Making the Right Decision: Paul’s Path to Strategic Living
Don’t we all want to make the right decision? Paul is laying out the path to that with his combination of love as motivation, knowledge as the framework, and insight as the guide, as we saw from the previous verse.
Paul is laying out the path to strategic living—maximizing the moment.
The Foundation of Right Decisions
If you were around when Jesus was on earth, the best decision would be to believe in Him. But that can only happen if the love of God was in you (John 5:42), and you also needed revelation knowledge of who Jesus is (Matthew 16:16-17).
As he said, the Father was the one who revealed to Peter who Jesus was, but they still struggled with insight (timing, Acts 1:6-8) into what that means. They needed the Holy Spirit bringing what Jesus had said back to mind (John 14:26).
Why such a long journey?
Blame Adam.
The Consequences of the Fall
When Adam chose to reject the way of truth and chose rebellion, he set back the human race in ways we may not fully understand.
The starkness of that blindness was displayed when human beings killed God, seeing that the sins of the whole world were put on Jesus.
And now those who will believe that the man who hung on a tree and suffered divine rejection for all of us is the way back to God, and is God, would only do that by revelation (love (Romans 5:5), knowledge, and insight), because it goes way beyond the mental power of anyone (1 Corinthians 2:14).
It takes the Holy Spirit to give you that insight (Ephesians 2:5). That is why Jesus said that no one comes to Christ except the Father draws him (John 6:44).
And Jesus said that Peter only knew he was Christ through revelation (Matthew 16:17).
The Proving Ground of Faith
The persecution that the followers of Christ go through is the means for proving true faith in Christ (James 1:2-3, 12)—the genuineness of that revelation, whether it is pretense or God-originated. It is, in a way, going through the sword in the Garden of Eden to get to the tree of life (Genesis 3). Any semblance of the love of the world in us had to die in the process of sanctification—that is, becoming like Christ in his death—and we would experience full life thereafter.
Christ hinted at this when he said that to be his disciple, we must take up our cross daily and follow him (Luke 9:23).
That is why Paul made it a prayer point that the love of these people would be joined by knowledge and insight.
Stated simply, it takes prayer to make the best decision. Jesus said we should pray so that we would not fall into temptation (Mark 14:38), which is making a bad decision and doing something that draws God’s ire.
Sincerity and Blamelessness
It is not enough to have passion (love, drive) to make the right decision. Sincerity (no hidden agenda) and blamelessness (no evil agenda) are also marks of making the best decision.
But some think they are smart and say one thing and mean another.
Those people do not live in the presence of God, and therefore cannot make the best decision. Sincerity means that what is inside matches what is outside.
But if you are like Cain, thinking that God does not see you, then it would be nothing to you to kill Abel (Genesis 4:8-9).
But thinking God does not see you does not mean that you will go scot-free, and what you thought was the best action, in the heat of the moment (removed from the knowledge that God is all-seeing and the judge) you will not make the best decision, which would be marked by sincerity and adjudged as correct by God.
The Day of Christ Perspective
Paul’s desire is that this church decide what is best. And twice in a few verses, Paul mentioned the Day of Christ (Philippians 1:6, 10).
That means the best decisions are those made from the perspective of the judgment day. That is the ultimate vision—seeing things from the point of view of the judgment day implication.
Don’t think judgment is only for unbelievers; the scriptures are filled with words about judgment of believers.
Paul said we would all stand before the judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10-12). That should lead you to have the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). And it is not wisdom if it is not about the right decision.
But people are fixated on having the right result in the immediate sense, even though wisdom is about making the right decision from the point of view of the judgment seat of Christ. Do you understand?
