And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Philippans 1:9-11
Love can be misguided. This statement may sound heretical, but Paul prays that the love of the Philippian Christians would not stand alone but will abound more and more with two other characteristics, knowledge and discernment.
Let’s do a quick analysis of Paul’s prayer.
First he acknowledges that the Philippians have substantial Godly love in their community of believers. That is a good thing.
He prays that their love will abound more and more with knowledge and discernment. He doesn’t say what kind of knowledge needs to be increased nor precisely what the subject of discernment is, just that he wants them to have lots more of both.
To what end does Paul want them to have this knowledge and discernment? To the end that they can approve what is excellent.
And to what should this approval of excellence lead? Lives that are pure and blameless for the day of Christ. He then characterizes this state of being “pure and blameless” as being filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.
What’s is the ultimate goal of all of this? The glory and praise of God.
Following the logical train of thought, a critical link to the glory of God is knowledge and discernment. In the context of this letter, the knowledge and discernment may have been referring to Paul’s own circumstances and the Philippians’ reaction to them. Paul is imprisoned, and naturally, the Philippian church was not happy about that. They viewed it as an evil act being done to Paul. But Paul instructs them to look a little deeper. “What has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.” It is the mystery that we often see in Scripture. Joseph told his brothers, who had sold him into slavery, “What you meant for evil God meant for good.” For Paul, being in prison, an evil thing, is being used by God for the good of spreading the gospel among people that Paul may not have been able to proclaim the gospel to without being in jail.
The point I see here is that we are to see things from God’s view rather than only an earthly viewpoint. It appears to me that the church is needing to heed Paul’s admonition to increase our knowledge and discernment in our love.
The church is being pressured to discuss and take action to relieve racial injustice in American society. That is not the primary task of the church. Social justice is a product of the gospel, not an avenue of proclaiming the gospel. I fear that some in the American evangelical church are being taken off course by pressure from the world to appear relevant.
I don’t want to be misunderstood. I do recognize that many people in the United States have evil in their hearts that manifests as racial injustice. Racial injustice is sin and is to be repented of. But the only way I know of to bring about true repentance is through the gospel. Sinners who remain sinners don’t repent of their sins without being regenerated. The world will continue to act as the world until the individuals in the world are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son, Jesus Christ.
I see signs that some evangelical leaders are being deceived into a worldview that is not Biblical. This worldview is known academically as Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality. These ideas are the children of Marxism, an atheistic worldview that is antithetical to Christianity. They view the world as groups. Some groups are oppressed, and others are the oppressors. One of the oppressors in this worldview is Christianity. Critical Race Theory offers no solution to the problems of oppressed and oppressor other than a complete revolution.
Evangelical leaders care about racial justice as a matter of the love of God. That is the proper motivation, and we all should be in line with that. And, I second Paul when he prays that our love would abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that we can approve what is excellent. Atheistic Marxism is not excellent. It will not lead us to be pure and blameless in the day of Christ, nor will it fill us with the fruit of righteousness. Atheistic Marxism leads to the extermination of Christians to the extent that it can.
This is not a political statement. It is a theological statement. A godly solution to racial injustice is much different than an atheistic worldly solution.
Pray for our evangelical leaders that God will cause their love to abound more and more in knowledge and all discernment to approve what is excellent.
