“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, 11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (Phil 1:9-11).

This is one of Apostle Paul’s prayers. If you study them, you discover that each prayer is intelligent, passionate, unique, and powerful. He always prays with both his mind and with his heart (his spirit). His prayers are based on deep understanding of doctrine and application to the present need. He always thanks God for the good he sees in the church and encourages the weak believers in the assembly. He is a balanced Christian. Paul’s first request is that God will grant the Christians in Philippi that their “love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment”. He acknowledges that the believers over there know how to love God and others. But their love must grow, become deeper, more mature, abounding in practical insight, and producing fruits of righteousness (of good behavior). In Greek the word ‘abound’ means to overflow, or to excel above all. Mature Love has this unique manifestation of an excellent wise spirit. The word ‘excellent’ means to be the best quality, unsurpassed, lovely, noble, royal, and a wonderful leader. Love chooses God’s will in every matter. Love is the world champion. Love always wins the gold medal. No other gift or skill rivals love in creativity, strength, perseverance, courage, and wisdom. The enemy of the best is not the bad, but the good. Love is the only power that can oppose sin and evil face to face and fight it to finish. Lovers never give up! Love abides forever! Love is even greater than Faith and Hope! Love never fails (1Cor13:8,13).

Mature, fruitful love multiplies in two ways: ‘in knowledge and discernment’. Love changes both the mind and the heart. Knowledge means truth, doctrine, or revelation. We must study God’s Word to understand how God loves. We look at the price Jesus paid for love. Like Jesus, we chose to live a life of sacrifice. We apply the Bible doctrines in our daily lives. Paul prays that we see how intelligent love is. Many Christians are ignorant of God’s Word. They make mistakes and blame it on ‘love’. For example, a Christian man says that he fell in love with an unbelieving girl. He wants to marry her saying that God will ‘understand’. He uses love as an excuse for being disobedient to God’s Word. But Agape Love is not selfish, foolish, wasteful or childish. Love is extremely intelligent and has a ‘PHD’ in human relations!!!

Love must also grow in discernment. This is the second ‘fruit’ of mature Love. Discernment is the skill, the power to see what is hidden, what is not evident to the average mind, and to find the excellency ‘behind the scenes.’ It is the ability to judge circumstances and people well, according to what God shows you. Love’s discernment manifests as excellent sight and pure vision. Only Love sees the best inside the worst of men. Love has the eyes of an eagle. Love sees the difference between what is true and what is false, between what is right and what is wrong. This discernment is extremely powerful. It’s God’s opinion in any matter. Discernment is to have the mind of Christ, to think Biblically. By testing we find the true value of someone. “Test all things; hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil” (1Thess 5:21,22). “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1Jn 4:1). This ‘testing’ is Love’s discernment to always make the right decisions!

To love is not easy. There are many snares in the path of love. Discernment is valuable in making decisions. Discernment grows only by the study of God’s Word and prayer. For a believer, discernment is not a luxury, but a necessity. “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb 5:12-14). The more you apply discernment, the greater your love and your wisdom will be, and the less mistakes you will make in life.

“Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between right and wrong; rather, it is telling the difference between right and almost right” (Charles Spurgeon). Love fine-tunes our emotions. For a baby Christian, discernment starts with the insight to know the truth about himself. An immature Christian has difficulty in knowing his own soul. He does not see clearly the difference between the works of his flesh and the fruit of the Spirit in him. He is still selfish. His decisions are based more on self-confidence than on agape love. He can be deceived. But the mature Christian sees himself clearly. He is humble and not afraid to take risks to love. Unfortunately, discernment is an area where most Christians stumble. They make legalistic decisions based on fear, doubt, or confusion. Their Love is still immature. Discernment is clearly manifested in those who are pure in heart because they see God (Matt5:8). If you see God, then you will see the truth in all situations. You will live in freedom. You will have peace with your decisions as you practice love.

Discernment is also a great weapon in spiritual warfare. The Bible commands that we should discern the strategy of the devil before we attack with prayers. “Lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2Cor 2:11). “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love” (1Jn 4:18). Love and fear are opposites. Love brings people together. Fear separates them. The word ‘perfect’ means to be whole, complete, fulfilled, lacking nothing good. It also means to be trained, accomplished, and skilled to successfully bring a matter to an expected end. When Jesus died on the Cross He said: “It is finished!” (Jn19:30). He perfectly brought the work of salvation to an expected end. Fear relates to torment. The word ‘torment’ means punishment, serious pain and suffering in the body and especially in the mind. The victim becomes weak and feels like dying. We are told that Hell is a place of torment (Lk 16:23, 28). Therefore, fear is a sample of hell on earth. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2Tim 1:7). Perfect Love is the ideal Love. No one of us can achieve the fulness of this Love while on earth. But we strive towards it. May God help us!

Practically, the best way to show love to another is not to buy a gift, but to pray for him (her). Prayer based on spiritual discernment is the best gift you can give to anyone, if he is poor or rich. To pray that a Christian may know and experience the overflow of agape Love, that he may love another and produce fruits of righteous behavior is an eternal investment paid in your heavenly treasure. Money cannot buy these gifts. This is the practical purpose of the preaching of the Gospel. The Christian must prove his love not only in times of peace, but especially during painful conflict. A mature Christian is extremely sensitive to what is of God and what is evil. This capacity grows with time, as the Christian pays the price for fruitful love. May our eyes be opened to that which pleases God, who is Love Himself! Amen!