As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
12And
may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love toward one another and
toward everyone, just as we to you, 13into the establishment of your
hearts [to be] blameless in holiness before the God and our Father in [the]
coming of our Lord Jesus with all His holy ones.
These two verses are jewels, diamonds to turn every which
way and see them sparkle. Pretty much every one who comments on verses 11-13
refers to them as prayers, but actually they’re more like wishes. Paul is
saying, this is what I wish for you – which of course easily becomes his
prayers, but still, they are wishes. In Greek the verbs are in what is called the
optative mood, which was their way of expressing wishes and “hope-so’s.”
These apostolic “wishes” are highly significant for us to
note because they actually express to us the heart of God Himself. Loving Him
makes us ask the question, “What does He want for me? What can I do to please
Him, to love Him in return for all He’s done for me?” How can we sum up the
life God wishes us to live? The answer is to be found right here in these two
simple verses. In my last post I looked at verse 12 which says, “And may the Lord cause you to
increase and abound in love toward one another and toward everyone, just as we
to you,…”
There you have it from the very mouth of God. What, in a
nutshell, does He desire? What does He “wish” for you? “To increase and abound
in love.” He is love and His presence
in our hearts is one of His means of channeling His love into our world. He
pours it into our undeserving hearts and we, overwhelmed by grace, overflow
that love into the lives of “one another and toward everyone.” If you or I were
to pause and ask, “What do I want most for my children and their spouses? What
do I most desire for them in their marriages?” Would it not be this very thing –
that they should “increase and abound in love” first of all “for each other”
and then “for everyone?” This is not only love – it is parent love, it is Father love!
Verse 13 continues these thoughts, and, if I may say so,
this verse highlights exactly why I want to study the Bible, why I am very glad
to be able to scratch in the original languages. What do I mean? Verse 13 is
actually a statement of purpose. In the Greek, the verse begins with an “eis”
clause, a prepositional phrase which specifically expresses purpose or intent.
The word “eis” literally means “into” (as I translated it above) but the idea
is “in order that,” “for the purpose of,” “to the end that.” So, in verse 12,
the Lord desires that we increase and abound in love, then verse 13 says, “In
order that …”
For whatever it’s worth, note that some translations, like
the NIV, do not reflect this purpose clause. They express verse 13 as just
another “wish” and thus lose the logical flow from the love of verse 12 to the
purpose clause of verse 13. As I said, this is exactly why I am very thankful I
can scratch in the Greek. I want to know exactly what the Lord says – and what
He does not – and be able seriously to build my life on what I am confident are
the very words of God. Verse 13 is not just another wish, it is telling us what
the Lord wishes for our love to accomplish.
For the sake of people who want to think deeply, this is
profoundly important. The Lord doesn’t just say, “Love everyone,” and leave it
at that. Even the loving is for a purpose. He’s going “somewhere” with it. It’s
not like He wants us to sit up in a tree and just “love everyone.” And for
those of us who love Him, we long to know more of His heart – and so when He
says, “In order that …,” we’re all ears.
And what is it? What is the purpose of our increasing and
abounding in love? It is “in order that your hearts may be established
blameless in holiness before God and our Father …”
Note several things. It is “in order that your heart …” It is your heart that the Lord is after! “My son,
give me thine heart …” (Prov 23:26). “Above all else, guard your heart, for out
of it are the issues of life” (Prov4:23). The Pharisees thought they were
deeply religious, but Jesus said of them, “Everything they do is done for men
to see” (Matt 23:5). It was all externals. It is a very sad fact that the
entire human race thinks “religion” is about externals, about rituals and
rules, and saying all the right things, doing all the right things – and some
of that may have its time and place – but Jesus died to save us to something
far greater than a new set of rules. He is after our hearts – the inner us, the
real us, the man or woman who lives behind those eyes, who sees and hears and
thinks and decides.
And what is it He desires for our hearts? First of all
notice, it is that they may be “established.” The word means to “set fast,” to “render
solid,” to “make immovable.” Even within the English word “establish,” you can
see the word “stable.” He wants to give us hearts that are stable. He wants the
inner us, the person we really are, to be a stable, mature person. Even the psalmist
asked, “Give me an undivided heart …” (Ps 86:11). Note in our passage, it is an
“increasing and abounding love” which will result in an “established” heart.
This is again where the Greek here is so important. This matter of established
hearts isn’t just another “wish” for us. It is a result we will enjoy as we let
the Lord give us a greater love.
This is an amazing blessing I’ve certainly enjoyed from the
Lord and I see in my own life exactly what Paul is talking about. The Lord
saved me nearly 40 years ago and His presence in my life immediately meant I
made better decisions, and was just generally a LOT more stable person. But I’ve
still felt almost my entire life a sense of confusion, of not knowing exactly
where to land. It was way worse before I was saved, but even after, I feel like
I’ve spent my life groping around trying to figure things out, with the result
that I far too often said really stupid things, did really stupid things, made
very bad decisions.
Just in the last ten years, He finally helped me to
understand what Jesus meant when He said the two great commands are to love God
and love others – and that, in those two things, I’ll find everything that matters.
When He enabled me to shed my legalism and really embrace His love, suddenly
now the world makes almost perfect sense to me. It makes sense to me that my
life is His love – that every minute
of every day, in every conversation, in every interaction, in every decision,
in every activity I undertake, the bottom line is His love – for me myself and
expressed through me into the lives of the people He places around me. And what
I feel and what I see happening, is that that realization, that understanding,
suddenly gives me a sense of peace, of confidence, of stability, to begin making good decisions, of saying and doing the
right things. His love has in fact, for me, given me a more stable heart. Words utterly fail to
express my gratitude for this one simple blessing, but I feel it is monumental
in my own heart and life. I hate
being confused. I love to have a compass that always points north!
But then finally, notice it is established “blameless in
holiness before God …” Once again, it isn’t just “love” however we want to
define it. It isn’t just “established” or “stable” in any way that we would
imagine or desire. It is all about our God. “In Him we live and move and have
our being.” It is all about the “holiness” that He desires for us. Only He
knows what is truly best for us, how we “fit” together, what we were created to
be. And we must find, in His presence, and in His heart, what is truly good and
best. In a sense, that is the point of the entire Bible – to help us live
wisely, or, even more precisely, to love
wisely.
And it is interesting to me how Paul includes, “in the
Coming of our Lord Jesus with all His holy ones.” This unblamable holiness in
which our hearts have been established by an ever increasing love – it is
supremely important it be true when Jesus comes. I sort of think I understand
why this is true, but I don’t know why it was important to add this. In other
words, it seems like it simply is
important – always. So then, of course it is important when Jesus returns. So
why add that? I suspect there is something here I don’t understand, but I’m
going to have to let it go and, as I continue to study, simply trust the Lord
to teach me whatever it is.
For now, it is enough to see here in this short little passage,
the grand design of our wonderful salvation – to give us this ever increasing
love for each other and toward everyone which then results in stabilized hearts
that feel a confidence to live and love wisely.
I knew when He saved me, He’d do me good. I just never
dreamed just how far or how deeply He’d go.
Hallelujah, what a Savior!
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