Love, Knowledge, Prayer

Phil 1:9-11 (NIV)
9And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

We have a guest speaker today from Seremban Chinese Methodist Church. He spoke on Love, Knowledge and Prayer from the Phil 1:9-11 text. Some interesting points:

- There is certainly space in our lives to grow. There is definitely space in our lives to increase in substance.
- In the passage, Paul is not really praying for love only but that the Philippians would have the ability to discern what is best for them. We not only go for what is right but what is best. Being human, we do not go for the right or the best naturally, we have to purposefully work for it.
- It is also not enough to just love but it has to grow more and more in knowledge and depth of insight; this knowledge refers to the knowledge and insight of the Word of God.
- If love is limited, not pure and not according to the knowledge and discernment that comes from God, it is not complete and would cause problems.
- We should not only choose the faith but seek to know the God behind the faith. We should not only choose to do what is right but seek to do what pleases God. We are not only to discern between right and wrong but to live a godly and full life in Christ.
- We must always ask ourselves what is behind every choice that we make.
- In short, our love must abound, knowledge must guide and prayer must be our foundation.

Maeghan
Picture by Ijsendoorn