Abounding of Love in Knowledge and Experience

Next Part Abounding of Love in Knowledge and Experience 2

"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that you may approve things that are excellent; that you may be sincere and without offence until the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." Philippians 1:9-11

In the words before us we have a prayer of Paul. It is my desire and intention this morning to lay its rich contents open before you, according to the ability which the Lord may give me.

You will bear in mind that the apostle is writing to the church at Philippi, which you will recollect was a large and important city in Macedonia, in the North of Greece, where Paul and Silas were thrust into the inner prison and their feet made fast in the stocks, and where there was that signal conversion of the jailer. (Acts 16:12-40.)

We come, then, now to his prayer for these Philippian saints, in which, if I mistake not, you will find four distinct petitions; and yet, though distinct, a blessed thread running through the whole, connecting them together as with a ray of divine light, and thus reflecting the grace and glory of God upon them severally and collectively. These four petitions are–

First, that their "love might abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment."

Secondly, that they "might approve things that are excellent," or, as we read in the margin, "try things that differ."

Thirdly, that they "might be sincere and without offence until the day of Christ."

Fourthly, that they "might be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the praise and glory of God."

I. "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment." You will observe, first the persons to whom the epistle is written. This is of great importance, and for that reason I call your attention to it. If you will refer to the first verse of this chapter you will find that it is written to "all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the elders and deacons." You see, therefore, that this epistle, like all the other epistles in the New Testament, was written to believers in Christ; that it was not addressed to the world at large, to the masses of the human race, to unbelieving Jew or unbelieving Gentile, but was specially addressed to saints and servants of the living God. Now though this church at Philippi has passed away, the Church of Christ has not passed away. There are still saints in Christ Jesus, and still Christian churches with their pastors and deacons. As, then, this epistle is a part of the inspired Scriptures, it still speaks to Christian churches, to believers in Christ Jesus, to the saints and servants of God. No truth can be more simple or more obvious than this; but how grossly has it been overlooked or perverted by applying to the world at large the doctrines and declarations, the promises and precepts which are the peculiar inheritance of the believing church of God. When, then, we read this epistle from this point of view, and see how all the promises and all the precepts, all the instruction, reproof, or admonition contained in it belong exclusively to the church of Christ, then we at once perceive how every word falls into its place. To read the epistles otherwise is something like looking through the wrong end of a telescope; one seeing one's face in water with a ripple over the surface; or taking a view of our features in a broken mirror, or one which represents them upside down. In a similar way, if we read the Epistles as if they were written to all the world, all is distorted; we fall into the grossest mistakes, and completely misunderstand the meaning of the Spirit.

But now observe the important conclusion which arises from this simple and undeniable truth—that it necessarily follows that the apostle, in the prayer in our text, assumes that those to whom he wrote were partakers of the grace of God, and as such of that eminent grace, love. He does not pray that they might be put into possession of this heavenly gift and grace, as if they were destitute of it. On the contrary, he assumes that they were already in possession of it; for what would a saint in Christ Jesus be without love? A monster indeed! We hear sometimes of monsters in nature; of a lamb born with two heads, or six legs, or two hearts. So a Christian, a real Christian, without any love to Jesus Christ, or any love to the people of God, would be a monster in the Church of God. Grace has many painful, many lingering births; but the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all, never brought forth a monster from her teeming womb. Does not the apostle say, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal"—things without life giving sound"? (1 Cor. 13:1), and therefore without love. And does he not add, "Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, and have not charity, it profits me nothing"? (1 Cor. 13:2.) And if "nothing," I am no Christian—a cipher, a nonentity in the kingdom of God. If, then, there be no love, there is no heavenly birth; but where love is, there is regeneration and the evidence of it, according to John's testimony—"We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." (1 John 3:14.) A Christian professor, then, if such a person could exist, who had neither love to the Lord Jesus nor love to his brother would be a monster indeed—such an one as has never yet had birth or being in the kingdom of God.

But in the case of the Philippian saints, he not merely assumed that they were possessed of the Christian grace of love, but was assured of it from their "fellowship with him in the gospel," that is, their participation of the life and power, blessings and benefits of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the love that they manifested towards him. Being thus assured, then, that they were possessed of the Christian grace of love—love to the Lord and love to his people, for both are included here, he prays for them that this love of theirs might abound. He could not bear the thought that it should be diminished, that its strength and volume should be impaired, and that it should dwindle from a flowing river into a slender rill, as we sometimes see in summer after a long course of drought; still less, that it should "vanish away and be consumed out of its place," like the stream of the brooks which so disappointed "the troops of Tema and the companies of Sheba." (Job 6:15, 20.) Nor did he wish that it should continue even at the same level, but that it should increase yet more and more, and flow on in an increasingly bountiful and blessed course.

But he prays, and this is the point to which I shall chiefly draw your attention, that this love "might abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;" as if this love were like a river which ever needs feeding with fresh supplies of pure fresh water, to keep it ever running. A river, you know, however wide or deep, would soon run itself out unless it were continually fed. So the love in a Christian's bosom toward the Lord Jesus Christ and his people would soon run out, and leave nothing behind but ooze and mud unless fresh supplies of grace were continually pouring into it.

But the apostle expressly mentions what I may, perhaps, without impropriety, call two main FEEDERS of this Christian love, for as a river cannot be sustained without feeding streams, so love in the soul of a believer needs to be continually fed.

A. One of these feeders of Christian love named in our text is "KNOWLEDGE"—"That your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge." I shall therefore endeavor, as the Lord may enable, to show you how "knowledge" feeds love. But before I do so, in order to avoid all mistakes on my part and all misapprehensions of my meaning in yours, I must, at the very outset, draw a very important distinction between what is commonly called 'head knowledge'— and that 'spiritual, heavenly knowledge' of which our text speaks.

There is a knowledge of the things of God which a man may possess without a personal experience of the new birth; in fact, without any divine operation upon his soul whatever, or any participation of the grace of God. From reading the scriptures and hearing the preached Gospel, many attain to an intellectual knowledge of the truth who, as to any experimental, vital, saving acquaintance with it, are still in the very gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. A man may have the 'knowledge of an apostle' and the 'worldliness of a Demas'; be clear in head, and rotten in heart; may talk like an angel, and live like a devil; understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and be nothing but a hypocrite and an impostor. (1 Cor. 13:2.) In our day such characters abound in the churches. But distinct from this head knowledge, as distinct from it as heaven from hell, there is a most blessed spiritual knowledge of the things of God, with which the saints of God are favored; and it is of this knowledge that the apostle speaks when he prays that their love might abound in knowledge; for you will find that the love of a Christian always abounds in proportion to his spiritual and experimental knowledge of the precious things which accompany salvation.

But observe further, that eternal life itself is intimately connected with the knowledge for which I am contending, and the nature of which I am endeavoring to explain. Did not our blessed Lord himself declare, "This is life eternal, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent?" (John 17:3.) Thus we see that eternal life itself is wrapped up in a spiritual knowledge of God and of his dear Son. And what is one of the leading promises of the new covenant, but that "They shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the Lord." (Jer. 31:34; Heb. 8:11.) It would, then, be a sad mistake, just because a few poor deluded creatures are puffed up with a little head knowledge, for us to overlook or despise that gracious knowledge of the Lord himself which is life eternal. Blessed Lord, may it be our increasing desire to know you more and more by your own gracious manifestations to our soul! Wasn't this Paul's longing? "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death." (Phil. 3:10.)

But again, if we look at the subject a little more closely, we shall see how EVERY GRACE of the Spirit is fed by knowledge. Look, for instance, at FAITH. Is it not, as Deer says? "Faith is by knowledge fed, and with obedience mixed."

If we have no knowledge of the Lord, how can we believe in him unto life eternal? Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Heb. 11:1.) But how can I hope in things of which I know nothing, or have an evidence of the unseen realities of eternity if I am completely ignorant of them? This was not the faith of Abel who offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, for he knew a more acceptable way; nor of Enoch, who walked with God; nor of any of the ancient worthies who "saw the promises afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them." Does not Paul say, "I know whom I have believed?" (2 Tim. 1:12.) If, then, I know not the things that faith brings into my heart, how can I be said really and truly to believe in them?

So with HOPE. A good hope through grace is fed by knowledge, for as faith regards the present, so hope regards the future. Abraham believed God's promise, and against hope believed in hope of its fulfillment. (Rom. 4:18.) But his hope as well as his faith was founded in his knowledge of God's faithfulness. So how can I hope in that which I know not? If I know not Christ, how can I hope in him? If I know not his grace, how hope in it? If I know not his love, how take anchor in it? for if my anchor is entered into that within the veil, I must know something of him who ever sits there.

But LOVE is especially the effect of knowledge; for our love, according to our text, is to abound yet more and more in knowledge. Love, we know, is a fruit of the blessed Spirit. As then the Lord the Spirit is pleased to open up the precious truth of God to the soul, love embraces what the Holy Spirit reveals. Thus there is a knowledge of the only true God by the teaching of the Spirit. By this teaching he reveals himself to the soul; sheds abroad his love in the heart; brings his mercy near; discovers his grace; unfolds his faithfulness; shines forth gloriously in the Person and work of his dear Son, and thus makes himself effectually and experimentally known "from the least to the greatest" of them. (Jer. 31:31.) And the more we know him, the more we shall love him, for he himself is love, and to love him is but a reflection of his own image.

So with respect to our BLESSED LORD. The more we know him the more we shall love him. The more we know of his glorious Person as Immanuel, God with us, the more we shall love him as a suitable and all-sufficient Mediator; the more we know of his atoning blood as revealed to, and sprinkled upon a guilty conscience, the more we shall love him as having shed that precious blood to redeem us from the lowest hell; the more we know of his righteousness, the more we shall see how adapted it is to our needy, naked condition, and the more we shall love him for having suffered in our place and stead; the more we know of his dying love, the more we shall love him for the display of that love. Does not the apostle pray that we "may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge?" (Eph. 3:18, 19)

But I may add that the more we know also of OURSELVES, of our desperate case, of our ruined condition, of our miserable state as poor lost sinners; the more we know of the evils of our heart and what we deserve as having broken God's holy law, and as having so continually backslidden from him; and the more we see his forbearance and long-suffering, his loving-kindness and tender pity to us, in spite of all our base deserts and shameful requitals, the more we shall see in him to love.

The more, too, we know of his GRACE, the more we shall value it; and the more we know of his glory, the more we shall fall in love with it. Thus as these precious things are opened up more and more clearly to our spiritual understanding, and sealed more powerfully by a divine witness upon our heart, the more warmly are they embraced in love, and the more is the soul conformed to the divine image; for "the new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" (Col. 3:10); and "we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor. 3:18.) To behold this glory is the very blessedness of the gospel, and the choicest treasure which God can bestow—"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Cor. 4:6.)

And as we love the Lord we shall love HIS PEOPLE; for "every one that loves him that begat, loves him also that is begotten of him." (1 John 5:1.) Let us not, then, deceive ourselves. Where there is love to Jesus, there will be love to those who are his by redemption, his by regeneration, and his by personal possession. The more, too, that we see and the more that we know of the beauty and blessedness of the Lord of life and glory, the more we shall love his image as we behold it visibly marked in his dear people, and the more we shall cleave to them as being Christ's with tender affection. It is our dim, scanty, and imperfect knowledge of God the Father in his eternal love, and of the Lord Jesus Christ in his grace and glory, which leaves us so often cold, lifeless, and dead in our affections towards him; and with the declension of love towards the Head comes on decay of love towards his members. If there were more blessed revelations to our soul of the Person and work, grace and glory, beauty and blessedness of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is impossible but that we should more and more warmly and tenderly fall in love with him; for he is the most glorious Object that the eyes of faith can see. He fills heaven with the resplendent beams of his glorious Majesty; and has ravished the hearts of thousands of his dear family upon earth by the manifestations of his bleeding, dying love. So that if we love him not, it is because we know him not. If, then, to those who know him he makes himself precious, it is evident that just in proportion to our personal, spiritual, experimental knowledge of him will be our love to him.

B. But the apostle tells us of another feeder, if I may use the expression, of this divine love; and that is "JUDGMENT," or, as the word properly means, "feeling." I shall adopt, therefore, the marginal reading, as giving not only the more literal but a more scriptural and experimental meaning than that in the text. It is there rendered "sense," that is, perception or feeling, or, to use a more comprehensive word, "experience." Thus our love is to abound not only in knowledge, which is the foundation of it, because, as I have already shown, if there is no knowledge of the Lord there can be no love to the Lord or his people, but also "in all feeling," in all sense, in all experience. Spiritual knowledge, therefore, and experimental feeling are the two feeders of Christian love; the two streams, as it were, that run side by side out of the very throne of the Most High, and meet and melt into that boundless river, love. It is, therefore, by this union of knowledge and experience, of divine light and heavenly life, of the Spirit's teaching and the Spirit's testimony, of truth in the understanding and of feeling in the affections, that love is maintained in the soul, and flows out towards the Lord and his people.

Do you not see, therefore, now still more plainly how the spiritual knowledge for which I am contending differs so widely from that carnal, intellectual, barren head knowledgewhich I was condemning? The one is a flowing river, the other a stagnant pool; the one fertilizes the heart, and makes it fruitful in every good word and work; the other leaves it a barren swamp, in which creeps and crawls every hideous thing, and out of which ever rise defilement, disease, and death. See also how the union of knowledge and experience as sustaining love distinguishes the work of the Spirit from every imitation of it. Where there is the true work of the Spirit, there will be gracious knowledge and experimental feeling. You may have feeling without knowledge—that is wrong; you may have knowledge without feeling—and that is wrong. Feeling, as mere feeling, is no certain mark of real religion. Have the Catholics no feeling when they kiss and weep over their crucifix? Had the Jewish women no feeling who "sat weeping for Tammuz"—their beautiful god Adonis, whose untimely fate they thus mourned? (Ezek. 8:14.) Have Arminians no feeling when they are, as they say, "shaken over hell" one half hour, and burst forth into shouts of "Glory, glory," the next? What! no feeling in 'natural' religion! Why, in feeling is much of its very life blood. To be melted by a funeral sermon is to some what being melted by a tragedy is to others; and the pulpit has its accomplished actors to stir the passions, as well as the playhouse. Thus we see that feeling, as feeling, is no sure test of grace; for there are natural feelings in religion as well as spiritual—the repentance of Ahab as well as the repentance of Peter, the joy of the stony ground hearers as well as "joy in the Holy Spirit." But these feelings are worthless—no worse, as being awfully delusive—when they have no foundation in grace or the true knowledge of God.

But now let me show you what is the experience, or, as the apostle calls it, "sense," which feeds and maintains the grace of love. To explain this more clearly, let me observe thatthere is a kind of analogy or resemblance between spiritual feeling and natural feeling, spiritual sense and natural sense, and this in a variety of ways.

1. There is first, then, a spiritual SIGHT given to us at regeneration which is analogous to our natural sight. How full the Scriptures are of this new spiritual sense—this believing eye. "For judgment," said our gracious Lord, "I am come into this world, that those who see not might see." (John 9:39.) Paul was sent to the Gentiles "to open their eyes" (Acts 26:18), according to the prophecy, "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened." (Isaiah. 35:5.) So Paul prays, "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened." (Eph. 1:18.) But I need not multiply passages to prove what is so plain. Now just see what an inlet the eye is, not only to knowledge, but to feeling. If we see some object to move our pity, how instantaneously the heart feels what the eye conveys. Love, we know, chiefly enters through the eye, and is so fed by sight that absence from the beloved object is almost its only cure.

So in a spiritual sense, divine love enters through the eye, and is fed by repeated sight of the beloved Object. In this way we learn first to love our blessed Lord. It is now as in days of old, as John testified—"And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." (John 1:5.) The light is still shining, but the darkness of men's natural minds comprehends, or receives it not. Why? Because "their minds are blinded." (2 Cor. 3:14.) But notice the difference in those who are "born of God." "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." (John 1:14.) Why did they behold his glory? Because the Lord had given them sight, and thus revealed himself to their believing eyes. And by those who believe, Jesus is still to be seen, for "by faith we see him who is invisible." (Heb. 11:27.) This was beautifully unfolded by the Lord himself to his sorrowing disciples—"I will not leave you comfortless—I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more; but you see me—because I live, you shall live also." (John 14:18, 19.) And again, "He who has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is who loves me—and he who loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." (John 14:21.) Thus we see that it is by the manifestations of the Lord to the soul that he is seen and loved. And does not love, therefore, abound in proportion to the sense of sight, for the more he is seen the more he must be loved?

2. But again, there is in grace as well as in nature, a spiritual EAR. What an inlet is hearing to the acquisition of all natural knowledge. Look, for instance, at those who are born, as it is called, deaf and dumb. They are not really speechless, though called so, for all their vocal organs are as perfect as ours. But they cannot use them so as to form intelligible language, for no sound has ever reached their mind; and what they have never heard they cannot imitate. We have our deaf-mutes in the religious as well as the natural world, who cannot speak the language of Canaan, for they have never heard it spoken into their heart; and we have those once deaf who now hear, and that by the power of an Almighty "Ephphatha." (Mark 7:34.) Thus there is a spiritual sense of hearing analogous to the natural sense of hearing. And does not Scripture confirm this? "As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me." (Psalm. 18:44.) "Hear, and your soul shall live." (Isa. 55:3.) "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Rom. 10:17).

As, too, the ear is an inlet of knowledge, so it is an awakener of feeling. If we hear any glad tidings, how the heart leaps for joy; if we hear any gloomy tidings, how the heart sinks in sorrow. So when the Lord speaks a word of reproof, the heart sinks in grief; when he gives a word of encouragement, it leaps with exultation. "My sheep," says Jesus, "hear my voice." (John 10:27.) But what feeds love more than the accents of his voice? How he speaks in the promises, the invitations, the exhortations, and the precepts of the Gospel; and how every word that he speaks is precious, for, as the Spouse says, "His mouth is most sweet;" and again, "It is the voice of my beloved" (Song 5:2-16); and once more—"You that dwell in the gardens, the companions hearken to your voice—cause me to hear it." (Song 8:13.) But what would that voice be to kindle and maintain love if there were no ear to hear it? How musical are the accents of those we love! How often they linger in the memory as melancholy echoes of the past!

3. In a similar way a spiritual TASTE is analogous to the natural taste. "If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious" (1 Pet. 2:3); "O taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm. 34:3); "How sweet are your words to my taste," yes, "sweeter than honey and the honeycomb." (Psalm. 119:103; 19:10.) There is a tasting of the milk and honey of the gospel, and it is by tasting the sweetness of this milk and honey that we know its preciousness. What would even our natural food be if there were no taste? But how savory it becomes when taste comes in to share the feast as well as appetite for the food. Be hungry for the bread of life; be among those whom our Lord has pronounced blessed as hungering and thirsting after righteousness, then how sweet the bread; how precious the milk; how savory the meat spread on the Gospel table! Then we can respond to the Lord's gracious invitation—"Eat, O friends; drink, yes, drink abundantly, O beloved." (Song 5:1.)

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