“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of the Messiah, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus the Messiah – to the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:9-11
Paul’s prayer for the Philippian church begins with love. Love is of course the beating heart of the Christian worldview. Perhaps the most famous verse in all scripture (at least at football games) is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” God’s unshakable purpose to rescue his creation rests upon the firm foundation of his love.
But here Paul speaks not of God’s love for us, but of our own love, praying that it might abound more and more. Love was at the very center of God’s covenant with Israel – encapsulated in the Shema, the great prayer recorded in Deuteronomy chapter 6. “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Crucially, this love for God finds its expression in obedience to God: “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.” Thus, Israel’s love for God expressed itself through Israel’s complete embrace of God’s commands, weaving them into the very fabric of their lives.
Now Torah was filled with all kinds of stipulations and instructions. Fortunately, all these commands can be easily summarized. As Jesus would later famously declare, all the law and prophets hang upon the central commands to love both God and neighbor. Jesus way by no means alone in this assertion. Many other Jews had recognized love for God and neighbor as the foundation upon which the entire Torah was built.
Jesus would also affirm the same key principle that love for God and obedience to God are inextricably intertwined. In John 14:21 Jesus plainly states, “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.” The Apostle John certainly learned this lesson well. He in turn would later write: “We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” (I John 2:3-6) Once again, love for God is bound up in obedience to God. But here we have a twist, which will in turn help us understand Paul’s prayer for the Philippian church. Whereas obedience under the Old Covenant required adherence to Torah, obedience under the New Covenant involves the imitation of Jesus himself. More on that in a moment.
Paul’s prays that the Philippians might abound in love, but their love must be guided by knowledge and insight. We simply cannot love God and neighbor properly without having the wisdom of God to guide us. This is perhaps best illustrated in modern society’s confusion over sexual ethics. God the wise creator has made us male and female, and designed one man-one woman marriage as the proper vehicle for sexual intimacy. Our modern culture, on the other hand, encourages people to celebrate any and every form of sexual expression as long as it involves consenting adults. Love wins!, right? Such sexual encounters no doubt can bring short term pleasure and excitement, but God’s wisdom tells us that the end of that road is misery and alienation rather than goodness and prosperity. Love for God requires the acknowledgement that God’s wisdom is best, rather than our own notion of what is good. Likewise, love for neighbor often involves having the courage to tell them they are walking down the road to ruin, even when they don’t agree.
This is precisely what Paul means when he prays that our love might abound “in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best.” This last phrase can be translated “so that you will be able to tell the difference between good and evil.” Love must always be guided by wisdom. How can we truly love people (including ourselves) if we haven’t trained ourselves to understand which behaviors are evil and will ultimately lead to anguish and which are good and will bring about flourishing? Tragically, some Christians have encouraged people to follow their same-sex urges despite clear scriptural commands to the contrary. This is the result of having love without insight.
What Paul writes next is perhaps shocking to many Christians. When our love abounds in knowledge, we’re able to discern good from evil, and all this so that we may be “pure and blameless on the day of the Messiah.” What does that mean? Well, there can be no doubt that when Paul speaks about “the day of the Messiah” he means the day of final judgement, when God will set all things right again. Those who threaten to ruin God’s lovely creation by embracing wickedness shall be condemned. The righteous – those who have done what is right in God’s eyes – will be vindicated and welcomed into God’s eternal kingdom. Jesus would have heartily agreed. Jesus himself declares, “A time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out – those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.” (John 5:28-29)
The belief that God would ultimately judge the world formed the backbone of the Jewish worldview. The Old Testament prophets spoke of this as the “day of the LORD.” Many in Israel believed that the Messiah – God’s anointed king – would be God’s agent in bringing justice to God’s world. This is why the first Christians so quickly transitioned from “the day of the LORD” to “the day of the Messiah.” Paul puts it this way: “For [God] has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. [God] has given proof of this to everyone by raising [Jesus] from the dead.” (Acts 17)
So Paul is very straightforwardly praying that the Philippians might be found pure and blameless on the final day of judgment. And this verdict will depend upon the Philippians ability to discern and choose good instead of evil! Many Christians would at this point be confused, or even angry. Is Paul really saying that our status at the final judgment will hinge upon our behavior? Doesn’t this cut against everything I’ve been taught?
Such a reaction is understandable. But the simple fact is that the notion of final judgement according to what we have done is central to both Judaism and Christianity. It’s all over the scriptures! Psalm 62:12 and Proverbs 24:12: “You reward everyone according to what they have done.” Psalm 1:5-6: “The wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly to the righteous. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of wicked leads to destruction.” Romans 2:5-7: “You are storing up wrath for yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God ‘will repay each person according to what they have done.’ To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, [God] will give eternal life.” Revelation 20:12 “The dead were judged on the basis of what was written in the books, in accordance with what they had done.” This list is far from exhaustive but this is a blog and not a book. (Many readers are no doubt thankful for that) The point is that the Bible affirms over and over that our final judgment will depend upon our conduct.
If this seems confusing, don’t worry, because Paul has not finished praying! Paul concludes his prayer by asking that the Philippians would be “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus the Messiah – to the glory and praise of God.” Remember, the home base meaning of righteousness is right conduct. Some translations render “righteousness” as “the fruit of right living” or “the fruit of right behavior” in order to bring out this meaning. So yes, our pure and blameless status on the final day of judgment does indeed hinge on our behavior, but it’s all on account of Jesus.
Paul doesn’t here explain precisely what he means by this. Thankfully, the rest of Paul’s letters allow us to know what he has in mind. God pours out upon his people the gift of the Holy Spirit – the same Spirit who is none other than the Spirit of Jesus himself. The Spirit’s work is to conform us into the likeness of Jesus. The Spirit’s power allows us to at last become the human beings God designed us to be – loving God, loving our neighbors, living in joyful obedience to God’s commands. So even though God’s people are no longer bound by Torah, the obedience which comes through the Spirit fulfills the Torah. The candle of the Torah is no longer needed now that the Son has risen.
The key word here is “fruit.” In the Old Testament (most famously Isaiah 5), Israel is often referred to as God’s vineyard. God desires good fruit from his vineyard – fruit of course being a metaphor for a certain kind of conduct. The fruit that God desires from his vineyard is justice and righteousness. The prophets again and again called Israel to wholehearted obedience to the Torah, so that she could produce a rich harvest of good fruit. Now, through the work of the Spirit, Christians are fully equipped to produce an abundant harvest – the fruit of righteousness. And this righteousness will culminate in our vindication on the final day of judgment.
One final word which cannot – and should not – be avoided. This entire discourse has not once mentioned the death of Jesus on the cross. Many readers might be thinking, “How can you possibly discuss our final judgment before God without mentioning our forgiveness on account of Jesus sacrificial death on the cross?” This might sound to some like theological malpractice. But please notice, I’ve not mentioned Jesus’ death for the very simple reason that Paul doesn’t include that in his prayer. Do not for one moment think that I am trying to minimize or marginalize Jesus’ sacrificial death. Obviously, for Paul and all Christians, Jesus’ death remains central. But if you’re the Apostle Paul and you’re writing this letter, you just can’t say everything all at once. Paul would no doubt agree that our forgiveness and outpouring of the Holy Spirit are all predicated upon the cross. That being said, we should at least pause and reflect on the fact that in this prayer Paul has happily sketched out the final judgement solely in terms of our (Spirit-filled) behavior. If you can’t fit that idea into your theology, perhaps it’s time to re-think things. That’s not an easy task, but hopefully it’s an opportunity to take a step into a larger world.
