Click here for the Philippians 2:14-16 PODCAST
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. ~ Philippians 2:14-16
As mentioned before, the theme of Philippians is JOY. And, in every chapter something unique about the Lord Jesus is accentuated. When we put these four uniquenesses about the Lord Jesus together, we have God's definition of JOY.
In Philippians 1, the life of Christ is accentuated. In Philippians 2, the mind of Christ is accentuated. When His life becomes ours and when we yield to His definitions to all things, we discover that we are well on the way to having a definition of JOY, which we are told in Nehemiah 8:10, is our strength.
Now, we must be cognizant that everything happens in our lives falls into one of two categories: 1) caused by God, or 2) allowed by God. Either way, what ever happens in our lives comes through the will of God for us. And, when we are yielding to the very life of Christ being lived in us, to us, and through us, we discover that He is defining us. When He is defining us, we will begin to think as He thinks.
In Philippians 2:14, the Apostle Paul tells us, "Do everything without grumbling or arguing." Grumbling means murmuring. It is an expression of discontent, an expression of dissatisfaction. It is literally muttering in a low voice. It is a complaint expressed in a negative attitude, an emotional rejection of God’s will.
As we have mentioned before, in every chapter of Philippians, there are potential joy stealers. If we are yielding to the presence of the Lord Jesus and His definition of things, these joy stealers will not rob us of His joy which is a fruit of the Spirit, we do not manufacture it.
In Philippians 1, the potential joy stealer is our prisons. In Philippians 2, the potential joy stealer is people. When Christ's life becomes ours, our prisons will become our pulpits. When Christ's mind or His way of thinking defines our thinking, people become important, even when they are being annoying.
In v.14 of our text, the Apostle describes conflict that we have in our lives with other people. We lose sight of the fact that God uses others, even when they are being annoyingly wrong, to refine us. This sets off an intellectual debate with God. We end up complaining with them and arguing with God about why they are what they are. God's goal is to use the people in our lives to refine us, to teach us how to love them as He loves us.
Now, in context, Paul is saying, "work out your salvation with the basic attitude that does not grumble or complain and argue." We either feed the Spirit of God who has awakened our spirit to God (born again) or we feed the flesh (the sinful desires that are still in us even we are born again.) When we complain and argue, we are feeding the flesh.
According to v.15, we resist "grumbling or arguing," “so that we may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Paul is not saying we earn acceptance before God, no, we have that through the cross of the Lord Jesus. Paul is ultimately concerned with our witness to the world. And, as we allow God to define us, we become billboards of God's way of thinking and living. This in turn causes the world to want what we have.
The witness, in this case, is our relationships with one another, as believers. And, those who are observing us, the “warped and crooked generation” will be able to observe how we relate to each other, finding our behavior blameless and our hearts pure. As we do so, we show the world what our Father is like.
As we learn to love one another and be God’s community, we “shine among them like stars in the sky.” As the light of the world, Himself, shines through our yielded lives, we show the lost, particularly by the way we love, that there is a better way of being human. Then the people dwelling in darkness will see a great light.
As we shine, we hold firmly to “the word of life,” the Lord Jesus Himself. This enables us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling because God is watching (v.12). We are to do everything without grumbling or arguing because the world is watching (v.14).
Our unity of purpose, created and nurtured by humility and our common love for Christ, which motivates us to stop grumbling and arguing, gives us the ability to offer the gospel of the Lord Jesus to the world with credibility.
When we hold onto and holding out the Gospel, it will result in Paul's ability to in the day of Christ to literally “boast” that he did not run in vain or labor in vain. The day of Christ is the day when Christ returns to establish His eternal kingdom.
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