It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:9-11
St Paul prayed for the Christians at Philippi that their love would increase, with knowledge and discernment, so that they could approve what is excellent. A more literal translation is that Paul wanted them to be able to discern not 'what is excellent' but ‘things that differ’. Paul's point was the need to choose between excellent and excellent: not between bad and good, or between good and better, or even between better and best but between excellent things of equal worth and merit. The story of how Paul first went to Philippi, told by St Luke in Acts 15-16, is a fascinating example of this needed discernment.
A year or so after Paul and Barnabas had completed their first missionary journey, Paul suggested they revisit the churches they had started. This good idea, unfortunately, quickly turned sour when the two men couldn’t agree on who to include in their team. It would be interesting to know just what St Luke means by ‘a sharp disagreement’ but I think that the friends were quickly reconciled: I’m confident that both men would have taken seriously Jesus’ own words about the absolute necessity of love and the obligation to deal promptly with interpersonal problems, even though they agreed to go their separate ways.
Paul’s journey went according to plan until he was ‘forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia’; later, ‘the Spirit of Jesus’ stopped him entering Bithynia. Then something unusual happened that triggered a new direction: Paul dreamed about a man from Macedonia asking for help and knew that this was a genuine call from God.
If Paul had parted from Barnabas without having resolved their differences, I doubt that Paul would have had the discernment to understand how the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus and the Lord Himself was guiding him. In the lifestyle guidance that Jesus gave His disciples, loving God with our entire being and loving our neighbours as ourself is foundational; we are to love even our enemies and our love for other Christians is what marks us out by society as Jesus' true disciples. (See, for example, Matthew 22:35-40, Mark 12:28-31 & John 13:34-35.)
If Paul had parted from Barnabas without having resolved their differences, I doubt that Paul would have had the discernment to understand how the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus and the Lord Himself was guiding him. In the lifestyle guidance that Jesus gave His disciples, loving God with our entire being and loving our neighbours as ourself is foundational; we are to love even our enemies and our love for other Christians is what marks us out by society as Jesus' true disciples. (See, for example, Matthew 22:35-40, Mark 12:28-31 & John 13:34-35.)
St Paul understood this very well. When he wrote to the Christians at Corinth, he had to remind them that love was necessary for true understanding: knowledge, alone, was an inadequate. Knowledge puffs up, he wrote in 1 Corinthians 8:1, but love builds up and edifies. It was a point he emphasised in his great description of love, 1 Corinthians 13, explaining how that without it our service for God is empty, unprofitable vanity. So in his prayer for the Philippians, love must ‘abound more and more’ if knowledge and discernment are going to be effective in distinguishing between excellent and excellent.
There are at least two reasons why God uses dreams to direct us. First, to get around our natural preferences and prejudices. I doubt Paul was against going to Macedonia but, having set out to revisit the places he’d been to previously, going somewhere so completely different may not have occurred to him. Second, God speaking through dreams can reassure us that we are doing what He wants when things don’t go as we expect. This happened after Paul had been in Philippi for a fortnight or so and is the subject of next weekend’s Reflection.
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned as a Christian is that God is better at leading us than we are at following Him. But God’s plans do not always seem to us to go in a straight line! We think, rightly, that God has planted an idea in us and we use our ability to think and plan to make good choices. Then a door of opportunity is closed and we’re compelled in a new direction. And then something totally unanticipated is presented to us.
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned as a Christian is that God is better at leading us than we are at following Him. But God’s plans do not always seem to us to go in a straight line! We think, rightly, that God has planted an idea in us and we use our ability to think and plan to make good choices. Then a door of opportunity is closed and we’re compelled in a new direction. And then something totally unanticipated is presented to us.
We can't expect to be right all the time but we need to be careful not to jump to conclusions about a work that God calls us to, not to attach our ideas and ambitions to His intention. We need to be aware that when we start on a course of action that it may not proceed as we expect nor take us where we expected. I'm not saying that this is always what happens but, if we're not discerning, we could end up doing a work that God hadn't intended us to do. God may bless that work, because He's like that, but our failure to discern the things that differ may cause us to miss the excellent option designed and destined for us.
I fear that a lack of love among God's people, both for each other and for others, casts a far longer shadow across God's work than we ever realise. Among other tragedies, it blunts our discernment and undermines our ability to be content with God's purpose and provision for our lives.
I fear that a lack of love among God's people, both for each other and for others, casts a far longer shadow across God's work than we ever realise. Among other tragedies, it blunts our discernment and undermines our ability to be content with God's purpose and provision for our lives.
© Copyright Philip Evans 2014.
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