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Last week, Pastor Zane gave us encouragement to do what is right regardless of who is around. He told us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling and explained what that meant. God is working in us for His good pleasure. This morning, Paul changes directions a bit and hits something head on that has incredible application for today.
I encourage to read our passage found in Phil 2:14-18.
Paul begins this section with a huge challenge that many in the church seem to have forgotten. “Do all things without grumbling or disputing.” The first question in this command must revolve around the word “all.” Surely Paul is not talking about grumbling or disputing in any sense. Grumbling comes from the word that means to express one’s discontent. It’s also translated complaining. Dispute means to argue over differences of opinion. Think about the things we grumble and dispute about. The weather. The bugs. Poor officiating. The price of gas, food, housing, and everything else. Lack of affordable healthcare. Taxes. Our children, spouses, family, jobs, and neighbors.
But everyone complains about these things, what about in the church? We are not immune. The chairs are too soft. The chairs are too hard. I don’t like chairs, it’s not a church without pews. The music is too loud, I don’t know that song, there are too many verses, that song lacks theological depth. Pastor Zane stutters and is loud, Pastor Mark is too much like a teacher, Pastor Ian moves around too much. I don’t like the color of the classrooms. The coffee is not bold enough and they don’t have the creamer or donuts I like.
There is a thread that runs through each of those complaints. Look back at Phil. 2:3-4. The common thread is pride. Most complaints we get revolve around preference from the complainer’s perspective. Over the years, we have experienced grumblers and disputers. It seems no matter what is said or done, it’s not good and for whatever reason, it seems that there is always some self-appointed person in the church to make the leadership aware of these shortcomings. Is Paul’s command simply to avoid anyone being labeled a complainer? That’s part of it, but I think it goes deeper.
“Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.” That is packed with some really important principles. Prove means demonstrate by evidence or argument the truth or existence of, establish the genuineness or validity. Doing all things without grumbling proves who we are. Not grumbling proves that we are blameless. It means innocent of wrongdoing. Innocent means free from moral wrong; not corrupted, harmless. Not grumbling or disputing proves we are children of God. Saying we are children of God goes far beyond a simple declaration of fact. Paul is telling us to behave in a certain way to provide evidence that we are who we say we are. Declaring that you are a Christian with absolutely no evidence to support that claim does not make it so. It’s easy to portray that in church. We have redefined what it means to be a Christian. In a culture where mother has been redefined as pregnant person, we need to be clear about what being a Christian is. It is not relative, it has no bearing on the family you were born in, or the country where you live. Attending church on Christmas and Easter does not make it so. Even attending church regularly does not make it so. All of these may be part of it, but being a Christian means following Christ. I don’t mean simply following along like many people in Galilee did. Being a Christian means being transformed, renewed, realigned, and continuously adjusted. It means surrendering your will for the will of God. We have been justified; made holy before a perfect God by faith. It is one and done.
Sanctification is the ongoing process of purification from sin and progressive spiritual growth. I remember as a kid being told certain things will stunt your growth. Not eating your vegetables or drinking milk. Not taking your vitamins. Smoking cigarettes. As a child, if I ate the right things, ate the green vegetables, drank milk for strong bones, followed the food pyramid, I would naturally grow. If I didn’t have a proper nutritional diet, regular activity, and intentional sleep, my body would not grow as intended. Your spiritual growth is no different, but it seems many choose malnutrition. Blameless and innocent point to the moral nature of believers. In our ever morally declining society, children of God must stand different than the crowd. Character matters. Children of God must stand for truth in a society that calls evil good and good evil.
Paul quotes Deut. 32:5 and says society is, “Crooked and perverse.” Crooked means twisted out of shape and perverse means a deliberate desire to behave unacceptably. That is the world we live in. How can believers live a morally pure life against a cultural backdrop that is anti-God, anti-holy, anti-truth, and morally bankrupt? Paul reminds us, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Your new life in Christ is a journey of faith. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” (Rom. 10:17) The word of God can come through a variety sources. Sunday school, sermons, podcasts, small groups, books, songs, self-study, and conversations with others. But we have something that early Christians did not have. In our hands is the actual God breathed word that He gave to us preserved through the centuries to provide us with history: great men and women of faith to emulate, strong character under persecution, incredible miracles of God, practical demonstrations of God’s deliverance and judgment, and acts of great courage. But there are also examples of personal moral failure, and the subsequent hope that is found in Christ.
All that working in our lives makes us, “appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life.” The word of life refers to the gospel. Just like a lighthouse, Christians can be the light that guides people’s path to safety and righteousness through the good news of Jesus Christ. Paul ends by saying, “so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.” Paul is not seeking personal glory in his ministry. It is very rewarding to see people grow in Christ. It can be challenging when people just go through the motions with no real desire to grow. Paul didn’t want to run in vain. Vain here means lacking results. Paul is saying when people actually live for Christ, there are results. This is sometimes difficult to quantify, but he knew that anything he accomplished was really Christ working in him and through him.
Paul wanted and urged the Philippians to remain firm in their faith. He offers a contrast by way of a metaphor. He says, “But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith.” There has been some debate over what Paul is trying to say here. We have shared the suffering Paul has endured for the sake of Christ. 2 Cor. 11:23-28 provides a list of what Paul has gone through because of his faith and position in Christ. While he has endured much suffering, he is ready for more should that happen. “Poured out as a drink offering” refers to the Jewish sacrificial system he knew well. The drink offering would be literally poured out on top of the sacrificial offering on the altar. He wasn’t referring to himself, but rather the service of the Philippians. His work supplements or adds to their sacrifice. He is excited to be a part of their work, their service, and their steadfastness that makes them shine as a light in the crooked and perverse world they live in. He’s not saying he has been poured out but is willing to go through whatever is necessary to help this church live for Christ.
As this church lives for Christ, Paul says, “I rejoice and share my joy with you all.” Rejoice means to be in a state of happiness. Happiness is dependent upon the circumstances and what is happening in this church brings Paul happiness. There is nothing wrong with being happy but that was not Paul’s primary goal. He was happy because this church lived out their faith. This wasn’t the case with every church he worked with. He wrote to the Galatians because he was shocked that they had so quickly turned from the gospel to another gospel which wasn’t the gospel. He wrote his first letter to the Corinthians because of the division in the church. He wrote the letter to the Colossians to warn them against Gnosticism. He wrote his second letter to the Thessalonians to correct their thinking about the second coming of Christ. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul instructed Timothy to correct certain men that were teaching strange doctrines. Paul was truly happy and joyful over the church at Philippi.
Finally, he says, “You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.” Paul has shared his joy over them and he wants to hear about their joy. We should be thrilled when others are thrilled. Regardless of how things are going with us, when others have great joy, we should share in it.
Paul urged the church to do all things without grumbling or complaining. That’s a big undertaking because it’s easy to fall into the trap of complaining as if that will do any good. When we don’t complain, Paul says that is one of the ways we prove who we are in Christ. Paul is encouraging these believers to be blameless and innocent in this generation that is perverse and wicked. When we do that, we become as lights to guide people to the safety that is found in the Lord. That brings great joy.