Love's Longing Prayer

Welcome to the Days of Praise podcast, a daily devotional by the Institute for Creation Research. Love's Longing Prayer. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. Philippians 1.9 Paul's longing for the Philippian church is eloquently expressed in his prayer for their maturation in the faith. It begins simply with a prayer for their growing love, love that will abound yet more and more.

This phrase is only used two other times, in 1 Thessalonians 4.1 and 10. Essentially, the prayer is that their love would never stop increasing. The focus of their ever-increasing love, however, is not emotive reactions or depth of feeling. It is a non-stop, ever-growing love for knowledge and judgment. And as one might expect, the Holy Spirit's choice of words is important.

Several Greek words could be translated as knowledge. This specific choice in Philippians 1.9 is epignosis, a term that emphasizes understanding of facts or truth and carries an intensive meaning with a fuller, clearer, more thorough knowledge than mere awareness of data. A person with epignosis knows both what and why they have certain facts. Judgment is the translation of aesthasis, an unusual term that demands perception, understanding, and discernment of what to do with the knowledge. Both terms are intellectually based and require a growing grasp of information.

But both are the product of love, not human standards of high intelligence. We must be rooted and grounded in love, speak the truth in love, and always be conscious of our relationships so that we increase the edifying of itself in love. Finally, there is this overarching statement, God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 1 John 4, 16. If you've enjoyed today's devotional, be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

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