Abounding Love Part II

Abounding Love
Part II



Abound: To overflow, to exceed certain measure. To be abundantly furnished.

Philippians 1:9 And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more, in knowledge and all discernment.


As we first look at this we must wonder what abounding love has to do with knowledge and discernment. To understand we must first understand where true love begins. If love is of the world and a mere sentiment then we must acknowledge that with offense comes a separation of love. In other words, I love you as long as you treat me as I want to be treated; and yet this is not the love that Paul speaks of here and why he claimed it would abound more, in knowledge and discernment. The point that he is attempting to make is that the more we begin to understand God’s love towards us the greater our love will be towards Him and the more our love towards others will abound. In this we will be able to see God’s love displayed to us in even greater ways, ultimately seeing it displayed in the trials that we endure. The way we achieve this knowledge begins with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This love is not based upon us but in the fact that He first loved us and while His love toward us is displayed in a great many ways none is more prominent than His crucifixion. As His abounding love toward us is displayed throughout scripture it continually points to that one period in time when He would become the sacrifice for sin. In the beginning His love was revealed in that He created us in His image, while at the flood it is revealed not only in the preservation of Noah but in the fact that He was patient in exacting His punishment on mans disobedience. It is revealed in that while He set aside Israel as His Own special people the door was still open to those who would repent and acknowledge Him as God; as in the case of Rahab, Ruth, and others. As we continue throughout scripture we begin to obtain even greater knowledge of His love toward us and I for one say that if He so loved us should we not love Him even more and how can we deny that love towards others? Jesus said, “If you love me, then keep My commandments, and My commandment is that you love one another,” yet He did not end there, He went on to say, “as I have loved you.” Therefore I must, based upon my love for Him be obedient to His word because in doing so my love for Him is revealed and begins to abound. Yet if my love for others is anything but selfless then my love for Christ becomes a lie and that lie becomes evident to those around me. However if my love for Him abounds then that love overflows to those around me and becomes evident in His characteristics that are now being produced in me in the Fruits of Righteousness and the true test of these fruits is that they are not characterized by our circumstances. The whole excuse of I am only human flies out the window and while there is truth to the statement it, it only serves to prove that our relationship with Him is weak. The question becomes, why is it weak? Is it weak because we value the things of the world more than we value Him and if that is the case have we truly looked at our condition through His eyes? Do we see ourselves as exceedingly sinful, thus recognizing our need of a Savior or are we simply following Him because we have seen the miracles and tasted the bread? While the two may seem to be the same they are not because one is grounded in self-righteousness and the other in selfishness. You see self-righteousness says that we really aren’t that bad and therefore minimizes our need of a Savior while selfishness states that while we do see the need we are not willing to fully partake in His gift because we are not willing to give up what we have in order to have a relationship with Him. Both of these not only limit our love for Him but also limit our love for others. They limit our love for Him because they require Him to perform in the manner that we deem acceptable and truth be told they have the same effect on our love for others. The evidence is clear because although we might claim that we love Him and others we have no fruit. You see without that abounding love there is no joy. Our worship suffers as does our fellowship with others. Without joy we stand there with a fake smile on our face and when we shake hands with others we are secretly anticipating the end of the service so that we might hurry up and get home to our own lives. With out love we have no peace and while outside we might seem as if we have it all together the truth is that we are worried. We are worried that our health might fail or that our investments might fail. We see the condition of the economy and we are worried about how it will affect our style of living. We work in different ministries within the church so that we might seem as if we have love but our lack of love is revealed because we are looking for that return of investment. Without love there is no longsuffering or patience. Just as we have no peace because we seek a return on investment our lack of love generates anxiety at the lack of return. We expect things to move at our pace and when God doesn’t move in our time frame we quickly change directions. We refuse to love others because we have seen no change in them regardless of the aid that we have provided them. We hold ourselves accountable for the results instead of allowing God to work out the details as He sees fit. Our goodness is associated with our love. In other words we only love those who do what we expect them to do. Everything we do is based upon the treatment we receive from others and only provided to those who fit into our specifications. Without love our faith is tied to our ability to control the situation. We place conditions on all that we do. This once again reverts back to our expectations of return on investment. Without abounding love we have no meekness, (humility) nor temperance because everything is based upon us and not Him. We are not humble because we worked hard to get where we are and we do not have temperance because it is our plan and while it may be a good thing, it is not a God thing and if love abounded more and more and that love generated a closer relationship with Christ and that relationship in turn generated more knowledge and with that knowledge came discernment then we would see that these very things are what He has done for us because even though He knew that many would deny Him, He still shed His blood. Even though He knew that many would refuse to acknowledge Him as God, He waits for that last one to come to Him. Regardless of our choices he still exhibits His characteristics and that is the abounding love that we should also strive to possess but the only way to possess it is to completely surrender to Him. Complete surrender does not restrain us rather it releases us from all the preconceived notions that we so eagerly hold on to. It places our faith firmly on Him to do what He promises to do without setting deadlines. He told Noah to build an ark that it would rain for forty days and nights and He was true to His word some 100 years later. If we wait until the conditions are right the time will never come until it is too late for us to do anything about it. The time for abounding love is NOW! For what better choice do we have for revival than to love as He loved us? What better apologetic is there than to be obedient to His command. What better glue to keep the body together than to love as He loved the church and honestly what other choice do we have? These are things that we should have been doing all along but we have denied Him for generations. In all honesty we have denied His attributes since man sinned in the garden but are we not held to a greater responsibility having seen the promise? Are we not held to greater punishment because after having the truth among us we still deny Him? We are without excuse because we had the example and yet we still chose to deny His love not only towards us but also towards others.
Abounding love is revealed not just in what we say but in how we live towards others.

Eph 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

Eph 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

Eph 4:16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Eph 4:17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

Eph 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Eph 4:19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

Eph 4:20 But ye have not so learned Christ;

Eph 4:21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:

Eph 4:22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

Eph 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

Eph 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.