When Paul prayed for the Philippians what did He ask God to do? Interestingly, he didn’t pray about all the things we usually pray about – safety, protection, healing, prosperity. Instead, he focused exclusively on the spiritual growth of the saints in Philippi – their love, knowledge, discernment, sincerity, blamelessness, and fruit. I think we would be wise to do the same.
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Paul’s Prayer For Growth in Godliness
Philippians 1:9-11
When the apostle Paul picked up his pen to write the epistle to the Philippians, he was in chains in a Roman prison. During this imprisonment, he wrote the epistle to the Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon, as well as Philippians.
As he put pen to paper, Paul was not thinking about his own suffering and confinement. Rather, he was thinking about the Christians whom He loved in Philippi. He had already told them in verse 3 that he thanked God in all his remembrance of them. Then in verse 4 he said that he always offered prayer with joy in his every prayer for them. In verse 7 he told them that he had them in his heart. In verse 8 he called God as his witness how he longed for all of them with the affection of Christ Jesus.
Paul had a very special and close relationship to the Philippian believers. No other church was so faithful and generous to send Paul gifts to help him with his needs, so that he could devote himself to preaching and teaching the Word. Paul’s heart went out to them.
We see Paul’s love for the Philippians in the prayer he prayed for them in verses 9-11. We already know that Paul prayed for them constantly. But when he prayed for them, what did he pray? What was the content of his prayers for them? Well, this passage gives us the answer.
In short, Paul prayed that they would grow in godliness.
There are six things Paul prays that the Philippians will have in their lives: love, knowledge, discernment, sincerity, blamelessness, and fruit.
Let’s look at each of them in turn.
1. Love
Your Love. When Paul prayed for the Philippians, he didn’t pray that they would begin to love. He knew that they already loved. He said, “I pray that your love may abound still more and more.” Your love – there it is. They already loved, but Paul wanted it to abound still more and more. In fact, I’m convinced that a person can’t even be a Christian if he has no love. And let’s remember what Biblical love is. It is a self-sacrificial determination to do another good.
When Paul wrote to the churches he had planted, he often prayed that they would abound in love. In Ephesians 1:15 he wrote, “For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers.” Faith in Jesus and love for all the saints. These are the two hallmarks of a true believer – faith and love. If there is no faith and love, there is no true conversion. These are the initial marks of the work of the Spirit in the soul of the believer. So, Paul is not praying that the Philippians would start loving. He was praying that the love that they already possessed would grow, and abound, and overflow, more and more.
In other words, their love was not like a seed. Rather, it was like a seedling. It was a tiny little plant. That seed had sprouted, and there was evidence of life and growth in it.
A very good case can be made that love is the highest grace in the Christian’s life. If you had to rank faith, hope and love, how would you do it? What would be the greatest of them? Well, we might automatically assume that it would be faith. However, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:13, “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
Paul says in Colossians 3:14, “Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.”
Peter writes in 1 Peter 4:8, “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another.”
Love is at the pinnacle of all the other Christian graces and fruits of the Spirit. And, thankfully, it exists in some measure in all true born again believers.
May abound still more and more. Paul is happy that they possessed love for one another, but he wants that love to deepen and grow and abound and flourish in their lives more and more. The idea is that their love would “overflow.”
We should not be content that we have some love in our lives. We should desire and strive to see our love increasing and abounding.
That’s what Peter said in 2 Peter 1:5-8. Peter says, “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Notice that Peter mentions love last, after faith, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, and brotherly kindness. Love is the apex or pinnacle of the Christian life. And Peter says if love is increasing you are neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Do you want to be a useful Christian? Do you want to be a fruitful Christian? Then you must increase in love, as well as the other Christian graces. Think of that little seedling. Let’s say it is a tiny tomato plant. You take the seedling and put it into the ground, and then do everything you can to encourage its growth. You water it, and fertilize it, and put the cone around it to give it support, and make sure it has plenty of sunshine. So too, we should do everything we can to see our love abound still more and more.
Isn’t that what you want? Isn’t that what God wants? So, what are you doing so that that will happen?
2. Knowledge
The second thing Paul prays for is knowledge. Actually, he prays for “real knowledge.” The natural question arises, “real knowledge about what?” Interestingly the Greek word Paul uses here (epignosis) occurs 20 times in the New Testament, and always refers to knowledge of the things of God. Paul often uses this word in the beginning of his epistles. Take for example,
Ephesians 1:17, “praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.”
Colossians 1:9-10, “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”
There the word “epignosis” is found twice – the knowledge of His will, and the knowledge of God. It is also important to note that Paul wrote Ephesians and Colossians during the same imprisonment that he wrote Philippians, so when he uses “epignosis” to refer to the knowledge of God and His will there, I think we can safely assume he is referring to the same thing here in Philippians 1:9.
Therefore, I believe Paul is praying that the Philippians will have a greater knowledge of God and His will and ways. This has been my prayer for myself and the whole church as we have been studying the attributes of God. I have wanted all of us to know God better. Folks, that should be the chief pursuit of our lives! I enjoy learning. I know there are many people like that. But with all our learning, let’s make sure that we are getting to know God better and better. And that can’t happen just by reading the Bible alone. The Bible is extremely important in getting to know God, but if we are to know God experientially, we need to commune with Him, walk with Him, be in prayer to Him.
3. Discernment
All discernment. Discernment in the Christian life is linked with knowledge. The more knowledge we have, the more discerning we can be.
So that you may approve the things that are excellent. Now, what exactly did Paul mean by “discernment?” Well, he tells us. It is the ability to approve the things that are excellent. Many people can tell the difference between good and bad. But it takes real discernment to tell the difference between good and best. This discernment enables the person who has it to see and choose the best options (the excellent options) for their life.
There are many things in the Christian life that are not sin, but they are not the best choice for you. The writer to the Hebrews tells them in 12:1 to “lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Not only are we to lay aside every sin, but every encumbrance. An encumbrance is something which weighs you down, making it more difficult for you to win the race. Brothers and sisters, we are all running a Race – we call it the Christian life. And as you run this race you will have to make decisions about how you will spend your money, your time, your energy. We need discernment in order to approve and choose the excellent things, not just the neutral things.
You may have the option to binge on TV or Netflix movies, or spend some time in the Word, or meet with a Christian friend, or go for a prayer walk, or go out to intentionally spread the gospel. Now, watching TV or Netflix is not necessarily sinful. It may be neutral, but is it the best use of your time, energy, and gifts? That is what discernment is for.
You may have the option of spending your Sunday on the lake or at the beach, or gathering with God’s people to worship and edify one another. One option may not be sinful, but it may not be the excellent choice.
You may have the option of just enjoying the company of a non-Christian friend, and visiting about trivial things. Or you may decide that the excellent thing is to take the opportunity to speak to your friend about Christ. The first option is not sinful, but it may not be the excellent choice.
4. Sincerity
In order to be sincere. So, the reason Paul wanted them to possess all discernment was so that they would be able to make the excellent choices. And he wanted them to do that so that they would be sincere. Now, what did he mean by “sincere”?
There are a couple of passages that will help us understand his meaning.
2 Corinthians 2:17, “For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.” Now, what is Paul saying? He’s saying that he and his team were not like many others. They peddled the word of God. They spoke the Word, but not from pure motives. They were seeking to gain wealth through their speaking of the Word. That’s what it means to “peddle” something. It is to sell it. Perhaps they were charging for their ministry. I’m not sure. But one thing is for sure. Their motives were not for God’s glory and pleasure alone. They were seeking their own profit as well. They had mixed motives.
1 Corinthians 5:7-8, “Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” Paul, here, is comparing the Corinthian believers to the unleavened bread of the Passover. He says that Christ is our Passover, who was sacrificed for us. Then he tells us what that unleavened bread is like. It does not contain the leaven of malice and wickedness. Instead it contains sincerity and truth. So what is “sincerity” to Paul? It is something unmixed with evil. It speaks of purity of motive.
So, let me ask you, are your motives pure? When you serve in the church, or speak the gospel to the lost, are your motives pure? Do you do what you do so that God is pleased, or are other baser motivations mixed in as well? Do you serve because you want to please the Lord, but you also want others to think well of you? Do you sing and worship enthusiastically because you just love the Lord so much? Or do you also do so because you hope others notice and you will win their approval? Do you see how insidious insincerity can be in the Christian life? God wants you to live out the Christian life in sincerity.
5. Blamelessness
We could get the wrong impression here. We might think that Paul is praying that his readers would be so holy that there would be nothing that they could be blamed for. If that is what he meant, Paul must have believed in the doctrine of sinless perfection. And he didn’t.
However, the original Greek word did not mean a life that was so righteous that no one could attach blame to you at all. Rather, the Greek word means “not causing offense or stumbling.” Therefore, Paul is praying that his readers would not lead others into sin by their lifestyle.
This is something that Paul wrote about often. He said in 1 Corinthians 8:9, “But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” In the 13th verse he wrote, “Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.” In 1 Corinthians 10:32 he wrote, “Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God.”
And remember those sober words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 18:6, “but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!”
Until the day of Christ. Paul had used that same expression in verse 6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” What does Paul mean by it? Until the day when Christ returns. In other words, Paul is not praying that the Philippians would be sincere and blameless on a temporary basis. He is praying that their lives would be marked by sincerity and without offense from now until they die or Jesus returns.
Brothers and sisters, are you striving to live a blameless life, in the sense that you strive to never knowingly do anything that would cause another brother or sister to stumble in their faith, or lead them into sin? Do you care more about the spiritual health of your brothers and sisters than you do about indulging your own liberties? Are you willing to forego foods or drinks or other enjoyments, if it could lead to someone stumbling in their faith? That’s the thrust of Paul’s prayer here.
6. Fruit
Having been filled. The verb here is passive. That means that the Philippians are not the ones doing the action. They are being acted upon. They are not filling themselves with fruit. God has filled them with fruit. Jesus taught in John 15:4-5, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
With the fruit of righteousness. The fruit which God has filled the believer with is the fruit of righteous living. In other words, our righteous or holy lives are the fruit of God’s work in us.
Which comes through Jesus Christ. The only way we can bear the fruit of a righteous life is through Christ who lives in us. He is the righteous One, and if He lives in us, He will produce His righteousness through us. He is the vine, and the life that courses through the vine flows into the branches, producing the fruit of the vine. Friends, never make the mistake that the righteous deeds which flow from your life have their source in you. No, they have their source in Christ.
To the glory and praise of God. When the fruit of righteousness is produced in our lives, God receives glory and praise! Jesus said in John 15:8, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.”
Jesus taught in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” If we are living the way the Lord wants us to, when others see our good works, they won’t glorify us. They will glorify our Father.
Conclusion
Love – Knowledge – Discernment – Sincerity – Blamelessness – Fruit. These are the things that Paul prayed for the Philippians.
Is this the way you pray for your brothers and sisters? That’s the big question that surfaces from this text for me. When I see how Christians pray for others, what I observe is that they pray for protection from danger, and physical health. I constantly hear people praying that people will be healed, that they will have traveling mercies, that God would protect them from this or that danger. In these prayers the emphasis is on the physical and the material. And it is okay to pray for the physical and material needs. However, when I read the prayers of the apostle Paul, I don’t see that same emphasis. He is entirely taken up with His passionate pleadings for their spiritual health and growth in grace. When Paul prays for love, knowledge, discernment, sincerity, blamelessness and fruit, he has not uttered a single word about the physical and material. He is absorbed with their spiritual needs and desire for their spiritual progress. I think there is a valuable lesson here for all of us.
The next time you begin to pray for someone, think about Paul’s prayers, and model your prayers after his.
Is this what you desire for your own life? Do you want abounding love, real knowledge, all discernment, sincerity, blamelessness, and fruit? Those are the things that are of inestimable value! They are the things in life that we should desire most and strive after the hardest. May God help us to pursue the things that are His will for us. Let’s pray.
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