Philippians 1:9-10

NASB	NLT	VOICE
9 And this I pray, that your love may overflow still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,	9 I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding.	9 Here’s what I pray for you: Father, may their love grow more and more in wisdom and insight –
10 so that you may discover the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and blameless for the day of Christ;	10 For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.	10 so they will be able to examine and determine the best from everything else. And on the day of the Anointed One, the day of His judgment, let them stand pure and blameless.

Knowledge and Discernment

It’s important to recognize this fact when reading Philippians: Paul was in prison while writing this. Instead of focusing on his situation and well-being, he keeps his eyes on the spiritual well-being of the church, showing the power of prayer even in hard times. Paul hopes that the church will love more. He wants them to develop selfless, Christ-like love that seeks the best for others. Paul knows that they can love better through their knowledge and discernment. Knowledge means to understand God’s will and character, which is gained through reading Scripture and leaning on the Holy Spirit. Discernment is simply applying what we learn from Scripture in our everyday life. This combination of love and discernment helps in the process of making wise decisions and living a godly life. 

How I Gain My Knowledge of Christ

The Greek word for knowledge (epignosis) describes a full, experiential understanding. We are called to deepen our understanding of God’s truth. For me, it’s a process to learn how to apply God’s word into my everyday life. It starts with reading scripture, obviously. Then it moves to asking: “How does the passage affect the situational context?” This allows a bigger picture of hearing God’s teaching in the cultural and historical context. The next question I ask is: “What is the bigger picture being taught here?” For me, this allows the cultural and historical barriers to be bypassed. It allows us to learn how God’s principles can apply over the course of thousands of years. This often leads me to ask as a follow-up question: “Does this involve loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength? Does this involve loving others as God loves me?” This connects God’s principles to the two greatest commands in Jesus’ ministry. This has been shown as the foundation of all the laws in the Torah and all the subsequent principles, commands, and teachings through the Prophets, Jesus, and Paul. When we start to break things down, we can start to understand why these commands were important then and how we can apply these principles into our life today. 

Testing and Proving our Knowledge

The ability to test and prove what we learn and understand is important. The concept of testing in the Greek implies examining something to determine how genuine or valuable it is. The call to discern what is best for us comes from spiritual and moral excellence. Discernment is truly asking, “God, is this what you meant?” It’s ensuring we are checking in and asking God if what we’re seeing, learning, thinking, and doing aligns with His will and HIs plan for us. Our discernment should help us see what is pure and blameless. The Greek word for pure (eilikrines) refers to something sincere and integrous, free from hypocrisy. The Greek word for blameless (aproskopos) describes a life that doesn’t call others to stumble. Living a godly life is not one that makes us hypocrites from what we read and teach, but it’s a sincere and integrous attempt at loving as God loves us. It’s also not knocking people away from their walk in Christ. It’s not interfering in what others are doing. We do not know the walks that others are on, so our life must not interfere with the lives of others. Historically, Paul is calling the church to live this way because he believed that Christ’s return will happen in their lifetime. Truthfully, we don’t either. Because we don’t know, we must be on guard at all times, and ensure we are acting in love at all times to keep a right standing with God. 

Living Pure and Blameless Lives

Let’s talk more on what it means to be pure and blameless. Again, purity in this context, refers to something sincere and integrous (being honest and having strong moral principles), avoiding hypocrisy. Christians are often called out as being hypocrites. People understand that Christ is operating on love, grace, compassion, and mercy. Some Christians, however, are called out as judgmental, hating, bigoted and more. As I mentioned, we want to ensure that we are living a life that does contradict the teachings of God. We want to ensure that our words and actions have a foundation of love, and a kind of love. People can act in what feels loving to them, but it can be received as aggressive, judgmental, and more. We need to ensure that we communicate why we say and act the way we do and how we can make sure that we are not pushing the boundaries of those around us. We still need to be respectful of everyone around us, including how we share God’s teaching to ensure there is no hypocrisy in our walk. All of this includes the act of being blameless. We often do not know what others are going through. We do not know how their walk with Christ has been, if they are on a walk with Christ. We do not know how their experience with Christians has affected them in a positive or negative way. All of that to say, we need to be careful that our demeanor doesn’t interfere with someone’s walk. We need to be encouraging, loving, and motivating to each other. We can voice our concerns if their acts are harming themselves or others, but we are not the almighty judge. We can plant the seed, but that’s as far as it goes. 

Reflection Questions

1. What is your process for applying God’s principles in your life?
2. Have you had to unlearn and relearn something about God later in life? How did that go? How did you feel? 
3. Have you ever talked with a Christian that had different beliefs than you? How did that go? 

Call to Action

Read Romans 12:2. Be in prayer with God about how you are sticking to God’s principles instead of the principles of the Lord. Ask him what ways you can show that you are pure and blameless in God’s eyes. 

Check out the next slice of manna: Manna for the Mind #280