_THE APOSTLE'S MIND ABOUT THE PHILIPPIANS._
After the salutation, the first thing in the Epistle is a warm utterance
of the feelings and the desires which Paul habitually cherishes in
relation to his converts at Philippi. This is expressed vv. 3-11.
* * * * *
Note the course of thought. In ver. 3 he declares his thankfulness and
in ver. 4 his prayerfulness on their behalf; and he puts these two
together, without as yet saying why he thanks and what he prays for. He
puts them together, because he would mark that with him these are not
two separate things; but his prayer is thankful, and his thankfulness is
prayerful; and then, having so much to be thankful for, his prayers
became, also, joyful. The reason why, he presently explains more
particularly. For, ver. 5, he had to thank God, joyfully, for their
fellowship in the gospel in the past; and then, ver. 6, knowing to what
this pointed forward, he could pray joyfully--that is, with joyful
expectation for the future. And thus he prepares the way for telling
what special things he was led to pray for; but first he interposes
vv. 7 and 8, to vindicate, as it were, the right he had to feel so warm
and deep an interest in his Philippian friends. The matter of his prayer
follows in vv. 9-11.
First he thanks God for grace bestowed upon the Philippians. As often as
he remembered them, as often as he lifted up his heart in prayer to make
request for them, he was cheered with the feeling that he could make
request joyfully--_i.e._, he could rejoice over mercies already given.
We know that the Apostle, in his letters to the Churches, is found
always ready to evince the same spirit; he is prompt to pour out his
thanks for anything attained by those Churches, either in gifts or
grace. We find it so in his letters to the Churches of Corinth and
Ephesus and Colossæ and Thessalonica. He does this, always, in a full
and hearty way. He evidently counted it both duty and privilege to take
note of what God had wrought, and to show that he prized it. Like John,
he had no greater joy than to hear that his children walked in the
truth; and he gave the glory of it to God in thanksgiving. In the case
of this Church, however, the ground of thanksgiving was something that
bound them to Paul in a peculiar manner, and touched his heart with a
glow of tenderer love and gladness. It was, ver. 5, "their fellowship in
the gospel (or rather, unto the gospel) from the first day until now."
He means, that from their first acquaintance with the gospel, the
Philippian Christians had, with unusual heartiness and sincerity,
committed themselves to the cause of the gospel. They had made it their
own cause. They had embarked in it as a fellowship to which they gave
themselves heart and soul. There might be Churches, more distinguished
for gifts than that of Philippi was, where less of this magnanimous
spirit appeared. There might be Churches, where men seemed to be
occupied with their own advantage by the gospel, their individual and
separate advantage, but withheld themselves from the fellowship unto
it,--did not readily commit themselves to it and to each other, as
embarking wholly and for ever in the common cause. This misconception,
this servility of spirit, is but too easy. You may have whole Churches,
in which men are full of self-congratulation about attainments they make
in the gospel, and gifts they receive by the gospel, and doctrines they
build up about it--but the loving "fellowship unto it" fails. A large
measure of a better spirit had been given to the Philippians from the
first. They were a part of those Macedonian Churches, who "first gave
their own selves" to the Lord and His Apostles, and then also their help
and service. It was an inward fellowship before it was an outward one.
They first gave their own selves, so that their hearts were mastered by
the desire to see the ends of the gospel achieved, and then came service
and sacrifice. Trials and losses had befallen them in this course of
service; but still they are found caring for the gospel, for their
brethren in the gospel, for their father in the gospel, for the cause of
the gospel. This fellowship--this readiness to make common cause with
the gospel, out and out, had begun at the first day; and after trouble
and trial it continued even until now.
The disposition here commended has its importance, very much because it
implies so just a conception of the genius of the gospel, and so hearty
a consent to it. He whose Christianity leads him to band himself with
his fellow-Christians, to get good by their help, and to help them to
get good, and along with them to do good as opportunity arises, is a man
who believes in the work of the gospel as a vital social force; he
believes that Christ is in his members; he believes that there are
attainments to be made, victories won, benefits laid hold of and
appropriated. He is in sympathy with Christ, for he is attracted by the
expectation of great results coming in the line of the gospel; and he is
one who looks not merely on his own things, but rejoices to feel that
his own hope is bound up with a great hope for many and for the world.
Such a man is near the heart of things. He has, in important respects,
got the right notion of Christianity, and Christianity has got the right
hold of him.
Now if we consider that the Apostle Paul, "the slave of Jesus Christ,"
was himself a marvellous embodiment of the spirit he is here commending
to the Philippians, we shall easily understand with what satisfaction he
thought upon this Church, and rejoiced over them, and gave thanks. Was
there ever a man who, more than Paul, evinced "the fellowship of the
gospel" from the first hour to the last? Was there ever one whose
personal self was more swallowed up and lost, in his zeal to be spent
for the cause,--doing all things for the gospel's sake that he might
have part therein? Did ever man, more than he, welcome sufferings,
sacrifices, toils, if they were for Christ, for the gospel? Was man ever
possessed more absolutely than he with a sense of the worthiness of the
gospel to be proclaimed everywhere, to every man--and with a sense of
the right the gospel had to himself, as Jesus Christ's man, the man that
should be used and expended on nothing else but upholding this cause,
and proclaiming this message to all kinds of sinners? The one great
object with him was that Christ should be magnified in him, whether by
life or by death (ver. 20). His heart, therefore, grew glad and thankful
over a Church that had so much of this same spirit, and, for one thing,
showed this by cleaving to him in their hearts through all the
vicissitudes of his work, and following him everywhere with their
sympathy and their prayers. Some Churches were so much occupied with
themselves, and had so little understanding of him, that he was obliged
to write to them at large, setting forth the true spirit and manner of
his own life and service; he had, as it were, to open their eyes by
force to see him as he was. This was not needed here: the Philippians
understood him already: they did so, because, in a degree, they had
caught the contagion of his own spirit. They had given themselves, in
their measure, in a fellowship unto the gospel, from the first day
until now. They had claimed, and they still claimed, to have a share in
all that befell the gospel, and in all that befell the Apostle.
Paul ascribed all this to God's grace in them, and thanked God for it.
True, indeed, much activity about the gospel, and much that looks like
interest in its progress, may proceed from other causes besides a living
fellowship with Jesus, and a true disposition to forsake all for Him.
The outward activity may be resorted to as a substitute for the inward
life; or it may express the spirit of sectarian selfishness. But when it
appears as a consistent interest in the gospel, when it is accompanied
by the tokens of frank goodwill and free self-surrender to the Church's
evangelical life, when it endures through vicissitudes of time, under
trial, persecution, and reproach, it must arise, in the main, from a
real persuasion of the Divine excellence and power of the gospel and the
Saviour. Not without the grace of God does any Church manifest this
spirit.
Now to the Apostle who had this cause of gladness in the past, there
opened (ver. 6) a gladdening prospect for the future, which at once
deepened his thankfulness and gave expectancy to his prayers. "Being
confident of this very thing, that He that hath begun a good work in you
will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ." "Being confident of this
very thing" is equivalent to "Having no less confidence than this"; for
he desires to express that his confidence is emphatic and great.
The confidence so expressed assumes a principle, and makes application
of that principle to the Philippian saints.
The principle is that the work of saving grace clearly begun by the
Spirit of God shall not be destroyed and come to nothing, but shall be
carried on to complete salvation. This principle is not received by all
Christians as part of the teaching of Scripture; but without entering
now into any large discussion, it may be pointed out that it seems to be
recognised, not merely in a few, but in many passages of Holy Writ. Not
to recite Old Testament indications, we have our Lord's word (John x.
28): "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." And there is hardly an
Epistle of our Apostle in which the same principle is not presented to
us, stated in express terms, or assumed in stating other doctrines, and
applied to the comfort of believers (1 Thess. v. 23, 24; 1 Cor. i. 8;
Rom. viii. 30). The ultimate salvation of those in whom a good work is
begun, is, in this view, conceived to be connected with the stability of
God's purposes, the efficacy of the Son's mediation, the permanence and
power of the Holy Spirit's influence, and the nature of the covenant
under which believers are placed. And the perseverance thus provided for
is supposed to be made good through the faith, patience, fear, and
diligence of those who persevere, and by no means without these. As to
the place before us, whatever exceptions and whatever distinctions may
be taken on the subject, it must be owned that, gladly recognising
Christian character and attainment as a fact, he finds therein a warrant
for emphatic confidence about the future, even to the day of Christ.
As to the application of this principle to the Philippians, the method
in which the Apostle proceeds is plain. He certainly does not speak as
by immediate insight into Divine counsels about the Philippians. He is
directed to utter a conclusion at which he had arrived by a process
which he explains. From the evidence of the reality of their Christian
calling, he drew the conclusion that Christ was at work in them, and the
further conclusion that this work would be completed. It may be asked
how so confident an application of the principle now in view could be
reached on these terms? How could the Apostle be sure enough of the
inward state of his Philippian friends, to enable him to reason on it,
as here he seems to do? In answer, we grant it to be impossible for any
one, without immediate revelation on the point, to reach absolute
assurance about the spiritual state of other people. And therefore we
are to keep in view, what has already been suggested, that the Apostle,
speaking to "saints," really remits to themselves and to their Lord the
final question as to the reality of that apparent saintship. But then,
we are taught by the Apostle's example that where ordinary tokens, and
especially where more than ordinary tokens of Christian character
appear, we are frankly and gladly to give effect to those signs in our
practical judgments. There may be an error, no doubt there is, in
unbounded charity; but there is error also when we make a grudging
estimate of Christian brethren; when, on the ground of some failing, we
allow suspicion to obliterate the impressions which their Christian
faith and service might fairly have made upon us. We are to cherish the
thought that a wonderful future is before those in whom Christ is
carrying on His work of grace; and we are to make a loving application
of that hope in the case of those whose Christian dispositions have
become specially manifest to us in the intercourse of Christian
friendship.
However, the Apostle felt that he had a special right to feel thus in
reference to the Philippians--more, perhaps, than in regard to others;
and instead of going on at once to specify the objects of his prayers
for them, he interposes a vindication, as it were, of the right he
claimed (ver. 7): "Even as it is meet for me to be thus minded with
respect to all of you, because I have you in my heart, you who are all
partakers of my grace, not only in the defence and confirmation of the
gospel, but also in my bonds." As if he would say,--There are special
ties between us, which justify on my part special tenderness and
vigilance of appreciation and approbation, when I think of you. A father
has a special right to take note of what is hopeful in his son, and to
dwell with satisfaction on his virtues and his promise; and friends who
have toiled and suffered together have a special right to cherish a
deep trust in one another's well-tried fidelity and nobleness. Let
strangers, in such cases, set, if they will, a slight value on
characters which they hardly know; but let them not dispute the right
which love has to scrutinise with delight the nobler qualities of those
who are beloved.
The Philippians were sharers of Paul's grace, as sharing his enthusiasm
for the successful advocacy and confirmation of the gospel. So they had
their share in the grace that was so mighty in him. But besides that,
the Apostle's heart had been cheered and warmed by the manifestation of
their sympathy, their loving thoughtfulness in reference to his bonds.
So he joyfully owned them as partakers in spirit in those bonds, and in
the grace by which he endured them. They remembered him in his bonds,
"as bound with him." Every way their fellowship with him expressed
itself as full and true. No jarring element broke in to mar the happy
sense of this. He could feel that though far away their hearts beat
pulse for pulse with his, partakers not only of his toil but of his
bonds. So he "had them in his heart": his heart embraced them with no
common warmth and yielded to them no common friendship. And what then?
Why then "it is meet that I should be thus minded," "should use love's
happy right to think very well of you, and should let the evidence of
your Christian feeling come home to my heart, warm and glowing." It was
meet that Paul should joyfully _repute them to be sincere_--to be men
cleaving to the gospel in a genuine love of it. It was meet that he
should _thank_ God in their behalf, seeing these happy attainments of
theirs were so truly a concern of his. It was meet he should _pray_ for
them with joyful importunity, counting their growth in grace to be a
benefit also to himself.
It would be a helpful thing if Christian friends cherished, and if they
sometimes expressed, warm hopes and expectations in behalf of one
another. Only, let this be the outcome of truly spiritual affection.
Paul was persuaded that his feelings arose from no mere human impulse.
The grace of God it was which had given the Philippians this place in
his heart. God was his record that his longing after them was great, and
also that it was in the mercies of Christ. He loved them as a man in
Christ, and with Christlike affections. Otherwise, words like these
assume a canting character, and are unedifying.
Now at last comes the tenor of his prayer (ver. 9): "That your love may
abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; so that ye
may approve the things that are excellent," and so on.
Let this first be noted, that it is a prayer for growth. All that grace
has wrought in the Philippian believers, everything in their state that
filled his heart with thankfulness, he regards as the beginning of
something better still. For this he longs; and therefore his heart is
set on progress. So we find it in all his Epistles. "As ye have received
how ye ought to walk and to please God--so abound more" (1 Thess. iv.
1). This is a very familiar thought, yet let us spend a sentence or two
upon it. The spiritual prosperity of believers should be measured not so
much by the point they have reached, but by the fact and measure of the
progress they are making. Progress in likeness to Christ, progress in
following Him; progress in understanding His mind and learning His
lessons; progress ever from the performance and the failures of
yesterday to the new discipline of to-day,--this is Paul's Christianity.
In this world our condition is such that the business of every believer
is to go forward. There is room for it, need of it, call to it,
blessedness in it. For any Christian, at any stage of attainment, to
presume to stand still, is perilous and sinful. A beginner that is
pressing forward is a happier and a more helpful Christian than he is
who has come to a stand, though the latter may seem to be on the borders
of the land of Beulah. The first may have his life marred by much
darkness and many mistakes; but the second is for the present
practically denying the Christian truth and the Christian call, as these
bear on himself. Therefore the Apostle is bent upon progress. And here
we have his account of that which suggested itself to him as the best
kind of progress for these converts of his.
The life of their souls, as he conceived it, depended on the operation
of one great principle, and he prays for the increase of that in
strength and efficacy. He desires that their love may abound more and
more. He was glad to think they had shown, all along, a loving
Christian spirit. He wished it to grow to its proper strength and
nobleness.
No one doubts that, according to the Scriptures, love is the practical
principle by which the fruits of faith are brought forth. The Christian
character peculiarly consists in a Christlike love. The sum of the law
from which we fell is, Thou shalt love; and, being redeemed in Christ,
we find the end of the commandment to be love, out of a pure heart, and
a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. Redemption itself is a process
of love, setting forth from heaven to earth to create and kindle love,
and make it triumph in human hearts and lives. Every one that loveth is
born of God and knoweth God. No point is so well settled. Nobody doubts
it.
Yet, alas! how many of us are truly aware of the great meaning which
apostolic words, which Christ's words, carry, when this is spoken of? or
how shall it be made inwardly and vividly present to us? In the heart of
Christ, who loved us and gave Himself for us, was a great purpose to
awaken in human hearts a deep and strong affection, kindred to His
own--true, tender, steadfast, all-prevailing, all-transforming.
Apostles, catching the fire in their degree, were full of the wonder of
it, of the glad surprise and yet the sober reality of it; and they
carried about the gospel everywhere, looking to see men thrill into this
new life, and become instances of its strength and gladness. And we?
Let each man answer for himself. He is a happy man who can answer
clearly. What is it to have love for the inspiration of the heart and
the life: love submerging the lower cravings, love ennobling and
expanding all that is best and highest, love consecrating life into a
glad and endless offering? Which of us has that within him which could
break into a song, like the thirteenth chapter of Corinthians, rejoicing
in the goodness and nobleness of love? "That your love may abound." In
our tongue it is but one syllable. So much the easier for our perversity
to slide over the meaning as we read. But all our earthly life is too
short a space for learning how deep and how pertinent to ourselves this
business of love is.
No doubt, the kindness the Philippians had shown to the Apostle, of
which he had been speaking, naturally prepares the way for speaking of
their love, as the verse before us does. But we are not to take the word
as referring only to the love they might bear to other believers, or, in
particular, to the Apostle. That is in the Apostle's mind; but his
reference is wider, namely, to love as a principle which operates
universally--which first holds lowly fellowship with the love of God,
and then also flows out in Christian affection towards men. The Apostle
does not distinguish these, because he will not have us to separate
them. The believer has been brought back in love to God, and having his
life quickened from that source he loves men. The manward aspect of it
is made prominent in the Bible for this reason, that in love towards
men the exercise of this affection finds the most various scope, and in
this way also it is most practically tested. The Apostle would not grant
to any of us that our profession of love to God could be genuine, if
love did not exert itself towards men. But neither would he suffer it to
be restricted in the other direction. In the present case he gladly
owned the love which his Philippian friends bore to himself. But he sees
in this the existence of a principle which may signalise its energy in
all directions, and is able to bear all kinds of good fruit. Therefore
his prayer fixes on this, "that your love may abound."
Now here we must look narrowly into the drift of the prayer. For the
Apostle desires that love may abound and work in a certain manner, and
if it shall, he assures himself of excellent effects to follow. Perhaps
we may best see the reason which guided his prayer, if we begin with the
result or achievement he aimed at for his Philippian friends. If we can
understand that, we may the better understand the road by which he hoped
they might be carried forward to it.
The result aimed at is this (vv. 10, 11): "that ye may be sincere and
without offence until the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of
righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of
God." The last end is the glory and praise of God. This, let us be
assured, is no mere phrase with the Apostle. All these things are real
and vivid to him. If he were to come among us, knowing us to be
professed believers, then, strange as some of us may think it, he would
actually expect that a great degree of praise and glory to God should
accrue out of our lives. The time he fixes on for the manifestation of
this, the time when it should be seen how this has come to pass, is the
day of Christ. That great day of revealing shall witness, in particular,
the consummate glory of Christ's salvation in His redeemed. And he prays
that unto that day and at that day they may be sincere, without offence,
filled with fruits of righteousness.
_First_, sincere: that signifies simplicity of purpose, and singleness
of heart in following out that purpose. Sincere Christians cherish in
their hearts no views, no principles, adverse to the Christian calling.
The test of this sincerity is that a man shall be honestly willing to
let light shine through him, to evince the true character of his
principles and motives. Such a man is on the road to the final,
victorious, and eternal sincerity. For the present there may be within
him too much of that which hinders him, and mars his life. But if he is
set on expelling this, and welcomes the light which exposes it, in order
that he may expel it, then he has a real, present sincerity, and his
course is brightening towards the perfect day.
_Second_, without offence. This is the character of the man who walks
without stumbling. For there are obstacles in the way, and they are
often unexpected. Grant a man to be in a measure sincere--the call of
the gospel has really won his heart. Yet as he goes, there fall in
trials, temptations, difficulties, that seem to come upon him from
without, as it were, and he stumbles: he fails to preserve the
uprightness of his life, and to keep his eye fixed with due steadiness
on the end of his faith. Suddenly, before he is well aware, he is almost
down. So he brings confusion into his mind, and guilt upon his
conscience; and in his bewilderment he is too likely to make worse
stumbles ere long. He who would be a prosperous Christian has not only
to watch against duplicity in the heart: he must give diligence also to
deal wisely with the various outward influences which strike into our
lives, which seem often to do so cruelly and unreasonably, and which
wear some false guise that we had not foreseen. Paul knew this in his
own case; and therefore he "studied to keep a conscience void of
offence." We may have wisdom enough for our own practice as to this, if
we know where to go for it.
_Third_, filled with fruits of righteousness--which is the positive
result, associated with the absence of guile and the freedom from
stumbling. A tree that bears any fruit is alive. But one that is filled
with fruit glorifies the gardener's care. "Herein is My Father
glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples."
Distinct and manifold acts of faith and patience are the proper
testimonies of the soul that is sincere and without offence.
This is the line of things which the Apostle desires to see running its
course towards the day of Christ. Now let us ask, In what circumstances
is the believer placed for whom Paul desires it?
He is placed in a world that is full of adverse influences, and is apt
to stir adverse forces in his own heart. If he allows these influences
to have their way--if he yields to the tendencies that operate around
him, he will be carried on in a direction quite different from that
which Paul contemplates. Instead of sincerity, there will be the
tainted, corrupt, divided heart; instead of freedom from offence, there
will be many a fall, or even a complete forsaking of the way; instead of
fruits of righteousness filling the life, there will be "wild grapes."
On the other hand, if, in spite of these influences, the Christian is
enabled to hold his course, then the discipline of conflict and trial
will prove full of blessing. Here also shall the promise be fulfilled
that all things work together for good to them that love God. Strong
temptations are not overcome without sorrow and pain; but being
overcome, they turn out ministers of good. In this experience sincerity
clears and deepens; and the bearing of the Christian acquires a firmness
and directness not otherwise attainable; and the fruits of righteousness
acquire a flavour which no other climate could have developed so well.
This hard road turns out to be the best road towards the day of Christ.
The effect, then, of the circumstances in which the believer is thus
placed will be according to the way in which he deals with them. But
plainly, to deal rightly with them, implies a constant effort of JUDGING
the things within him and without him, the world within and the world
without, that he may "approve what is more excellent"--that he may
choose the good and refuse the evil. Discerning, distinguishing, as to
opinions, influences, feelings, habits, courses of conduct, and so
forth, so as to separate right and wrong, spiritual and carnal, true and
false, must be the work in hand. There must be the prevailing practical
mind to elect and to abide by the proper objects of choice, to cleave to
the one and to put away the other.
So we can understand very well, if the Philippians were to be sincere,
without offence, filled with fruits of righteousness, that they must,
and ever more and more searchingly and successfully, "approve the things
that are more excellent." The phrase is also rendered "try the things
which differ"; for the expression implies both. It implies such a
putting to proof of that which is presented to us, as to make just
distinctions and give to each its proper place--silver on the one side,
dross on the other. What is the whole life and business of the
Philippians, of any Christians, as Christians, but that of following out
perpetually a choice, on given principles, among the multitude of
objects that claim their regard? The fundamental choice, arrived at in
believing, has to be reiterated continually, in a just application of it
to a world of varying and sometimes perplexing cases.
When we have all this in view it is easy to understand the scope of the
Apostle's prayer about the growth and education of their love. _Out of
love this needed discrimination must come._ For
1. No practical discriminations or determinations are of any worth in
God's sight except as they are animated by love, and, indeed, determined
by it. If a Christian should choose anything, or reject anything, yet
not in love, his choice as to the matter of fact may be right, but for
all that the man himself is wrong.
2. Love alone will practically carry through such habitual
discrimination, such faithful and patient choice. Love becomes the new
instinct which gives life, spring, and promptitude to the process. When
this fails, the life of approving the things that are more excellent
will fail; the task will be repudiated as a burden that cannot be
endured. It may still be professed, but it must inwardly die.
3. Nothing but love can enable us to see and to affirm the true
distinctions. Under the influence of that pure love (that arises in the
heart which God's love has won and quickened) the things which differ
are truly seen. So, and only so, we shall make distinctions according to
the real differences as these appear in God's sight. Let us consider
this a little.
Evidently among the things that differ there are some whose
characteristics are so plainly written in conscience or in Scripture,
that to determine what should be said of them is matter of no difficulty
at all. It is no matter of difficulty to decide that murder and theft
are wrong, or that meekness, benevolence, justice are right. A man who
has never been awakened to spiritual life, or a Christian whose love has
decayed, can make determinations about such things, and can be sure, as
he does so, that as to the thing itself he is judging right. Yet in this
case there is no just apprehension of the real difference in God's sight
of the things that differ, nor a right mind and heart to choose or to
reject so as to be in harmony with God's judgment.
And if so, then in that large class of cases where there is room for
some degree of doubt or diversity, where some mist obscures the view, so
that it is not plain at once into what class things should be
reckoned--in cases where we are not driven to a decision by a blaze of
light from Scripture or conscience--in such cases we need the impulse of
the love which cleaves to God, which delights in righteousness, which
gives to others, even to the undeserving, the brother's place in the
heart. Without this there can be no detection of the real difference,
and no assurance of the rectitude of the discrimination we make.
Now it is in such matters that the especial proof and exercise of
religious life goes on. Here, for example, Lot failed. The beauty of the
fair and prosperous valley so filled his soul with admiration and
desire, that it chilled and all but killed the affections that should
have steadied and raised his mind. Had the love of the eternal and
supreme maintained its power, then in that day when God on the one hand
and Lot on the other looked down on the plain, they would have seen the
same sight and judged it with the same mind. But it was otherwise. So
the Lord lifted up His eyes and saw that the men of Sodom were wicked
and sinners before the Lord exceedingly; and Lot lifted up his eyes and
saw only that the plain was well watered everywhere, as the garden of
the Lord, as the land of Egypt.
But the love of which the Apostle speaks is the breath of the upper
world and of the new life. It cleaves to God, it embraces the things
which God loves, it enters into the views which God reveals,--and it
takes the right view of men, and of men's interest and welfare. The man
that has it, or has known it, is therein aware of what is most material.
He has a notion of the conduct that is congruous to love's nature. What
love knows, it is the nature of love to practise, for it knows lovingly;
and at every step the practice confirms, establishes, and enlarges the
knowledge. So the genuine growth of love is a growth in knowledge (ver.
9)--the word implies the kind of knowledge that goes with intently
looking into things: love, as it grows, becomes more quick to see and
mark how things really are when tried by the true standard. Conversing
practically with the mind of God in the practice of life, love
incorporates that mind and judges in the light of it. This prepares a
man to detect the false and counterfeit, and to try the things that
differ.
Not only in knowledge shall love grow, but "in all discernment," or
perception, as it might be rendered. There may be instances in which,
with our best wisdom, we find it hard to disentangle clear principles,
or state plain grounds which rule the case; yet love, growing and
exercised, has its percipiency: it has that accomplished tact, that
quick experienced taste, that fine sensibility to what befriends and
what opposes truth and right, which will lead to right distinctions in
practice. So you discriminate by the sense of taste things that differ,
though you can give no reason to another, but can only say, "I perceive
it." In this sense "he that is spiritual judgeth all things."
For all this the aid of the Holy Spirit is held out to us, as we may see
in 1 John ii. He makes love to grow, and under that master influence
unfolds the needed wisdom also. So comes the wisdom "from above, which
is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of
mercy and of good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy"
(James iii. 17). It is hidden from many wise and prudent, but God has
often revealed it unto babes.
_HOW THE PHILIPPIANS SHOULD THINK OF PAUL AT ROME._
"Now I would have you know, brethren, that the things which
happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the progress of the
gospel; so that my bonds became manifest in Christ throughout the
whole prætorian guard, and to all the rest; and that most of the
brethren in the Lord, being confident through my bonds, are more
abundantly bold to speak the word of God without fear. Some indeed
preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:
the one do it of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the
gospel: but the other proclaim Christ of faction, not sincerely,
thinking to raise up affliction for me in my bonds. What then? only
that in every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is
proclaimed; and therein I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. For I
know that this shall turn to my salvation, through your
supplication and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
according to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing shall
I be put to shame, but that with all boldness, as always, so now
also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life, or by
death."--PHIL. i. 12-20 (R.V.).