Philippians - Verse-by-Verse Biblical Exegesis

knowledge [of God’s word] gained by experience,
KJV
Philippians 1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge
and in all judgment;
TRANSLATION HIGHLIGHTS
I wrote a thesis in seminary on the Epistle to the Philippians, the contents of which are part of this
study on the book, in which I chose 1:9-11 as the pivotal passage of the letter. In my opinion,
everything revolves around this emphatic prayer by Paul for the Philippian believers. Paul repeatedly
interceded in prayer (Iterative Present tense) on behalf of his favorite congregation. What was his
prayer for? He prayed intensively (Intensive Middle Voice) that their virtue love might grow and
grow and grow. That sounds rather simple, doesn’t it? The main verb and two accompanying
adverbs are far from being simple. Paul prays that their virtue (impersonal) love might be extremely
rich and abundant. The use of the Tendential Present tense along with a Potential Subjunctive Mood
means this is not an absolute certainty. It is produced in the soul by God in the believer who is in
continual fellowship. It is not produced in the soul of a carnal, apostate or reversionistic believer.
The believer’s volition is a deciding factor in whether virtue love grows or not. So what exactly is
virtue love?
“The believer must possess virtue, honor, and integrity - from having maximum Bible doctrine in
his soul and being able to apply that doctrine to experience - before he has the capacity to love
God or man. The only way to manufacture virtue love is inside God’s protocol plan for the
Christian way of life. You do not “practice love,” but you start with learning doctrine, which
builds virtue and the capacity for true love by means of the Holy Spirit ... Virtue or impersonal
love emphasizes the subject; personal love emphasizes the object. Impersonal love depends on
the honor and integrity of the one who loves; personal love depends on the attractiveness,
capacity, and response of the one who is loved. Impersonal love is simply the consistent function
of your own integrity toward other people. Impersonal love is unconditional, requires no
personal acquaintance, is strong, depends on Bible doctrine, solves problems, and is mandated
by God for all believers … Impersonal love is a relaxed mental attitude - love for friends, strangers,
even enemies - based on the subject who loves, not the object of love.” (R.B. Thieme, Jr.)
Paul could have stopped with the verb that points to his wish that their virtue love grows rich and
abundantly. But as Ralph Martin states: “Almost every word must be carefully weighed if the
greatness and range of the petition are to yield their richness.” So he adds two adverbs of degree to
this powerful verb, in both cases with the same Greek word “mallo,” but with different introductory
differences. The first instance of “mallo” which means “much” or “more” is accompanied by an
additional adverb “eti” which means “still.” This second adverb give the “more” a progressive
character, meaning “much more” than the initial “extremely rich and abundant” virtue love. The
second instance of “mallo” is accompanied by an ascensive conjunction “kai” which is translated
“even.” When “mallo” is accompanied by “kai” the translation changes from a mere “more” to
“even to a greater degree.” Wasn’t it enough for Paul to pray for “extremely rich and abundant”