Anyone who’s ever read the epistles in any depth can tell you that Paul’s theology is firmly rooted in agape. As you may or may not recall, “agape” is the Greek word for active, unconditional, and sacrificial love, the type of love that seeks the well-being of others without expecting anything in return. It’s the kind of love that God has for humanity and that Jesus exhorts us to practice towards one another. It most famously shows up in chapter 13 of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians - “Now faith, hope, and love remain - these three things - and the greatest of these is love” - but between the noun, verb, and adjective forms of the word, agape is mentioned as many as 136 times throughout the epistles. Paul clearly considers it foundational to the gospel’s message.
So when Paul writes to the church that he founded in Philippi, of course he brings it up. It’s not that he’s concerned about their understanding of the concept - on the contrary, Paul seems to view the Philippians as his star pupils. Rather, he includes it in his opening prayer for them: he prays that their already strong agape love might become “even more rich with knowledge and insight.”
This seems like a strange thing for him to pray for. After all, what do rational things like knowledge and insight have to do with *love*? Especially agape love. Self-sacrifice certainly isn’t rational. Neither is anything that comes without conditions. Of course, knowledge and insight are noble virtues worth pursuing in and of themselves, but they don’t seem to have much in common with love. So why would Paul mention them, instead of just focusing on agape?
The thing is, as important as agape love was to Paul’s theology, he wasn’t naive. He knew that the Philippians weren’t living in a utopia; they were facing persecution and opposition from outside their community as well as conflict from within. Now, agape can be a powerful tool for addressing these sorts of issues - it’s hard to prioritize someone’s well-being and still see them as an enemy. But as Patty Smyth and Don Henley said in 1992, “Baby, sometimes love just ain’t enough.”
This kind of sacrificial, unconditional love works great when everyone practices it equally, as will one day be the case in God’s kindom. The problem, which you’re probably well aware of if you’ve ever met, well…another person, is that most people don’t realistically tend to act this way in the world as we know it here and now. The practice of agape love today is pretty hit or miss - even among the most committed Christians. And if one person is working hard for the good of somebody who’s only concerned about themself, it can lead to big problems. Things get toxic and unhealthy really fast. When agape love isn’t reciprocated, it can lead to abuse. It can lead to the tolerance of intolerance. It can lead to exploitation and manipulation. Ironically, this dynamic often leads to the exact opposite of what agape *should* be.
Paul had seen the reality of practicing agape in an imperfect world firsthand. It’s why he’d been run out of town several times, why he’d been flogged, stoned, and beaten repeatedly, and why he kept winding up in prison. But his solution wasn’t to abandon agape love altogether - it’s far too important to the gospel for him to suggest that. Instead, he realized that agape love can do more good when it’s practiced in tandem with other virtues. Which explains his earnest prayer for the Philippians: that their agape love might be strengthened by both knowledge and insight.
He outlines his reasoning in verses 10 and 11: our ultimate goal as Christians is to bear “the fruit of righteousness,” or to live our lives in a way that pleases God. Agape love is one of the most direct ways for us to live that life - or, to extend Paul’s botanical metaphor, it’s the plant that produces the fruit of righteousness. It’s certainly possible for the plant to grow on its own, but sometimes, it needs a little help in order to reach its full potential in challenging circumstances. Knowledge and insight, then, are the fertilizer that feeds and strengthens the plant - they don’t produce righteousness themselves, but they play an important role in making sure that the plant is healthy and has the absolute best chance to thrive.
Knowledge and insight help us to see the bigger picture of our agape love. They help to direct and focus the choices that agape demands of us. For example, when agape love tells us to feed our neighbor, knowledge and insight tell us that we can have a greater impact if we work together with other people and organizations. Agape love tells us to stand up for the oppressed; knowledge and insight warn us not to pick fights for their own sake. Agape love tells us that all voices deserve to be heard; knowledge and insight remind us that that doesn’t give them the right to silence others.
Agape is a beautiful, holy thing. But as Jesus told his disciples, evangelism and ministry in this world requires us to be “as wise as snakes and innocent as doves.” It requires careful discernment so that we can faithfully balance our responsibility to love everyone with our obligation to seek justice for all. Yes, we need to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. But that does not mean that we allow them to walk all over us or others. Without knowledge and insight, that balance can be hard to find, and the necessary boundaries can be hard to draw. With them, though, love and justice don’t have to be mutually exclusive. We can figure out, as Paul puts it, “what really matters,” and we can faithfully live according to priorities that better align with God’s.
So it turns out that this prayer of Paul’s is actually quite a practical one. He’s praying that the church at Philippi might receive all the tools they need to continue in their ministry. But as is still the case today, Paul’s “thoughts and prayers” are only the first step for the Philippians. God can and will open doors that allow them to seek these tools, but just as agape love is an active, intentional choice, so too is the pursuit of knowledge and insight. It requires that we ask questions. It requires curiosity, humility, and an open mind. And critically, it requires listening to others. Because good discernment requires as much information as possible - and that includes the perspectives and experiences of people who are different from you.
This means that long before we can practice agape love well, we first need to listen to people who are hurting, even if we can’t see what’s causing the pain. We need to listen to people who are afraid, even if we don’t share their fear. We need to listen to people who are in need, even if we don’t understand why. *This* is what will fill the gaps in our knowledge and insight; *this* is what will guide our love and tell us what really matters. *This* is what will lead to a world where agape is no longer the exception, but the rule.
Although the opening of Paul’s letter to the Philippians might seem rather bland and generic at first glance, it actually contains some important instructions for followers of Christ: listen, learn, and then love. These simple steps are how we will bear the fruit of righteousness, how we’ll remain as sincere and blameless as possible until Christ’s return. Being the Church, as Paul understands it, requires much more than mere belief - it requires intentional action every single day, at every step along the way.
There will, of course, be times when we forget to listen, when we don’t feel like learning, and when we aren’t in the mood to love. Do it anyway. Do it for the sake of God’s kindom. Do it because it’s what the world needs, especially right now. Most of all, do it because others won’t. If we listen, and learn, and then, informed and prepared, still insist on loving everyone, then even those who choose to live contrary to the gospel can’t stop it. Even those determined to hurt others - or to hurt us - can’t win. The one who started a good work in the Philippian community still isn’t finished. Christ will stay with his Church, through all the challenges and setbacks and dead ends, until the job is complete and agape lives and moves in every single human heart. Until that day, let us continue listening and learning so that the agape in our own hearts can guide us where God needs us most. Amen.
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