Scripture Introduction
Our text reminds me of the four-year old standing in his high chair during dinner one evening, much to his parents’ chagrin. They tried the usual antics to make him sit: begging, reasoning about the dangers of standing in a chair, fussing, and eventually threatening punishment. But for some reason, this night, he would not comply. Exasperated, the mother reached over, grabbed the boy by the arm and drug him down into the sitting position. With great determination and defiance, he yelled, “I may be sitting down on the outside, but I’m still standing up on the inside!”
We learned soon after becoming parents that obedience is more than sitting down on the outside. It does what I ask, when I want it done, and with a good attitude; it is quick and cheerful. In the same way, God’s grace is evident in us when we obey without grumbling or complaining, but with joy. Paul issued that very challenge to the church in Philippi.
[Read Philippians 2.12-18. Pray.]
Introduction
Grumbling, complaining, questioning, whining—these are NOT pretty words. When such behavior characterizes our children, we make speedy adjustments in our parenting. When employees exhibit those traits, the boss quickly corrects or maybe fires them. Unfortunately, those same attitudes and behaviors can show up in God’s children. When that happens, we mar our relationship with God and create ill-will and conflict with one another.
Living (as we do) in the wealthiest society in the history of humanity, one might expect us to be equally wealthy in contentment. But those who observe American attitudes say that we are (in general) a discontent people.
The Bible connects that restlessness to our fallen condition. Separated from God, we long to be restored to the happy holiness we were made for, but the way back to Eden is lost forever. Desperate, we try to force substitutes into the void. But none can truly satisfy, so our hearts swell with impatience, irritableness, griping, murmuring.
But even though the problem springs from our hearts, we should also realize that the world is motivated to stir up such feelings in us, due to the profit a lack of contentment generates.
Pastor John MacArthur (Commentary on Philippians, 175) observes: “The media, to create dissatisfaction, continually assault the senses with alluring and often unrealistic images that have been described as ‘plastic perfection.’ Fueling that enchantment is the staunch conviction that personal happiness, though elusive and unattained, is the supreme objective of life.”
So what would make us content? Certainly not more possessions! “Stuff” never satisfies because we always want more. Like John D. Rockefeller’s famous answer to the question, “How much money is enough?” Though one of the wealthiest people on the planet, he said, “Just a little bit more.” Hearts that want wholeness cannot be filled by empty baubles.
Suppose you work hard in the yard all day, even skipping lunch. At 6 in the evening, I offer you some beanie weenies. You might hungrily devour them even though they are not great food. But if you know that your sweetie is in the kitchen, baking homemade bread, tossing a fresh salad, grilling steaks, steaming asparagus, and making hollandaise and chasseur sauce for the foods, then you would reject the beanie weenies without grumbling or questioning, because you know something better lies just ahead. So even in difficult circumstances, if we are certain that we will receive everything we desire, then we can be content.
The Bible promises that very thing to all who trust God because of what he has done in Jesus. 2Peter 1.3 points out that God has given us “all things that pertain to life and godliness.” 2Corinthians 9.8 adds: “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all contentment in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” Those who are certain that “all things work together for [their] good” (Romans 8.28), do not complain because we have nothing to complain about. I do not grumble about the hunger I feel at the end of a long day nor at the offer of beanie weenies, when those very things increase my appreciation and enjoyment of a special dinner.
Given these amazing promises, we expect Christians to be overwhelmingly content. But this too is an area for growth. The Scriptures must teach us and the Spirit conform us so that sinful attitudes no longer control our hearts and words.
1. God’s Work In Us Produces Cheerful Obedience and Community Harmony (Philippians 2.14)
What are the all things we are to do with a good attitude? If we note the connection with the previous paragraph, we find that “all things” in verse 14 refers to obediently working out salvation with fear and trembling in the previous verses. God insists that we have not yet obeyed until and unless we do so quickly and cheerfully.
Let’s look at the words in detail. First, we are to obey without grumbling. The Greek word is (Greek Word) (gongusmos) and sounds like the guttural, muttering sounds we make when we feel we should be treated better than we are. The Scribes and Pharisees often “grumbled” against Jesus, and the Old Testament rebukes Israel for grumbling, or complaining (as the word can be translated).
Paul also condemns what my version calls “questioning,” though “disputing,” or “arguing” are also good translations of the Greek word. It describes a desire to debate every difference rather than finding ways to be agreeable.
I still remember the Ah-ha moment I had when I was counseling a couple about the submission to her husband which the Bible enjoins on Christian wives. This lady felt she was very supportive of his leadership, even obedient. As we talked, I asked her how often she submitted to him. She said something like 9 times out of 10, which is 90%, a high score. But as we discussed further what that meant, I suddenly thought to ask, “Of the 90% of times when you submit to your husband’s lead, how often did you agree with his decision?” The conversation pretty much ended there because she could see where it would end. She submitted 9 times out of 10, because she agreed that often. But the Biblical definition of obedience without grumbling or questioning assumes you disagree with the decision! Her submission score was a zero – she failed! God asks if we obey cheerfully when we disagree.
This does not mean that God turns away honest questions, nor does it imply that it is always easy to know how to obey in a fallen world. But it is a warning of the temptation to be argumentative and divisive. Rather than humbly giving preference to one another, the Philippians were harboring ill will toward, disagreeing, arguing, whispering, grumbling—tearing out the heart of the church community. Paul says, “Stop it! If God is working in your life, then you will joyfully honor one another.” Then, you will find that…
2. God’s Work in Us Creates A Holy Community (Philippians 2.15a)
“Blameless” and “innocent” define and describe the blessings to us of quick and cheerful obedience. As we obey God’s word, not outwardly with grudging reluctance, but from the heart, with joyful faith, certain that our obedience is what we would want to do if we were not misled by sin, then we reap the twin benefits of being blameless and innocent. These refer to three relationships.
First, we are blameless and innocent before God. If we want to be Biblical in our understanding of life, we must honestly admit to the continuing fountain of sinfulness and rebellion which brews in our hearts. But at the same time, we also insist that a true Christian actually becomes more godly in practice as he or she walks with the Lord.
1) When we believed the gospel, we were declared positionally holy, free from the curse of sin. This is God’s past act of justification.
2) After that moment of conversion, as God’s Spirit continues to work in us, we grow in practical holiness, free from the power of sin to control our hearts and lives. This is God’s present process of sanctification.
3) Eventually, we will be changed into perfectly holy people, free from the presence of sin, when we are glorified at the resurrection.
My point is this: in the present, as the Spirit works in us, God makes us more like Jesus. As we obey without grumbling or questioning, we grow more blameless before God.
Second, we are blameless and innocent before ourselves. Obedience that is outward and with a bad attitude produces a guilty conscience. It hinders our prayers; it fouls our moods; it quells our passion for the things of God. Even if you have been a Christian for years, your soul will be troubled by a complaining spirit. But as we obey with a good attitude, humble and gracious toward others, we will feel clean, blameless, innocent in our own heart and mind.
As important as both of those are, however, the context of verse 15 shows us that Paul’s main point is our blamelessness before others.
Gerald F. Hawthorne was professor of New Testament and Greek for many years at Wheaton. He astutely comments on this verse: “The Philippians were engaging in speculations that could only result in futile arguments that had the capacity to tear the community apart. These hurtful actions must go, and with them all other actions that promote disunity within the church. They must not complain against one another or engage in futile arguments with one another while involved in any activities in which their ‘life together’ is expressed. All of the injunctions Paul lays upon the Philippians (2.3,4,12-14) are for a purpose: that they might become better people than they are. Characterized by assertiveness, conceit, grumbling, and argumentativeness, they are promised that improvement is possible. They can become blameless, flawless, faultless children of God. But for Paul this radical transformation is possible only when there is a humble positive response of the human will to the demands of God (note the preponderance of the imperative mood here) linked together with the creative force of divine grace” (Word Biblical Commentary, Philippians, 101).
God’s working in us produces cheerful obedience which makes a holy and harmonious community, which witnesses to the world…
3. God’s Work in Us Witnesses to the World (Philippians 2.15b-16a)
The Christians at Philippi lived in an ungodly society. Some of the details may be different, but our situation is much the same. The world is twisted, sin makes people stupid, and rebellious, and perverse. Government officials preserve their own power rather than serve the people. Company executives destroy the environment and take advantage at every turn to rake in a greater profit. Crime, abuse, blasphemy—to continue to list the problems would depress us. We live in a dark world.
But God here promises that as we put off our bickering and complaining, and put on cheerful obedience, he will use our harmony to impress everyone with the greatness of his grace and the wisdom of his word! When a church is not growing, when visitors do not return, when conversions are not happening, I believe this is where repentance must begin.
Gordon Fee taught at Wheaton, Gordon-Conwell and Regent College before retiring. He writes (NICNT Commentary, Philippians 257): “Because so many of us are prone to grumblings and disputings, it is easy to dismiss this as a very ‘mundane’ matter; but the fact that Paul spends so much energy giving Biblical and theological support to it suggests otherwise. This is spoken in the context of their—and our—being God’s children in a very fallen, twisted world. Our corporate behavior, especially as that is reflected in our attitudes toward one another, goes a long way in determining how effectively we ‘hold firm the word of life’ in such a world. Thus, evangelism is the bottom line, and internal bickering among the people of God is a thoroughly counter-productive activity…. Only as we reflect God’s own likeness will our evangelism be worth anything at all, both in terms of its aim and of its being successful.”
Brothers and sisters, the first act of obedience in evangelism is humility.
Andrew Murray, Humility, 26: “I cannot too greatly impress upon my readers the need of realizing the lack there is today of humility within Christian circles. There is so little of the meek and lowly Lamb of God in those who are called by his name. Let us consider how our lack of love, indifference to the needs and feelings of others, even sharp comments and hasty judgments that are often excused as being honest and straightforward, are thwarting the effect of the influence of the Holy Spirit on others. Manifestations of temper and touchiness and irritation, feelings of bitterness and estrangement, have their root in nothing but pride. Pride creeps in almost everywhere, and the assemblies of the saints are not exceptions. Let’s ask ourselves what would be the effect if all of us were guided by the humility of Jesus, that the cry of our whole heart, night and day, would be, ‘Oh, for the humility of Jesus in myself and all around me!’ Let us honestly fix our heart on our lack of humility—that which has been revealed in the likeness of Christ’s life, in the whole character of his redemption—and realize how little we know of Christ and his salvation. Study the humility of Jesus.”
4. God’s Work in Us Encourages Fellow Believers (Philippians 2.16b-18)
Circumstances neither control nor limit Paul’s joy. Even if God plans his death while praying and working for their good, he gladly rejoices. As a pastor, one thing matters to him in relation to the Philippians—the humility and unity that results from their obedience to his teaching of the word of life. When we obey God, when we work out his salvation with fear and trembling, when we put off a complaining spirit in favor of a teachable, a humble, and a joyful obedience, the world will notice the evident light of God’s grace and the church will be encouraged.
But if our obedience makes us disagreeable and irritable, if we complain about the difficulty of evangelism and humility and caring for the poor and suffering for the cause of Christ, if we scowl when we talk about God and the Church, if we are not pleasant to be around, then our attitude will drive people away and destroy the unity and love which must mark the true church of Jesus.
5. Conclusion
A missionary in London was called to an old building where a woman was in the last stages of a terrible disease. The room was cold and she had nowhere to lie but on the floor. When the missionary asked if there was anything he could do, she replied, “I have all I really need; I have Jesus.”
Deeply moved, the missionary went home and wrote this poem: “In the heart of London City, Mid the dwellings of the poor, These bright and golden words were uttered, “I have Christ, what want I more?” Spoken by a lonely woman, dying on a garret floor, having not one earthly comfort, “I have Christ. What want I more?”
She had every reason to complain. But she knew, by God’s working in her life, that no matter what she faced, she was actually rich and abundantly blessed in Jesus Christ. Her willingness not to grumble in the midst of her trial exemplifies a true mark of a Spirit-filled faith.
I’m sure the thought of loving each other, even in a congregation this small, could make us irritable. But the promise of this very passage is victory over those attitudes as we are convinced of the joy of obedience by the faithfulness of Jesus, who humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
