Philippians 1:9-11 - Synthetic Fruit

Trying to produce synthetic fruit will burn you out.

Synthetically produced 'fruit' may look good at first, but it doesn't last and burns you out. Today's passage shows a better way for you to bear genuine fruits of righteousness.

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Philippians 1:9–11 (NIV)

⁹ And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰ so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, ¹¹ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

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Canons of Dordt

Point 1 - God's Unconditional Election

Point 2 - Limited Atonement

Point 3 - Total Depravity

Point 4 - Irresistible Grace

Article 11: The Holy Spirit’s Work in Conversion

Moreover, when God works true conversion in the elect, God not only sees to it 

1. that the gospel is proclaimed to them outwardly, 

   1. and enlightens their minds powerfully by the Holy Spirit

   2. so that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God, 

      
      

2. but, by the effective operation of the same regenerating Spirit, 

   1. God also penetrates into the inmost being, 

      1. opens the closed heart, 

      2. softens the hard heart, 

      3. and circumcises the heart that is uncircumcised. 
         

   2. God infuses new qualities into the will, 

      1. making the dead will alive, 

      2. the evil one good, the unwilling one willing, and the stubborn one compliant. 
         

   3. God activates and strengthens the will so that, 

      1. like a good tree, 

      2. it may be enabled to produce the fruits of good deeds.

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Summary

Paul writes this epistle to the Philippians from prison (a few verses before this passage he indicated that he was in chains). It's hard for any of us to imagine what life in an ancient Roman prison dungeon must have been like, and all of the basic necessities of life that Paul would have lacked: warmth, food, companionship and adequate legal representation.

Certainly Paul must have prayed for these things, but that's not what he mentions praying for as he writes to the Philippians. In the midst of all his dire physical needs, Paul writes that this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more.

The love that Paul prays for here is far deeper than just a warm, fuzzy feeling. His prayer is that their love may abound... in knowledge and depth of insight. Commentator David Garland puts it well:

It may seem unusual to pray that love increase in knowledge and depth of insight. Insight (or feeling) without knowledge is nothing. Knowledge without love also is nothing (1 Co 13:2), but love without knowledge and insight is dangerous. Christian love is not blind or mindless, and Paul prays for them to abound in love that is instructed and morally discerning.

It's a communal love for one another based in a growing knowledge of God that enables us to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.

  Dig Deeper  

The Bible - especially in the gospels - often uses the idea fruitfulness as an analogy for the Christian life. Fruitless trees get yarded out and thrown into the fire, while those filled with the fruit of righteousness remain in the garden. So it seems clear that one of our primary purposes in life ought to be producing righteousness.

But not all righteousness is the same. Synthetic righteousness often looks and feels genuine; in fact, sometimes it even seems better! But like most synthetics, it isn't the same. Synthetic righteousness is the seemingly good deeds we produce in and of ourselves in order to make our lives look like we're bearing lots of fruit.

Such fruit looks and feels good - especially compared to the world's evil deeds. It even may often genuinely benefit others. But although this fruit is shiny and attractive on the outside, its synthetic nature quickly becomes evident when inspected by our holy Father. Trying to produce your own synthetic fruit is exhausting, and, sooner or later, it will result in burnout.

There's a better way to bear the genuine fruits of righteousness that benefits others and that your Father will find good and acceptable: it's the fruit that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God. The more you come to know Christ, the more you will naturally and organically bear this fruit in your life and be made pure and blameless for the day of Christ.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who defines and shares true love;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that your love for others may abound more and more in the knowledge of Jesus Christ;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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Read the New Testament in a year! Today: 1 Corinthians 16