American Reformation Church Prayer Journal 84
ARC Prayer Meeting:
At the American Reformation Church, we are continuing our series on God’s love. Specifically, we are investigating His commandment that promotes brotherly love amongst the brethren. Last week we explored the similarities and differences between the worldly philosophy of the Brotherhood of Man vs. Philadelphia, the pursuit of brotherly love in our poor-fallen world.
One of the purposes of the message was to put difference between the holy and profane, the clean and the unclean, and separate the wheat from the chaff. The righteous goal was to expose the counterfeit of the Devil, so, as God’s people, we would prize the original established for God’s glory and our good.
The Scriptures have much to reveal that connects the prayers of the saints in the promotion of brotherly love in the church of the living God. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians stated, “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11).
Once the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, it should be an abounding love. Abounding means plenteous, overflowing, overabundant, and an extravagant display of charity. This prayer by Paul reveals the very essence of God’s love revealed in Exodus 34:6 ESV, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Since God’s love is an abounding love, Paul prays for that divine attribute to abound amongst the saints at the church at Phillipi and by extension to us today.
There are parameters to this abounding love that most Christians do not factor in today. This abounding brotherly love must be according to the knowledge of God. It must also be tempered by discernment. Why knowledge and discernment as the guardrails for true and abounding love?
It is for four primary reasons. First, there is the matter of approval and it is not an approval of everything and anything, but approval of what God considers excellent. So, love is not just abounding, it has a quality of excellence. In other words, love is the most excellent way to live and in living that life it perceives in life what is excellent.
Second, love has an element of sincerity entwined in it. God commands our love to be sincere and without hypocrisy. This means it is not fake, manipulative, or self-centered. It is authentic and transparent. It means no hidden motives or deceptive agendas, but pure love for the brethren.
Third, true love avoids going out of our way to offend people. Jesus warned, “Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes” (Matthew 18:7). Why does love avoid giving offense, because one seeks to avoid the woe that comes with it.
Lastly, love is a bowl filled with fruit, and they all have one common taste. It is the savor of righteousness. One cannot separate God’s love from righteousness. Psalms 89:14 ESV states, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.” God does what is right because He is love, and He loves in a way that is always right. We, as His children, follow that example and pray along with Paul for that kind of love to abound amongst God’s people.
