Philippians 1:9-10 (ESV)
[9] And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with
knowledge and all discernment, [10] so that you may approve what is excellent,
and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
Love ought to be the characteristic of believers in Jesus Christ but notice
that love is qualified. Paul’s desire for the Philippian believers is that they
love “with knowledge and discernment.” Today we tend to think that love allows
anything. If you do not approve of a person’s behavior you therefore do not
love them according to our common thinking today.
This of course is ludicrous if you think about it for even a short time. Not
loving parent would allow their child to play in the middle of a busy freeway. No
loving parent would allow their children to climb inside the Zoo enclosure of a
dangerous animal just because they want to. That’s not love. That is criminal.
Love must always be with knowledge and discernment.
God’s standards for our lives are there because he loves us. He knows how he
designed and created us. He knows how we are designed to function. He knows
what is bad for us. His command in the Garden of Eden was not just a random
rule because he likes to make rules. It was designed to protect Adam and Eve. All
the violence, anger, and divisiveness in our world is the result that he knew
would occur. The rule was for their good. When God changed people’s language
and divided them at the Tower of Babel some might see that as heavy handed and
unloving, but it was for their good. It slowed the expansion of evil and
violence by limiting their ability to communicate
Love does not indiscriminately allow anything. It must always be qualified
by knowledge and discernment. The problem is that when those we love make
decisions that we know are not in their best interest we too often respond with
anger and rejection. It should break our hearts to see them making these
decisions. We don’t approve of their actions, but we love them. We don’t change
our view of morality to make them feel better, but we never stop caring. We don’t
approve of their behavior, but neither do we cut them off, stop praying for
them, or stop being concerned for them.
Love is not love without knowledge and discernment. Notice that the goal of
love with knowledge and discernment is to “approve what is excellent and so be
pure and blameless for the day of Christ.” So let’s stop being angry and let’s
start actually loving with the love of Christ.
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