Let’s take
another look at Philippians 1:9 – 11:
“And this I
pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and
discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to
be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the
fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and
praise of God.”
What do you
think of the idea of being “sincere and blameless until the day of Christ”?
As I ponder
these words, I think of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 14:20, “Brethren, do not
be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be
mature.”
We live in a
particularly voyeuristic age. I suppose we might say that we live in an age of
voyeurism. Our airwaves are filled with this evil, as are books and
conversations. Sadly, many in the professing church have lost sensitivity to
evil, including the evil of voyeurism. It seems we can never have enough sordid
details of pain, suffering, crime, and sin.
I have a dear
friend to whom I have said about a “Christian” book, more than once, “The
descriptions of temptation and sin in this book are unhealthy; they do not
point people away from sin to Christ but rather entrench images of sin in
hearts and minds.”
We are to be
unapologetic infants regarding evil. We need not be ashamed that we don’t know
the depths of sin and evil, that we don’t know the latest and greatest sins and
evils in which humanity is engaged. Of course we ought to be aware of
suffering, of oppression, of the need for deliverance from evil into the grace and
love of Jesus Christ, but this is not the same as what amounts to exploring and
absorbing sin and evil with unhealthy interest and curiosity.
We are called to
be “sincere and blameless.” And so our love is to abound more and more with
true knowledge and judgment – so that we may be blameless, so that we may be
sincere, from now until that great Day when we bow before our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Discerning love,
love that abides in true and real knowledge, produces lives “filled with the fruit
of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ (John 15:1ff), to the glory
and praise of God.” (See also Ephesians
3:14 – 19).
This takes us back
to approving “the things that are excellent.” Our focus is to be on Jesus
Christ in Whom is all excellence and beauty and true knowledge and discernment.
Our passion is to be Jesus Christ. Our goal is to know Him in His fulness, to
live in koinonia with Him and with one another. We learn to guard against evil
soiling our lives and our relationship with Jesus Christ and others. We learn
to flee the approach of evil and voyeurism – this includes turning the television
off, this includes not continuing to watch a movie or read a book that reaches
into our hearts and minds with tenacles of evil and shame…desiring to pull us
into the abyss of darkness.
I imagine that I
return more than half of the books I borrow from our public library and
download on Kindle because of their content – I often borrow more than I think
I’ll read because of this experience; I am pleased to keep one or two books out
of every five books. Why? Because I want to be a child, and infant, concerning
evil.
To be sure I’ve
encountered evil, both within myself and in society. To be equally sure, I don’t
need to know anymore evil than I already know. In fact, by God’s grace I’ve
forgotten some of the evil I once knew – though the accuser of the brethren often
attempts to drag me back into darkness – but Jesus Christ has eternal hold of me!
Are we encouraging
one another to be “children concerning evil” and to be “sincere and blameless
until the day of Christ”?
Dear, dear
friends, let us not be ashamed that we don’t know the intricacies of the evil
of this world, let us rather ask Christ to use us to bring others into the holy
and pure light and life of Jesus Christ.
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