“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.” (Philippians 2;12-17)
Food For Thought... I thought about entitling this blog “Put Up or Shut Up” …after all Paul does say that: in verse 12, “Work out your salvation”, and in verse 14: “Quit your complaining!” But being the kind and gentle pastor that I am, I decided a more appropriate and accurate title would be “Making It Real,” which is really the thrust of this text: This is about moving our salvation from the realm of the theoretical and making it practical in the real world of our daily faith.
Please note that he didn’t say work for your salvation. Don’t get tripped up on that! You cannot work for what you’ve already received. To try that would be wasted effort and an offense to the God who saves you by grace through faith … not by your righteous works, religious acts, or pious efforts
So, “working for” is pointless; but he did say to work out your salvation. Salvation is a multi-dimensional concept…And one of the dimensions of our salvation is the effort that we must give to aligning our personal conduct to our spiritual identity and our eternal destiny. I’ve got to align my words, arrange my actions, adjust my attitudes and set my heart so as to match the example of Jesus and the teaching of Scripture. My part of the salvation equation is to get serious about connecting my theology with my daily living. That’s what Paul means when he says “with fear and trembling…” We need to be serious about the things that God takes seriously.
So when God, through his Word, says, “do this”, then, if we want to “become pure and blameless children of God”—notice that phrase in verse 15. “Become” is used in the sense of proving that you are, or becoming the kind of child that God deserves and desires—then we’d better figure out how to put into practice what we know and believe to be true. Very simply put: You are to live what you’ve been taught; be a doer of the Word; match your belief with your behavior; walk your talk…“Put up or shut up!”
Now let me give you a really practical and specific application of how you can do this: Paul gives example of the “salvation work-out” in verses 14-16,
“Do everything without complaining or arguing…”
The idea is that working out our salvation is to be a rejoice-in-the-Lord-always experience, not something we grit our teeth and do. Not like the child who, for punishment, was told to sit in the corner. The child obeyed, but shot back at the parent, “I’m not sitting down on the inside.” Christian writer Evelyn Underhill describes the call for joyful obedience this way: A Christian should be like a sheep dog. When the shepherd wants him to do something, he lies down at his feet, looks intently into the shepherd’s eyes, and listens without budging until he has understood the mind of his master. Then he jumps to his feet and runs to do it. And [importantly] at no moment does the dog stop wagging its tail.”
Do you realize how unlike that most people are? We’re an obstreperous race living increasingly in a culture of complaint. We’re the most indulged society in the history of the world, yet we’re the most discontent society. The more we have the more we seem to be discontent with what we have and the more we complain about it.
I read some intriguing sociological research recently about our culture of complaint that tied our discontent, particularly among the younger generation, to the trend toward small families. The thesis is that in a materialistic society where families average two or less children per household, there you will breed self-indulgent kids.
It’s really interesting—think about it: When you have two kids, mom asks them as they’re getting ready for school what they want in their sack lunch. One kid says he wants PBJ and the other says she wants a tuna-salad sandwich. So mom makes them their made-to-order brown-bag. As she drops them off at school, she asks what they’d like for dinner. One wants this; the other wants that.
The kids are making the choice… they’re given much input in family decisions, big and small: What clothes they want, where they want to go to school, even what church they attend.
Now, if you were raised a generation ago and/or were in a large family, how much choice and control did you have in your home? If you were like me, mom gave you two choices for dinner, or anything else: Take it or leave it.
Do you know what the difference is? Where you had—or have—larger families, the child bends toward the system. For 50 years or so there’s been a sea-change toward small families… and family systems that tends to bend toward the child. As a result, child-centered parenting and child-controlled families characterize the home in today’s society!
Social critic Christopher Lasch observed, “every age develops its own peculiar forms of pathology which express in exaggerated forms its underlying character structure.”
What is our cultures’ exaggerated form? How about a pathology of Narcissism! Narcissus you’ll recall from Greek Mythology, was the handsome youth who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Narcissism is self-love and self-indulgence — the double-pneumonia of our day.
What happens when the child finally leaves home—finally—is a society that doesn’t bend to that adult-child. It’s a world where the adult-child can’t be in control. So what it breeds is what sociologists call, “moody discontent” … a society full of sullen, discontented complainers. That’s our world! Poll after poll shows how richly blessed but increasingly unhappy we are … and willing to express it!
But few sins are uglier to God than complaining—just read Exodus and Numbers if you don’t believe me. And few graces are more pleasing to God than joy and contentment. Why? Discontent and complaint exposes a lack of trust in God’s sovereign control. Joy and contentment express complete trust that God is working things out for your benefit. Even when God is not the conscious object, both complaint and contentment reflect your theology, your trust in God.
Now how does this fit with Philippians? Look at the first two words in verse 14: “Do everything…”
…Everything involved in working out your salvation — which is everything you do — “…without complaining or arguing.”
The word for “complaining” is the same word used in Exodus and Numbers of the complaining Israelites, whom God punished severely. It means murmuring … giving voice to your discontent.
The second word, “arguing,” actually referred to getting into an intellectual debate with God…Which is typically expressed by joylessness in the circumstances you’re going through.
Though all complaining and arguing are harmful, Paul is specifically referring to our attitude toward God.
Now the idea here, which is consistent with what we’ve been learning so far in Philippians, is that we’re called to accept the providential plan that God has ordained for our lives not with complaint, but with joyful contentment.
And then Paul gives three reasons why:
First, it’s for your personal growth. Verse 15 says, “that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault…”
I mentioned earlier that the word “become” refers not to the act, but to the process of becoming. Don’t complain—don’t argue with God! Endure life’s challenges with joy in order that the process of life-transformation can work. The word “faultless” is the same word used in the Greek Old Testament to describe an unblemished sacrifice. It’s the kind of sacrifice worthy of offering to God. Complaining short-circuits your growth; contentment, gratitude and trust keeps you in the process of becoming.
Second, it’s for your public witness. Verses 15-16 says, “…in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like the stars in the universe, as you hold out the word of life…”
Evangelism is a primary purpose for God’s children. And both the character of our lives and the content of our message are central to our Christian witness. When we complain, we sink to the same level as this “crooked and depraved generation.”
The Greek word for “crooked” is skolios, from which we get scoliosis—which meant bent out of alignment…“Depraved” is an even stronger word which mean severely twisted and distorted.
When we complain, we blend into the darkness; when we’re content and joyful, our lives shine…
And then, Paul says, we can “hold out the word of life” —that’s the same verb is used in Homer’s Odyssey referring to holding out a gift of wine for someone to drink. You cannot hold out this gift of grace while you are grumbling and expect people to take it.
Paul says when we offer gratitude instead of griping, we become living proof of a loving God to a lost world. But if we whine, we lose our shine.
Third, it’s for your pastor’s benefit. Sounds kind of self-serving for pastor like me to say that, but look at verse 16, “In order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.”
Paul wants them to do this, not to make his life easier, but to give him greater joy on the day he stands before Christ to give account of his spiritual stewardship for their lives.
Your pastor, like Paul, is running a race…and his goal is not just to get himself across the finish line, but to get you across that line as fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. He doesn’t want to run in vain. The word Paul used described runners in a stadium who gave maximum effort to win their race. Your pastor wants to get to the end of his race as your pastor and know joy as he stands before Christ that his efforts counted.
In the Message, verse 16 reads, “You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing.”
So as a pastor, let me say on behalf of all pastors, that you will encourage your shepherd’s heart throughout all eternity as you give serious effort to making your salvation real in your everyday life.
So work with him…
Put up or…
Prayer… Lord, I really do want to be living proof to the world of your redeeming love in my life. In everything I do, I want to reflect your grace, holiness and power. I want to be an example of salvation that has been fully worked out in the life of a human being. You have already redeemed me and given me eternal life, now I want to do my part to show what that looks like in my daily life.
One More Thing… The German philosopher Heinrich Heine said, “Show me your redeemed lives and I might be inclined to believe in your Redeemer.”
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