Philippians 1:9-11

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, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Philippians 1:9-11

Paul, as was his custom, begins his letter to the church in Philippi with an introduction that itself concludes with a prayer of benediction that conveys his concern for the church that he viewed as his own spiritual lineage. Here, Paul seems particularly concerned with the spiritual development of a people whom he considered “partakers with me of grace.” His prayer illustrates several things that we, too, need to be in prayer for.

First, Paul prays that they would abound in love. As we see throughout this letter, one of Paul’s main concerns for the church is that they would be united together in Christ. He begins to point to that theme here in his prayer as he prays that they would defined by love.

Secondly, he prays that they would have knowledge and discernment. The word used here for ‘discernment’ is aisthesis, which means:

1.      Perception, not only by the senses but by the intellect.

2.      Cognition, discernment – of moral discernment in ethical matters.

Paul fleshes out his intended definition in the context of the verse, ‘so that you may approve what is excellent.’ What Paul seems to be saying is that in the world in which the Philippian Christians lived there were an array of influencers, like a child surrounded by their toys on the floor, He prays that they would have the discernment to determine which things are better. This seems to relate to his comments to the Corinthians regarding the use of their liberty in Christ: “All things are lawful”, but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.

The intent of this testing and discernment is that they would be able to select and approve what is excellent. The result of this approval process would be that they would become pure and blameless. Purity on the day of Christ Jesus is the end result of this process beginning with discernment. The intent of discernment is not judgement or condemnation of others but rather personal holiness in all areas of our life.

The Flight from Legalism

There has been, over the course of time, a shift in the way that Christians, especially American Christians, regard the way that faith interacts with culture. Most mainline denominations in this country began with a starkly legalistic bent. The Puritans and early Methodists were good examples of this trend. There was a definite intention about separating oneself from the surrounding culture. Indeed, this was seen as an admirable aim. Over the last fifty years however, under the larger scope of post-modernism, there has been a general movement to distrust organizational structures. The church, of course, became one of the biggest victims of this thinking. Many, driven no longer by the social constrains of church involvement, simply gave up church attendance. With church attendance no longer existing as a status symbol (at least in most places) people simply lived out what they truly believed--- and that was not in Christ and His Church.

Within the walls of the church, among those who do follow Christ, there has also been a push back against empty pharisaical legalism. Even in my own lifetime there has been a strong emphasis on the personal aspect of being a follower of Christ. No longer would it be acceptable for a church to issue a list of rules especially when it came to personal conduct or engaging with culture. The Christian came to rely less upon the organizational structure of the church to pilot their faith and more on the Bible and personal experience. To be sure, there is certainly good to be found in passionate engagement and personal study rather than empty rule keeping but we must also consider what the results of this shift have been.

In our flight from legalism we have rejected some of the precepts that shaped those rules. The desire to be seen as different and separate from the surrounding culture has largely been lost. It seems now that the aim is to show non-believers that we are really ‘just like them’ but with Christ added. Perhaps this robs the Christian life of some of the power and the appeal it once had. We have abandoned apologetics and committed ourselves simply to apology. In truth, our lives differ very little from the surrounding unbelieving culture. As we turned from passionless rules have we opened the door instead for sin and apathy? These are questions that we must ask. We must ask them if we intend to fully serve Christ to the best of our ability until the day of Christ Jesus.

Having rightly rejected dead legalism, where are we to turn in our pursuit of Christian holiness? I believe the answer lies with the discernment that Paul prayed for the Philippians.

Discernment is the ability to test everything to determine if it is excellent. Remember, our salvation and righteousness is no longer bound to rule keeping as the Jews were to the Law. Instead, our righteousness comes from being identified with Christ in his life, death, and resurrection. Therefore we are creatures of grace. Our position is secure not because of our behaviors (thank the Lord!) but because of Jesus’ obedience.

Yet we are still called to obedience. John writes, “And by this we know that we have come to known him, if we keep his commandments.” Obedience, then, is not optional but the natural product of a Spirit-filled life. While the work of sanctification is ultimately accomplished by the Spirit, we, of course, bear the work of living out the disciplines we have been empowered to apply.

So we seek discernment so that we might be able to approve the things we want to appropriate and expose ourselves to and to reject what is not constructive. It is easy to focus on the media aspect of this since we have, over time, been exposed to an increasing amount of sources historically from newspapers to radio to television to the internet. As the mass of potential influencers has increased so should our pursuit of discernment. We cannot simply accept what is put in front of our eyes and ears. As Paul also wrote to the Romans, we cannot have our minds renewed and transformed if we have conformed to the thinking that is not of the Kingdom. This testing is a sign of maturity not only in our mental development but also in our spiritual development. Discernment allows us to avoid falling into the trap of legalism as well as blindly opening ourselves up to depravity and things that are not beneficial.

Make no mistake though, discernment is never easy. That is why Paul prayed for it to be given to the Philippians. It is much easier to simply accept that which surrounds us. Discernment is always the ‘extra step.’ It would be far easier to blindly consume seemingly benign experiences and media. Legalism asks: “is this permissible?” Discernment goes a step beyond and asks, “Is this beneficial?”

So what are we to do? If we don’t want to return again to the temptation of legalism what steps can we take to embrace discernment?

1.      Exposure to Scripture – this is the first and most obvious way we can incorporate discernment into our lives. We cannot know what is beneficial if we do not know what things the Lord intends to fill our lives with. The Bible is the Lord’s word to us. It is what He wants us to know. To ignore it as we attempt to please Him would be like saying that we want to talk to our friend but ignoring the fact that he was sitting in the room with us. Simply put, we cannot know what is beneficial unless we know the Word.

2.      Active engagement – Given the amount of potential influencers we encounter on a daily basis, it is impossible to discern the beneficial from the worthless without actively examining them. This takes work. It requires active listening and viewing. It also requires us to be objectively observing both the influencer and the way our hearts engage with it. This level of honesty is often painful, as we come to acknowledge the level of sin which resides still in our lives and are driven back, again and again, to the feet of Jesus in repentance.

3.      Personal Prayer – Personal prayer is really part of active engagement for as we engage and examine the influencers we are presented with we bring them before the Lord and ask Him to show us the values and dangers of each.

4.      Communal life – Finally, we have all found that we are led astray much easier when we are isolated from other Christians. Not only do we lack the positive examples, we are also much more likely to make compromised moral judgements and blindly accept whatever is presented before us (Netflix binging anyone?). By surrounding ourselves with other believers as much as we are able (beginning with Sunday worship) we put ourselves into an environment with others who are fervently seeking after personal holiness and service. In that culture we are more naturally going to see the values and flaws of potential influencers. To be sure, discernment is ultimately something that occurs within the individual for something that might prove harmless to one might prove detrimental to another, but the value of mutual edification, encouragement, and positive role modeling is something that cannot be neglected for the believer who truly wants to emulate the manner of their Lord.