Matt Slick Bible Study 2/3/2022

Oh, I got to put the microphone on. Where'd the microphone go? Oh, at the last second there. Right here.

Do you got a Bible app, Corey? No. I just had it. He needs to put a Bible app on his phone. All right. When was the last time you read your Bible? Okay.

All right, all right, all right. They can hear you on this, so they can hear you. All right. What we're going to do is just let people know we're going to be doing this, and we'll do a bit of an intro.

We'll see how it's going to go. It's going to take a while, a few weeks, I think, for people to get kicked in back into the issue. Hi, Carm. Her name's Carm. What? How do you spell her name? Carmella, was it?

So, her name, they call her Carm, and she comes in and confuses us. So, anyway, then Todd's here. So, hey, now people are coming in. Good. Okay, let's pray, and we'll talk, and we'll get into some stuff.

All right. Lord Jesus, thank you for tonight, and I ask, Lord, that you would bless it, bless the study of your word, and I ask, Lord, for the time that we study, that your spirit would be here, your presence would be here, and that you, Lord, would be glorified.

I ask for your mercy. I ask for your grace, and we ask, Lord, that you be with us. In Jesus' name, amen. Oh, yeah, there it is, the overhead light. Hold on, we're going to turn the light on in a sec. Right there.

There we go. Toggle switch. If you could turn it so it's flat, because the glare is right there. There's the handle on the side. Nope, nope. Right there. You can turn the knob. There you go. All right.

Okay, so this is our first day back. Perfect. So, and you could also raise the intensity, if you want, by turning the knobs. There's knobs. If you want, you can just turn them. See what you think. I think it's a good light.

Pretty good? Yeah, I can see Bibles. Yeah, it looks good. All right, so what I was thinking about doing was going through Philippians and starting into that. No one really said what they were interested in doing.

However, there are times when people like the idea of just answering questions or firing questions. Maybe we'll do one of those sometime. So what I figured was Philippians. For some reason, Philippians was sticking in my mind lately, and I thought, okay, I'll just do Philippians.

It's a nice book. There's devotional material, but there's also good doctrinal material. And we'll go through a few verses. We'll probably go until the bottom of the hour, and we'll just go through stuff.

There's a lot here, a lot of stuff. And we'll see. We have some new people over to my right over here. Basically, Ex-Pagan? Ex-Heathen? Yeah, we're going to talk some more stuff. After the show, or after the Bible study here, what we're going to do is talk about probably libertarian free will and self-contradiction that some people offer me as rationality.

I tease him. I just tease him. Oh, he likes it. He likes it. For some reason, my friends like it when I insult them. I don't know what it is. They get a kick out of it. All right, so Philippi, all right?

Philippi is a city in Macedonia. If you want to know where that is, think of Italy and about where Rome is, and then go across, I think it's the Adriatic Sea, and just go east. And then you hit the land, and you go in a couple hundred miles, and that's about where Philippi is, okay?

And the Philippi church had been established by the apostle on his second missionary journey, and you can find that in Acts chapter 16, 9 -40. There's some other mentions of the Philippi and Philippians.

Lydia, a seller of purple, was from Thyatira, was converted. She was from that area. And Paul was captured in the prison there, and a Philippian jailer was converted, and that's Acts 16. So the occasion of the writing of the Philippians is interesting.

Now, we don't know exactly, but it looks like what happened is that in Acts 17, when Paul was preaching on the Areopagus, and he appealed to Caesar because a rise up, he appealed to Caesar, which meant he was a Roman citizen, and so therefore, some think that he was taken clear over to Rome.

That's one view, and then he wrote Philippians while in jail there. And we're going to just jump right into verse 1. Paul and Timothy bond servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, including the overseers and deacons.

All right, so Paul and Timothy. Timothy was a disciple of Paul, and he worked with Paul, and he helped Paul out a great deal. A bond servant, the interesting word here in Greek is douloi, douloi. And what it means is someone who had chosen to stay with his master.

So sometimes a bond servant was designated by putting the earlobe on a doorpost of the home and then punching a hole in it, and it meant that that person had purposely committed to staying with that household for the rest of his life.

And it was called a bond slave or bond servant, douloi. So he's a bond servant of Christ Jesus to all the saints, the hagioi, and that's the word holy, but they're called the holy ones by imputation and by being in Christ.

I won't get into all that. In Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons. A Greek word for overseer is episkopos or overseers, episkopoi, and deacons would be diakonoi. Anyway, it says bishops and deacons is all he's saying.

All right. Now, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what's interesting is that Paul uses this greeting seven times. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Note what's interesting is that Paul the apostle is saying that Jesus is on the same level as God because it says grace and peace to you from God. God is the one who gives grace. God is the one who is gracious, and he's saying, look, he's saying, look, grace and peace from God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

So Paul the apostle is putting Christ on the same level as God the Father. So both the Father and the Son are the ones who are giving grace. Now, we've got to make sure that we don't think the way the Catholics do.

The Catholics think that grace is a substance that's infused into you by the participation of the sacraments. That's paragraph 1999 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and I think it's 2023 also, but 1999 for sure.

And so grace is a substance infused. When we say grace from God, what we're saying is that God is being gracious, that he shows kindness and mercy to us and more than what we deserve in a good way. That's what's going on here, and it's a greeting.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And he goes on, he says, you know, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. Well, that's interesting because what he's doing is thanking God, which means he's praying and he's remembering the Philippians.

Now, he had started the church and now he probably was in jail, and I'll show you why, because this has a Praetorian guard here. So he's in jail, and yet his concern is for the church in Philippi, hundreds of miles away, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles away.

And it's not like hundreds of miles here, we hop on a plane, we're there in a couple of hours, or we drive in a car, we're there in a day. This is weeks and weeks of travel to get from one place to another without communication, except by messenger.

And so he's thanking God, which means he's trusting God with the Philippians. That's interesting, because a lot of times what we want to do is we want to make sure that we are the ones who are taking care of things, and so we sometimes usurp what God wants to do.

We'll say, Lord, I want you to take care of it, but this is how I want it done. I want you to take care of something, and this is how I'm going to put my hands on it. What we need to be doing is saying, Lord, what do you want me to do, and how do you want me to do it, and use me as an instrument in your hand.

We move forward prayerfully. But what he's doing is thanking God in all of his remembrance of the Philippians. He's thankful to God. But this is a thing that Paul is often connected with, is his prayer and thankfulness.

And you can see it in 2 Corinthians 1 .11, for example, where he says, You also joining and helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.

Ephesians 1 .16, Do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers. Those thanksgiving and prayer are part and parcel of what Paul the apostle does. It's a good example for us to follow.

So there's different ways of praying and all kinds of different prayers we can get into. I should do a study on prayer sometimes. Anyway, let's move on to verse 4. Always offering prayer with joy my prayer for you all.

So when I read this kind of a thing, I don't know how others are, but do you pray with joy when you're praying for somebody? Now I've got to say that I really don't. This convicts me. I pray for my daughters.

I have two daughters and they're not saved. My wife and I nightly, we pray for them. I don't have joy in my heart. Now, I don't because their situation is lost, but what he's talking about is the church that he's planted, the believers who are moving towards Christ and walking towards Christ.

And he is seeing how they are growing and he has joy in his prayers for them. So it's different. There's different kinds of prayers, different purposes of prayers, and there's different levels of prayer.

But what he's doing is praying and offering those prayers in joy for, because that's what he says, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all. The prayer is considered an offering.

What's acceptable to God? It's a form of sacrifice. And I'll admit, sometimes just praying is hard. Sometimes. And I'll be in bed, and a couple nights ago I was in bed, and I'm going to sleep and I go, oh, I didn't pray about whatever.

Get out, get on my knees and pray. And it wasn't particularly enjoyable, but it wasn't bad. It's just, I need to do this. Sometimes there's not a whole bunch of joy. Other times there is. I'm so thankful for this and that.

We have different attitudes, but what he's doing here is just telling them, as he's writing to them, look, you know, I have joy with you. You're so pleasing. It's such a wonderful thing to hear. And this is a form of encouragement, because he's writing this out.

We've got to remember that people need to be encouraged, and they do need to be encouraged, particularly from the fathers, I think, a little bit more. But as he is offering prayer, what he's doing is submitting his will to God and saying, Lord, do with the Philippians as you desire, because he's lifting them up.

And our prayers always need to be catered to the will of God. It's okay to pray, Lord, please save so-and-so. But we always have to say, Lord, your will, not my will, be done. Because he may not want to save somebody, and that's a lot of controversy.

A lot of people might say, no, he wants everyone saved, 2 Peter 3, 9. Well, after we're done with the study, guys got questions, you can ask them in text, and then we can answer some of the questions and some stuff like that.

We've got over 30 people watching right now. All right. Now, verse 5, we're going to get to verse 6. We're going to talk about verse 6 for a while. He says, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.

So what he's doing is he's saying, I have joy in my prayers for you because of your participation in the gospel. Here, the gospel means the work of God that's occurring through people, for people, in a place, in what we call a local church body.

To participate in the gospel doesn't just mean just believe, but also to make disciples, as we were talking about. And it is true, because the participation does not mean doing nothing. And I don't understand how Christians can do nothing.

If you know Christ, and he's living in you, and you know people are going to hell, how can you keep quiet? That's something I've never been able to understand among Christians. Now, I get it that some people are intimidated.

Like my wife is intimidated to get on the radio with me, which I want her to do. She won't do it. Or get on TV when I do some ABN Sat TV stuff. Not all people can do that kind of thing. There are different ways of participating in the gospel, from being an honest businessman, an honest worker, to a good, faithful mom, a good, faithful dad.

But we do this because in the gospel of Jesus, who died on the cross and rose from the dead, and we're bought with a price, the price of the blood of God, Acts 20, 28. Therefore, as we submit to that gospel, submit to Christ, we are submitting and participating in that gospel message.

The gospel is not—it is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. That's 1 Corinthians 15, 1 -4. But it's also in the good news that we don't have to keep that law to be saved. Of course, doua engelia, that's what gospel means.

That's what the Greek word is. It means that the whole complete aspect of what that gospel message is to walk forward serving Christ and picking up our cross daily and following after him, as Luke 9, 23 says.

This is what he's talking about. And in fact, Jesus also says in Matthew 10, 38, and he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Well, that's Matthew 10, 38. And that verse, I'll tell you, kind of bothers me.

Because you don't take up your cross and follow after him, you're not worthy of him. So what does it mean to take up your cross and follow after him? Well, the thing about the cross is, in that context, in that time, a cross was a place of death.

Death to yourself. A place of ridicule. A place even of mockery and a place of suffering. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. So what he is saying is interesting.

Follow me at the cross. Follow me to the cross. Follow me carrying that cross. Which means dying to yourself. Marriage has a way of doing that, where you are forced, because of proximity of living with someone who's not as perfect as you.

This is what my wife has to deal with. And so she has to carry her cross. Marriage does that. Friendships does that. Businesses do that. To sacrifice ourselves and to seek the betterment of another. Philippians 2 talks about that.

We'll get into that later. So verse 6 is an interesting verse. It's probably one of my favorite verses in the book of Philippians. For I'm confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

This is an interesting verse. There's a lot here. So Paul says he's confident. Of what? The thing that he says he has confidence in is. I didn't turn the light on here, did I? Is. Where's this light? There we go.

That's what this whole thing's for. There we go. That's a little bit better. You can see my face better. I don't know if that's a good idea, but nevertheless. For I'm confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

It's most probably referring to the father. The father who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. A lot of people don't know. God causes us to be born again. 1 Peter 1 .3 We're born again, not of our own will.

John 1 .13 God grants that we have faith. Philippians 1 .29. And our believing in Christ is the work of God. John 6 .29. Also, in John 14 .23 Jesus is the one who is living in us along with the father.

And we're born again, as John 3 .3 -8 talks about, by the work of the spirit. So you see, he who began a good work in you. Now Paul, the next chapter in Philippians 2 .12 -13 says, Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is working within you, both willing to work for his good pleasure.

So the idea here that we're seeing is that God begins something in us. As some cults say in false religious systems like the Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox, they will say that God begins a work in you and you have to perfect it and you should make it to salvation.

So last night, for over two hours, I was on a chat room, let's just say having a rather energized conversation with a lot of heretics. And I actually wrote out a sentence, which I still have up there.

And I asked this guy, I said, is this correct? And we worked it out and the summation of salvation. And notice what this verse says, they would use this kind of verse incorrectly. He who began a good work in you will perfect it.

What he said was that God continues to grant you salvation, if you continue to believe and if you do good works. So you maintain your salvation by the works that you do along with the faith that you have.

So this is what cults teach. What I actually did was I went to the Book of Mormon, Second Nephi 25, 23, which says you're saved by grace through faith after all you can do. And he says, yeah, that's true.

I went to February 13th, 1983, page 12 in the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and read where it says that the second requirement for salvation, I didn't read that part. I said salvation is more difficult.

That is to conform oneself, to obey the laws of God, conform yourself to moral uprightness. And I said, is that correct? And this guy in the Eastern Orthodox Church, actually Oriental Orthodox, he said, yes, it's true.

That's correct. And I said, it's really Watchtower cult stuff. They make the mistake of thinking that their idea of God's beginning of a work in you means that you have to perfect of your own will and that you are the one who maintains your salvation.

But Paul says, I'm confident that he who began a good work in you will perfect it. He is the one who's perfecting it, not you. This is something that a lot of people make a mistake. So you got to think about this.

So God is working his will in us and perfecting us. And some are at different levels than others. I've been a Christian since I was 17 and I'm 65. And I've been defending the Christian faith since 1980.

That doesn't mean I have all the answers. But I'll tell you, God has changed me a great deal in those years. And there's a lot more to go. And this is what it means when God is working. You guys know what that is.

You want to be more loving and you are put in places where you've got to be more loving. Who does that? God. Be more patient. He teaches you how to be patient. One of the crucibles of personal improvement and sanctification itself is marriage and parenting.

And then it comes down to other areas of work and relationships and friendships. God is the one who's working because he says in Ephesians 111, God works all things after the counsel of his will. If he works all things after the counsel of his will, then that means that everything that he is doing in your life, in part, is to bring you to a perfected faith.

Now, we're never going to be perfected because, well, we're sinners. And it's never going to happen. But God is the one who's at work in you. This is important for Christians to understand. A lot of times they think God doesn't know what he's doing or they think things aren't going the way they want them to go.

And they don't realize that God is behind everything. He can be there directly or indirectly by his direct will or by his permissive will. He can bring things about that shape you and make you. So that's an issue that we have to understand.

And I can get into that quite a bit, but I'm not really going to because there's some other issues related to it. So another way that the Lord works in perfecting us is by convicting us of sin. Now, I like being convicted of sin.

I don't like being convicted of sin. I like being convicted of sin because it means God's alive and working and I'm feeling it. I don't like it because I don't like being convicted of sin because it's uncomfortable.

I got to make things right. And sometimes what he requires of us to make things right in the conviction and the perfectioning of our faith can be very difficult. Sometimes he wants us to do things and say things and confess things that we don't want to do.

But this is the thing. God, who began a good work in you, will perfect it, will work it, will complete it. And he does it through people, and he does it through circumstances, and he does it through the convicting of the Spirit within us.

John 16 .8, the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. We're in that world, and so therefore we get convicted of our sins as well. And if I were to ask you, you know, you've been Christians for a while, you've done something wrong, you had that conviction, and it's there.

I've had it, and I don't like it. In fact, I'm so familiar with it that when it begins, I do something wrong, I don't realize I've done something wrong, or then I realize, wait a minute, that was wrong.

I start feeling that conviction, I go take care of it right away because I don't like carrying the burden. I don't like having to deal with it. It's just, I'm going to lose. And so, the perfection of the work that God has done, this is the work of God that you believe.

The belief is in Jesus Christ, John 6 .28 -29. He wants us to believe and work for Christ and in Christ. And so, in that, we can rejoice. Now, it says, until the day of Christ Jesus. Now, the day of Christ Jesus is his return, the return of Christ Jesus.

When he comes back, he is going to render to every man according to his deeds. Now, the Christians are not going to be judged for damnation, but the unbelievers will, but both believers and unbelievers are going to be judged according to their works, for reward or loss of reward.

So, the Christians have to realize that God's given us certain abilities, and if we have hoarded our talents and our resources and not helped others, we're going to suffer a loss of reward in heaven. And if we have helped others and done what's necessary according to God's word, then we're going to have a greater reward in heaven.

But the increase or decrease of rewards based on our deeds has no bearing on whether or not we're saved. In false religious systems, it does. In Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christianity, Baha 'i Islam, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy.

This is what they teach, that they say, your salvation is dependent on part of what you do, and the reward of heaven, getting heaven, is by that. And, yeah, anyway. All right, so, Philippians 1, 6 is a good verse.

I recommend that you guys memorize it. Now, notice what's happening. Paul is praising God and he's thanking God. But this is interesting in the condition and the state that he's doing this. Look at verse 7.

For it is only right for me to feel this way about you, because I have you all in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and the confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers of grace with me.

Paul is in prison. Now, what people don't really understand is, if you go to verse 13, I'm going to skip ahead, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole Praetorian Guard and to everyone else.

So, back to verse 7, he's imprisoned. He's imprisoned with the Praetorian Guard. Who is the Praetorian Guard? The Praetorian Guard were the navy seals of the Roman Empire that guarded the palace, that guarded the emperor.

They were the people, you wanted it done, these were the experts of the experts. That's a Praetorian Guard. And what they would do in jails, different kinds of jails, is they would chain a person to another person.

So, a guard would have the prisoner chained to him. In Roman system of jurisprudence, if the guard was chained to somebody or was transporting him or whatever, and that person escaped, the guard took his place.

They were very motivated to not let their captives escape. They took their place. Now, you'll notice that when, I forget the exact reference, but when Paul was in the storm in the ship, and they were crashing on the ground, and the guards, oh, no, no, sorry.

This is in the earthquake, and the jails were open, and Paul says, no, don't kill yourselves. Because they, the way it was was, hey, the guards are saying, the jails all came open. They're all going to take off.

We're going to take their place. They're going to kill themselves instead. Paul said, no, don't do that, because it was part and parcel of what was the system there. He says, we're all still here. Now, could you imagine that?

All of a sudden, they're all still, what? What do you mean you're still here? You didn't escape? Well, Paul is imprisoned, and in the process with the Praetorian Guard, what they would do is chain themselves to the prisoner.

And then when it was time for the guard to switch, another guard would be chained. Now, could you imagine being chained to Paul the Apostle? What do you think Paul is going to do? He's going to witness.

And that's why it says in verse 13, we're jumping ahead, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well-known throughout the whole Praetorian Guard and everyone else. Even in his imprisonment, he's sharing the gospel.

He has an opportunity to share it with people. Notice, now think about this. He is in jail, but the Praetorian Guard have access to high officials, because they are the guys who will guard the officials of the government.

Very interesting. The imprisonment that we would think that's bad is now being used by Paul to witness to the Praetorian Guard, who may very well then go to other people that they would guard, and those officials would say, I hear Paul's with you.

I've heard a lot about him. What do you like? This is what he says. You've got to realize that sometimes what we might consider to be evil, God meant it for good. Just like when Joseph was sold into slavery in Genesis 50 -20, you meant it for evil, God meant it for good.

We've got to be careful. If I get arrested because what I do is illegal, like preach the gospel and say homosexuality is not true, and things like that, I think it's a sin. Am I going to go to jail? If I do go to jail for that, I'm going to start teaching in jail.

I'll just consider it an opportunity to speak the word. That's what I would do. He says, for it is only right for me to feel this way about you, because I have you in my heart. Since both of my imprisonment and the defense and the confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers of grace with me.

He considers his fellowship with the Philippian people to be so close. He says they're in his heart. He loves them. Shouldn't he be saying, woe is me, get me out of here? Look how bad off I am. He's rejoicing.

Whether in or out of prison, regardless of the circumstances, Paul knows how to do what he has to do before the Lord. We are all like that, partakers of the gospel of grace. Whatever situation and station you find yourself in, you should use whatever abilities you have for the glory of God, even if it's uncomfortable.

Verse 8, for God is my witness how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And I pray this, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment. The jails and the guards of those places were very, very bad.

Largely, they had no way of eating unless relatives came in and fed them. And sometimes if nobody would feed them and they're in a jail, they would starve to death, but not really. The guards would be allowed to bring food to them.

But did they have really big kitchens to give them all this great stuff? No. They would give them slop and they'd give them crap and old water. It was a bad place to be. Now, the praetorian guard, these were elites, so the situation probably was not nearly as bad as it would have been in other situations.

But nevertheless, his love for the Philippians is abounding more and more. And that's the thing. Love is other-centered, not self-centered. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, John 3 .16.

Jesus says in John 15 .13,. Greater love has no man than this, but he lay his life down for his friend. And so he's other-centered. And in his imprisonment, he says,. And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment.

Because he already in verse 8 says,. How I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus, which is a very loving thing, and he wants their love to grow as well. This is Christian maturity. In your situation, not that good.

You're praying for the benefit of others. That's hard to do. But that's the perfection of the good work that God is bringing you to. A lot of times what we want is for things or situations or peoples to change or be gone so that we can get what we want.

But what does God want? If he's going to perfect the faith of Christ in us, he's going to do it by working us through various situations and peoples in time. Paul here, what he's doing is demonstrating the very nature of love.

And incidentally, love is a perfect bond of unity. Colossians 3 .14 says,. In that unity that he has with them and they have with him, there's that bond and distance doesn't break it. All right. So here's something to think about.

Would you say that love is natural to the world? No. Because the world cannot know what true love is because the world doesn't know the true living God. The only way to know what true love is, is if the true God who is love reveals it to you.

If you say that you can be loving and you don't know God, you're not loving because you're not measuring love by what he is, but by an arbitrary subjective standard that you yourself think is right or wrong.

We often do this in our own homes, in our own lives. You're to love me the way I want you to love me. And what we're not doing is comparing our love to the standard of God, Jesus Christ, God in flesh, who humbled himself to the point of death, even death and a cross, Philippians 2.

We'll get into that at a time. And yet he was loving and sacrificial and kind and patient and considered others more important than themselves. We'll get into that, Philippians 2. This is what true love really is.

But we get so tied up in the mundane issues of life and the comfort of our life that we start judging others by how they're supposed to be when we ourselves are being judgmental and not being loving. If you go to 1 Corinthians 13, love doesn't remember sins, doesn't remember things wrong suffered.

It thinks better of something than somebody else. Now, I don't like that because I want to be selfish, because I want to be prideful, because I want to be stubborn. I do. But I also know I don't want to be those.

There's an internal war that goes on because the truth of who Christ is, as I follow Christ and pick up my cross daily and follow after him, as Luke 9 .23 talks about, that I'm supposed to sacrifice my desires for him.

And there are times when I don't want to do that, but I do. And we all have those times, particularly as parents. We get up in the middle of the night to change a diaper or to clean up barf or to do whatever we've got to do, but we do it because we're loving.

That's just a small example. But let the knowledge of forgiveness that we would have for others and being forgiven bring us to that place of confession. We should be confessing our sins, as Galatians 6 .2 says, one to another, but especially to God because it's against him that we have sinned.

And if we're going to confess our sins to God because he's working faith in us and the love of God that he's going to have in us, and we're going to confess our sins, then we're obligated then to live that confession of our sin.

A lot of times what we want to do is confess something and then hold on to it or confess something that we've done and then beat ourselves up over it, which is not good, or confess that we've done something wrong to somebody else and then expect them to react a certain way when we humble ourselves.

We're so selfish in so many ways that we don't understand that godly love is not the standard of the world, and we cannot learn what true love is by looking around us. We have to look beyond us at Jesus Christ.

That's what true love really is. Anyway, it says that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment. To have the love abound is not just, hey, I want it to go bigger. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

No, to have your love abound means to have the love be like Christ's love for you. These are not empty words. These are serious words. The love that Christ has for us, that's what he means. Bound in love, the love of Jesus.

How is he loving? He's patient and kind and gentle, long-suffering. Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do, even though they're killing him. And this is the love that we're to abound in.

And then go to verse 10, so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ Jesus or the day of Christ. Now, later in Philippians 4, some of the most famous verses in the Bible, besides John 3, 16, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, pure, good, or repute, let your mind dwell on these things.

It's a well-known section of Scripture. And Paul talks about this kind of stuff and the thing that we're to focus on. You cannot perfect your love without Christ being the object of your love. See, the thing about God is, the only way to know God is if he discloses himself to us.

The only way to know what right is, is if he discloses right. The only way to know what good is, is if he discloses good. You can't say, I know what good is, or I'm going to have an intuition of what good is, and I'm going to ask if God is that.