Your Daily Devotional for April 17, 2006

April 17, 2006

 

A Discerning Love

by Dr. Paul Chappell

 

“And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;”

 

Philippians 1:9

 

There has never been a time in church history where God’s people should be encouraging and loving one another more than today. We’re living in a time of unprecedented difficulty. In our world, people are being martyred for the cause of Christ. People are laying down their lives for their faith. We see folks on every side that need encouragement.

 

In our text, the Apostle Paul exhorts the church at Philippi to love in “knowledge and in all judgment.” This is a kind of love that is guarded by spiritual discernment that can only come through prayer and the Word of God. God wants us to abound in love, but He also wants us to be able to distinguish truth from falsehood. With so many issues facing the church, we must try the spirits as never before. We need God’s help to determine what we should accept and what we should reject.

 

What does it mean for us to “abound” in love? Picture a river being fed by continual rains. Pretty soon, the river would form tributaries. We are to love this way. But just as a river has a bank on either side, we should be aware that there are boundaries or guidelines to Christian love. A love without biblical restraint is a love that’s not pleasing to God. A kind of love that doesn’t allow us to live a blameless life is not the love that Paul speaks about in this passage.

 

The discernment factor lies in the two words “knowledge” and “judgment.” The ability to discern is a mark of spiritual maturity. Ephesians 5:17 says, “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” Knowledge is understanding. It is the ability that comes from prayer and reading God’s Word, to sometimes read between the lines, to understand situations, to distinguish right from wrong.

 

Judgment can be defined as perception. Be careful that in your loving spirit, you do not embrace false teaching or enter into a relationship that would be detrimental to your Christian walk. Having a spirit of judgment doesn’t mean we go around judging others and thinking we’re better than anyone else. It doesn’t mean being self-righteous. Self-righteousness is simply an attitude of superiority based on performance or accomplishments. Because we endeavor to exercise discernment, fundamental churches nowadays are accused of being proud or self-righteous by their enemies.

 

God is desirous of His children to abound in love, but guided with the principles of knowledge and judgment. If we are to love the Philippians 1:9 way, we need to go before the Lord and ask for His wisdom and guidance. First Thessalonians 3:12 says, “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you.”

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