Philippians 1:9-11 Love is one of those things that need to be expressed within a context to have any real meaning, in other words it needs to be associated with action and direction. Much like coming into a room walking up to a person and saying, "Thank you!" You would probably receive a confused look and a spoken, or at least implied question, "For what?" or when we ask God to bless someone, He might reply, "Love to - What did you have in mind?" You may be very thankful inside to wards the person you are thanking but to be expressed it needs to have content or at least enough of a context so that the con tent is at least implied. You may very well want good things to happen to the person for whom your seeking blessing, but you will never know they are blessed unless you tell God what you have in mind. Paul is praying for the Philippians so that their love might have content and direction and that it might be sensitive and discerning. That love might be the controlling factor in the way they conduct their lives and what they fill them with as they wait for Christ's return. It becomes the way of putting one hand in God's and the other one on the world in front of us and being the conduit of God's love to a lost and dying world. The object is to be pure and blameless so that our righteousness may bear fruit that brings praise and glory to God.

Love at Work