Prayer: Praise the Lord! He is good. God’s love never fails. Praise the God of all gods. God’s love never fails. Praise the Lord of lords. God’s love never fails (Psalm 136:1-3).
We praise you, oh God, for Your love. We know that we are unworthy of Your love and don’t deserve it for the things we do and the way we act. But in our hearts, we love You for Your grace and mercy toward us. Help us to be more obedient to You each day. Give us the power to live in purity. Amen.
Main Scripture:
It is right for me to feel this way about all of you since I have you in my heart, and whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: 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 for the day of Christ (Philippians 1:7-10).
Associated Scriptures:
In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God (1 John 5:3-5).
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (1 John 4:11).
No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is made complete in us (John 4:12).
Correlative Quotes:
Let’s you and me and everybody else, because we are not by ourselves, let’s dwell on the wonders of grace. Let every sense of unworthiness which comes daily, hourly maybe, send you higher into orbit of praise for the infiniteness of the price paid for you. “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).[1] – John Piper
Study:
INTRODUCTION
Have you ever had a friend who would do anything to help you and vice versa? There is a real joy in close friendships. These friendships must start with some general attraction but that grows as the trust between the parties begins. As trust expands into all areas of a relationship the bond grows strong and so does the joy of being around one another.
This is the way it works in our relationship with God. However, there are two huge differences between our relationship with a best friend and our relationship with God. First, no matter how long we and our friends are close, if one or the other in the relationship is disloyal, the friendship ends or at least is never the same again. We have a completely reverse relationship with God. We may be disloyal and fall away from a direct relationship with him. The friendship might suffer until we apologize, repent to God, then, in spite of how egregious the violation of trust might have been; we will be restored to complete fellowship with God. Your violation of the trust is not only forgiven but it is forgotten.
Second, we may be equals with our best friends, but we will never be equal with God. Our relationship with God is based on our complete unworthiness and His absolute holiness. Our love for Him is conditional while His love for us is unconditional.
The joy we sense due of our unconditional love relationship with God is only the first of its expressions. The second joyful experience is sacrificial love and is expressed in Philippians 1:7-8. Paul had a great love for the Philippians and that love was mutual. Paul says in vs. 7 that the Philippians were partakers in his Roman punishment and participants in his defense of the gospel because they were part of him.
The apostle John expresses this same sacrificial joy when he addresses Gaius in 3 John 1-5 -11, “The elder, to my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters, even though they are strangers to you. Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.”
John uses the words “no greater joy” in referring to Gaius. Gaius was his beloved friend because he walked in the truth.
The third manifestation is joy in giving. As Paul defended the faith (before the crowds from city to city) and confirmed the truth of the Gospel; the Philippians’ gifts were used to sustain the ministry team physically in the same way that their love and prayers supported the team emotionally and spiritually.
In response to this generosity, the apostle declared that they were faithful in what they were doing. That is to say, such conduct is praiseworthy because it is an act of faithfulness to the truth of God.
The joy that Paul feels continues as he introduces the concept of unconditional intercessory prayer in Philippians 1:9-10.
And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God (Romans 8:27).
Paul’s prayer is that the Philippians would know, understand, and practice Godly prayer with and for everyone. He makes these important points:
Summary Statement:
Our love for God many times has strings attached. God’s love is perfect love and therefore is pure without conditions. We should have joy in that kind of love; in that kind of relationship. A love relationship like ours with God should bring continuous joy to our lives. When we are friends with God, we experience joy in Love.
Lesson within the Lesson:
How can we tell that Paul loved the people in the church at Philippi?
What do we see in this church that makes it different from many of the churches and Paul’s time and many church today?
How is love transferred to joy?
How do we make this transfer daily in our lives?
[1] John Piper, Are You more Sinful that You Know, more Loved than Imagined, copyright August 17, 2015, desiringgod.org.
[2] New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.
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