TOPIC:‌"Prayer and the Christian's Completeness"

                  by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap

 

TEXT:‌Philippians 1:9-11

 

"And this I pray..."(1:8)

 

‌Of all the letters that the Apostle Paul wrote this one is the most personal and most intimate. As someone has put it: "It is a Paul so winsomely human writing to friends so humanly dear." He refers to "I" 100 times and to "you" 77 times. He had a love affair with the believers at Philippi. Paul's tender and passionate fondness for them is found in the words of verse 3: "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you." In verse 7: "I have you in my heart." Again in verse 8:  "God knows how much I long with deepest Christian love and affection, for your companionship" (Phillips).

 

‌One is struck with the cordial warmth and the gracious affection Paul had for these dear friends. Between them and Paul there existed a close and intimate relationship. Not only did Paul's heart rise in praise to God for them in verses 3 to 7, but his heart also went up in prayer to God for them. Don't miss Paul's tactfulness. He thanks first, and supplicates after. He encourages them and then prays for them. And what an immense prayer it was!

 

‌Let us think now of the vast territory into Christian living which this prayer carries us as we examine the outpouring of Paul's heart.

 

I.

 

‌Consider, to begin with, that this is a prayer for ABOUNDING LOVE. Paul writes in verse 9: "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more." In that word "love" the keynote of the prayer is struck.

 

‌Whereas the Greeks had four words for "love," in our English language we have only one word with many different meanings. The word used here by St. Paul is not sexual love, erotic love, nor emotional love. It is divine love. It is described in the New Testament as agape love. It is God's love for man in Christ, the Christian's love for God, and should be, the Christian's love for other Christians. It is the sympathy of the heart and the devotion of the life to other believers in the fellowship.

 

‌Love, then, in the Pauline sense, is the redeeming God bearing the cost of our salvation. Love further, is redeemed man responding and choosing above all other things to live and serve the risen Christ. Love, still further, is the redeemed church showing compassionate good will to all believers in Christ. Since this is His love in us, it means that we love those whom God loves. Two things stand out here.

 

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