Growing in Love

(Philippians 1:8-11)

As Christians we have been called to learn how to love God and to love one another as Christ loved us.

This does not come automatically. It takes time to learn to love someone. Love begins with knowing the other person, then understanding where they are coming from, then trusting them and finally loving them.

So growing in love is a journey, and it is not static at any time. In these few verses we gain some insight into the process of growing in love so we can travel the road of love that leads to Christ.

How we learn to grow in love

In the first few lines of this section Paul shows us how to learn to grow in love. He says:

8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment (Philippians 1:8-9)

When it comes to learning HOW to grow in love we see that Paul encourages the Philippians to grow in knowledge and discernment.

Why knowledge? Because love is predicated on knowing the other party. You cannot love someone you don’t know. You cannot love someone you don’t trust, and to trust someone you have to get to know them.

It’s the same with loving God. We need to get to know God, who we see through the life of Jesus Christ, and as we learn more about Him we find He is worthy of being loved because He is love. As we get to know God and see Him working in our life and the lives of those around us, we learn to trust Him and obey Him.

This learning process is the second point that Paul made: discernment. We discern that Christ and God are here to help us and that they love us completely and would never allow us to come to harm.

So this is the process for learning how to grow in love. Growth is slow and steady as we continue to walk with Christ, trusting Him to show us the right path.

But this growing in love is not random or without purpose. It is a targeted growth that will lead us to life, and we see that in Paul’s next few lines.

Why we grow in love

The scripture goes on in verses 10 and 11 to show us why we need to grow in love and what the benefits of growing in love provide.

10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:10-11)

The reason that we need to grow in love is shown here. Firstly, it is so that we may learn and then approve of all that is good and excellent in the sight of the Lord.

As we grow in love we learn what is pleasing to the Lord and we seek out those things rather than the evil of the world. Growing in love means that we will aim to please the one whom we love, that is, Jesus Christ and God the Father.

And there is still more reasons for why we need to be growing in love.

The scripture continues on to say we grow in love so that we can be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.

We, the church, are the bride of Christ and He wants His bride to be pure, unblemished by the world, and perfect in the sight of God.

We know from other scriptures that God is love and so we aim to emulate His love. If we are to be pure and perfect, then we must walk in the perfection of the love of God so that as He is perfect we too will be perfect. And when we reach perfection through Jesus Christ, we will be perfected in love because God is love.

The final point in this scripture is that as we are growing in love we will grow and be filled with the fruits of righteousness. These fruits of righteousness come through knowing Jesus Christ and growing in His teachings which are the teachings of love.

It’s all linked together and nothing in Christ Jesus stands apart from anything else.

As we continue on into the rest of the letter to the Philippians we will see this message again and again. The message of love and how we are to walk in the Spirit and walk in love fill this short letter.

So we will continue to learn the ways of love as God loved us as we continue to study Philippians.

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