Spring semester of eighth grade, I sat down with my middle school football coaches for my “transition to high school” convo; they would meet with each player individually to come up with a gameplan to get you ready for “the big leagues”.
“DuVal”, Coach Willis called me into his office. “You’re a good player… You have a great understanding of the game” (I credit my DAD for that, who’s here this morning; we used to binge-watch football together on Sundays)…
Coach Willis continued, “You’re a hard worker… You’re SMART (I think I was the ONLY player who knew all ELEVEN positions for all TWENTY of our offensive plays)…”
Coach Harris chimed in, “You’ve got GREAT hands” (which… you probably shouldn’t GIVE that compliment anymore, to middle schoolers these days; crosses a line. He just meant: “You CATCH THE BALL GOOD”; “great hands”)
“BUT”, they said, “there is ONE area in which you need to grow: (dramatic pause) You need to GROW.”
Not VERTICALLY (I think I was already like 5’9”, in the 90-something-th percentile for HEIGHT); but they meant “you need to grow GIRTHILY”, in THICKNESS. I probably weighed a buck-35 soaking wet; I was a rail. “You’re gonna get BROKEN in TWO by those high school boys,” they warned me, “If you don’t BULK UP”.
So I made it my MISSION to put on 20 pounds of MUSCLE over that summer. I was drinking a giant, disgusting creatine smoothie every single morning (I can still taste it to this day!); I was consuming 120 grams of protein every DAY. I’d go work out at the gym TWICE a day. I did EVERYTHING they recommended.
And I’m not even sure I gained FIVE pounds. I showed up for 9th grade football try-outs just as LANKY as ever. And the very first time Coach Marley made me “run the gauntlet” against Brennan Berg and Chesney Dennison – the gauntlet is where you had the ball, in this narrow, 10-yard-long section of the field, and you’re up against two defenders, and the drill isn’t over until you can GET the ball PAST them. And Brennan and Chesney were both 200+ pound SENIORS who would go on to play college football the next season; Coach Marley was trying to weed out the weakest freshmen, who weren’t CUT OUT for contact sports… and he SUCCEEDED. That was the day I decided to join the TENNIS team instead, which worked out better for EVERYONE.
But the point of the story is: what’s true in FOOTBALL is true in BUSINESS, is true in MARRIAGE, is true in CHRISTIANITY, our WALK of FAITH: “If you’re gonna MAKE it – if we wanna survive… THRIVE! – then to keep on GOING, we must keep on GROWING.” It’s like Big Tom Callahan says, “In AUTO parts, you’re either growing, or you’re DYING; there ain’t no third direction!” And that is especially true of us SPIRITUALLY.
But fortunately you and I – and the 1st century church in Philippi – all have a first-rate “growth coach” this morning, a spiritual growth TRAINER, in the apostle PAUL. Who, having reminded us just LAST week of the very core of our faith: gospel DOCTRINE – how it is that we BECAME Christians in the FIRST place; by believing in the “good news” about Jesus Christ: he is the Incarnate God-Man, our Suffering Servant-Savior, and the Risen and Exalted LORD over ALL – the Bible says that everyone who BELIEVES that gospel is given “the power of God for SALVATION” (Rom 1:16); Jesus HIMSELF said, “whoever believes in [me] will not perish but have eternal LIFE” (Jn 3:16); he said, “I will make you into a “NEW CREATION” (2 Cor 5:17); I will cause you to be “BORN AGAIN” (Jn 3:3).
And Church: that is ASTOUNDING! We praise GOD for our spiritual BIRTH!
But this MORNING, Paul’s gonna remind us that as exciting as that spiritual BIRTH is and ought to be to us, that our continued GROWTH in Christ must now be every bit as important to those of us who belong to Jesus.
We REJOICE and CELEBRATE little Larren Nagle’s birth this past week! But if he is still 9 lbs, 11 ounces and 22 inches a MONTH from now, a YEAR from now, that will NOT be cause for celebration, will it? It’ll be cause for ALARM, for INTERVENTION!
Here’s how Paul exhorted the church in EPHESUS; he says: “we are to grow up in every way into Christ… so that we may no longer be children…[but rather we] attain to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:13-15). We don’t wanna be a LITTLE like Christ; not MOSTLY like Christ; we make it our aim to grow into “the FULLNESS of Christ”!
Similarly, listen to how Paul scolds the Corinthian church for their spiritual immaturity: “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I had to feed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. [And now listen to Paul’s EVIDENCE of the Corinthians’ malnourishment and stunted growth, cuz we’re gonna come back to THIS point later in the sermon:] For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not (still) of the flesh…?” (1 Cor 3:1-2) Paul admonishes them, “Your actions are PROOF that you are still spiritual BABIES! But now it’s TIME TO GROW UP!” he tells them.
That was in Corinth. But now Paul FEARS that he may be seeing the first SIGNS, hearing the first RUMBLINGS of the same kind of spiritual CHILDISHNESS amongst the PHILIPPIANS, his favorite church. Remember the CONTEXT of this passage we’re studying this morning: Paul began back at the beginning of ch2 by encouraging this church to “be of the same mind, have the same love… Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
So reading between the lines a bit, we deduce that there’d be no REASON for Paul to exhort them to that kind of UNITY and SELFLESS HUMILITY – “ALTRUISM” – if there wasn’t some DIVISION, some SELFISHNESS going on. And indeed, we flip ahead to ch4 again, and find Paul “entreat[ing] Euodia and… Syntyche to agree in the Lord” (v2).
Euodia liked HYMNS and Syntyche preferred more MODERN worship (“Ughh; that song is SO A.D. 40’s; can we please sing something from the past DECADE!” Only TWO decades of music to even CHOOSE from at that point, but they were already arguing…) MAYBE; we don’t actually KNOW the source of their quarreling, but WHATEVER the topic, Paul’s gonna exhort them AGAIN this morning, the WHOLE church, to “Do all things without grumbling or disputing”. “Stop acting like spiritual TODDLERS; GROW UP!”
And Paul’s gonna GIVE us here the “HOW”, the “IN WHAT”, and the “WHY” of spiritual growth: HOW do we grow in Christ, in what WAYS ought we be growing as believers, and lastly, WHY should we even bother, be CONCERNED about growing, if I can still be saved, and go to heaven, even if I’m stuck as a BABY Christian? Paul offers us THREE ANSWERS to all THREE of those questions this morning; so NINE subpoints in total. Let’s get going!
Let’s read it together now; I invite you to STAND… Phil 2:12-18; hear the word of the Lord:
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. 17 Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18 Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.”
This is the word of God…
Paul answers for us here: 1) HOW do we grow? 2) IN WHAT WAYS do we grow; and 3) WHY do we grow? Or if you prefer: 1) the POWER for spiritual growth; 2) the PROVINCE of spiritual growth; and 3) the PURPOSE of spiritual growth.
First: HOW do we grow? What POWERS our growth in Christ? Three things:
First of all, our OBEDIENCE. You want to grow in Christ? It starts by OBEYING Christ.
Paul opens, “Therefore”, which connects his forthcoming exhortation with his preceding revelation, that “Jesus Christ is LORD”. And we talked about this LAST week; what does it MEAN to call Jesus Christ your “LORD”, kyrios – in Greek – it means he is your MASTER, your OWNER; it was a word used in the 1st c world of SLAVERY. If Jesus says, “Jump”, we say, “How high?”, and we DO it; we OBEY our MASTER. Romans 6 says, “You can either be a slave to SIN (your own SELFISH, fleshly impulses), or you can be a slave to CHRIST. But make no mistake: we are ALL slaves to SOMETHING.” And for those of us who, like Paul, have been “crucified with Christ; [who would say] It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”, we strive to take every thought, every emotion, every word, every action CAPTIVE, to make it OBEDIENT to CHRIST, 2 Corinthians 10:5. Paul says the same here: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed…” – notice: he ENCOURAGES them before he ever EXHORTS them. He COMMENDS before he COMMANDS. He calls them “BELOVED”; and then he commends the obedience he wants to see even MORE of. Some of us PARENTS should be taking notes. When our kids DO start getting contentious, do they still know they are “BELOVED”? Do we COMMEND their obedience as enthusiastically as we CONDEMN their DIS-obedience? I’m preaching to myself here. But I’m guessing I’m not the only one.
Then he says, “you’ve ALWAYS obeyed Christ, so NOW, not just when I’m WITH you, but all the MORE – “MUCH more” – in my ABSENCE”… OBEY Him. “EVERYONE obeys when DAD’s present.” But Paul says, “Don’t just do it for ME, to impress Pastor PAUL (or perhaps to avoid REBUKE!); No, obey the Lord ALL the time because He is WORTHY of it.
And because that’s how we grow, and FLOURISH; Proverbs 3 promises, “let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life
and peace they will add to you.” (vv1-2)
I wanna give you a personal application question with each of these 9 sub-points, so here’s your first one: “Perhaps you’ve felt like your spiritual life has PLATEAUED or even DWINDLED lately; ask yourself: “Am I walking in obedience to God’s word?” Remember what Jesus prayed for us in John 17:17? “Father, Sanctify them [GROW them SPIRITUALLY] in the truth; your WORD is truth.” Jesus called God’s word our spiritual FOOD (Mt 4:4); your body can’t grow if you don’t FEED it… and neither can your SOUL.
We FEED on God’s word, that we might HEED God’s word.
We ENJOY it, then EMPLOY it.
SURVEY then OBEY.
The SECOND way we grow is related, and it’s by WORKING (v12b).
Lest we think that obeying Christ should be EASY, now that we’re born again, Paul says, “You can leave your slippers & bathrobe behind; you better grab your tennies and sweatband, cuz it’s time for a WORKOUT!” A SPIRITUAL workout. Paul propels us in 1 Timothy 4 to “train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come… [you can work for a beautiful BODY, but eventually it’s going in the ground; but you don’t want to be stuck with a FLACCID, anemic SOUL for the rest of eternity! So TRAIN for GODLINESS!] For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God”. This is NOT the language of passive inactivity; Paul is calling us to ACTION!
1 Cor 14:12 “strive to excel in building up the church”
Rom 15:30 “strive together with me in your prayers”
Heb 4:11 “strive to enter [His] rest”
Jesus Himself echoes it – ““Strive to enter through the narrow door…” (Lk 13:24); you can’t COAST your way into the KINGDOM!
Later in ch3, Paul will say, “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press ON toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” You can hear Paul EFFORT, EXERTING himself, “STRAINING” with every fiber of his BEING toward this “goal” of Christlikeness.
So too HERE in ch2, he calls us to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”.
Now you say, “Wait a minute; “work out your GODLINESS” is one thing; but “work out your SALVATION?!” Hasn’t Paul read – didn’t he WRITE! – Ephesians TWO?! “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Isn’t that like the HEART of the GOSPEL?! So how in the world is Paul calling us to “work out your salvation” here?”
Well, for starters, let’s note that Paul does NOT call us to “work FOR your own salvation”. But what does he mean by “work it OUT”?
Let me actually offer you TWO explanations; BOTH are true, and both really amount to GRAMMATICAL explanations.
The first thing to note is that when Paul talks about the Christian’s “salvation” throughout the NT, he MOST often discusses it in the PAST tense: “By grace you HAVE BEEN saved”; Titus 3:5 “he saved us, not because of works done by us… but according to his own mercy”; 2 Tim 1:9 “[God] saved us… not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus”. And the TECHNICAL, theological term for this PAST tense salvation is “JUSTIFICATION”; Christ justified us on the cross; he forgave our sins that He might declare us RIGHTEOUS, and reconciled to God. And without a doubt, that is the most GLORIOUS gospel good news there IS!
And yet, Paul says, the news gets even BETTER, because we are ALSO “BEING” saved. 1 Corinthians 1:18 “the word of the cross is… the power of God… to those of us who are being saved”; 2 Corinthians 2:15 “we are the aroma of Christ… among those who are being saved”; 1 John 1:7 “if we walk in the light… the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin”.
And the Bible calls this PRESENT-tense “working out” of salvation “SANCTIFICATION”: we are BEING made HOLY, more like Christ, little by little, day by day. We’re being SAVED.
And then there’s the FUTURE-tense anticipation of salvation: we call GLORIFICATION. Romans 5:9 “Since we have now been justified by [Christ’s] blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God”; Rom 13:11 “salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed” (they received JUSTIFICATION when they first BELIEVED; but Paul’s speaking HERE of the Roman Church’s nearing GLORIFICATION, when they will die, and their faith will be turned to sight, and they get to enjoy the eternal reward of their salvation in Heaven).
We HAVE BEEN saved from the PENALTY of sin…
We ARE BEING saved from the POWER of sin…
And ONE day, we WILL BE saved from the very PRESENCE of sin. Justification. Sanctification. Glorification.
You say, “But HOLD on; I thought GOD had to be the one to “work out” EVERY aspect of our salvation, sanctification included. What about 2 Thessalonians 5:23 “may God… himself sanctify you completely”?”
I’d say, “You’re absolutely RIGHT.” Indeed, if we skip down to v13 and subpoint #3 for just a moment, Paul’s gonna make it clear that “it is God who works in you”. So “work out your own salvation… for it is GOD at work in you”. Now how in the world do we “work” THAT out?!
Well, perhaps some theologians way smarter than me (or more AUDACIOUS), will try and explain for you the MYSTERY of how GOD’S divine agency cooperates with our OWN free will in such a way that neither undermines HIS total sovereignty NOR our own moral responsibility. But I’m opting for the EASIER explanation, my SECOND linguistic interpretation now, which is to point out that the GREEK word translated “work out” here – katergázomai – literally means to “work DOWN” (ergázomai means “work”, and the preposition katá means “DOWN”). So we might translate Paul’s exhortation here as “work your salvation all the way down”.
Commentator David Guzik explains the sense of the word as “see(ing your salvation) evident in every area of (your) life, to activate (it)” (Enduring Word, “Philippians 2”). Warren Wiersbe notes that katergázomai “carries the meaning of ‘work to full completion” (NT Commentary, 638). He adds that “In Paul’s day this word was used for “working a mine”, that is, getting out of the mine all the valuable ore possible, or “working a field” so as to get the greatest harvest possible”.
The image that came to mind for ME, and it’s nice and BIBLICAL, is that of KNEADING DOUGH. On the one hand, Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians 5 that SIN is like LEAVEN – yeast – and if you’re trying to make UN-leavened bread, just the tiniest bit of SIN is gonna work it’s way through your whole lump of dough and RUIN it. So, Paul exhorts us, “Cleanse out the old leaven (your old SIN) that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (v7). Christ died to CLEANSE your sins away.
But let’s CONTINUE his metaphor now in Philippians 2:12 – “work DOWN your salvation; work it ALL the way down”. Christ not ONLY removes the leaven of our SIN; he then ADDS to our lives the SWEETNESS of his SALVATION. Imagine him spooning some HONEY onto the top of that dough; anyone else here love a good HONEY wheat pizza crust? MMM!! But then what do you have to do? You’ve gotta keep KNEADING the dough, WORKING that honey all the way DOWN and THROUGH every BIT of it. Paul says “DO that now, with your SALVATION”.
And do it “with fear and trembling”; Tony Merida points out (Philippians, 109): “One way to cure selfish ambition and vain conceit (remember, that’s the CONTEXT here; “be HUMBLE; think about OTHERS”… and a great way to DO it) is by living with an awareness of the holy presence of God. That puts us in our place (and) compels us to live lives of holiness.”
But here’s an application question to ask yourself now concerning your OWN “working salvation all the way out”: “What parts of YOUR life has the honey still not REACHED?” The parts of you that if you’re honest, they don’t seem to be at all “sweetened” by the GOSPEL yet.
If you’re not sure, ask those CLOSEST to you, cuz THEY know. They’re called “BLIND spots” for a reason. But I can promise you: your SPOUSE, your best friend, your parents, your KIDS… they can tell you. “Still no honey THERE, Honey; keep KNEADING…”
By the way, it is TELLING that all the verbs and pronouns in v12 are PLURAL: “As Y’ALL have always obeyed… work out Y’ALL’S OWN salvation…”. You need a spiritual work-out partner. Part-NERS, plural; the more, the merrier. And brothers and sisters: that’s what the Church IS! WE work out OUR salvation together, holding one another accountable (Gal 6:1), confessing our sins to one another (James 5:16), PRAYING for one another (Eph 6:18), ENCOURAGING one another and BUILDING one another UP (1 Thess 5:11); “As Iron sharpens iron, so one [Christian] sharpens another”, we help GROW one another (Pr 27:17).
Where hasn’t the honey reached? Maybe you live like a sanctified SAINT at home with your family, but the minute you step in the office you’re every bit the self-centered SINNER than everyone else is at work. You say, “Well, Pastor, you don’t understand my JOB; it’s CUT-throat”; don’t tell ME, tell JESUS.
Or maybe it’s just the OPPOSITE: you work hard to cultivate the APPEARANCE of godliness with outsiders, you care a lot about your reputation, but then you come HOME, and behind closed DOORS, around the folks who are STUCK with you, who will PUT UP with the “Real You” because they HAVE to, if I could be a fly on the wall in your HOME, is there enough EVIDENCE to CONVICT you as a “Christian”, based on how you speak and act, how you treat others in your home?
Or maybe it’s your SPENDING, or your SEXUALITY; your GOSSIP or your GLUTTONY. What parts of your life MOST need salvation worked down INTO them? And are you “STRIVING” to do it? To “train yourself for godliness… to this end we toil and strive”.
But listen: we “toil and strive” not in our OWN strength, but in CHRIST’S. We DO it, THIRDLY now, by SUBMITTING (v13).
“it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Ps 127:1). We can ONLY work out our salvation in GOD’S strength.
And Paul has PROMISED it to us already in this letter: ch1, v6 “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion”. And later in ch4, v13, Paul’s gonna remind us that “I can do all things through [THE LORD] who strengthens me.”
We see this tension, this collaboration of “OUR work but also GOD’S work” on display elsewhere in Paul’s letters as well:
*Colossians 1:29, Paul writes “ For this [“that I may present everyone mature in Christ”, for that] I toil, struggling [you hear Paul’s EFFORT, his EXERTION; but then he says, “I toil and STRUGGLE”] with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”
*Similarly, 1 Corinthians 15:10 “by the grace of GOD I am what I am [it is ONLY by his GRACE; God’s unearned GIFT], and his grace toward me was not in vain. [But THEN Paul says,] On the contrary, I worked harder than any [one else], [but then he ADDS] though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”
Again, I’ll leave it to the professional theologians to sort the paradox out; where exactly we stop and God starts. But I think this may be the BEST way to think about it: We stop AND start… by SUBMITTING. We humbly SUBMIT ourselves to the Lord to do what we CANNOT, “to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
So the apostle James calls us to “Submit yourselves to God… Or do you suppose [James asks] it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? ” (4:7) James is saying, “Don’t GRIEVE the Holy Spirit living WITHIN you!” God WANTS to “will and to work for his good pleasure”, and for YOUR spiritual growth – 1 Thess 4:3 says “this is the will of God: your sanctification” – and God wills it SO much, that He has made his very SPIRIT to dwell WITHIN you, in order to POWER that purpose… and all WE’VE gotta do now is be willing to SUBMIT; surrender OUR will to the LORD’S. “Not MY will, but YOURS be done, Lord” (Lk 22:42).
So let me ask you: “In what areas of your life are you NOT praying that, have you NOT submitted to the Lord?” I BET your answers to application questions 2 and 3 are identical, aren’t they? The parts of you that are the LEAST sanctified are the parts you’re refusing to SUBMIT to Him. We sing that hymn “Take my life and let it be consecrated, [set apart] Lord, to thee.”
“Take my hands and let them move… Take my lips and let them speak… Take my intellect and let it be used”. I wonder: what VERSE of that song are you most RETICENT to sing?
“Take my silver and my gold” – take my WALLET, Lord. Have you surrendered it to Him?
“Take my MARRIAGE”; have you submitted it to HIM, for HIS will and good pleasure? Or do you will and work for YOUR OWN pleasure in marriage?
“Take my…” WHAT? What DON’T you want to submit to Him? Whatever it is, it’s the thing that is most STUNTING your growth in Christ right now. Friend: give it to God.
That’s all HOW we grow: obey, work, submit.
But SECONDLY now: IN WHAT WAYS ought we be growing? Well, in all KINDS of ways, but Paul’s gonna single out just THREE of them here (…maybe FOUR…) for further consideration.
Firstly, we wanna grow in our CONTENTMENT (v14)
V14: “Do SOME things without grumbling…”; you were still taking notes, and you missed the joke. HOW many things should we be do without “grumbling or disputing”? “ALL things”!
I like how Pastor Curtis Andresko unpacks this one; he says:
“We’re good Christians; we don’t complain do we? No, we just VENT. We share prayer requests… We over-spiritualize it. (He clarifies…) There is absolutely a time to lament, a time to weep, a time to give hard feedback; if you’re being harassed at work, you need to tell H.R… If your spouse or friend has hurt you, you need to tell them that; that’s not “complaining”, that is confronting in truth. But what Paul is talking about is a type of grumbling that serves as an ingratitude toward God… Ingratitude was at the heart of original sin [Adam & Eve weren’t CONTENT, with all that God HAD allowed them to eat]. Complaining is ultimately questioning God’s goodness and wisdom in our lives… Charles Spurgeon used to say that “a murmuring spirit is the Devil’s music. He loves to worship to our COMPLAINING… (But sadly) Grumbling is our native language today… Like the Israelites in the desert in Exodus 16 (that’s what these words “grumbling and disputing” are harkening back to; after 430 years in slavery, the Israelites had only been free a MONTH, and they were already complaining and begging Moses to go BACK!)… But like them, how many things that we’re COMPLAINING about TODAY are the very things we were PRAYING for a YEAR ago (e.g., you struggled with infertility for years, and NOW you grumble about those kids God gave you; you were unemployed, praying for a job, and now you COMPLAIN about the one He provided)… Paul is saying, “If God is working in us it should show up in our attitude of GRATITUDE.” (“Work it Out”, Summit Church)
He’s right. Grumbling IS our native tongue. Contentment is so RADICALLY counter-cultural, that Paul says in v15- it’s gonna make you stand out, “SHINE like a LIGHT in the world”. Maybe the single most effective WITNESS you and I can have to unbelievers is our counter-cultural CONTENTMENT. Andresko tells the story of how he used to work at VERIZON and he’d been witnessing to one of his coworkers, but one day a customer was rude to him, so he was COMPLAINING about her to this coworker, after the woman walked outta the store, and the coworker replied: “You sure COMPLAIN a lot for someone who’s trying to tell me where to find JOY.” OUCH!
But Church: is that US, too? That’s my simple question for you on this point: “Does your CONTENTMENT stand out, shine forth like a LIGHT in the darkness, in this world so full of “complaining and arguing”?
To the extent that that’s TRUE of us, v15, Paul says SECONDLY now, that we’ll be “blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation”. In other words: HOLY. As followers of Christ, we ought to be growing in our HOLINESS.
The word “innocent” here also can also be translated “pure” or “unmixed”, as in, an UN-alloyed metal. The idea is INTEGRITY, wholeness, SAME-ness all the way through; no mixture of SIN throughout the whole lump.
Same question as before: “Where do you most struggle with this, God’s calling to “be holy as I am holy”?”
Maybe it IS your “grumbling or disputing”. You have a CONTENTIOUS spirit, when the Lord wants a CONTENTED spirit for you. Obey, WORK, and submit.
THIRD area in which we strive to grow: our FAITH (v16)
As those who belong to Christ, we are – v16 – “holding fast to the word of life”. Church, we must hold FAST to the GOSPEL. Paul has already charged us in ch1 to “stand firm… striving [there’s our EFFORT again; STRIVING] side by side [TOGETHER, COMMUNALLY] for the faith of the gospel” (v27). Now he urges us to “hold FAST to it”.
Brothers and sisters: the world, the flesh, and the devil all HATE the gospel that you and I profess. Which means “holding fast TO it” requires swimming up stream. It takes WORK to “keep the faith”. “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 THEREFORE, brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Cor 15:57-58)
Two quick ADDITIONAL subpoints with v16 here: the commentaries point out that this verb “holding fast to” can also be translated “holding FORTH the word of life”. So we ought to be growing not only in our FAITH, but in our faith-FULNESS to SHARE that faith with others; we grow in EVANGELISM! And “hold forth the word of life”.
My other note is that the “word of life” we CLING to could be the gospel – the good news of Christ’s life, death and resurrection for the forgiveness of our sins – but “word of life” may ALSO refer to the BIBLE.
So I ASK you, Christian: “Do you **CLING to it? Like your life – your FAITH – DEPENDS on it?” They say that the condition of a person’s soul is usually inversely proportional to the condition of their BIBLE. Are you WEARING yours OUT? To ensure that your SOUL doesn’t get worn out?
And are you “holding it forth” to OTHERS as well?
Finally, God wants us to grow in CONTENTMENT, Holiness and FAITH… by obeying, working and submitting… But WHY? THREE reasons Paul offers here, and I’ve got 3 MINUTES.
First, we grow to GLORIFY the Lord (v15).
We want to be “children of God without blemish”, because we know that pleases our heavenly FATHER. “this is the will of God: your sanctification”. God’s desire is that we would grow to be more like Jesus every single day. “By this my Father is glorified, [Jesus said] that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” (Jn 15:8)
Second, we grow in order to REACH the world (v15b).
We noted it already: true holiness stands out in such STARK contrast to the world around us; “Do[ing] all things [even MOST things!] without grumbling or disputing” is gonna make us “shine like lights in the world”.
So, Jesus encouraged us, “let your light shine before others, so that[b] they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven… You are the light of the world.” (Mt 5:16, 14). “Hide it under a bushel? NO! I’m gonna let it SHINE!”
Question: “How BRIGHT is your LIGHT?” Are others interested in the gospel you’re selling, based on the FRUIT that they’re SEEING, in your life?
And lastly: We grow to GLORIFY the Lord, to REACH the lost, and to…ENCOURAGE the Church (vv16-18).
Paul tells the Philippians, “When I SEE you growing in obedience, WORKING OUT your salvation, DOING all things with contentment and holiness and faith and faithful-NESS, it makes me PROUD, v16, I can be CONFIDENT that “I did not run or labor in vain.” He says, “It makes me WILLING, even JOYFUL – Paul says, “I will GLADLY “be poured out as a drink offering [as a SACRIFICE] upon the sacrificial offering of your FAITH”. In other words: “Your FAITH, brothers and sisters in Philippi, is worth ME, Paul, DYING for, if I have to.” THEM growing in Christ was THAT IMPORTANT to Paul.
And he concludes, “Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.”
Brothers and sisters: our mutual growth in Christ ought to be the source of such great mutual JOY and ENCOURAGEMENT to one another, as we run this race of faith together, this MARATHON. I know it gets long. And there are times when ALL of us consider throwing in the towel. But then you look beside you and see SARA MORELLO running. And she’s in and out of radiation and chemo, but you’d NEVER know it from the JOY she exudes.
Then I look the other way and see that couple who this time last year was sitting in my office telling me they weren’t sure they even wanted to stay MARRIED anymore, but NOW look at them, SPRINTING side by side, hand-in-hand, this race of faith.
And seeing THEM, seeing YOU, Church, your FAITH, your GROWTH – watching YOU pick up the pace, in YOUR race, gives ME my second wind.
So keep RUNNING, brothers and sisters; keep LABORING. For we “do not run or labor in vain”. We are encouraging one another, we’re reaching the lost, and we are glorifying the Lord.