge (as in Eph_1:17; Eph_4:13) and universal discernment.” “The one deals with general principles, the other is concerned with practical applications” (Lightfoot).

Php_1:10. That ye may approve things that are excellent.—St. Paul would have his dear Philippians to be connoisseurs of whatever is morally and spiritually excellent. That ye may be sincere.—Bearing a close scrutiny, in the strongest light, or according to another derivation of the word, perhaps more true if less beautiful, made pure by sifting. And without offence.—Might be either “without stumbling,” as Act_24:16, or “not causing offence. Lightfoot prefers the former, Meyer the latter. Beet unites the two.

Php_1:11. Fruits of righteousness.—“A harvest of righteousness.” Which are through Jesus Christ.—A more precise definition of “fruits.”

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Php_1:9-11

A Prayer for Christian Love—

I. That it may be regulated by knowledge and discretion.—“And this I pray, that your love may abound … in knowledge and in all judgment” (Php_1:9).

1. So as to test what is best.—“That ye may approve things that are excellent” (Php_1:10)—test things that differ. Two faculties of the mind are to be brought into exercise—knowledge, the acquisitive faculty; and judgment, the perceptive faculty. Love is not a wild, ignorant enthusiasm, but the warm affection of a heart, guided by extensive and accurate knowledge, and by a clear, spiritual perception. From a number of good things we select and utilise the best.

2. So as to maintain a blameless life.—“That ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ” (Php_1:10). Be so transparent in heart and life as neither to give nor take offence, and when examined in the light of the day of Christ to be adjudged blameless. To live a useful and holy life we must both think and feel aright. Love will ever prompt us to the holiest conduct and to the best work. “I once asked a distinguished artist,” said Boree, “what place he gave to labour in art. ‘Labour is the beginning, the middle, and the end of art,’ was the answer. I turned to another and inquired, ‘What do you consider as the great force in art?’ ‘Love,’ was the reply. In these two answers I found but one truth.”

II. That it may stimulate the growth of a high Christian character.—

1. A high Christian character is the outcome of righteous principles. “Being filled with the fruits—the fruit—of righteousness.” All Christian virtues are from the one common root of the Spirit. It is He who plants them in the heart, fosters their growth, brings them to perfection, and fills the soul with them as the trees are laden with ripened fruit. The apostle prays for more love, because love impels us to act righteously in all things, even in the minor affairs of life. “Just as the quality of life,” says Maclaren, “may be as perfect in the minutest animalculæ, of which there may be millions in a cubic inch and generations may die in an hour—just as perfect in the smallest insect as in behemoth, biggest born of earth, so righteousness may be as completely embodied, as perfectly set forth, as fully operative in the tiniest action that I can do, as in the largest that an immortal spirit can be set to perform. The circle that is in a gnat’s eye is as true a circle as the one that holds within its sweep all the stars, and the sphere that a dewdrop makes is as perfect a sphere as that of the world. All duties are the same which are done from the same motives; all actions which are not so done are all alike sins.”

2. A high Christian character honours God.—“Which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God” (Php_1:11). The righteousness which exalts man honours God. It is a practical manifestation of the grace communicated through Jesus Christ, and adorns the doctrine which is according to godliness. There are those who live soberly and righteously in this present world; but what about their duty to God? God is not in all their thoughts. That there has been no acceptance into their lives of Christ—without which acceptance God is a stranger to us and we strangers to God, no consecration to Christ, no referring to His will, no love to His person, and no zeal for His glory—of all this they are perfectly aware. And the thought of their heart is, that the omission is of no great consequence, and so long as they live soberly and righteously, it matters little or nothing whether they do or do not live godly. The power lacking is that for which the apostle prays—the power of love, whole-hearted love to Christ.

III. That it may be enjoyed in ever-increasing measure.—“And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more” (Php_1:9). Some time ago the public mind was filled with uneasiness in expectation of a high tide which was to visit our shores, and which it was feared would work great mischief. As the time drew near, the anxiety increased. At length the tide flowed in, rose to its highest point, and then retired, bearing with it the fears that had agitated the public mind. Why this alarm? Because all know the unmanageable, destructive power of water, when it once bursts its bounds. Love, unlike water, the more it abounds and overflows the greater the benefits it bestows. There is no fear that we shall love God too much; it is our shame and loss that we love Him so little. Love chafes against all limitations.

Lessons.—

1. Love is the essence of Christianity.

2. Love should govern every part of the Christian life.

3. Love may be augmented by earnest prayer.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Php_1:9-10. The Apostle’s Prayer for Abounding Love—

I. In its application to the affections.—“That your love may abound yet more and more” (Php_1:9).

1. Love to God.—

(1) Because of the supreme excellence of His character.

(2) Because of His generous interposition in the work of human redemption.

(3) Because of the benefits He is constantly bestowing.

2. Love to one another.—Love promotes brotherly unity—oneness of feeling, of aim, of effort. Unity promotes strength. To strength in its combined action victory is given.

3. Love to the unsaved.—The law of Moses insisted, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour”; to which the Pharisees made this addition, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.” Christ interprets the law of love in the command, “I say unto you, Love your enemies.”

II. In its application to the intellect.—“In knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent” (Php_1:9-10). Knowledge, the faculty to acquire information; judgment, the faculty to discern its value and use: the one leads to the sources of truth and appropriates its stores, the other selects and uses what is acquired. These two faculties necessary—

1. In judging revealed truth.

2. In judging Christian experience.

3. In selecting what is best in all truths.

III. In its application to the conduct.—“That ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ” (Php_1:10).

1. An inward state.—Sincerity, transparency of character.

2. An outward walk.—Inoffensive ness of conduct. Not designedly giving offence; sacrificing everything but principle rather than grieve or mislead a weak brother.

3. Perseverance in an upright life.—“Till the day of Christ.” This is the scorner’s day; the good are hated and despised; but the day of Christ is coming, and will rectify all wrongs. A day of blessing and honour to the good, of confusion and punishment to the wicked; of approval to the one, of condemnation to the other.

Php_1:9. “And this I pray.” Definiteness in Prayer—

I. Implies a deep consciousness of an intelligently apprehended need.

II. Becoming, when an intelligent being addresses the divine Intelligence.

III. Essential from the very nature of prayer.

IV. Affords a fixed ground from the exercise of faith.

V. Emboldens supplication.

VI. Inspires hope of a definite response.—Lay Preacher.

Php_1:10. “That ye may approve things that are excellent.” Spiritual Discrimination—

I. Demands the exercise of the most intelligent and sensitive charity.

II. Commands a wide field of effort—the bad, the good, the better, the best—in character, life, doctrine, practice, enjoyment, attainment.

III. Implies the admission and use of a noble liberty of thought, judgment, and action.

IV. Involves a weighty and far-reaching responsibility.

V. Is essential to a pure and blameless life.—Ibid.

“That ye may be sincere.” The Value of Sincerity in Youth.

There is a false sincerity which is a compound of ignorance and obstinacy. The heathen may be devout and sincere in his idolatry, but he is a heathen still. The Mahometan may be devout and sincere in his worship of the one God, but he rejects the Christ who is the source and substance of all true religion. The sceptic may be devout and earnest in his investigation of the facts of the universe; but he ignores the great moral truths on which he stumbles in the course of his inquiries, and refuses to accept and be influenced by them. There is no craze of the wildest fanatic that may not be adopted as an article of faith, if apparent sincerity is to be the test of its genuineness. The fact is, a man may be sincere, but grossly mistaken. A sincere heart is that through which the light of God shines, unimpeded by duplicity and sin, and is a condition of heart obtained only by living much in the presence and the light of God.

I. Be sincere in the search after truth.—Truth must be sought for its own sake, and is revealed only to the humble and sincere seeker. It is of supreme importance to you to find the truth. Truth has but one direction and one goal—it terminates in the radiant presence of a living personality. When you come into the presence of truth, you come into the presence of God. Truth has a living embodiment in Christ Jesus. If you desire a solution of the perplexing riddles of life, if you would understand the principles on which God governs the universe, if you wish to dissipate the doubts that becloud and harass the mind, if you desire rest and peace of conscience, and to obtain strength and inspiration to live a happy, useful, and noble life—then seek the truth as it is in Jesus; and if you are really sincere, you shall not seek in vain.

II. Be sincere in your social intercourse with one another.—

1. In your friendships.

2. In your promises.

III. Be sincere in the service of God.

IV. Be sincere in the cultivation of your own personal piety.

Christian Rectitude—

I. Consists in internal sincerity.—

1. This involves a concentratedness of heart upon one object.

2. A thoroughness of life’s uniformity to that one object.

3. An unostentatious but manifest integrity.

4. The completeness of that manifestation should be proportionate to the brightness of the testing light.

II. Consists in external blamelessness.—

1. Without being found guilty of offence.

2. Without giving offence.

3. Without taking offence.

III. Consists in a present state of life, with a glorious future destination.—“That ye may be without offence till the day of Christ.”

1. Then life shall be judged.

2. Life shall be made manifest.

3. Rectitude of life shall be approved.

4. Rectitude of life shall be rewarded.—Lay Preacher.

Php_1:11. Fruits of Righteousness.

I. The nature of righteousness.—

1. Sometimes the term refers to the divine Being, and signifies the purity of His nature and the perfection of His works.

2. Here it signifies personal holiness.

II. The fruits of righteousness.—

1. Christian righteousness is productive of gracious fruits. These fruits are internal in the heart, and external in the life.

2. The fruits of righteousness are abundant and progressive.—“Being filled with the fruits.”

III. The Author of righteousness.—“Which are by Jesus Christ.”

1. Righteousness is purchased by Christ as our Redeemer.

2. Is derived from Him as our Saviour.

IV. The results of righteousness.—“Unto the glory and praise of God.”

1. Righteousness is to the glory and praise of God in the scheme of redemption.

2. In the subjects of redemption.

Lessons.—

1. This subject should stimulate our desires.

2. Promote our devotion.

3. Inspire us with praise.—Theological Sketch Book.

Spiritual Attainment.

I. Righteousness of heart precedes righteousness of life.

II. Righteousness of heart is self-disseminating.—

1. Its fruit is living.

2. Of harmonious unity.

3. Luxuriant.

III. Righteousness of heart is the only thing that can fill the capacities of man.

IV. Fulness of righteousness is all divine.—

1. In its source.

2. In its medium of communication. “By Jesus Christ.”

3. In its end. “Unto the glory and praise of God.” Glory before men: praise among men.—Lay Preacher.

Divine Culture.

I. The field.—The loving heart.

II. The seed.—Righteousness.

III. The fruit.—Abundant.

IV. The husbandman.—Jesus Christ.

V. The end.—The glory and praise of God.—Ibid.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

PHILIPPIANS

A COMPREHENSIVE PRAYER

Php 1:9-11 {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.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:9-10 Love is a fruit of Christ’s Spirit within believers (Rom 5:5; Gal 5:22). • growing in knowledge and understanding: In this way, believers can understand what really matters (see Rom 12:2) and live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return (cp. 1 Thes 3:12-13; 5:23).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Php 1:9. Καὶ τοῦτο, and this) He declared, from Php 1:3 and onward, that he prayed for them; he now shows what was his prayer in their behalf.—ἡ ἀγάπη, love) Love makes men docile and [spiritually] sagacious, 2Pe 1:7-8. Hence arose the form used formerly in the assemblies of the Church,[4] and which is vernacular among us: Caritas vestra, your love (charity), in a wider sense.—ὑμῶν, your) Correlative to the love of Paul, Php 1:7-8. A previous [anticipatory] allusion to the love which they had shown to him; ch. Php 4:10; Php 4:18.—ἔτι μᾶλλον, yet more) The fire in the apostle’s mind never says, It is sufficient [past and present attainments are enough].—ἐν ἐπιγνώσει καὶ πάσῃ αἰσθήσει, in all knowledge and perception [judgment]) Knowledge is a very noble species, as sight is in the body: αἰσθήσις, perception, is the genus; for we have also [included under it] spiritual sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, i.e. the senses for investigation, and those for enjoyment,[5] as they are called. So part of the perception [sense] is joy, frequently mentioned in this epistle. And all is an indication that it is the genus; 2Co 8:7, note. In philosophy, the Peripatetics referred all things only to knowledge [which is the principal fault of the modern philosophers also, when they come upon spiritual subjects.—V. g.] The Platonists referred all things to the remaining word, sense, or perception; for example, in lamblicus. Regard is to be had to both in Christianity: each is met with in the Cross, and renders men fit to approve. Here, after love, expressly mentioned, he describes faith and hope in the following verse. Paul everywhere describes Christianity as something vigorous; wherefore the doctrine of the Mystics on Privation is so to be received, as not to be in any respect injurious to that practical ardour of mind.

[4] Or else in sermons.

[5] Sensús investigativi et fruitivi.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Php_1:9. After having stated and discussed, in Php_1:3-8, the reason why he thanks God with respect to his readers, Paul now, till the end of Php_1:11, sets forth what it is that he asks in prayer for them. Redit ad precationem, quam obiter tantum uno verbo attigerat (namely, Php_1:4); exponit igitur summam eorum, quae illis petebat a Deo (Calvin).

καί] the simple and, introducing the new part of,[54] and thus continuing, the discourse: And this (which follows) is what I pray,so that the object is placed first in the progress of the discourse; hence it is καὶ τοῦτο προσεύχομαι, and not κ. προσεύχ. τοῦτο. Hofmanns explanation of the καί in the sense of also, and his attaching ἐν σπλ. Χ. Ἰ. to Php_1:9, are the necessary result of his perverse metamorphosis of the simple discourse, running on from πεποιθώς in Php_1:6, into a lengthened protasis and apodosis,a construction in which the apodosis of the apodosis is supposed to begin with ἐν σπλ. Χ. Ἰ.; comp. on Php_1:6.

ἵνα] introduces the contents of the prayer conceived of under the form of its design (Col_1:9; 1Th_1:10; Mat_24:20), and thus explains the preparatory τοῦτο. Comp. on Joh_6:29. This I pray, that your love should more and more, etc.

ἡ ἀγάπη ὑμῶν], not love to Paul (van Hengel, following Chrysostom, Theophylact, Grotius, Bengel, and others),a reference which, especially in connection with ἔτι μᾶλλον κ. μᾶλλον, would be all the more unsuitable on account of the apostle having just received a practical proof of the love of the Philippians. It would also be entirely inappropriate to the context which follows (ἐν ἐπιγνώσει κ.τ.λ.). Nor is it their love generally, without specification of an object for it, as a proof of faith (Hofmann); but it is, in accordance with the context, the brotherly love of the Philippians one to another, the common disposition and feeling at the bottom of that κοινωνία εἰς τὸ εὐαγγ., for which Paul has given thanks in Php_1:5.[55] This previous thanksgiving of his was based on the confidence, ὅτι ὁ ἐναρξάμενος κ.τ.λ., Php_1:6, and the contents of his prayer now is in full harmony with that confidence. The connection is misapprehended by Calovius and Rheinwald, who explain it as love to God and Christ; also by Matthies (comp. Rilliet), who takes it as love to everything, that is truly Christian; comp. Wiesinger: love to the Lord, and to all that belongs to and serves Him; Weiss: zeal of love for the cause of the gospel,an interpretation which fails to define the necessary personal object of the ἀγάπη, and to do justice to the idea of co-operative fellowship which is implied in the κοινωνία in Php_1:5.

ἔτι μᾶλλον] quite our: still more. Comp. Homer, Od. i. 322, xviii. 22; Herod. i. 94; Pind. Pyth. x. 88, Olymp. i. 175; Plat. Euthyd. p. 283 C; Xen. Anab. vi. 6. 35; Diog. L. ix. 10. 2. See instances of μᾶλλον καὶ μᾶλλον in Kypke, II. p. 307. With the reading περισσεύῃ note the sense of progressive development.

ἐν ἐπιγνώσει κ. πάσῃ αἰσθήσει] constitutes that in whichi.e. respecting whichthe love of his readers is to become more and more abundant. Comp. Rom_15:13; 2Co_3:9 (Elz.), 2Co_8:7; Col_2:7; Sir_19:20 (24). Others take the ἐν as instrumental: through (Heinrichs, Flatt, Schinz, and others); or as local: in, i.e. in association with (Oecumenius, Calvin, Rheinwald, Hoelemann, and others),

περισσ. being supposed to stand absolutely (may be abundant). But the sequel, which refers to the ἐπίγνωσις and αἴσθησις, and not to the love, shows that Paul had in view not the growth in love, but the increase in ἐπίγνωσις and αἴσθησις, which the love of the Philippians was more and more to attain. The less the love is deficient in knowledge and αἴσθησις, it is the more deeply felt, more moral, effective, and lasting. If ἐπίγνωσις is the penetrating (see on 1Co_13:12; Eph_1:17) cognition of divine truth, both theoretical and practical, the true knowledge of salvation,[56] which is the source, motive power, and regulator of love (1Jn_4:7 ff.); αἴσθησις (only occurring here in the New Testament), which denotes perception or feeling operating either through the bodily senses[57] (Xen. Mem. i. 4. 5, Anab. iv. 6. 13, and Krüger in loc.; Plat. Theaet. p. 156 B), which are also called αἰσθήσεις (Plat. Theaet. p. 156 B), or spiritually[58] (Plat. Tim. p. 43 C; Dem. 411. 19, 1417. 5), must be, according to the context which follows, the perception which takes place with the ethical senses,an activity of moral perception which apprehends and makes conscious of good and evil as such (comp. Heb_5:14). The opposite of this is the dulness and inaction of the inward sense of ethical feeling (Rom_11:8; Mat_13:15, et al.), the stagnation of the αἰσθητήρια τῆς καρδίας (Jer_4:19), whereby a moral unsusceptibility, incapacity of judgment, and indifference are brought about. Comp. LXX. Pro_1:7; Exo_28:5; Sir_20:17, Rec. (ΑἼΣΘΗΣΙς ὈΡΘΉ); 4Ma_2:21. Paul desires for his readers every (πάσῃ) ΑἼΣΘΗΣΙς, because their inner sense is in no given relation to remain without the corresponding moral activity of feeling, which may be very diversified according to the circumstances which form its ethical conditions. The relation between ἘΠΊΓΝΩΣΙς and ΑἼΣΘΗΣΙς is that of spontaneity to receptivity, and the former is the ἩΓΕΜΟΝΙΚΌΝ for the efficacy of the latter. In the contrast, however, mistaking and misapprehending are not correlative to the former, and deception to the latter (Hofmann); both contrast with both.

[54] The word προσεύχομαι, which now occurs, points to a new topic, the thanksgiving and its grounds having been previously spoken of. Therefore κ. τ. προσεύχ. is not to be attached, with Rilliet and Ewald, to the preceding verse: and (how I) pray this. Two different things would thus be joined. The former portion is concluded by the fervent and solemn ver. 8. Jatho also (Br. an d. Phil., Hildesh. 1857, p. 8) connects it with ὡς, namely thus: and how I pray for this, namely, to come to you, in order that I may edify you. But to extract for τοῦτο, out of ἐπιποθῶ ὑμᾶς, the notion: my presence with you, is much too harsh and arbitrary; for Pauls words are not even ἐπιποθῶ ἰδεῖν ὑμάς, as in Rom_1:11.

[55] The idea that your love means the readers themselves (Bullinger), or that this passage gave rise to the mode of addressing the hearers that has obtained since the Fathers (very frequently, e.g. in Augustine) in the language of the church (Bengel), is purely fanciful.

[56] Not a mere knowledge of the divine will (Rheinwald), which leads to the right objects, aims, means, and proofs of love (Weiss; comp. Hofmann). This, as in Col_1:9, would have been expressed by Paul. Neither can ἐπιγν. be limited to the knowledge of men (Chrysostom, Erasmus, and others).

[57] Nam etiam spiritualiter datur visus, auditus, olfactus, gustus, tactus, i. e. sensus investigativi et fruitivi (Bengel).

[58] Nam etiam spiritualiter datur visus, auditus, olfactus, gustus, tactus, i. e. sensus investigativi et fruitivi (Bengel).

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Phi 1:9-11 . PRAYER FOR THEIR INCREASE IN CHRISTIAN DISCERNMENT.

Phi 1:9 . Zahn would put this clause under the government of ὡς in the preceding sentence. No strong argument can be used against this, but it is doubtful whether the explanation is necessary. In the use of ἵνα here, “purport” (to adopt Ellicott’s expression) seems to be blended with “purpose”. There are certainly passages in which the full “ telic ” force of ἵνα cannot be fairly asserted. This accords with the development of the later language. See Hatz., Einl (Hatzidakis, Einleitung in die Neugriech. Grammatik ), p. 214 ff. Possibly ἵνα in this passage is rhetorically parallel to ἵνα in Phi 1:10 . (See J. Weiss, Beiträge zur Paulin. Rhetorik , p. 9.) ἡ ἀγάπη ὑμ . can scarcely mean anything else than “your love towards one another”. This has been already exemplified in their κοινωνία with Paul. περισσεύῃ . In LXX, chiefly in Sirach. It is mainly in Paul’s writings that it reaches this derivative sense of “abound”. In the Synoptics it still means (usually), as in ordinary Greek, “to remain over”. Sola charitas non admittit excessum (Bacon, de Augm. Scient. , vii., 3, quoted by Gwynn). ἐπιγν . κ . π . αἰσθ . Apparently an eager and enthusiastic spirit prevailed in this Church. As so commonly, it might be accompanied by a slight want of discernment. That would lead, on the one hand, to misunderstandings over trifling matters ( cf. chap. Phi 4:2 ?), on the other, to giving heed to plausible teachers. As the Galatians combined enthusiasm and fickleness, perhaps, at Philippi, enthusiasm was apt to prevail over spiritual common sense. Is not Lft [1] mistaken in annotating “Love imparts a sensitiveness of touch,” etc.? This is not before Paul’s mind. His prayer is that the sensitiveness of touch may be added to love. ἐπιγν . A favourite word in the Epistles of the imprisonment. A good example of its intensive force is 1Co 13:12 , ἄρτι γινώσκω ἐκ μέρους , τότε δὲ ἐπιγνώσομαι καθὼς καὶ ἐπεγνώσθην . Very frequent in Justin M., e.g. , a definition of ἐπιστήμη ( Dial. , 221 A), ἐπιστήμη τίς ἐστιν ἡ παρέχουσα αὐτῶν τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων καὶ τῶν θείων γνῶσιν , ἔπειτα τῆς τούτων θειότητος καὶ δικαιοσύνης ἐπίγνωσιν . Cf. Dial. , 220 [2] ; Apol. , ii. 10, 19. Here = a firm conception of those spiritual principles which would guide them in their relations with one another and the world. αἰσθήσει . Moral sensibility, quickness of ethical tact. Originally of sense-perception, but applicable to the inner world of sensibilities. Kl [3] quotes aptly from Hippocrates, de Off. Med. , 3, ἃ καὶ τῇ ὄψι καὶ τῇ ἁφῇ καὶ τῇ ἀκοῇ καὶ τῇ ῥινὶ καὶ τῇ γλώσσῃ καὶ τῇ γνώμῃ ἔστιν αἰσθέσθαι . A complete parallel is Heb 5:14 , where the writer defines the τέλειοι ( cf. Phi 3:12 ; Phi 3:15-16 ) as τῶν διὰ τὴν ἕξιν τὰ αἰσθητήρια γεγυμνασμένα ἐχόντων πρὸς διάκρισιν καλοῦ τε καὶ κακοῦ . πάσῃ . Probably “all kinds of”.

[1] Lightfoot.

[2] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[3] Klöpper.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. καὶ τοῦτο προσεύχομαι: With reference to δέησιν in vs. 4. Καὶ not connecting τοῦτο προς. with ἐπιποθῶ, so as to read ‘how I long and how I pray’ (so Ril.). This would weaken, if not destroy the force of vs. 8. A new topic is introduced by καὶ.

Τοῦτο points to what follows, calling attention to the subject of the prayer. ‘This which follows is what I pray.’

ἵνα ἡ ἀγάπη ὑμῶν ἔτι μᾶλλον καὶ μᾶλλον περισσεύῃ: ‘That your love may abound yet more and more.’

Ἵνα marks the purport of the prayer. For προσεύχ. ἵνα, see 1Co 14:13.

There is abundant evidence that ἵνα has, in many cases, lost its telic sense and has come to express result or purport. See, for example, 1Th 5:4; 1Co 7:29, and the sensible remarks of Canon Evans on the latter passage in the Speaker’s Com. The examples are drawn out and classified by Burton, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of N. T. Greek, 191-223. See also Simcox, Language of the N. T., p. 176 ff.

ἡ ἀγάπη ὑμῶν: Your mutual love; not your love for me, save as I am one of the common brotherhood.

ἔτι μᾶλλον καὶ μᾶλλον περισσεύῃ: Comp. 1Th 4:9, 1Th 4:10. Notice the accumulation of comparative phrases so common with Paul, as vs. 23; 2Co 4:17; Eph 3:20.

For περισσευη, BD 37 read περισσευση; so Weiss, and WH. marg. K*P περισσευελ. FG περισσευοι.

Love, like other Christian graces, grows. (Comp. 3:13.) Notice the progressive present, ‘may continue to abound.’ Chrys. remarks: “For this is a good of which there is no satiety.”

ἐν ἐπιγνώσει καὶ πάσῃ αἰσθήσει: ‘in knowledge and in all discernment.’ Ἐπίγνωσις and the kindred verb ἐπιγινώσκειν are favorite words with Paul. Ἐπί has the force of addition; knowledge superadded; advanced knowledge, rather than (as Thay. and Kl.) direction toward; application to that which is known. (See Sanday on Rom 1:28, and Evans on 1Co 13:12.) Thus it signifies here developed knowledge of truth, with more especial reference to the practical knowledge which informs Christian love as to the right circumstances, aims, ways, and means. (See Col 1:9, Col 1:10.) The difference between the simple and the compound word is illustrated in 1Co 13:12; Rom 1:21, Rom 1:28. Ἐπίγνωσις is always applied in the N.T. to the knowledge of things ethical and divine. In all the four epistles of the captivity it is one of the subjects of the apostle’s opening prayer for his readers. It is constructed mostly with a genitive of the object, as ἁμαρτίας, ἁληθείας, and occurs absolutely only in Rom 10:2.

αἰσθήσει: Only here in N.T. Comp. αἰσθητήρια (Heb 5:14). In LXX, Pro 1:4, Pro 1:7, Pro 1:22, Pro 1:3:20, Pro 1:5:2; Sir. 22:19; Jud 1:16:17. Primarily of sensuous, but also of spiritual perception. It is the faculty of spiritual discernment of the bearings of each particular circumstance or case which may emerge in experience. It is more specific than ἐπίγνωσις with the practical applications of which it deals. Πάσῃ is added because this discernment operates in manifold ways, according to the various relations of the subject to the facts of experience. Ἐν, which belongs to both nouns, follows the standing usage, περισσεύειν ἐν. (See Rom 15:13; 2Co 3:9, 2Co 8:7.) Paul prays for the abounding of love in these two aspects, advanced knowledge and right spiritual discernment; an intelligent and discriminating love; love which, however ardent and sincere, shall not be a mere unregulated impulse. Even natural love has a quick perception, an intuitive knowledge; but without the regulative principle of the spiritual reason, it is not secure against partial seeing and misconception, and results which do not answer to the purity of its motives. Ἐπίγνωσις is the general regulator and guide. Αἴσθησις applies ἐπίγνωσις to the finer details of the individual life, and fulfils itself in the various phases of Christian tact.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He showeth what thing we ought chiefly desire, to wit, first of all, that we may increase in the true knowledge of God (so that we may be able to discern things that differ one from another) and also in charity, that even to the end we may give ourselves to good works indeed, to the glory of God by Jesus Christ.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

These verses contain the prayers he put up for them. Paul often let his friends know what it was he begged of God for them, that they might know what to beg for themselves and be directed in their own prayers, and that they might be encouraged to hope they should receive from God the quickening, strengthening, everlasting, comforting grace, which so powerful an intercessor as Paul asked of God for them. It is an encouragement to us to know that we are prayed for by our friends, who, we have reason to think, have an interest at the throne of grace. It was intended likewise for their direction in their walk, and that they might labour to answer his prayers for them; for by this it would appear that God had answered them. Paul, in praying thus for them, expected good concerning them. It is an inducement to us to do our duty, that we may not disappoint the expectations of praying friends and ministers. He prayed, 1. That they might be a loving people, and that good affections might abound among them; That your love might abound yet more and more. He means it of their love to God, and one another, and all men. Love is the fulfilling both of the law and of the gospel. Observe, Those who abound much in any grace have still need to abound more and more, because there is still something wanting in it and we are imperfect in our best attainments. 2. That they might be a knowing and judicious people: that love might abound in knowledge and in all judgment. It is not a blind love that will recommend us to God, but a love grounded upon knowledge and judgment. We must love God because of his infinite excellence and loveliness, and love our brethren because of what we see of the image of God upon them. Strong passions, without knowledge and a settled judgment, will not make us complete in the will of God, and sometimes do more hurt than good. The Jews had a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, and were transported by it to violence and rage, Rom 10:2; Joh 16:2. 3. That they might be a discerning people. This would be the effect of their knowledge and judgment: That you may approve the things which are excellent (Phi 1:10); or, as it is in the margin, Try the things which differ; eis to dokimazein, that we may approve the things which are excellent upon the trial of them, and discern their difference from other things. Observe, The truths and laws of Christ are excellent things; and it is necessary that we every one approve them, and esteem them such. We only need to try them, to approve of them; and they will easily recommend themselves to any searching and discerning mind. 4. That they might be an honest upright-hearted people: That you may be sincere. Sincerity is our gospel perfection, that in which we should have our conversation in the world, and which is the glory of all our graces. When the eye is single, when we are inward with God in what we do, are really what we appear to be, and mean honestly, then we are sincere. 5. That they might be an inoffensive people: that you may be without offence until the day of Christ; not apt to take offence; and very careful not to give offence to God or their brethren, to live in all good conscience before God (Act 23:1), and to exercise ourselves to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men, Act 24:16. And we must continue to the end blameless, that we may be presented so at the day of Christ. He will present the church without spot or wrinkle (Eph 5:27), and present believers faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, Jde 1:24. 6. That they might be a fruitful useful people (Phi 1:11): Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, etc. From God is our fruit found, and therefore from him it must be asked. The fruits of righteousness are the evidences and effects of our sanctification, the duties of holiness springing from a renewed heart, the root of the matter in us. Being filled with them. Observe, Those who do much good should still endeavour to do more. The fruits of righteousness, brought forth for the glory of God and edification of his church, should really fill us, and wholly take us up. Fear not being emptied by bringing forth the fruits of righteousness, for you will be filled with them. These fruits are by Jesus Christ, by his strength and grace, for without him we can do nothing. He is the root of the good olive, from which it derives its fatness. We are strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus (Ti2 2:1) and strengthened with might by his Spirit (Eph 3:16), and they are unto the glory and praise of God. We must not aim at our own glory in our fruitfulness, but at the praise and glory of God, that God may be glorified in all things (Pe1 4:11), and whatsoever we do we must do all to the glory of God, Co1 10:31. It is much for the honour of God, when Christians not only are good, but do good, and abound in good works.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The subject of his prayer for them (Phi 1:4).

your love--to Christ, producing love not only to Paul, Christ's minister, as it did, but also to one another, which it did not altogether as much as it ought (Phi 2:2; Phi 4:2).

knowledge--of doctrinal and practical truth.

judgment--rather, "perception"; "perceptive sense." Spiritual perceptiveness: spiritual sight, spiritual hearing, spiritual feeling, spiritual taste. Christianity is a vigorous plant, not the hotbed growth of enthusiasm. "Knowledge" and "perception" guard love from being ill-judged.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 9. This I pray] This is the substance of all my prayers for you, that your love to God, to one another, and to all mankind, may abound yet more and more, ετι μαλλον και μαλλον περισσευη, that it may be like a river, perpetually fed with rain and fresh streams so that it continues to swell and increase till it fills all its banks, and floods the adjacent plains.

In knowledge] Of God's nature, perfections, your own duty and interest, his work upon your souls, and his great designs in the Gospel.

And in all judgment] Και πασῃ αισθησει· In all spiritual or moral feeling; that you may at once have the clearest perception and the fullest enjoyment of those things which concern your salvation; that ye may not only know but feel that you are of God, by the Spirit which he has given you; and that your feeling may become more exercised in Divine things, so that it may he increasingly sensible and refined.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9 This I pray that your love He returns to the prayer, which he had simply touched upon in one word in passing. He states, accordingly, the sum of those things which he asked from God in their behalf, that they also may learn to pray after his example, and may aspire at proficiency in those gifts. The view taken by some, as though the love of the Philippians denoted the Philippians themselves, as illiterate persons are accustomed very commonly to say, “Your reverence,” — “Your paternity,” is absurd. For no instance of such an expression occurs in the writings of Paul, nor had such fooleries come into use. Besides, the statement would be less complete, and, independently of this, the simple and natural meaning of the words suits admirably well. For the true attainments of Christians are when they make progress in knowledge, and understanding, and afterwards in love. Accordingly the particle in, according to the idiom of the Hebrew tongue, is taken here to mean with, as I have also rendered it, unless perhaps one should prefer to explain it as meaning by, so as to denote the instrument or formal cause. For, the greater proficiency we make in knowledge, so much the more ought our love to increase. The meaning in that case would be, “That your love may increase according to the measure of knowledge.” All knowledge, means what is full and complete — not a knowledge of all things.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(9) That your love may abound more and more in knowledge.—The original verb here signifies to “overflow,” a sense which our word “abound” properly has, but has in general usage partially lost; and St. Paul’s meaning clearly is that love shall not only primarily fill the heart, but “overflow” in secondary influence on the spiritual understanding. (1) The “knowledge” here spoken of is the knowledge gradually rising to perfection, so constantly alluded to in these Epistles. (See Eph_1:17, and Note there.) Since it is clearly a personal knowledge of God in Christ, it may be gained, under His inspiration, by one of many processes, by thought, by practice, by love, by devotion, or, perhaps more properly, by some or all of these combined. Here St. Paul singles out the way of love—the enthusiasm of love to God and man which he knew that the Philippians had—and prays that it may overflow from the emotional to the intellectual element of their nature, and become, as we constantly see that it does become in simple and loving characters, a means of spiritual insight, in “knowledge and all judgment,” or rather, all perception. (2) The word “perception” properly applies to the senses, and seems here to signify the insight which recognises a truth as the eye recognises an object. In the same sense (Heb_5:14) Holy Scripture speaks of those who “by use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.” In fact, the “perception” here spoken of differs from knowledge in dealing not with general principles, but with concrete examples and questions. (3) Accordingly he connects with it, as a direct consequence, the power of “approving” or “testing” the things that are excellent. Now the word here translated “excellent” carries with it the idea of distinctive and relative excellence, conspicuous amidst what is either evil or defective. To “test” is obviously first to distinguish what is the best, and then by trial to prove its absolute goodness. Clearly the process may be applied either speculatively to truths or practically to duties. In Rom_2:18, where exactly the same phrase is used, the latter application is made.

(9, 10) If we study carefully the opening thanksgivings and prayers of St. Paul’s Epistles, we may note that he always thanks God for what is strong in the Church to which he writes, and prays God for the supply of that in which it is weak. Here he thanks God for the characteristic enthusiasm and large-heartedness of the Philippians; he prays for their advance in knowledge, perception, judgment—the more intellectual and thoughtful side of the Christian character—in which they, and perhaps the Macedonian Churches generally, were less conspicuous. In the opposite case of the Corinthian Church (see 1Co_1:4-10), he thanks God for their richness in all utterance and all knowledge, but he bids them “wait” for Him who shall “establish them as blameless,” and exhorts them to unity and humility.

(9-11) In this sentence, the original shows that there is not the three-fold parallelism which our version would suggest. St. Paul’s immediate prayer is that “their love may abound in knowledge and all judgment.” To this is subjoined, as an immediate consequence, “the proving the things that are excellent.” The final result of the knowledge and judgment so applied, is “that they may be sincere and without offence.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. I pray] He takes up the words, Php_1:4, “in every request for you all.”

that] Lit., by classical rules, “in order that.” But in later Greek the phrase has lost its more precise necessary reference to purpose, and may convey (as here) the idea of purport, significance. So we say, “a message to this effect,” meaning, “in these terms.”—In Joh_17:3 (where lit., “in order to know, &c.”), the phrase conveys the kindred idea of equivalence, synonymous description; “life eternal” is, in effect, “to know God.”

your love] Perhaps in its largest reference; Christian love, however directed, whether to God or man, to brethren or aliens. But the previous context surely favours a certain speciality of reference to St Paul; as if to say, “your Christian love, of which I have such warm evidence.” Still, this leaves a larger reference also quite free.

abound] A favourite word with St Paul. In this Ep. it occurs again, Php_1:26, Php_4:12; Php_4:18. Cp. 1Th_4:1 for a near parallel here.—Nothing short of spiritual growth ever satisfies St Paul. “The fire in the Apostle never says, Enough” (Bengel).

in] As a man “abounds in” e.g. “hope” (Rom_15:13). He prays that their love may richly possess knowledge and perception as its attendants and aids.

knowledge] Greek, epignôsis, more than gnôsis. The structure of the word suggests developed, full knowledge; the N.T. usage limits the thought to spiritual knowledge. It is a frequent word with St Paul.

all judgment] “All”:—with reference to the manifold needs and occasions for its exercise; judgment developed, amplified to the full for full use.—“Judgment”:—lit. “sensation, perception.” The word occurs here only in N.T., and cognates to it only Luk_9:45; Heb_5:14.—R.V., “discernment.” But the word “judgment” (in the sense e.g. of criticism of works of art, or of insight into character) is so fair an equivalent to the Greek that the A.V. may well stand.—In application, the “judgment” would often appear as delicate perception, fine tact; a gift whose highest forms are nowhere so well seen as in some Christians, even poor Christians.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more,.... As a proof of his great affection for them, he puts up this petition on their account; which supposes that they had love, as they must certainly have, since the good work of grace was begun in them; for wherever the work of the Spirit of God is, there is love, which is a fruit of the Spirit; and where there is not love, there cannot be that good work; for it signifies nothing what a man says, nor what he has, nor what he does, if love be wanting; but this grace was in these Philippians, they had love to God, to Christ, to one another, to all the saints, and to the ministers of the Gospel, and particularly to the apostle, of which they had lately given him a proof: and it also supposes, that this grace, which was implanted in them in regeneration, was in exercise, which is meant by its "abounding"; it was not only a principle in the heart, and expressed by the mouth, but it was in action; it lay not in word, and in tongue, but showed itself towards the objects of it in deed and in truth; and it was in a very larger and lively exercise; it abounded, it flowed and overflowed; it rose up out of the heart, as water out of a fountain; it was as grace is said to be, a well of living water, springing up, and spreading itself various ways; wherefore the apostle did not pray that they might have love, nor merely that their love might abound, but that it might abound "yet", might continue to abound, that there might be no stop put to its flow and exercise, and so concerns the perseverance of it, and its actings; and that it might abound "more and more"; which regards the increase of it, and enlargement of its exercise. The Syriac version reads it, that it "may be multiplied and abound"; intimating, that spiritual love cannot be exceeded in; there is no going to an extreme in the exercise of it; natural love may, but not spiritual; God and Christ can never be loved too much, nor saints, as saints, though they may as men: wherefore let love abound ever so much to these objects, it is capable of abounding more and more, without any danger of excess; and it is to be wished for; for where it is ever so large and abundant in its actings, it is not perfect, nor will it be in this life; so that there is always room for such a petition; besides, the apostle knew how apt love is to grow cold, and saints to sink in their spiritual affections through the prevalence of sin, the cares of the world, and temptations of Satan: he adds,

in knowledge and in all judgment; that is, either with knowledge and judgment; and the sense be, that as their love abounded, so their knowledge might be increased, and their judgment in spiritual things be better informed and established. Some Christians are more affectionate, and less knowing; others are more knowing, and less affectionate; it is well when love and knowledge go and keep pace together: or it may be rendered "by knowledge", suggesting, that love is increased thereby, which is true; for the more saints know of God and Christ, the more they love them; and the more they know of one another's grace and experience, the more they love each other: by "knowledge" may be meant the knowledge of God; not that which is general, is by the light of nature, and is very obscure and insufficient to salvation; but that which is special, is of God in Christ, as a God gracious and merciful, as a covenant God and Father in him; and which at best is imperfect, and needs increasing: and also knowledge of Christ; not general, notional, and speculative, as that he is the Son of God, the Messiah, and Saviour of the world in common; but that which is special, spiritual, and saving; and which is a knowledge of approbation, whereby a soul approves of Christ above all others, as a Saviour; a fiducial one, whereby it trusts in him, and commits itself to him; an experimental and practical one, to which is joined a cheerful obedience to his commands and ordinances, and becomes an appropriating one; yet is in this life imperfect, and so needs increasing; and all means should be used in order thereunto: moreover, the knowledge of one another may be included; an increase of which is necessary to promote brotherly love, and make communion with one another delightful and profitable. By all "judgment", or "sense", as in the Greek text, is designed a spiritual apprehension, judgment, and sensation of things. The Syriac version renders it, "all spiritual understanding", and may intend a spiritual perception, and sense of the love of God shed abroad in the heart, an enlarged experience of the grace of God, and particularly faith, which is expressed by all the live senses; as by "seeing" the Son, the glory, fulness, suitableness, and excellency of him, and the unseen glories of another world; by "hearing" the joyful sound, the voice of Christ in the Gospel, so as to understand and distinguish it; by "smelling" a sweet smell in the person, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice of Christ, which are of a sweet smelling savour to faith, as are also the things of God, and of the Spirit of God; and by "tasting" how good the Lord is, how sweet is his word, and delicious his fruit; and by "feeling", laying hold on Christ, embracing and handling him, the word of life: and now a believer having these his spiritual senses exercised, he is capable of discerning between good and evil, and so of approving things most excellent; which is the end of this petition, as appears from the following words.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;

Ver. 9. And in all judgment] Or, sense. The soul also hath her senses as well as the body. And these must be exercised to discern good and evil, Heb 5:14, those two learned senses especially (as Aristotle calleth them), the eye and the ear, Job 34:3; Jer 2:31. Further, observe here, that knowledge and sense, or judgment, are two things. Young trees are more sappy, but old trees are more solid.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And this I pray - We pray for those whom we love, and whose welfare we seek. We desire their happiness; and there is no way more appropriate of expressing that desire than of going to God, and seeking it at his hand. Paul proceeds to enumerate the blessings which he sought for them; and it is worthy of observation that he did not ask riches, or worldly prosperity, but that his supplications were confined to spiritual blessings, and he sought these as the most desirable of all favors.

That your love may abound ... - Love to God; love to one another; love to absent Christians; love to the world. This is an appropriate subject of prayer. We cannot wish and pray for a better thing for our Christian friends, than that they may abound in love. Nothing will promote their welfare like this; and we had better pray for this, than that they may obtain abundant riches, and share the honors and pleasures of the world.

In knowledge - The idea is, that he wished them to have intelligent affection. It should not be mere blind affection, but that intelligent love which is based on an enlarged view of divine things - on a just apprehension of the claims of God.

And in all judgment - Margin, “sense;” compare the notes at Heb 5:14. The word here means, the power of discerning; and the meaning is, that he wished that their love should be exercised with proper discrimination. It should be in proportion to the relative value of objects; and the meaning of the whole is, that the wished their religion to be intelligent and discriminating; to be based on knowledge, and a proper sense of the relative value of objects, as well as to be the tender affection of the heart.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

That your charity, &c. It is worthy of remark, that St. Paul does not beg that the Philippians may enjoy temporal blessings, but that they may be rewarded with an increase of spiritual favours; (Calmet) and as he remarks in the succeeding verses, that they may be filled with the fruits of justice.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

And this I pray: having praised God for their attainments, he returns, {as Phi 1:4} in token of his love, to his great petition for them.

That your love may abound; viz. that their love both to God and man, showed in their bounty to him, might, as a rising stream from its springing fountain, yet further flow out, and more abundantly communicate itself in all Christian offices, and not abate, (as it seems it afterwards did among the Ephesians, Rev 2:4), as our Saviour foretold it would (to in some, Mat 24:12, {see 2Ti 1:13; 2Ti 4:10} but continue increasing to the end, 1Th 3:12.

Yet more and more in knowledge; being founded on a sound and saving understanding of the things of God, and ourselves, Joh 17:3; Rom 3:20; Eph 1:17, with Eph 4:13; 2Pe 3:18; and an acknowledgment of the truth which is after godliness, Tit 1:1.

And in all judgment; in the practical judgment, or internal sense, and particular experience, taste, and feeling the testimony of the Spirit in the heart concerning the grace of God, and adoption, Rom 5:1,5; 8:16,17; 14:17; when there is not only a right notion in the head, but a true sense and savour of spiritual things in the heart, Heb 5:14; which is when knowledge is not only an empty cloud in the air, but becomes effectual by falling down in a kindly shower upon the heart, warmed with the love of God, and the virtue of Christ’s resurrection, as he after gives his own experience, Phi 3:10, like David’s, Psa 34:8.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And this I pray. This is the purport of the prayer already mentioned in Ver. 4. The conjunction ina marks the end of St. Paul"s prayer, and so its purport. That your love may abound yet more and more. Your love; not love for the apostle only, but the grace of Christian charity. St. Paul finds no fault with the Philippians, but "ignis in apostolo nunquam dicit, Sufficit" (Bengel). He prays for their continued growth in love, but not unintelligent love. In knowledge and in all judgment. Epignwsiv is a stronger word than gnwsiv : it means full, complete knowledge. The Greek aisyhsiv (literally, sense) occurs only here in the New Testament, though aisyhthria (organs of sense) is found in Heb_5:14. "Discernment," the rendering of R.V, is more correct than "judgment." It is, Bishop Wordsworth says, "that delicate tact and instinct, which almost intuitively perceives what is right, and almost unconsciously shrinks from what is wrong." It cannot exist without love. "Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." With love there comes a spiritual sense, spiritual sight, spiritual hearing, a sense of the beauty of holiness, a fine perception of Christian propriety; h agaph ouk aschmonei ..

Vers. 9-11. St. Paul"s prayer for the Philippians.

I THAT THEIR LOVE ABOUND MORE AND MORE.

1. God had begun in them the good work, the work of faith, faith that worketh by love. St. Paul recognizes the reality of their love; it was true and deep. But:

2. There is always room for growth in love; it is the noblest of Christian graces, the most precious of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Christian"s desire for love is without limit. Akoreston agayo , says Chrysostom. "Owe no man anything," says the apostle, "but to love one another." Love is always owing; we can never love our brethren as we ought. Still less can we attain to that soul-absorbing love which we owe to God. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength." The commandment is very deep and searching; we can never obey it perfectly; we shall be always in debt. But we may approach ever nearer and nearer to that fullness of perfect love. Therefore the Christian"s prayer for love is unceasing, deepening in earnestness as he grows in the knowledge of Christ. The Christian life is a continual progress. "The path of the just is as the shining light, shining more and more" Love must be ever growing, or it will lose its freshness.

II HE PRAYS FOR THEIR GROWTH IN KNOWLEDGE.

1. Christian love is not indiscriminate, unintelligent; it is informed and directed by spiritual knowledge. Love is informed by knowledge.

2. Love increases knowledge. For it is not book knowledge of which St. Paul is speaking, but heart knowledge. The knowledge of Christian experience is the personal knowledge of God gained by communion with him. Only love can know him; for like is known by like. "He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love." And, on the other hand, "Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." The religions sense, the tact which distinguishes good from evil, which approves among good things the best and holiest, flows out of love.

III HE PRAYS FOR THEIR GROWTH IN PURITY. The word means singleness of mind, simplicity, sincerity, purity. "If thine eye be single, thy whole body is full of light." This sincerity, this singleness of purpose, springs from love. Holy love refines the whole nature; for it brings the Christian daily into nearer fellowship with Christ, who alone can cleanse the sinful heart. "If we walk in the light... the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin." That inward purity results in outward blamelessness, and prepares the soul against the day of Christ.

IV HE PRAYS FOR THEIR GROWTH IN OBEDIENCE. Love must work; it cannot lie dormant in the soul. It must produce the fruit of righteousness. But that fruit of righteousness is:

1. Through Jesus Christ. "The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine;" nor can the Christian bring forth the fruit of holy living, except he abide in Christ. The life of the vine lives in the branch; the life of Christ lives in the Christian soul, and bears the fruit of holiness.

2. And to the glory and praise of God. The ultimate end of the righteousness of the saints is the glory of God. Therefore we are taught to pray "that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in thee, we may glorify thy holy Name." There can be no nobler ambition: to live for God; only to seek his glory; to love him, not for what he has to give us, but because he is so holy, so loving, so glorious; to be willing to live or to die; to do great things in the world, or to be unknown and obscure, if only he may be glorified; this is the noblest aim of life, the highest theme of prayer.

Lessons.

1. Pray much for others; cultivate the habit of intercessory prayer.

2. Pray for the continual growth and diffusion of love, knowledge, righteousness.

3. Seek above all things the glory of God.

Vers. 9-11. The apostle"s prayer.

He had spoken of praying for them. This was the purport of his prayers: "And this I pray, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and in all discernment.

I THE INCREASE OF LOVE THE MAIN THING IN RELIGION.

1. The language implies the existence of this love as well as its imperfection. It had been manifest in many ways; but there were social rivalries and jealousies and disputes at Philippi. Therefore the apostle prays that their love may abound more and more.

2. absolutely that he speaks of, the grand principle, the motive power of Christian life. Matthew Henry says it is the law of Christ"s kingdom, the lesson of his school, the livery of his family.

(1) It is Divine in its origin, for "love is of God;

(2) it is the principle of the Divine indwelling, for "he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him;

(3) it is the spring of all holy obedience, for it is "the fulfilling of the Law;

(4) it is "the bond of perfectness;

(5) it has no metes or bounds like law, for we are to love with all our powers. The gospel lays the believer under a weightier line of obligation than the Law; for we are not to do this or that particular duty prescribed by the Law, but to do all that we can do through the constraining force of the love of God.

3. It is love fed by knowledge and guided by judgment; for it is to abound "in perfect knowledge and universal discernment.

(1) Knowledge here is the thorough grasp of theoretical and practical truth.

(a) This is needed to feed love. We cannot love an unknown person; we cannot love an unknown gospel; we cannot love one another except so far as we know one another. The more we know of our blessed Redeemer the more shall we love him. Love is not a blind attachment.

(b) It is needed to regulate love. Love without knowledge may lead a Christian into mistakes, irregularities, improprieties, like a foolishly fond father who spoils his child. Love may waste itself on worthless or frivolous objects, or it may attempt impracticable projects by unwarrantable means; but if knowledge be the guide, these mistakes will be prevented.

(2) The love is in "all discernment." This is more than knowledge. It is more even than the application of knowledge. It is that discriminating power, which enables a man to appreciate the true nature of things presented to him in the sphere of religious realities.

II THE ENDS ACCOMPLISHED BY A LOVE THUS REGULATED.

1. Christian capacity to discern excellent things. "That you may be able to prove things that are excellent." Love, rightly guided, penetrates through all disguises of error. It is, in fact, a mighty preservative against error. The Christian is able "to prove all things, and hold fast that which is good." He does not lose sight of the true proportions and relations of truth. But the spiritual capacity of believers is found to differ like the natural capacities of men. Some are very deficient in the power of spiritual discernment, yet this may be mainly due to the weakness of love. Those who are strong maintain the tranquillity of their own mind, and will be a stay to the timid and the weak. Cecil says, "A sound heart is the best casuist.

2. Sincerity. "That ye may be sincere." Love, rightly guided, brings out the deep reality of Christian character, and presents it in a holy simplicity without stratagem, diplomacy, or manoeuvre. A sincere man has all the strength that springs from an undivided heart: his love is without dissimulation; his sincerity is a godly sincerity, which realizes the impossibility of uniting the interests and pleasures and pursuits of the present world with those of true religion.

3. The absence of offense. "And void of offense." It seems hard to be so in a world to which the gospel itself is an offense. Yet, though we are not to compromise the principles of the gospel, we are to live peaceably with all men, to take wrong rather than give offense, to have a good report from them that are without, to be "blameless and harmless as the sons of God." The duration of this temper of sincerity and inoffensiveness is "against the day of Christ the day of final account before the Judge, as if to imply the undeviating consistency of a life thus divinely ordered.

4. Positive fruitfulness in Christian life. "Being filled with the fruit of righteousness, which is by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." There is more needed than mere harmlessness: there must be a positive development of Christian life.

(1) The fruit of righteousness. The righteousness is not of nature, but of grace; it is not of the Law, but of faith; and is essentially fruitful. Therefore those who possess it are "trees of righteousness," and the quality of the tree is known by its fruit. The whole system of redemption has for its end to make men "fruitful of good works.

(2) This fruit is by Jesus Christ, because it is bound up with the life of Christ. "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me". (Joh_15:4)

(3) The end to which all is directed the glory and praise of God." The glory is the manifestation of God"s grace, the praise is the recognition by men of God"s attributes.

(4) It is implied that believers are to be "filled" with the fruit of righteousness. Not a branch here and there, but all our branches are to be loaded with fruit. Thus there will be the more glory and praise to God. T.C.

Vers. 9-11. The augmentation of Christly love ensures the improvement of the whole man.

"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 till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." Here again the apostle prays that that love for Christ, which they had shown in their deep, generous, and practical sympathy for him as Christ"s minister, might not merely continue, but abound yet more and more. "The original verb here," says Dr. Barry, "signifies to overflow, a sense which our word "abound" properly has, but has in general usage partially lost; and St. Paul"s meaning clearly is that love shall not only primarily fill the heart, but overflow in secondary influence on the spiritual understanding." The words suggest that the augmentation of Christly love ensures the improvement of the whole man.

It secures

I THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE INTELLECT. It promotes:

1. Knowledge. "And this I pray, that your love may abound... in knowledge (epignosei)." The knowledge here must be regarded as spiritual knowledge the knowledge of God in Christ. "Here St. Paul singles out the kind of love the enthusiasm of love to God and man, which he knew that the Philippians had and prays that it may overflow from the emotional to the intellectual element of their nature, and become, as we constantly see that it does become, in simple and loving characters, a means of spiritual insight in knowledge and all "judgment," or rather, all perception." Love is the inspiration of all true knowledge. As we love an object, the more stimulus has the intellect to inquire into everything concerning it or him. The more love for God abounds, the more earnest will the intellect be in "inquiring in his temple "and the universe.

2. Perception. "And in all judgment (aisthesei)." This means, perhaps, discernment or insight. There is evidently a distinction between mere intelligence and intuition. I may know all the facts of a man"s life, and vet not possess that insight into his inner springs of action necessary to understand him. There are great technical theologians, who lack the spiritual eye to peer into the underlying, eternal, principles of truth. It is love that opens and quickens this eye of "judgment," or spiritual discrimination.

3. Shrewdness. "That ye may approve things that are excellent;" margin, "that ye may try things that differ." Shrewdness is that faculty of the mind which enables a man almost without the use of the critical power to see the reality under all the forms with which it is invested. There are many intelligent men men, too, of intuition, who are not shrewd, not quick and accurate in the discernment of the worth of things. Now, love to God promotes this intellectual shrewdness of soul, the shrewdness that guards it from all imposture. This is an age in which men talk much of intellectual improvement, and numerous mechanical methods are proposed. But here is the infallible one. Let men"s love to God abound more and more, and all the wheels of intellect will be set ageing.

II THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE CONSCIENCE. Here the language of the text implies that this love improves the conscience.

1. By giving it a sympathy with the true only. "Things that are excellent." The original constitution of conscience was to do this evermore. It does this in heaven; it once, perhaps, did this on earth; but now, alas! throughout the greater portion of the race in all lands, its sympathies are not with "the things that are excellent." So awfully has it been corrupted that it yields its concurrence to idolatry, cruelty, priestcrafts, frauds, and falsehoods of endless kinds. When true love to God acts upon it, nothing but "the things that are excellent" will do for it; it rejects, spurns, and damns all others.

2. By making it thoroughly sincere. "That ye may be sincere (eillkrineis)." This word is only used here and in 2Pe_1:8; and the corresponding substantive, sincerity," in 1Co_5:8 2Co_1:12 2Co_2:17. It signifies purity tested and found clear of all base mixtures, a genuine, incorruptible conscience a conscience that leads a man to sacrifice all he has, even life itself, rather than swerve an iota from the right and the true. Love to God promotes such a conscience. It did so with the apostles, with all the holy martyrs, and with the Divine Man himself.

3. By securing it from blameableness. "Without offense." In the Acts we read of a "conscience void of offense towards God and man." It is essential that such a conscience should rule the entire man, and that itself should be ruled by the will of the great God. According to the law of mind, the object we love most becomes our moral monarch: when God becomes the paramount object of our affection, he becomes the Ruler of our conscience. This state of conscience is to be "till the day of Christ." It does not mean that it will end afterwards, but that after that it is sure to be perpetuated.

III THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE LIFE. "Being filled with the fruits of righteousness," etc. Paul"s language in Rom_6:22 may be taken as a commentary on this expression: "Being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." Observe:

1. That a righteous life comes to us through Christ. "The fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ." Men are only made morally right by faith in Christ. Philosophically there is no other way of doing so. Christ came into the world to make man morally right, or, to use Old Testament language, to establish rectitude or judgment on the earth.

2. That a righteous life redounds to the glory of God. "Unto the glory and praise of God." It is the highest manifestation of God it is God "manifested in the flesh." "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." But the "fruits of righteousness," or a righteous life, are ensured only by the abounding and the overflowing of love to God in the soul. All must be love. Love is not only the inspiration of God, the root of the universe, but the fountain of all virtue and happiness. Let love, then, abound. D.T.

Vers. 9-11. The life of God in the soul of man.

I THE ELEMENT WHICH IS PECULIAR TO IT AND WHICH BETOKENS ITS PRESENCE LOVE. "We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren". (1Jn_2:14) "Love is the fulfilling of the Law.

II ITS MANIFESTATION. If this love is the genuine fruit of God"s Spirit within us, it will lead us to the knowledge of him and to the discernment of that which is pleasing in his sight. Being of God, it reveals God, so that new experiences of him are being constantly vouchsafed to the soul that possesses it. Being thus taught of God, the soul turns naturally to the things that are excellent; he as the bee turns naturally to the honey-bearing flowers. Thus in the difficult task of deciding which to choose of two apparent but opposing duties, the soul indwelt by God is guided by a Divine instinct.

III ITS RESULT. The preservation of the whole man from the power of evil, so that both in his inner being and in his external conduct he is blameless and brings forth the fruit which is natural to a condition of righteousness.

IV THE SOURCE OF ITS POWER CHRIST. The righteousness thus worked in us is not the righteousness of self-improvement, or of self-discipline, or of adherence to a law, but the righteousness which is imparted to us by the indwelling Christ.

V ITS ULTIMATE AIM THE GLORY OF GOD. (Ver. 11) VW.H.

Vers. 9, 10. The things that excel.

St. Paul prays that his readers may have that finer spiritual perception (aisthesis) which is produced by an increase of love in order that they may discern the greater worth of those good things which differ from other good things in being more excellent. The high endowment would not be necessary for the discrimination of the coarser contrasts of good and evil, light and darkness, etc. It is plain, therefore, that different shades of goodness, gradations of worthiness, successive ranks of spiritual merit, are what the apostle desires us to be able to appreciate.

I GOOD THINGS STAND IN DIFFERENT RANKS OF EXCELLENCY, In nature some things are better than others, being more beautiful, or more delicately organized, or capable of serving higher ends. When God created the world he saw that everything was good; yet the dog is superior to the worm, and man to the dog. In spiritual things differences exist even among things wholly good in themselves.

1. In the being of God. If we may dare to compare mysteries so high and sacred as the attributes of God, we may see how they range themselves in rank and order all glorious, yet mounting one above another to the supernal height of glory. To the Mohammedan, God is chiefly known as Almighty; the Alexandrian Jew thought most of his wisdom; the prophets of the Old Testament upheld his awful righteousness; Christians see him chiefly as One whose name is Love. Now, omnipotence is good, and supreme wisdom is better, and the moral excellence of righteousness is better still; but love is best of all.

2. In the blessings of the gospel. Christ healed sick bodies, and some poor folk were content with that blessing; but he also healed sick souls, and this was a higher blessing. The gospel delivers us from the doom of guilt; but it also saves the soul from its own internal corruption, which is a greater good. It offers peace and comfort; but it also inspires patience in suffering and faithfulness in toil, and these are better things.

3. In our own religious aims. To be saved is good; to glorify God is better. It is well to seek the purest blessings for ourselves; it is better to deny ourselves in love to God and man, etc.

4. In prayer. Good earthly gifts may be sought; spiritual graces are more desirable. But the highest prayer will be for reconciliation with the will of God.

5. In the Bible. It is foolish to read the Bible straight through indiscriminatingly. All of it is not of equal value. We should discover and use most the best parts.

6. In literature, society, and innocent human affairs.

7. In the use of our time, money, etc. We may be doing no harm; but are we making the best possible use of these things?

II THE SUPERIOR EXCELLENCE OF THE BETTER THINGS CAN ONLY BE DISCERNED BY THAT FINER SPIRITUAL SENSE WHICH COMES WITH AN INCREASE OF LOVE. It is not that they are artificially hidden. Christianity knows of no esoteric doctrines jealously guarded from the uninitiated. It is that we have not the faculty to discern them.

1. Though we may see at once the general characteristic differences, weneed spiritual insight for the application of them to particular cases.

2. Though we may know the difference of value intellectually, we cannot at first realize it in feeling and life. If while a man knows that Beethoven"s sonatas are infinitely superior to street songs, he still prefers the latter, to him, practically, these are the better. He must have higher musical gifts or training to appreciate the good music. In like manner we need spiritual training for the discerning of the best spiritual things. This training is not intellectual. It is the growth of love. For love is the eye of the soul. Love of God will help us to understand him. Love of Christ will explain to us the true worth of the gospel. Love of men will help us to appreciate the best pursuits in life. Love of heavenly things will enable us to seek the best of them. W.F.A.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And this I pray, that your love - Which they had already shown. May abound yet more and more - The fire which burned in the apostle never says, It is enough. In knowledge and in all spiritual sense - Which is the ground of all spiritual knowledge. We must be inwardly sensible of divine peace, joy, love; otherwise, we cannot know what they are.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

After salutations given by St. Paul to his beloved Philippians, he next pours out his soul in fervent prayer and supplication for them; and the mercy which he prays for is observable, first, namely, growth and proficiency in grace: This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge,and in all judgment; that their love to God, their love to him, and their love one to another, may yet more and more abound.

Love is the root-grace from which most graces spring; therefore he prays for the strengthening of that grace in particular, and that there may be found with them judgment, as well as affection, in the exercise of it: we ought to love judiciously, as well as affectionately.

The more judicious a saint grows in his Christian course, and the more understanding and judgment is found with him in the way of his duty; the stronger his grace is, and the more glory will he bring to God.

The understanding and judgment being the guiding and leading faculties in man, there can be no more acceptable holiness in the will, than there is knowledge in the understanding.

I can hate sin, and love God, no more than I know of the evil of sin, and of the perfections that are in God: the more judicious then a Christian grows, the more his holiness grows; and accordingly St. Paul’s prayer is, that they may grow more and more in knowledge in all judgment.

Observe, 2. The great ends mentioned by the apostle for which he did so earnestly desire their proficiency in knowledge and judgment, and their growth in love, and every other grace; namely,

1. That they might approve things that are excellent, that is, all such things as the gospel requires: implying, that the things prescribed to us in the gospel, are things excellent and good for us, things worthy to be prescribed by God, and things reasonable to be practised by us; and that the approbation of these things, by a steadiness in judgment and practice, is every Christian’s duty, and ought to be their great endeavour.

2. That they might be sincere in their holy profession, incorrupt and pure both in doctrine and manners.

3. That they might be without offence, unblameable in conversation, and be kept from being occasions of stumbling unto others, even to the end of their days.

4. He prays that they may not only be inoffensive persons, but fruitful Christians: Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God; that is, that they may abound in good works, undertaken in Christ’s strength, and with an eye at God’s glory.

Learn hence, 1. That a negative holiness is not sufficient to salvation: it is not enough that Christians be harmless and inoffensive towards others, but they must labour after an holy fruitfulness in good works: they must be filled with all the fruits of righteousness.

Learn, 2. That our works be truly good, and fruits of righteousness, it is necessary that they be done by Christ’s strength and assistance, and with an eye at the glory and praise of God, in order to their acceptance: Filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

Learn, 3. That no shorter time ought to be assigned for our inoffensive walking, and fruitfulness in conversation, than the day of our death: Unto the death of Christ, says our apostle, that is, till the great reckoning-day, when Christ will render to us our complete reward: if we be faithful and fruitful to the death, we shall then receive the crown of life.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. This I pray. Not that their love for him should abound more, but with the increase of their love there might be fuller knowledge and wiser judgment.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Paul prays for the believers in Philippi and talks about the joy there is in suffering for the Lord.

may abound

Paul speaks of love as if it were objects that people could obtain more of. AT: "may increase" (See: Metaphor)

in knowledge and all understanding

Here "understanding" refers to understanding about God. This can be stated clearly. AT: "as you learn and understand more about what pleases God" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

approve

This refers to examining things and taking only those that are good. AT: "test and choose"

what is excellent

"what is most pleasing to God"

sincere and without offense

The words "sincere" and "without offense" mean basically the same thing. Paul combines them to emphasize moral purity. AT: "completely blameless" (See: Doublet)

you also will be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ

Being filled with something is a metaphor that represents being characterized by it or by habitually doing it. Possible meanings of "fruit of righteousness" are that 1) it is a metaphor that represents righteous behavior. AT: "you also will habitually do what is righteous because Jesus Christ enables you" or 2) it is a metaphor that represents good deeds as a result of being righteous. AT: "you also will habitually do good works because Jesus makes you righteous" (See: Metaphor)

to the glory and praise of God

Possible meanings are 1) "Then other people will see how you honor God" or 2) "Then people will praise and give honor to God because of the good things they see you do." These alternate translations would require a new sentence.

translationWords

pray

love

test

day of the Lord

righteous

Jesus

glory

praise

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

9. καὶ τοῦτο προσεύχομαι. He defines thus the “request” of Php 1:4.

ἵνα κτλ. Here ἵνα c. conj. denotes rather purport than purpose; less the aim than the idea of his prayer. This usage, as distinct from the strictly final usage, belongs to the later classical and the Hellenistic Greek, and is very frequent in N.T. A kindred but not identical usage appears e.g. Joh 17:3, where the Greek means, in effect, that “the life eternal is, in the true import of the words, to know &c.”

ἡ ἀγάπη ὑμῶν. Of which St Paul has had such warm proofs.

περισσεύῃ. He loves the thought of spiritual growth and overflow; see e.g. below, Php 1:26, Php 4:12; Php 4:18; and, for a close parallel here, 1Th 4:1.

ἐν ἐπιγνώσει. So Rom 15:13, εἰς τὸ περισσεύειν ὑμᾶς ἐν τῇ ἐλπίδι. He prays that their love may be ever “richer in knowledge and perception” as its safety and aid. The use and construction here of περισσεύειν belongs to later classical and Hellenistic Greek.

ἐπιγνώσει. Ἐπίγνωσις is a word of later classical and Hellenistic Greek. (In LXX. and Apocrypha the noun does not occur, but the verb is frequent.) In N.T., (more than in other Biblical Greek), it tends by usage to denote full (or true) knowledge, in spiritual things. St Paul uses it 15 times, besides Heb 10:26; St Peter 4 times.

πάσῃ αἰσθήσει. Πάσῃ, with reference to the manifold demands for its exercise. Αἴσθησις is used only here in N.T., and cognates to it only Luk 9:45; Heb 5:14. In LXX. it is frequent in Proverbs as a rendering for da’ath, “knowledge.” The A.V. rendering, “judgment,” (R. V., “discernment”), a word which we often use of the criticism of e.g. works of art, and of practical insight, is a fair equivalent to the Greek here.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9-11.] The substance of his prayer (already, ver. 4, alluded to) for them. καί refers back to the δέησις of ver. 4: ‘and this is the purport of my prayer.’ At the same time this purport follows most naturally, after the expression of desire for them in the last verse.

There is an ellipsis in the sense between τοῦτο and ἵνα,—τοῦτο introducing the substance of the prayer, ἵνα its aim. See, on ἵνα with προσεύχομαι, note, 1Co 14:13: and Ellic. here.

ἡ ἀγάπη ὑμ.] not, ‘towards me,’ as Chrys. (ὅρα πῶς φιλούμενος ἔτι μᾶλλον ἐβούλετο φιλεῖσθαι), Thl., Grot., all.,—nor towards God and Christ (Calov., al.), but either perfectly general, as Ellic., or, ‘towards one another:’ virtually identical with the κοινωνία of ver. 5 In ἡ ἀγάπη ὑμῶν its existence is recognized; in μᾶλλον καὶ μᾶλλον περισσ., its deficiency is hinted at. ἐν is not to be taken as if ἐπίγνωσις and αἴσθησις were departments of Love, in which it was to increase: but they are rather elements, in whose increase in their characters Love is also, and as a separate thing, to increase: q.d. ‘that your love may increase, but not without an increase in ἐπίγνωσις and αἴσθησις.’ For by these Love is guarded from being ill-judged and misplaced, which, separate from them, it would be: and accordingly, on the increase of these is all the subsequent stress laid.

ἐπίγνωσις is accurate knowledge of moral and practical truth: αἴσθησις, perceptivity of the same, the power of apprehending it: “the contrary of that dulness and inactivity of the αἰσθητήρια τῆς καρδίας (Jer 4:19), which brings about moral want of judgment, and indifference” (Meyer). De W. renders it well, moral tact.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Judgment [αισθησει] . Only here in the New Testament. Rev., better, discernment : sensitive moral perception. Used of the senses, as Xenophon : "perception of things sweet or pungent" (" Memorabilia, "1, 4, 5). Of hearing :" It is possible to go so far away as not to afford a hearing "(" Anabasis," 4, 6, 13). The senses are called aijsqhseiv. See Plato, "Theaetetus," 156. Plato uses it of visions of the gods (" Phaedo, " 111). Compare aijsqhthria senses, Heb 5:14. Discernment selects, classifies, and applies what is furnished by knowledge.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.