The importance of love is roundly declared in the Bible. Love is the greatest virtue (1 Corinthians 13). Love is the fulfilment of the law (Romans 13:10, Deuteronomy 6:4). The love of God lies at the heart of redemption (John 3:16). Brotherly love is the first great requirement of the believer. The apostle Paul showed this concern for the primacy of love by the place which he gives it in his prayers. (For another example see Ephesians 3:14-19).

What kind of love is this which Paul desires for the Christians at Philippi? We are left in no doubt as to the energy of this love for in verse 9 the Greek word translated 'abound' (perisseuo) means pour out or overflow, as when a bowl which, being full, gushes over on all sides. But is this overflowing love a love for each other or is it an overflowing love for God?

Paul's own love for the Philippians is declared in the previous verse so the subject of brotherly love is the subject of verse 8. But this does not mean that the love spoken of has to be our love for each other. It can be taken as our love for God. Lightfoot avoids the question by taking the love for which Paul prays as 'love absolutely'. He may well be right; to be practical, however, we need to consider first our love for God and then our love for each other. But it is also required that we go further and enquire into how we love God 'more and more in knowledge and depth of insight', and similarly, how we love Christians 'more and more in knowledge and depth of insight', that is, with intelligence and discernment.

If we are to love God with intelligence and discernment then we surely must appreciate the way in which he loves. God exercises benevolent love. This benevolent love is shown to all mankind even though there is no thanks or appreciation of that love. God shows this love to his enemies that they might repent (Romans 2:4). We are required to love our enemies in the same benevolent way that God does (Matthew 5:44-45). There is also that love of God which is gracious and determined, a love which elects to salvation and which perseveres through all obstacles and resistance and brings the sinner home.

Finally as that good work which God begins in us (Philippians 1:6) progresses and transforms us, then we are loved with a complacent love (John 14:23, Zephaniah 3:17). God makes his people holy and loves them because they are holy. To be the subject of complacent love is to be loved for what we are (John 15:10). The perfect example of complacent love is the love the Father has for his Son and which was expressed with the words, 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased'.

We can go further and discern the ways in which we are loved by the three persons of the Trinity. There is the distinctive love of the Father in adoption (see Psalm 103), the distinctive love of Christ to redeem us by his sufferings (Ephesians 5:2), and the distinctive love of the Holy Spirit to indwell us (John 14:15-12). The great and manifold love of God shall be our constant subject for admiration, thanksgiving, and practical Christian living.

Philippians 1:8 describes the love Paul himself experienced towards fellow-Christians. 'God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus'. The word 'affection' here is weak in the NIV and the KJV, 'bowels', is archaic. The NEB gets near to the intense love expressed when it translates, 'God knows how I long for you all with the deep yearning of Christ Jesus himself'. The word 'yearning' is well chosen. Hendriksen translates in a similar way: 'I am yearning for you all with the deeply-felt affection of Christ'.

It is to such brotherly love that Peter exhorts us when he says we should love one another, 'deeply, from the heart' (1 Peter 1:22). This is the new com­mandment given us by our Lord Jesus Christ, 'as I have loved you, so you must love one another'. Similarly John expresses the depth and quality of this love by pointing to its source: 'Dear friends, since God so loved us we also ought to love one another'. Note the words, 'so loved us' (1 John 4:11). Our love to Christians is to be a part of the overflowing love which comes from God himself.

Let us then note that in Philippians 1:9 this love will 'abound more and more', that it will constantly increase. True love always admits of potential increase. How does that challenge you in your experience? How much of your living is inspired by love? Love always protects, trusts and perseveres. There is what I call a 'trudging love' because it keeps going. Love is patient. It plods on with those in the Christian family who falter over and over again, mindful of God's long suffering to us. Do we grow and increase in our capacities of love?

But we further note Paul's concern that our love for other believers must be intelligent. There are different kinds of love. In Christian marriage there is spiritual love through mutual union with God Triune, and physical love. It is wrong for a believer to marry an unbeliever because the main foundational union with God Triune is absent. In the case of our children it is a great joy when we can love them with a complacent love because of their spirituality as well as love them with that love which God has created in us as parents.

We need to be intelligent in observing the different ways in which we love new Christians, mature Christians, strong ones and weak ones. Discern­ment is most important. The spirituality, growth, graces, and gifts of other believers should be observed by us and this should activate complacent love in us. We see this in our Lord who loved his disciples with a love of discern­ment. John, for instance, was referred to as 'the disciple who Jesus loved'. He loved the others also but he loved discerningly.

Discernment also requires that we guard against those factors which diminish love or quench it. Differences of interpretation, of viewpoint, of culture, of personality, can so easily lead to quarrels or misunderstandings. It requires much effort and discipline of mind to agree to differ with love. Hence Paul's exhortation in this same letter to two women in the church (see Philippians 4:2).

The theme of love is basic to the Philippians 2 passage where Paul goes to the very plateau of truth, employing the richest Christology and the most exalted theology, to inspire unity and love in the church. What is your per­sonal response? Is your love running over? Is your love increasing? Is your love intelligent and discerning? Happy is that church which consists of believers who fit the description given to love in Philippians 2:8, 9!