May Our Love Overflow for God’s Glory
How, what, and when do we pray for one another? Last week we learned that we should pray always, and always pray with thanksgiving, joy, confidence, and love. Like Paul in verses 3-8 we should thank God for one another and our partnership with each other in the gospel. We rejoice because we all share in God’s grace with one another and because God is bringing his work in all of us to completion. Paul’s thanksgiving and joy build up to his prayer in verses 9-11. He prays for love with knowledge and discernment, for the ability to identify and choose what is best so that we can live the kind of Christ-empowered life whose fruit will endure in the presence of our Lord. All to serve the praise and glory of our God. These should also be our prayers for one another.
1. May Our Love Overflow
And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more …
This is a prayer that love will increase extremely, in abundance, that it will overflow. Paul adds the words “more and more” to emphasize the excessive degree by which love will abound. He prays for a flood of love that will not stop but keep on increasing. He prays for the persistent, steady growth in Christian love. This is the love that is at the heart of the gospel. It is the enduring, never-ending, unfailing love that overflows out of God’s heart for us, so much so, that He gave his Son for us. Jesus Christ lived and taught this love. This love drove him to the cross where God’s love ran red in his blood for us.
This is the love that is the most essential and Christlike of all the Christian virtues and qualities. It is the love that characterizes and identifies us as God’s people; the love that makes us radically different than the world. Without this love, all our other human achievements are worth nothing (1 Cor 13).
This is the love of the Great Commandment. Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And love your fellow human beings as yourself (Mk 12:30-31). “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Ro 13:9-10)
Oh, how easily does our love decrease, waver, oscillate. How easily do we make excuses not to love? When we struggle to love, this should be our prayer. We should pray that our love will overflow up to God and overflow out to each other in limitless abundance, that our love will overflow into all areas of life and for all people in “a lavish, ongoing, limitless love—an unremitting geyser of love up to God and a flood of love out to others” (Hughes, 40).
2. May Our Love Overflow in Knowledge and Discernment
… that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and all (every kind of) discernment …
Christian love is not the sentimental and superficial love that the world pursues. Love that is merely emotional, impulsive, undiscerning, love without knowledge and discernment cannot stand the test of time. It is “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching, and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming” (Eph 4:14). It is blown about by every wind of change that grabs our sentiments, emotions, and self-centered concerns.
No, this love involves both the heart and head, heart and mind. Love and knowledge go hand in hand. As our knowledge of God increases, our love for God increases, and as our love increases, the more we seek to know God. This knowledge is the true knowledge of God, his character, and his love as revealed in Jesus Christ. It is the knowledge and deep insight into the way the world truly is — creation, fall, sin, and evil. It is the knowledge and understanding of God’s mission, his salvation, his kingdom rule, and the coming new creation. It is the knowledge of God’s will for our lives. All of these are revealed in his Word.
Christian love is the work and the fruit of the Holy Spirit, who reveals and teaches us Christ through God’s Word, the Bible. So, the more we are in the Word, the more our knowledge of God increases and the more our love will increase and overflow up to God and unto others. A superficial love for God is a sure sign of superficial knowledge of God and a superficial knowledge of God leads to superficial love for God. This is why we must give priority to gathered worship with our Bibles and hearts open to God. This is why we must daily open the Scriptures for ourselves and teach them to our children. This is why we must read both the Old and New Testaments with our eyes wide open to Christ. God’s Word must be in our souls. The more we know of him, the more our love will rush up to him and out to the world. (Hughes, 41)
This is why we must pray that our love will abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment. Discernment is the capacity to perceive, see things clearly, and so to understand the real nature of something. Discernment is the wisdom and practical insight that informs our choices and conduct. The overflow of our love for God and others, combined with the growing knowledge of Christ produces and increases our practical insight for living. And this brings us to our next prayer.
3. May We Pursue Excellence in Kingdom Living
… so that you may approve what is excellent (superior/best) …
Christian love that abounds in knowledge and discernment enables us to assess things, to examine them carefully, to test them. And based on our knowledge, discernment, and this examination, we approve, choose, and do what is truly essential and excellent in the eyes of God.
Life is a series of choices. We are faced every day with choices, big and small, and what we choose will shape the course of our lives. Foolish or wrong choices may hurt us or others. They may hinder our growth in Christ. They may impede holy living. They may prevent us from pursuing excellence, what is best for God’s glory. Even the little choices are important. They determine our spiritual vitality. It is easy to rationalize, to make excuses for giving in to a small sin, to disobey our Lord, to not love others. One small choice leads to another and another. Eventually, we grow used to the wrong choices, the wrong actions. We become insensitive. Love decreases and stops from overflowing. The little choices influence, impact, shape, and eventually rule our bigger choices.
If we overflow with love to God and others, along with a growing personal knowledge of God and Christ and practical insight, we will be able to discern and choose what is excellent—the best over the second best—the best over the good—the best in knowledge of God—the best in priorities—the best in habits—the best in pleasures—the best in pursuits—the best course of action for ourselves, for our families, and our church. (Hughes, 43) Therefore, let us pray that as our love abounds, overflows, in knowledge and discernment, we will be able to pursue excellence in living the kingdom life. So that …
4. May We Bear Fruit by Abiding In Christ
… in order that you may be pure and blameless in (for) the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ …
As we pursue excellence in kingdom living we become pure and blameless. We are pure and blameless when our sincere and transparent hearts are focused single-mindedly on God. We live pure, morally transparent lives, free from stumbling—and so we are able to stand upright and pure on that day in the presence of Christ who knows all.
Yes, we are not fully pure yet. Yes, we still stumble and fall along the way in our walk with God. We are not perfect, not fully mature in Christ yet. But we can pray this with confidence because we have this certain knowledge that God who has begun his good, redemptive work in us, will bring it to perfection on that day.
We are becoming pure and blameless because we are filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. We cannot achieve this righteousness and bear its fruit on our own or by our own strength. It is all God’s work. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross made us righteous. The Holy Spirit produces the fruit of righteousness in us. We bear the fruit of righteousness when we abide in Christ. Jesus is the true vine and we are the branches. We can bear fruit only when we abide in the vine, in Christ. “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit” (Jn 15:5). Because we are in Christ and Christ in us, our love abounds in knowledge and discernment. We are able to discern what is best and live accordingly, and so bear fruit. And when He comes back we will be like fruit trees at the harvest, laden, filled, with fruit—the good deeds that Christ has worked in and through us.
5. All for the Glory and Praise of God
… to the glory and praise of God.
All of these, our abounding love, our increasing knowledge and discernment, our pursuit of excellence in kingdom living, and bearing the fruit of righteousness, all these serve the glory and praise of God. “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (Jn 15:8) We are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Mt 5:13-16).
All that God is doing in our lives—when we first hear the gospel, when we believe it when we begin to live by it, and when we make progress in faith and love—all these are done, not for our glory or our praise, but for the glory and praise of God. And all we do, all of our lives, should also be for the glory and praise of God. Ultimately, this is God’s work in us and through us, every step of the way. He is making us holy, different than the world. And through us, He is making a difference in the world for his kingdom and his glory.
When this radical love, this unconditional, self-sacrificing love overflows up to God and overflow out to others, it changes people and it makes a difference in this world. To follow Jesus is to become different, to be different, to do different, to live different, to love different, and not just different but radically different. Jesus to Peter in The Chosen — Get used to different.
Let us pray that God will make us radically different by increasing our love so that it overflows up to Him and to others, all for His glory. Let us pray that God will enable us to get used to being different as his people, all for his glory. Let us pray for one another with faith, hope, and confidence, because He who has begun his good work in us will carry it unto completion, to the glory and praise of God.