“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in full knowledge and all discernment…” (Philippians 1:9)
Selfless love is the zenith of love. It’s like reaching the summit of Mount Everest. It’s also the hardest to make habitual in our lives, as difficult as reaching Mount Everest’s summit. That’s because we’re sinfully self-centered, so we turn our backs on the opportunities to express selfless love. After all, what’s in it for us?
What would cause us to embrace every opportunity to live lives consumed in selfless love? Paul provides the answer in verse 9: “…in full knowledge and all discernment.”
It would be silly to interpret ‘full knowledge’ along the lines of being the reincarnation of Albert Einstein. The idea in the word ‘full’ is to know something so deeply it grows into your soul to the point you can never exist without it.
For Believers, what’s the first ‘knowledge’ we become acutely aware of? It’s the inalterable, in-our-faces fact that we are horrible sinners with no hope of redeeming ourselves from our sinfulness. Strive as doggedly as we can, we know we can never escape the ills of our lives. Even though we don’t like to think about it, or display it in public, we know about the sinful wrongness of our lives down to our core.
But at least we’ve never robbed a bank, and we’ve helped an elderly person cross the street a time or two. We’ve hit our thumb with a hammer and limited our swearing to three colorful words.
For many of us, our sinfulness creates a ‘hard yoke,’ often casting us into sadness and despair. We long for escape. Our relationships turn sour. We yearn for a path to something better, a place of hope.
For Believers, what’s the second knowledge we come to know? Jesus came so that we may have life and have it abundantly. He tells us to simply place our full trust in Him, and He will take our sins upon Himself and wipe them from the slate forever, no more to be remembered.
He creates the path to a place of hope, the easy yoke. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:29)
Possessing that full knowledge and allowing it to guide our lives leads us to also possessing ‘all discernment.’ The idea of that phrase is to possess extremely unshakable judgment. In other words, knowing that you know.
It brings to mind the early martyr Polycarp. Around 160 AD, Roman soldiers captured Polycarp and brought him before the Roman proconsul. The proconsul offered Polycarp a choice: worship Caesar and denounce Christ or die by fire. Polycarp answered, “Eighty-six years have I served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?”
Hopefully, we see Polycarp’s life as one steeped in the ‘easy yoke’ rather than the ‘hard yoke.” “Wait,” you might say, “he was hunted down, captured and burned to death. How is that the easy yoke?”
With his pronouncement, Polycarp displayed both full knowledge and all discernment. Those qualities served as beacons for him throughout his life as a Believer. Few people know this tidbit: When the Roman soldiers finally captured Polycarp, he didn’t struggle or attempt to run away. Instead, he called for food and drink for the soldiers. In the midst of his own dire situation, he exhibited a selfless love immersed in his full knowledge and all discernment.
When the Roman proconsul threatened Polycarp with fire, the saint said, “You threaten me with fire which burns for an hour, and is then extinguished. But you know nothing of the fire of the coming judgment and eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly. Why are you waiting? Bring on whatever you want.”
Fire of the coming judgment? Eternal punishment? That, my friends, is the heavy yoke. Far, far better to dwell deeply in the full knowledge of Jesus Christ with all discernment of what that means entirely. Once we whole-heartedly walk that path, live in that place of hope, then Jesus’ promise of the easy yoke becomes ours. With that, comes utter freedom to express selfless love for the benefit of anyone who crosses our path.