Philippians is sometimes called the book of joy. The word joy is used 16 times. Paul jumps into the letter by telling the believers in Philippi that he thanks God when he remembers them. “In all my prayers for all of you,” he says, “I always pray with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Then he brings up a sad detail – his imprisonment – but focuses on the fact that he is one with the believers (the church) in that city. He shares what his prayer is for those people, and it’s a great prayer. He says:
“that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness, that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.”
I love that prayer, because if and when people increase their love, so much is possible. Love fuels work and love fuels peacemaking and love fuels serving other people and building others up. Love somehow opens up our eyes to how much God loves us. If we are the solution for the world (think about it: God came into the world, had His Son die, forgiving us our sins, teaching us to love, giving us His Spirit to walk in grace and love and then He ascends to heaven to basically watch us do it), then love is going to be how it works and how it happens. When it talks about righteousness and purity – that stuff is only possible by the grace and love of Christ in us. When we love God, our natural response is to serve Him and want to please Him. When we realize even further that He is pleased with us already, then our works or efforts to please Him aren’t some twisted and impossible effort, but instead a natural, loving reply to being loved in the first place.
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