Philippians 1:9-11; Ridiculous Love III

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ…”

How do you make decisions?  Do you go by what feels right?  Do you write out a “Pro/Con” list?  Do you seek wise counsel?  Do you let others decide for you?  There are lots of options, but in this passage, Paul provides us with the North Star for decision making: love.

Why is love such a good guide?  Because God is love and His decisions are based in love.  When love abounds in us, we can discern clearly because we think like God thinks. Your decisions will be in accordance with His Will because His love courses through you.

How does that work practically? Well, good question.  If I knew, I would make better decisions than I do.  All I know is this: when I am focused on Christ and am intentional about serving and loving others – I tend to make God honoring choices in my life. When I am not focused on Christ or striving to obey Him – I tend to make selfish decisions. Or to be succinct, possibly even pithy, “your heart directs your feet”.

The world desperately needs Christians to make Godly decisions in what we say, how we love, what we watch, what we listen to, how we spend our money, what we approve of, and in every area of life. We are to be pure and blameless in a society full of taint and guilt. Our lives need to be discernibly different from that of unbelievers.  That is called, “being in the world, but not of the world.”

Our culture is turning away from Christ at a dizzying pace – the world needs to see Godly people living Godly lives so they will know there is a God and He is good.  If we are different, they can be different too.  That is why our testimony is so important – it shows a hopeless world that there is hope. Our lives and words need to be exemplified with God’s love and grace.  That is how we, “let our light shine before men”.

How we live our lives matters.  It matters to God, it matters in your life, it matters to the younger believers who are looking up to you, and it matters to the unbelievers around you.  People are longing for the love, joy, peace, and hope that reside within us in Christ Jesus – our actions, conversations, and choices are how they see it.  And it all begins with loving God and allowing His love to abound in you. 

It’s amazing how pretty much everything about the Christian life begins there…