December 16

Letter to the Philippians -- Philippians 1:1-2; Reflections upon Imprisonment -- Philippians 1:3-26; Various Exhortations -- Philippians 1:27-30, 2:1-30, 3:1; Various Warnings -- Philippians 3:2-21, 4:1; Concluding Thoughts -- Philippians 4:2-23

Paul writes in this reading:  

"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...." [Philippians 1:9-10]

Our knowledge and insight are to be based in love.  The three are intimately wrapped up together.  What would love combined with knowledge and insight mean for our thoughts and words on issues like divorce and homosexuality?  The Bible speaks plainly on these issues but do we speak to issues or do we speak to people.  I'm not saying that what we know about these issues is incorrect.  But we must love first and foremost before anyone will ever care or ask out of genuine interest what our stand is.  In advertising the first and foremost challenge is not communicating a message. The first and foremost challenge is breaking through all of the noise and getting people's attention.  That's true of God and Christ.  The first challenge is not preaching the message.  It's getting people's attention.  Hence miracles and selfless acts of service.