Love Matured
There are topics in this world that lead to compounding understanding once we grasp the basics. In construction, there’s physics. In mathematics, there’s arithmetic. In sports, there’re the skills. And in our walk with Jesus, there’s love.
We see this executed through our school systems. We have our main subjects of English, Math, History, and Science and we start with a very basic understanding of these that then allows us to dive deeper. The goal is, or it should be, to create critical thinkers who are then able to make their own conclusions and create on top of these fundamental pillars.
Paul mentions something very similar in his letter to the Philippians. He says by way of his introduction, “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” (Philippians 1:9-11).
His prayer for the believer is that our love would grow. That growth, Paul says, will produce people that approve what is excellent. This is a person that calls out the goodness they see in others. You’ll be able to recognize people walking in a deeper expression of purity and blamelessness. They won’t be perfect, but they will look different than the rest of the world.
Lastly, the one who is walking in abounding love will produce righteous fruit. This is the person you spend time with and at your departure you feal filled up and almost cleaner because of the time spent together. They’re the person who isn’t afraid to speak the truth and call you higher.
See, there’s a true beauty and mystery about Paul’s prayer here. He isn’t praying over a specific person – he’s praying over a people. As these people begin to walk out and mature into the love they learned from the Gospel of Jesus, it begins to stand out and draw others in.
Our culture wants us to shortcut our way straight to the “what am I supposed to do?” questions. We want to jump to the producing righteous fruit. Like a gardener needs to tend a tree for seasons before the first harvest, we need to first learn and saturate ourselves with the understanding of the love Jesus.
And, like the basic understanding of math matures into the expression of a safe bridge, the accepting of the love of Jesus reveals all the individual ways we can love this world. It’s the basic thing matured that leads to the specific actions. English has given us literature and communication, math has given us bridges and laws, science has led us to discovery and understanding, history has produced sociologic advances, and yet it’s love that changes the world.
