As a pastor I enjoy the delight and, at times, the burden of praying for those whom the Lord has purchased with His blood. I do not take this lightly. Yet, prayer is not the responsibility of those called to the pastorate (though pastors must be leaders in this practice) but all who name the name of Jesus are called to this powerful activity. Prayer hold out the awesome possibility of seeing heaven touch the lives and circumstances of humanity and bringing transformation.
In this prayer of Paul we are finding out how to pray in such a way that we can see the power of heaven move in hearts and lives. It is praying prayers that focus on gospel realities. In our previous devotion we saw how Paul modeled how we should pray by praying that the Philippians continued to abound in love. This love was not of the emotional sort, but that which was informed by the truth and expressed with the heart intentions and designs of the Lord. Love must be discriminating (see yesterday’s devotion). Paul prays for discerning love so that, by being discerning they might “approve what is excellent.” The wording is important here.
To approve means to test or prove something to be genuine or good. Excellent suggests that which is above all and of greater value and worth over all. So, in short, Paul is praying that the Philippian church would be able to love in a way that they distinguish the spiritually authentic from the spiritually inauthentic and see the superior worth of that which honors Jesus. As followers of Christ Paul is praying that we would be able to see beyond the physical to the spiritual truth of a thing, an action, a teaching and an individual and love only that which stands the test of truth. The test of who we love and what we love is based on where the who or the what stands in relationship to the gospel. How desperately is this kind of intercession needed in our churches today!
What we approve as excellent is intimately connected to our ability to love pure and blameless in this world. Paul says that if we love discerningly we will approve what is excellent “and be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (v10). In this context pure means without mixed intentions or deceptive speech and blameless means that we are not encouraging sinful behavior through our verbal acceptance of it or our participating in it ourselves. Paul’s prayer is powerful in that he is teaching us that if we fail to be discerning we will love that which we should not love and if we love that which we should not love, when the Lord appears we will be find without purity and blame-worthy.
Christians cannot speak favorably on that which disobeys the Word of God and, therefore, dishonors the glory of Jesus Christ. Not being discerning but, instead, encouraging sin shows that we are without purity. At the same time, we cannot think that our speaking against sin minimizes the evil of our practicing the sin we say is wrong. Not being discerning but, instead, participating in sin makes us blameworthy (see Romans 2:3).
In short, Paul prays that the gospel would saturate and guard their hearts so that, in the coming of Christ, they would be filled with that which honors and glorifies Jesus Christ. This is what Paul means by “filled with the fruits of righteousness” (v11). Those who are genuinely saved (filled with the righteousness of God, 2 Corinthians 5:21) will demonstrate this by their discerning and discriminating love that seeks the glory of Jesus Christ above all things.
Spend a few days praying that over yourself and others and watch heaven touch earth.
Pastor Sherard