And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, Sermons I. THE INCREASE OF LOVE THE MAIN THING IN RELIGION. 1. The language implies the existence of this love as well as its imperfection. It had been manifest in many ways; but there were social rivalries and jealousies and disputes at Philippi. Therefore the apostle prays that their love may abound more and more. 2. absolutely that he speaks of, the grand principle, the motive power of Christian life. Matthew Henry says it is the law of Christ's kingdom, the lesson of his school, the livery of his family. (1) It is Divine in its origin, for "love is of God;" (2) it is the principle of the Divine indwelling, for "he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him;" (3) it is the spring of all holy obedience, for it is "the fulfilling of the Law;" (4) it is "the bond of perfectness; (5) it has no metes or bounds like law, for we are to love with all our powers. The gospel lays the believer under a weightier line of obligation than the Law; for we are not to do this or that particular duty prescribed by the Law, but to do all that we can do through the constraining force of the love of God. 3. It is love fed by knowledge and guided by judgment; for it is to abound "in perfect knowledge and universal discernment." (1) Knowledge here is the thorough grasp of theoretical and practical truth. (a) This is needed to feed love. We cannot love an unknown person; we cannot love an unknown gospel; we cannot love one another except so far as we know one another. The more we know of our blessed Redeemer the more shall we love him. Love is not a blind attachment. (b) It is needed to regulate love. Love without knowledge may lead a Christian into mistakes, irregularities, improprieties, like a foolishly fond father who spoils his child. Love may waste itself on worthless or frivolous objects, or it may attempt impracticable projects by unwarrantable means; but if knowledge be the guide, these mistakes will be prevented. (2) The love is in "all discernment." This is more than knowledge. It is more even than the application of knowledge. It is that discriminating power, which enables a man to appreciate the true nature of things presented to him in the sphere of religious realities. II. THE ENDS ACCOMPLISHED BY A LOVE THUS REGULATED. 1. Christian capacity to discern excellent things. "That you may be able to prove things that are excellent." Love, rightly guided, penetrates through all disguises of error. It is, in fact, a mighty preservative against error. The Christian is able "to prove all things, and hold fast that which is good." He does not lose sight of the true proportions and relations of truth. But the spiritual capacity of believers is found to differ like the natural capacities of men. Some are very deficient in the power of spiritual discernment, yet this may be mainly due to the weakness of love. Those who are strong maintain the tranquillity of their own mind, and will be a stay to the timid and the weak. Cecil says, "A sound heart is the best casuist." 2. Sincerity. "That ye may be sincere." Love, rightly guided, brings out the deep reality of Christian character, and presents it in a holy simplicity without stratagem, diplomacy, or manoeuvre. A sincere man has all the strength that springs from an undivided heart: his love is without dissimulation; his sincerity is a godly sincerity, which realizes the impossibility of uniting the interests and pleasures and pursuits of the present world with those of true religion. 3. The absence of offense. "And void of offense." It seems hard to be so in a world to which the gospel itself is an offense. Yet, though we are not to compromise the principles of the gospel, we are to live peaceably with all men, to take wrong rather than give offense, to have a good report from them that are without, to be "blameless and harmless as the sons of God." The duration of this temper of sincerity and inoffensiveness is "against the day of Christ " - the day of final account before the Judge, as if to imply the undeviating consistency of a life thus divinely ordered. 4. Positive fruitfulness in Christian life. "Being filled with the fruit of righteousness, which is by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." There is more needed than mere harmlessness: there must be a positive development of Christian life. (1) The fruit of righteousness. The righteousness is not of nature, but of grace; it is not of the Law, but of faith; and is essentially fruitful. Therefore those who possess it are "trees of righteousness," and the quality of the tree is known by its fruit. The whole system of redemption has for its end to make men "fruitful of good works." (2) This fruit is by Jesus Christ, because it is bound up with the life of Christ. "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me" (John 15:4). (3) The end to which all is directed - "to the glory and praise of God." The glory is the manifestation of God's grace, the praise is the recognition by men of God's attributes. (4) It is implied that believers are to be "filled" with the fruit of righteousness. Not a branch here and there, but all our branches are to be loaded with fruit. Thus there will be the more glory and praise to God. - T.C.
That your love abound yet more and more in all knowledge and in all Judgment I.II. III. (G. G. Ballard.) 2. Is becoming when an intelligent being addresses the Divine Intelligence. 3. Is essential, from the very nature of prayer. 4. Affords a fixed ground for the exercise of faith. 5. Emboldens supplication. 6. Inspires hope of a definite response. (G. G. Ballard.) II. CHRISTIAN LOVE. 1. Receives its first impulse from God's love. 2. Is sustained in activity by its power. 3. Moves in a refluent orbit of increasing circles which continuously grow (Romans 5:20). III. ABOUNDING LOVE. As the river, although perfect, perpetuates itself only by its ever-onward flow, as the full ocean at spring tide "aboundeth yet more and more," so love, in abounding, gathers that true freshness, vigour, and activity, whereby it has power to abound yet more and more. (G. G. Ballard.) 2. Are in harmony with His reign of grace. 3. Bring to us the fullest manifestation of His love. 4. Thrill us with holy excitement though performing monotonous duties, and inspire a holy daring though in view of the fiery trial. 5. Overleap in their impetuous progress every landmark of stern propriety set up by cold conventionalism. 6. Know no limits save "knowledge and judgment" (G. G. Ballard.) I. We see what St. Paul takes for granted as THE UNDERLYING SUBSTANCE, THE RAW MATERIAL OF THE DIVINE LIFE OF THE SOUL OF MAN — "Love." 1. He does not pray that their knowledge may abound more and more in love. Whenever knowledge and love are put in competition, the precedence is always given to love. As compared with knowledge love is intrinsically stronger, and worth more practically. To be knit to God by love is better than to speculate about Him. To enwrap other men in the flame of a passionate enthusiasm is better than to analyze rival systems of ethical, social, or political truth. 2. A personal affection for Jesus our Lord is the first step, the fundamental thing in real Christianity. What is it that provokes love?(1) Beauty, and our Lord's moral beauty acts upon the affections of a true soul just as the sun acts upon the petals of an unopened bud.(2) One specific kind of moral beauty — generosity. The generosity of Jesus in giving Himself to die for us appeals even more powerfully than the faultless beauty of His character. "The love of Christ constraineth us."(3) It is a distinct endowment, an infused grace, shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost. 3. To love Christ is to love(1) God; for God in Him is made apprehendible and approachable.(2) Man, in Him the representative.(3) Thus love to the Saviour is the common source of all that is not spiritual in religion, and most fruitful and creative in philanthropy. II. St. Paul would have this love ABOUND MORE AND MORE IN KNOWLEDGE — ἐπιγνωσις — the higher knowledge. 1. There is a period in the growth of love when such knowledge is imperatively required. In its earliest stages the loving soul lives only in the warmth and light of its object. It asks no questions; it only loves. But from the nature of the case this period comes to an end, not because love grows cold but because it becomes more exacting. It cannot live apart from thought, and sooner or later must come to an understanding with it. It must know something accurately about its object, and begins to ask questions which must be wisely and truly answered, or in its deep disappointment it will sicken and die. 2. How repeatedly this truth is realized in the case of the sons of deeply religious people, and in people who have been deeply religious themselves, but have passed from fervent love to deep despair, because its training in knowledge has been neglected. 3. This law will explain what happened in the Early Church. At first love reigned alone, unenquiring, ecstatic. But when the Gentiles pressed into the fold questions could not be but asked. And so in God's providence love had to, and did, grow more and more in knowledge. Each of the four groups of St. Paul's Epistles marks a distinct stage in the doctrinal insight of the Church. Each of the great Alexandrian teachers, Clement, , Dionysius, , and Cyril poured a flood of light upon the Christian conscience. The Church passed from the agonies of the Coliseum and the catacombs to define, and to recognize before she defined, the unchanging faith at Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon. 4. What has been said applies to education. This must begin with the heart. Until a pupil's affections are won, the true groundwork of the process is not mastered. The repression of love will assuredly, sooner or later, avenge itself. Witness the case of J.S. Mill. (Canon Liddon.) I. KNOWLEDGE REVEALS CHARACTER AND CHARACTER DRAWS OUT LOVE. We can only love a person whom we know to be lovable. This holds especially true of our relations to God. Enmity comes of ignorance of Him. Hence, in Jesus He has given us a revelation of His heart, and to know Christ is to love God. "My people is destroyed for lack of knowledge," is the epitaph written over the graves of scores of dead Christians. Neglecting the diligent study of the Scriptures they have no nutriment for their love, and it starves. II. KNOWLEDGE OF GOD BRINGS US INTO COMMUNION WITH THAT DIVINE LIFE WHICH IS THE SPRING OF ALL DIVINE LOVE. If God is love, the more we come into fellowship with Himself the more we shall come into the exercise and experience of His love. But it is only through knowledge that we can come into this experience. (A. J. Gordon.) II. How CHRISTIANS GAIN THIS TRUE, THOUGH PARTIAL, KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 1. By the light of nature, "The invisible things," etc. 2. By Divine revelation. Though God cannot tell men in any language all things about Himself, He can tell some things in their language which they can understand. III. THEIR TRUE LOVE FOR GOD IS FOUNDED ON THEIR TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. They do not love or worship an unknown God. Knowledge not ignorance is the mother of their devotion: which will appear if we consider — 1. That if Christians should love God for what is not true concerning Him, they would love a false character of God, which would not be true, but false love — the same as loving a false god, which is the essence of idolatry. 2. It is the knowledge which Christians have of the real and supreme excellency of God that lays them under moral obligation to love Him supremely. The more they know of God the more they feel themselves bound to love Him with all their heart.Improvement: If Christians have some true knowledge of God from His works and Word, then — 1. They may have some true knowledge of every doctrine that God has revealed. 2. There is a propriety in preaching upon any doctrine that God has revealed. 3. Christians have no right to disbelieve any doctrine because there is something mysterious in it. If we disbelieve on this ground, we must disbelieve everything. 4. Those who have gained this certain knowledge ought to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. 5. There is no excuse for religious errors. (N. Emmons, D. D.) II. JUST CONCEPTIONS OF THE TRUTH OF GOD ARE INDISPENSABLE TO THE POSSESSION OF TRUE HOLINESS. What is holiness but obedience to truth; truth desired, loved, obeyed? But how is truth to be obeyed unless it is known? It is an unchanging law of our being that the heart is affected through the medium of the understanding. III. WITHOUT THE SPIRIT OF THEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE RAPID ADVANCES IN THE DIVINE LIFE. Christians have much to learn of God that they may desire greater manifestations of His glory; of themselves, that they may be stimulated to greater attainments; of their obligations, that they may press after perfect holiness. There are, of course, instances in which growth in knowledge does not secure growth in grace; but that is because truth does not make its appropriate impression on the mind, and is opposed by sin. But the clearer our views of God the more fervent our love of Him; of sin, the more self-abasing our repentance; of Christ, the stronger our faith; of duty, the stronger our desires to perform it. IV. THE ATTAINMENT OF RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE IS THE SOURCE OF PURE AND ELEVATED ENJOYMENT. Of all the prospective emotions the desire of knowledge is the most exalted. The pleasures of intellect transcend those of sense. How much purer and higher the felicity consequent on advances in the knowledge of God. The veriest infant in the school of Christ finds his understanding satisfied, his heart filled with love at the discovery of every new principle in the Word of God. V. RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE WIDENS THE SPHERE OF CHRISTIAN USEFULNESS. A well-informed Christian possesses a weight of character and a power of moral feeling, which exert the best influence. Such a man is always ready for action. If the spirit of His master rests upon him in proportion to his intellectual attainments, he will instruct the ignorant, etc. The Church has sustained no small detriment from the ignorance of good men. VI. THE CHARACTER OF OUR AGE FURNISHES A REASON FOR SOLICITUDE IN RELATION TO THE DOCTRINES OF THE BIBLE. There is a strange apathy to the truth. It is an age of business, and not of investigation. Conclusion: 1. Ministers ought not to be reproached for instructive preaching, and for not yielding to the demand for sensationalism. 2. The love of truth is the conclusive test of Christian character. 3. Rest not in intellectual attainments in religion. (Gardiner Spring, D. D.) I. ADVANCED KNOWLEDGE is derived from — 1. Experience. 2. Attentive study of — (1) (2) (3) (4) II. MORAL PERCEPTION. 1. Results from the full exertion of every moral sense.(1) There are many things in Christian life which cannot be formulated, but must be felt to be known.(2) Grace awakens the moral senses. Love makes them delicately sensitive to spiritual things. Christian life appeals to them. Experience comes in the exercise of them.(3) This experience produces a profounder knowledge and a deeper love by intensifying spiritual perceptions, because — 2. It is a medium of communication with the unseen and eternal. 3. As a medium of communication with God it makes the soul superior to, and independent of, the senses. When these close at eventide, the moral senses only open wider for the morning sun. 4. It robes the soul with a halo of light more assuring and glorious than "the glory cloud" emitted. 5. It imparts to the soul that delicate tact and instinct which almost instinctively perceives what is right, and almost unconsciously shrinks from what is wrong. 6. It is indestructible by death, and shall be an imperishable avenue for the soul's perpetual advance in knowledge. (G. G. Ballard.) (J. Hutchinson, D. D.) (Webster and Wilkinson.) (W. B. Pope, D. D.) (J. Hutchinson, D. D.) (Bp. Simpson) (C. H. Spurgeon.) (R. Johnstone, LL. B.) (A. J. Gordon.) (A. J. Gordon.) 4813 depth 5815 confusion 5904 maturity, spiritual December 12. "To Abide in the Flesh is More Needful for You, and Having this Confidence, I Know that I Shall Abide" (Phil. I. 24, 25). Twenty Second Sunday after Trinity Paul's Thanks and Prayers for Churches. Walking Worthily Loving Greetings A Prisoner's Triumph A Strait Betwixt Two Citizens of Heaven A Comprehensive Prayer The Good Man's Life and Death Paul's Desire to Depart 7Th Day. Sanctifying Grace. Love and Discernment. Of the Desire after Eternal Life, and How Great Blessings are Promised to those who Strive The Death of the Righteous A Believer's Privilege at Death For There were Even in the Apostles' Times Some who Preached the Truth Not... The Master's Hand Therefore if Haply, which Whether it Can Take Place... Concerning Lowliness of Mind. Second Day. God's Provision for Holiness. Effects of Messiah's Appearance Divine Support and Protection Greeks Seek Jesus. He Foretells that He Shall Draw all Men unto Him. |
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