“For God is my witness, how I long after you all in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; so that ye may approve the things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and void of offence unto the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:8–11, ASV)
Love is a very powerful motivator in life. It can drive people to do many things. Yet it is only the love of Christ in believers that will drive them to align with the heart of our Lord. The heart of Jesus moved Him to love His church and give Himself for her. This should be the heart of every believer, and especially that of the pastors and church leaders.
The question is this. Do you have Christ’s love for the church? Here we are not referring to the institution, but the people, the ekklesia, the called-out people of God.
Paul demonstrated such Christ like love for the churches. In this passage, we see the love of Paul poured out in a prayer for the church at Philippi. This prayer should be in the heart of every church leader for the people of God.
Paul began by stating how he longed for the church with the great inner affection of Christ. From this affection he prayed for the Lord to bless them abundantly. The great blessing was that they would grow in love.
The words that Paul wrote show that he prayed for more than just some sort of natural growth. The phrase “abound yet more and more,” perisseun eti mallon kai mallon, adds an emphasis to this. He desired that they would experience an enormous and supernatural magnitude of this growth. The verb abound, perisseun, refers to superabounding, to be in excess (Strong, p. G4052), he wanted them grow in love that was more than enough. Moreover, Paul used the word more, perisseun, twice meaning he desired for them superabound in love to a greater and greater degree (Strong, 1890, p. G3123).
This growth was so that they would experience all knowledge and discernment. The word knowledge, epignosis, indicates that Paul wanted them through growth in love to experience a precise and full knowledge (Strong, 1890, p. G1922) of the things of God so that they would have spiritual discernment. This would be necessary to approve the excellent ways of God and be found blameless in their Christian lives. This would result in them being filled with the righteousness of Christ and bring glory to God.
How often do we as believers pray for other parishioners in our churches like this? How often do we as church leaders pray like this? How often do we as pastors pray like this? I am afraid, it is far too little.
Pastors, would it not make a difference in the receptivity of our people to our preaching? We should take time to pray for our congregations in this way.
Renewing the Heart 