There is one thing about every person that impacts every part of their life. Every decision/choice, every attitude, every pursuit, every task, every second you are conscious depends on this one part of you.

This one part determines significant things about you. For example, this one thing will determine your happiness (or lack thereof), your relationships, your education choices, your employment, for single people it will determine your future life partner, and even your eternal future—where you will spend eternity. Heaven or hell depends on this one thing.

This one things is your LOVE!

Everything you do in life depends on some love you have. In many cases it may not be a very strong love that moves you, but some love will move you nonetheless. In other cases it may be an overpowering love that causes you to choose one thing over another. But every one of us loves. And how you love, where you love, when you love, what you love, and most important—WHO you love, defines you. Your love(s) characterize you. You are marked and known by your loves.

In fact, your loves are the most important thing to God about you. Jesus Himself explained in Matthew 22:34-40 that love for God and love for man are the first and second greatest commandments respectively. The chief thing God requires of us is love to Him, and He does not accept weak, haphazard, half-hearted love. The highest-level of divine requirement relates to our love, specifically the necessity for our love of Him with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind and all of our strength. That is the most important thing to God about us. And the second most significant commandment is like it, that we love our neighbors. So the second most important thing about us to God still relates to our love, how we treat and care for and love those around us.

Yet sometimes we make life, even the Christian life, so convoluted, so external, and so superficial. Perhaps we embrace the complexities to let ourselves off the hook from focusing on the harder heart work. But we cannot, we must not, miss for any reason the basic of love.

Jonathan Edwards had this to say about love in a book of his called The Religious Affections:

Love is not only one of the affections, but it is the first and chief of the affections, and the fountain of all the affections. From love arises hatred of those things which are contrary to what we love, or which oppose and thwart us in those things we delight in…From a vigorous, affectionate, and fervent love to God will necessarily arise other religious affections; hence will an intense hatred and abhorrence of sin, fear of sin, and dread of God’s displeasure, gratitude for His goodness,…joy in God when God is graciously and sensibly present, and grief when He is absent, and a joyful hope when a future of enjoyment of God is expected, and fervent zeal for the glory of God. And in like manner, from a fervent love to men will arise all other virtuous affections towards men.

In other words, all other affections flow from our loves—our hope, our joy, our zeal, our grief over sin, our hatred of sin, our fear and reverence for God—all of those stem from love. Everything in life comes from love.

Paul passionately reminded his disciples of this very fact. And so in one of his inspired, recorded prayers we see him pray that God would cause our love to abound.

9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; 11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. [NAS]

Before we explore the passage I’d like to just quickly point out a few things from the CONTEXT that I think will help prepare us for the significance of abounding love in this passage.

First, the request for abounding love is in the context of prayer. That is pretty obvious from the beginning of verse 9. As you probably know it is typical for New Testament letters to start with a prayer from the writer for the readers. Philippians is no different. In verses 3-8 Paul mentions his prayers of thanks for them and in verses 9-11 he mentions his prayers of supplication for them.

You discover what is important to a person when they pray. Most people are smart enough to get serious when they address God. And the request Paul makes is that God would cause their love to abound. But I think the most telling thing about this is that God must be the one to germinate and grow love. Love is a spiritual, supernatural, divine, and gracious work. In fact, the fruit of the Spirit is love… I may be able to manipulate your feelings or tug on your emotions, but this abounding love is a God-product.

Secondly, abounding love is in the context of care. Paul was thankful to God for them and then said in verse seven, “It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart.” And in verse 8, “For God is my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.”

Paul probably visited Philippi three times, once at the beginning of his second missionary journey and twice during his third journey. We don’t know the precise reason behind all these visits, but we do know that out of those visits came a deep love and attachment, so much so that four or five years after his last visit he could write these words to the Philippians with expressions of care and concern like they had just been with each other.

Again, these are people that he cared for. Don’t you always look out for the ones closest to you? You want not just good or great things for them, you want the best. The best request Paul could make was for abounding love.

One last note of context. This affectionate prayer for abounding love comes in the context of suffering. Paul wrote this letter probably nearing the end of a two year imprisonment in Rome. Not only was he in prison for preaching the gospel, but immediately after verse 11 he begins to explain that there were some who were preaching the gospel from envy and spite, hoping to get Paul in more trouble by their preaching.

I don’t know about you, but somme of my clearest, most earnest thinking (and praying) is done during times of difficulty. Paul had no need or time for Christian cliches and prayers filled with pious platitudes. This was serious business, not some game. And when the things of this world were dim, what was bright to Paul was the need for abounding love.

That’s at least some of the context of the paragraph, so let’s look at the passage itself.

Philippians 1:9-11 is one long sentence in GNT and in our English translations. I tried to portray the text in such a say as might tend to help us keep clear in our minds what each phrase is doing in the sentence. Here is my translation:

1. Prayer for Abounding Love v.9a

There really is only one request in this prayer, and everything else modifies that one request, expanding and clarifying it. Each subsequent phrase drills down a little deeper into the one main idea.

This request is found in the first phrase of his prayer:

that your love may abound still more and more

I’m kind of disappointed with the ESV and the NIV here. The NAS does it right. You’ve got the verb abound (περισσεύῃ), an adverb still (ἔτι), and then another adverbial phrase more and more (μᾶλλον καὶ μᾶλλον). This is known as making a point: “abound still more and more”

Praying for their love “to abound” is sufficient. Praying that it would about “more” would have sufficed too, “more and more” is perhaps better, but “abounding still more and more” makes a statement.

Add to that the present tense idea of “keep on abounding” and you’ve got a picture with yellow highlighter marks all over it and a double underline. The whole phrase conveys the idea of overflowing and overspilling. The nearest imagery would be that of a river spilling over its banks during a flood. Here is love, not just vast as an ocean, but like a raging torrent.

We talk about being “in love,” with someone. What do we mean by that? We’re not referring to a bare minimum level of affection. We’re talking about being head over heels, captivated, twitter-pated, consumed, preoccupied. This is the kind of love we’re to have.

Now who is the object of this love? Abounding love to whom? There is no explicit object mentioned in verse 9.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:11-13 Paul uses some of the very same vocabulary as he does here in Philippians, including the words for abounding love. But there he specifically states “for one another and for all.”

So what do we do with Philippians 1:9? Should we see it as similar or different from 1 Thessalonians. I think we should see a close connection, but I don’t think in this case, the best choice is to limit abounding love as something only for others. When Paul prays that their love would abound still more and more, I think he is primarily thinking about their love for God that spills over onto others. As our affections for Him increase and abound, that will necessarily result in an increased love for others.

But don’t miss the primary point: love is always to be plentiful and proliferate, like a growing snowball gathering speed and size on the downhill. Individuals and churches should expect and pray for active love, love advancing from one level of loving to more and more mature and lively levels of loving. Your love is not going to reach its maximum volume overnight, but you should love God and others more next year at this time. Your love should be ever greater 5, 10, 35 years from now. In heaven there will be a glorified capacity to increase in love; so love never ends.

2. Properties of Abounding Love

The final phrase in verse 9 directly modifies the request for abounding love and clarifies the necessary properties of abounding love. Paul prays that their love may abound still more and more:

with knowledge and depth of insight

The single preposition with two objects hitches these two ideas together. But what does it mean for love to abound with knowledge and depth of insight? We typically don’t connect love with knowledge. We like our love disconnected from information, the heart free to feel without the head holding it back. Maybe the best way to start is to consider what it does not mean. Paul is not praying that their love might about more and more in ignorance and blockheadedness or for that matter in naive nostalgia and sentimentality.

First, Abounding Love must be Truth-Based

knowledge is a grasp of spiritual truth that comes a thorough comprehension of His revelation, God’s Word. The emphatic form (ἐπιγνώσει) is emphatically translated in the NAS as “real knowledge” or “true knowledge.” It is understanding and comprehension that comes from recognizing principles in Scripture as illuminated by the Holy Spirit.

Second, Abounding Love must be Insight-Producing

depth of insight [NIV] or “all discernment” [ESV/NAS] is moral perception and discretion for life and choices. This is not just a capacity to distinguish between good and evil. Pagans can do that to some extent. Rather, this is the ability to distinguish between good and better, and between better and best; not just between the unimportant and important, but between degrees of importance and priority.

The kind of love that is to abound in us is a truth-driven, insight-producing love. And even though knowledge and discernment without love can be oppressive and worthless (1 Corinthians 13), love without knowledge and discernment can be sappy and schmaltzy. In his book, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, D.A. Carson says,

Without the constraints of knowledge and insight, love very easily degenerates into mawkish (saccharine, cheesy, sickening) sentimentality or into the kind of mushy pluralism the world confuses with love. (p.126)

So the characteristics/properties of abounding love include knowledge of truth and depth of insight.

3. Purposes of Abounding Love

The first phrase in verse 10 also directly modifies the request for abounding love and introduces the purposes of abounding love. Love that must abound and that love must be in knowledge and depth of insight, but look next at the purposes of abounding love.

a. The Immediate Purpose: to discern what is best

in order that you may discern what is best

The direct purpose of insightful love is to discern what is best [NIV] or to “approve what is excellent.” (“so that you may approve the things that are excellent” [NAS]) The idea in verse 10 is a common one in the NT of testing something to determine its true character, observing and approving outcome or the results.

This is not always easy to do in life, is it? Determine what is best, approve the excellent? We only have so much energy and we constantly battle through choices so that our energy isn’t misdirected. Carson observes,

Paul’s thought is that there are countless decisions in life where it is not a question of making a straightforward decision between right and wrong. What you need is the extraordinary discernment that helps you perceive how things differ and then make the best possible choice. (p.127) So what is best must be delicate or subtle or difficult to spot to those whose love is not abounding in this way. (p.126)

Obviously discerning what is best requires knowledge and insight, but that is not the main thrust of the verse. What is the connection of love to discerning what is best? How does abounding love impact our choices?

For example, there is a fundamental difference between the way about bachelor decides how to spend his time and the way a husband…should. I’m not talking about things that are transparent, where right and wrong, sinful and non-sinful choices are involved. I’m talking about issues of preference and priority.

Let’s say an opportunity to play basketball comes up. The choice of the bachelor is independent and based purely on his love to play. But the same opportunity presented to a married man is washed through an altogether different paradigm. Maybe it’s his anniversary. He may love to exercise, he may really love to play ball, his wife may like her man fit and strong. But there is a pull, an affection, a greater love for his spouse that repaints his picture of what is desirable.

There is no rule, no obligation, no law to dictate his answer to him. Rather, the strength of his affection spills over and steers his choice.

When you LOVE God, things are different. You make different choices. Your priorities are re-arranged. Not by law, but by love; not by imposed obligations from without; but by lively motivations within.

Here is a similar thought from Edwards in The Religious Affections. He uses different words but the thrust is the same.

A holy disposition and spiritual taste [an affection or love] where grace is strong and lively, will enable a soul to determine what actions are right and becoming Christians, not only more speedily but far more exactly than the greatest abilities without it…The habit of his mind is attended with a taste by which he immediately relishes that air which is benevolent and disrelishes the contrary. It causes him to distinguish between one and the other in a moment, more precisely than by the most accurate reasonings can find out in many hours.

Then Edwards gives this killer illustration:

The nature and inward tendency of a stone or other heavy body that is let fall from aloft, shows the way to the center of the earth more exactly in an instant than the ablest mathematician, without it, could determine by his most accurate observations, in a whole day. Thus it is that a spiritual disposition and taste teaches and guides a man in his behavior in the world. (p.209)

It doesn’t always take hours of deliberation to discern what is best, just like gravity doesn’t need a complicated, scientific formula before a bowling ball knows where to go when you drop it.

Some of us have the greatest struggles in decision making and prioritizing, not because we don’t have enough information, but because we don’t have enough love!

Abounding love comes to bear on your investments, of time and money and otherwise. It comes to bear on your personal relationships and your job pursuits, where you live, your church involvement, your entertainment choices.

No iPhone or time management system or family white board calendar—not even a Mac—will do for you or give you the clarity and confidence that comes from abounding love.

Behind every one of these issues and areas and choices are loves. You will choose what you love most—every time. Paul prays that the believers would abound in their love for God—as that has the greatest leverage on our choosing. By the way, this is precisely what keeps us from legalism while also keeping us from compromise. Abounding love will enable us to discern what is best.

b. The Subsequent Purpose: to be holy and blameless

Approving what is excellent is not the final purpose of abounding love. The following purpose for discerning what is best is:

so that you may be pure and blameless

Love leads to discernment and right choices so that result in pure and blameless character. The word pure has the idea of transparent purity, like when you would hold something up to the sun to see if it has any defects. There is nothing hidden in the character of those whose love abounds into their right choices. And to be blameless is to be without fault, without offense.

And purity and blamelessness are necessary:

for the day of Christ being filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ

This is not a veiled threat, but a compelling promise. This is what we are looking forward to, the day of our final salvation. His return will be sweet to those who love Him, even though they have not seen Him, and who based on that love, have been preparing themselves. Being ready comes from making good choices, that comes from discernment, that comes from the right love. Abounding love is necessary in light of the long view toward our eternity.

c. The Ultimate Purpose: the glory of God

Our choices are not the ultimate issue, nor is our character. The ultimate purpose of abounding love that leads to discerning what is best is:

to the glory and praise of God.

And we come full circle. Our love is the most important thing about us to God because love leads to a life that brings God glory.

Conclusion

Your loves decide your values and your choices: “approve what is excellent.” Your love defines your character: “pure and blameless.” Your love determines your conduct: “filled with the fruit of righteousness.” Your love culminates in God’s glory: “to the glory and praise of God.” Your love is an important thing.

So Paul prays that the Philippians would have a love that is truth-based, choice-changing, future-considering, and God-glorifying.

This kind of love is profoundly Christian. It is peculiarly supernatural, that is, only made possible by divine work.

So a couple of questions:

Do you pray like this?

Do you pursue love like this? What do you need to do to see your love abound still more and more? What other loves are crowding up your heart, crowding out love for God, and clouding up your discernment?

Are you loving God more now than a year ago? Is your taste for His things stronger than is used to be?