My Dear Friends,
The prayers that the apostle Paul was in the habit of offering up for the churches to which he addressed his letters are full of great significance, chiefly from the point of view that they give us an insight into the great apostle's mind with regards to the things that he considers the particular churches, and the church in general, stand most in need of.
We can never imagine the great apostle ever wasting breath, not even in prayer – that is, as far as requests go – and we can thus be assured that the items which he bears up before the throne of grace are items which have come to occupy a large place in his catalogue of church necessities and priorities. “And this I pray,” he writes to the Philippians, after he has informed them that he has, indeed, been praying for them; “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment.” The prayer continues, of course, to include other things, but it is, surely, not without significance that he places the virtue and grace of Christian love right at the beginning of his prayer and places it as the grounds out of which the other graces that he mentions must spring. This is absolutely basic, of course: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, ” and so forth. But, never was a word more debased and more misused in our day than the word which the Holy Spirit of God has employed in the Scriptures to speak of this Christian grace. No wonder the apostle Paul is praying for the Philippians, not only that their “love” may abound, but that their “love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment.” In other words, Paul's prayer for the Philippians is that they might have an intelligent and discerning love abounding in all the affairs of their Christian life and testimony. And such a prayer requires to be prayed and answered in the churches of Christ today every bit as much as when the apostle wrote to those believers in the town of Philippi.
The first piece of discerning knowledge that so many appear to require today is just what is meant when the Holy Spirit uses the word love throughout the scriptures of the New Testament. There were three words in the Greek language which He may have used, but the fact that He chose only one to the almost total exclusion of the others is in itself full of significance.
The first word is EROS, from which comes that word “erotic” which is so much in vogue today. Eros stands for a purely “physical” love and is related to those actions and emotions which surround a purely physical love. It is the love that exists in a courtship, or in a marriage, and which, to some degree or another, exerts itself even within the bounds of the true Christian courtship or marriage, yet it is found nowhere in the pages of the New Testament.
The second word is PHILIA, and stands for that “brotherhood” kind of love which cements people together around an object of mutual interest or devotion. Christianity would appear to have a large degree of this “mutual object” kind of love about it, and yet, the Holy Spirit of God has seen fit even to largely discard this apparently fitting word and employ one word almost exclusively to describe this love that pertains to God and all the things of God. The word is AGAPE, and denotes that love which God is in Himself and which He displays according to the good pleasure of His will. Those who have been born again of the Spirit of God became partakers of this love (in quality, although, of course, not in quantity) and so, it is said of us that “we love him, because he first loved us.”
It is this pure Christian love, then, that the apostle Paul prays that the Philippians might abound more and more in. And one of the crying needs of our day is that we would endeavour, by all means, to abound in love, but to ascertain, as much as lies within us, whether or not it is pure Christian love – agape – and not eros, or even philia, that is dominating our thoughts and actions. It is, perhaps, easier than we imagine sometimes to allow the emotions and feelings of eros, or philia, to become substitutes for this agape.
The late A.W. Tozer was a prophet that didn't have a lot of honour in his own land, or any other for that matter, but whose discernment of the growing trends in evangelical Christianity has now been abundantly vindicated in the advent of pop opera and such like which absolutely reek with the allurements of eros. “The influence of the erotic spirit,” wrote Tozer, “is felt almost everywhere in evangelical circles. Much of the singing in certain types of meetings has in it more of romance than it has of the Holy Ghost … religious fiction also makes use of sex to interest the reading public, the paper-thin excuse being that if romance and religion are woven into a story the average person who would not read a purely religious book will read the story and thus be exposed to the gospel … The notion that Eros can be made to serve as an assistant to the Lord of Glory is outrageous. The 'Christian' film that seeks to draw customers by picturing amorous love scenes in its advertising is completely false to the religion of Christ. Only the spiritually blind will be taken in by it. The current vogue of physical beauty and sparkling personalities in religious promotion is a further manifestation of the influence of the romantic spirit in the Church.
How true is this of our day goes without saying. And yet, how every one of us needs to be aware of the influence of eros usurping the place of agape in our lives. In Christian living and thinking there is no place whatsoever for erotic love to influence us in the things of Christ. The love that is even to exist between the Christian husband and wife – “Husbands love your wives“ – is the same love with which Christ loved the Church. (Ephesians 6:25) and that is not eros love, and means that even the husband and wife, as they seek to walk the Christian path and come to many mutual decisions in the things of Christ, must endeavour to ward off any influence of that natural love that exists between them and seek to be governed by the love which Paul prays might abound yet more and more in these Philippians. No wonder he prays, then, that the love might abound “in knowledge and in all judgment,” or, “in all discernment.” We need all our spiritual wits about us to continually ascertain that the love that is moving us in worship, in service, in decision and action is that true agape love, unmixed and unalloyed by any other expression of the emotion, no matter how high that expression may be.
The same also applies with the word “philia.” We may think of it as “mutual object love,” and, as we have already said, this can appear to have some leanings towards “the fellowship of the saints” provided the mutual object that is loved is Christ Himself. When this is the case, of course, it is not philia that is predominant, but agape itself. The dangers arise when Christians mistake the feelings and emotions they undergo when gathered around some lesser object of mutual love and call this feeling or emotion Christian fellowship. Fellowship it may be, but pure Christian fellowship it is unlikely to be. Philia exists in the local tennis club when a group of the members begin to enthuse about the forthcoming mixed doubles, or among the supporters of some football team the moment their team puts the ball in the net to win the cup. But none of this is Christian fellowship. Neither is it Christian fellowship, however, in the fullest sense when the mutual object that arouses the “nice feelings” is anything less than the presence of Christ Himself by the Holy Spirit of God. A certain type of gospel sing-along can produce its own type of results and be mistake for true fellowship in the gospel of love for Christ by His church. A man's method of preaching, or a good discussion on a certain set of truths or doctrines can also waylay the undiscerning into thinking that it is love for Christ that is the dominating force in the company when it is only love for a system, or some other mutual object, that has bound the company together.
No wonder the apostle then, prays in such a manner. He will have his readers abound in a love that is based on knowledge and that is guided by discernment. And the first thing that such knowledge and discernment must discover, of course, is the very nature of love itself, and not be misled into the acceptance of anything less than the real thing – agape – in all its length and breadth. That the church of Christ today has largely come to embrace an interpretation of love that falls far short of the Biblical concept of the term goes almost beyond saying. Christian love is not something that floats around on some cloud of sentimental jargon, but is something that has both feet firmly planted on the ground and can stand fast in every situation that confronts the Church of Christ in every age.
Old John Bunyan pictured love aright when he personified it as one of the three sisters who questioned Pilgrim about his Christian pilgrimage. It was she who asked the most searching questions of all about why Pilgrim hadn't brought his wife and children from the dangers of the City of Destruction, for, indeed love manifests itself in the concern for the souls of men and women and has a desire to pierce through every reason why a souls is remaining on the broad road that leads to destruction. Love isn't concerned to cater to the lesser emotions and feelings that hold such prominent sway in the lives of man and women, nor is it concerned to give them an “interest” in the things of the church and so, create a mutual affection with others within the church. It is concerned with bringing them to an understanding of the love of God in Christ so that, in realising that they have been forgiven much they might, in turn, love much. And love with that love with which they have been loved. We may well pray the prayer of Paul for the Philippian people and look for an answer that will become the gospel in our own lives and witness: “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment.”
Yours in Christ,
W. J. Seaton
(May 1972)
This Page Title – The Pastor's Letter – Paul's Prayer for Love Abounding. The Wicket Gate Magazine "A Continuing Witness". Internet Edition number 81 – placed on line November 2009 Magazine web address – www.wicketgate.co.uk |