Maturity

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, (Philippians 1:9-10 ESV)

Paul's prayer for the Philippians has two parts. The first part is a prayer for their sanctification in this life. The second part looks forward to their glorification in Christ at the resurrection. The first part of the prayer finds its fulfillment in the here and now. The second part of the prayer in the hereafter. We find ourselves today coming to the end or purpose of the first half of Paul's prayer for them and it is expressed in the words "so that you may approve what is excellent."

What does he mean by that? What is he asking for God to do in them? He is asking for God to so work in them that the character of their lives might be examples of spiritual and moral excellence. He wants them to be good, moral people, reflecting the righteous moral character of God. He wants them to grow in grace that their lives might demonstrate the virtues taught and exemplified by Jesus.

Once we understand that excellence in Christian virtue is the goal then we can get a better grasp of how Paul expects for them to get there. The pathway to Christian maturity is the love that stirs us up to have a closer relationship with God and spills over into a life of doing good things for our neighbors. It is a love that causes us to grow in knowledge and discernment and teaches us how to properly love God and our neighbors. It is not a love that ignores the knowledge of God or the moral virtue that comes from knowing him.

True Christian love never ignores immorality. It loves in spite of immorality, but it is so loving that it could never condone immorality. Think of it this way. If we are to love a person genuinely, then we must oppose those things that will destroy them.

When we love a cancer patient, we love them in spite of the cancer, but we don't love the cancer. In fact, we wish for them to be rid of the cancer because the cancer is bad for them. The cancer is destroying them. We love the cancer patient. We hate the cancer. We would never say of a cancer patient, "I love the fact that they have cancer because that cancer is a part of what makes them who they are." Can you imagine anything so absurd?

Yet this is what we do with certain besetting sins. We love the sinner so much we want to excuse or even condone the sin--the very thing that is destroying them. We cannot possibly love the sinner and the sin which is poisoning their very soul at the same time.

A mature Christian is one who has learned to love--fully, passionately, sacrificially--but with discernment also, enough discernment to know right from wrong and be able to make sound moral judgments based on the full revelation of God in his word. God has called us to love in this way and it is not an easy task. It is something we strive for, grow into. It is our goal. Indeed, it is Paul's prayer for them.

Love the sinner, hate the sin. Yes, it is a clichè. But, clichè or not, it is true. It is our calling. It is exactly what Jesus did in this life. He went about loving sinners, forgiving sinners, healing sinners, giving hope to sinners, and telling each and every one of them to "go and sin no more."

Now you go and do the same.