And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1: 9-11, NKJV).
Gracious God, in the name of Your Son Jesus Christ I pray that Your Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth as we come into Your Presence seeking Your guidance in the study of the Holy Scriptures. This I ask in the blessed name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
This prayer of the apostle Paul for the church at Philippi is a mighty and complete prayer. It includes several very important elements that are vital for living a victorious Christian life.
In chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians, Paul begins by telling the members of the church at Corinth about the more excellent gift of love. In this letter to the Philippians Paul is praying that their love may abound more and more in knowledge that they may approve the things that are excellent. In the first part of chapter 13 to the Corinthians he speaks about the futility of trying to live the Christian life and exercising the spiritual gifts without having love. Among the gifts that he mentioned was knowledge “having all knowledge”.
I see a similitude between this prayer and the letter of the apostle Paul to the church at Corinth. He is praying that the love of the members at Philippi “may abound still more and more in knowledge”. There again is that need for love to be the motivating force in their lives. Why? Let us look for a few minutes at the reasons Paul gives:
“That you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ[.]” I can understand when Paul says “that you may be sincere” because in his letter to the church at Corinth he makes it very clear that unless love is what motivates our actions we are just “gonging and clanging” (making noise). In heaven’s eyes all of these loveless efforts will be worth “nothing.”
But what about without offense? How do our lack of love cause offense to others? Could it be the way we perform these acts of love? Doing without feeling? Can people distinguish between an act that is prompted by love and one that is done simply out of duty? Do they see it as an act of condescension and therefore take offense?
All of the above is possible. Nevertheless I saw the reason as deeper than this. So I did a word search and found that the meaning for the phrase without offense is: “not leading into sin;” “faultless,” “not led into sin[,]” “not causing to stumble. There were other similar definitions. These definitions made some of the reasons I had thought of before seem more relevant. But what convinced me more than anything else that there was more depth to the phrase than is evident at a glance was the phrase that followed: till the day of Christ. The reaction to loveless deeds have eternal consequences for good or evil!
We will continue this conversation.