Garry spoke from Phil 1:3-11 this morning, about Paul’s prayer for the Philippians to grow in love, a love which abounds in knowledge and depth of insight. God is a God of abundance – not for Him stingy measures or ‘just enough’. His miracles of provision in the Gospels show this lavish abundance (see Matt 14:18-20) and as Matt Redman says, God’s grace is ‘not even halfway empty.’ (‘Halfway Empty’) God wants our love to overflow (1 Thess 3:12), for He is the God of overflowing, lavish love.
Love is not blind, however. It needs to be rooted in truth and knowledge (see 1 Cor 5:1-7). So often, we don’t appreciate God’s love until we experience it for ourselves. Paul prays for a depth of personal knowledge that will make God’s love real to the Philippians. He wants them to have depth of insight, not just taking things at face value, but getting to the heart of the matter. Peter professed great love for Jesus before the crucifixion, but Jesus knew his every weakness and prayed for him (see Matt 14:27-31). He knew that the self-reliance in Peter had to be broken before his love could be fully mature. Yet He did not give up on Peter and was able to reaffirm His love for him, despite the denials that had so broken Peter. God is able to take our flaws and weaknesses and bring strength into our love. We simply need to understand that we cannot love as God wants us to love – lavishly, with extravagance – unless we have first experiened, sampled and tasted His love for us and continue to grow in that love in knowledge and depth of insight.