"All You Need is Love" (Really...?)

Philippians 1:⁹ And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, ¹⁰ that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, ¹¹ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

The Beatles had a hit song: "All You Need is Love" (Lennon and McCartney)

There's nothing you can know that isn't known. Nothing you can see that isn't shown. Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be. It's easy. All you need is love, all you need is love,

Perhaps John Lennon and Paul McCartney could have learned something from another Paul, who wrote about 19 centuries earlier.  There is more to love than a warm feeling, or even a kind gesture.  Paul  (the first century one, that is) tells us, above, that love must grow with two important companions if it is to thrive: knowledge and discernment.  We need to grow in maturity and wisdom just as we grow in love.  It seems that when love, knowledge and discernment come together we can have a quality of life that is "sincere and without offense" and that is also filled with "fruits of righteousness".  This, apparently, is the kind of life Jesus will be pleased to find when He comes to us, or we go to Him.

blessings,

Rob  Smith