FRIDAY July 5th
Philippians 1:9-11
‘And 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, to the glory and praise of God.’
The last of the five points that Paul has made in these verses is that ultimately it may all be to the glory and praise of God.
Our being saved, our love abounding more and more, our discernment and knowledge increasing, our approving and doing that which is excellent, our being pure and blameless, our being filled with the fruit of righteousness is all for the purpose of the glory and the praise of God. In other words, our goal every day, in all things and through all things should be to bring glory to God.
This is challenging if we are really willing to stop and ponder it, for it should cause us to consider everything we do and to assess it or to examine it as to whether our doing it has or will bring glory to God.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks this question: What is the chief end of man? It then gives the answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.
In Philippians we see from these verses that who we are and what we do is to be to the glory of God, in chapter 2 we see that very knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (2:11) and then Paul concludes the letter with these words in 4:20 ‘To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.’
I will close these devotions from these verses in Philippians with another verse from Paul’s pen in Romans 11:36 ‘For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.’ Next week we will look at some verses from Philippians 2.
To God be the glory! great things he hath done;
So loved he the world that he gave us his Son;
Who yielded his life an atonement for sin,
And opened the life gate that all may go in.
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord!
Let the earth hear his voice,
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord!
Let the people rejoice,
O come to the Father through Jesus the Son,
And give him the glory: great things he hath done!