PHILIPPIANS 2:14-18

November 6, 2011FIRST BAPTIST CHURCHJACKSON, MISSISSIPPI

*The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Copyright © Moody Press and John MacArthur, Jr., 1983-2007

*Wiersbe Expository Outlines

*J. Vernon McGee's Thru The Bible

*Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)

*Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

The theme of Philippians is:

JOY!

Philippians 2:14-18

14  “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; 15 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, among whom you appear as lights in the world,

16 holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. 

17 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. 18 You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.”

Discontentment in our society.

Modern Western society is by far the most prosperous culture in the history of mankind. Except for the very poor, people have all they need and much of what they want; yet many are seldom satisfied. Consequently, ours is also arguably the most discontented society ever.

As we have become more affluent, people appear more discontented and complain more with each passing generation. Adding to the discontent are the fantasy worlds of movies, television, and advertising.

The media, to create dissatisfaction, continually assault our 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.

The typical modern young person lives in a state of sullen discontent, continually dissatisfied with things as they are.

Part of the problem is small families, in which fewer children are able to demand more of their parents' attention and they do not have to share anything with their brothers and sisters.

Combined with affluence and materialism, that situation tends to produce selfish, self-indulgent children who are never content with what they have. Instead of bending to the needs of the family, as is necessary in larger families, the family bends to them.

Absent parents, gone to work, shop, and play, try quick fixes for their children's demands, giving them what they want to stop the conflict. Children in that situation have little desire to grow up, realizing that adult society will not cater to their every whim.

They want to postpone the responsibilities of a job, marriage and family, and other such commitments as long as possible, because those things demand a considerable degree of conformity to others.

When these children become adults and don't get what they want when they want it, discontentment increases, as do frustration, anger, anxiety, and complaining.

Discontentment also breeds impatience, another defining characteristic of our times.

Among the seemingly endless causes of impatience, and often hostility, are long lines, interruptions, rude people, high prices, traffic jams, inconsiderate drivers, and crying babies.

Inconsiderate drivers often produce road rage, which, with increasing frequency, results in gunfire and even murder. Crying babies have led to child abuse, which occasionally results in the murder of a helpless baby.

Mounting discontent through the years produces the trauma of a so-called "mid-life crisis." That phenomenon is the reality that there is less of life ahead than behind, and the dreams of bliss are dying.

The Biblical commands to believers not to complain (James 5:9; 1 Peter 4:9) are evidence that the church is not immune from discontent. The church today has more than its share of malcontents and complainers.

People often leave a church because their children don't like it, or because they are dissatisfied with some minor aspect of leadership, organization, or policy.

Churches that promote self-esteem and self-fulfillment fuel the fires of discontent and complaining.

Churches devoted to entertainment and meeting felt needs also create expectations for superficial satisfaction that they continually have to try to meet.

Adam was the first complainer. Immediately after he disobeyed God, he blamed Eve for his sin, complaining to the Lord that "the woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate" (Gen 3:12). Instead of blaming himself, he blamed God.

Some years later, his firstborn, Cain, complained bitterly to God that his punishment for murdering his brother Abel was too severe (4:13-14). Moses complained to the Lord because He did not deliver Israel from Pharaoh quickly enough (Ex 5:22-23).

After God miraculously delivered them by drowning the pursuing Egyptians in the Red Sea, Moses and the people sang a glorious song of praise to the Lord (Ex 15:1-18). But after going only three days into the wilderness, they complained again because the water at Marah was not fit to drink.

The Lord graciously responded by making that water sweet and then leading them to an oasis at Elim, "where there were twelve springs of water and seventy date palms, and they camped there beside the waters" (Exodus 15:23-27).

Shortly after that, however, the people were grumbling again, this time about a supposed lack of food (Ex 16:2-8).

In reality, every complaint a believer makes is against the Lord and is one of the ugliest of sins.

And complaining against other believers is especially serious, an affront to God, because those believers are His children.

James 5:9 “Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door”.

1 Peter 4:9-10 says: "Be hospitable to one another without complaint. Rather, as each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God".

Believers’ failure to willingly, even joyfully, submit to God's providential will is a deep-seated and serious sin. Discontentment and complaining are attitudes that can become so habitual that they are hardly noticed.

But those twin sins demonstrate a lack of trust in His providential will, boundless grace, and infinite wisdom and love. Consequently, those sins are especially odious in His sight and merit His discipline.

As Paul explained to the Corinthians, the numerous Old Testament accounts of God's severe dealing with Israel's complaints in the wilderness were given "as an example, and they were written for our instruction" (Romans 15:4 and 1 Cor 10:11).

11 “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” 1Cor 10:11

Jeremiah asked, "Why should any living mortal, or any man, offer complaint in view of his sins?" (Lam 3:39). If that is true of everyone, how much more does it apply to believers, whose sins have been graciously forgiven by the Lord?

Philippians 2:14

Do all things without grumbling or disputing; (2:14)

Grumbling is from gongusmos, a word that sounds like the guttural, muttering sounds people often make when they are disgruntled.

It is a negative response to something unpleasant, inconvenient, or disappointing, arising from the self-centered notion that it is undeserved.

The related verb is used of the resentful laborers who "grumbled at the landowner" for being paid the same as those who had only worked one hour (Matt 20:11).

It also describes the Pharisees and scribes who "began grumbling at Jesus‘ disciples, saying, 'Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?'" (Luke 5:30).

Paul uses the term to describe the Israelites in the wilderness, who grumbled "and were destroyed by the destroyer" (1 Cor 10:10).

Disputing is from dialogismos, which has the basic meaning of inner reasoning and is the term from which the English word dialogue derives.

But it soon developed the more specific ideas of questioning, doubting, or disputing the truth of a matter.

In Rom 14:1, the word is used of passing judgment on another believer's opinions and in 1 Tim 2:8 it is rendered "dissension."

Whereas grumbling is essentially emotional, disputing is essentially intellectual.

A person who continues to murmur and grumble against God will eventually argue and dispute with Him.

Behind this sin is the reality that although we are citizens of heaven (Phil 3:20), we live in a fallen world and in unredeemed bodies (Rom 7:18; 8:23).

The Lord often leads us through times of trial and testing (James 1:2-3) and warns that we can expect to be persecuted because of our faithfulness (Matt 5:10-12; John 15:20).

It is therefore inevitable that circumstances will not always be favorable or pleasant.

Happiness is dependent upon circumstances,joy is not.

Every circumstance of life is to be accepted willingly and joyfully, without murmuring, complaint, or disappointment, much less resentment.

There is no exception. There should never be either emotional grumbling or intellectual disputing.

It is always sinful for us to complain about anything the Lord calls us to do or about any circumstance which He sovereignly allows.

Whether the task is difficult or easy, whether the situation involves a blessing or a trial, negative attitudes are forbidden.

As he testifies later in this letter, Paul's own spiritual growth had led him to enjoy this attitude: "I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity;

in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need" (Phil 4:11-12). His example shows that such righteous behavior is possible.

THE REASONS TO STOP COMPLAINING

Philippians 2:15-16

“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, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.” (2:15-16)

Paul gives three reasons why believers should stop complaining: for their own sakes, for the sake of the unsaved, and for the sake of pastors.

FOR BELIEVERS' OWN SAKES

“so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach” (2:15 a)

Believers are to stop complaining so that they may become the kind of children of God He wants them to be; namely, blameless and innocent.

Christians are God’s children by faith (John 1:12; Gal 3:26), by adoption (Rom 8:15,23; Gal 4:5), and by spiritual birth (John 1:13; 3:3-6; 1 Peter 1:23).

Because we are His children, we should "be imitators of God" (Eph 5:1); every Christian is in the process of becoming more like Christ (2 Cor 3:18).

That process includes becoming more blameless and innocent. To forsake grumbling and complaining is an essential part of advancing that process.

Blameless is from amemptos, which has the root meaning of being without defect or blemish. The believer is to seek to be without moral or spiritual blemish.

Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist, "were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord" (Luke 1:6).

Innocent is from akeraios, which has the basic meaning of being unmixed or unadulterated. The term was used to describe pure wine that was unmixed with water and pure metal that was not alloyed.

Metaphorically, akeraios was sometimes used of what was harmless or innocent. Jesus commanded His disciples to "be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves" (Matt 10:16).

Similarly, Paul admonished the Romans "to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil" (Rom 16:19). The believer's life is to be absolutely pure, unmixed with sin and evil.

Concerned for the spiritual welfare of the immature Corinthians, Paul wrote: "I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin" (2 Cor 11:2).

As children of God, Christians also are to be above reproach.

Amomos (above reproach) is closely related in meaning to amemptos (blameless); both words describe what is without blemish or imperfection.

Amomos is used numerous times in the Septuagint in regard to sacrificial animals.

The character of the children of God should be above any legitimate blame or criticism. Paul uses the word twice in Ephesians, admonishing believers to "be holy and blameless before Christ . . .

that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless" (Eph 1:4; 5:27; Col 1:22).

The writer of Hebrews uses amomos of the Lord Jesus Christ, saying, "How much more will the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God…” (Heb 9:14),

as also does Peter, who speaks of Him as "a Lamb unblemished and spotless" (1 Peter 1:19). Like every other spiritual virtue, being above reproach is impossible in a believer's own power.

It is only the unblemished and spotless Christ Himself Who "is able to keep believers from stumbling, and to make them stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy" (Jude 24).

After briefly describing the "day of the Lord which will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up,"

Peter asks, "Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness," and then makes the same point in the form of an admonition:

"Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless" (2 Peter 3:10-11,14).

FOR THE SAKE OF THE UNSAVED

Philippians 2:15-16

“in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life,” (2:15 b-16 a)

The second reason for not complaining is the negative impact it has on the unsaved, those who belong to a crooked and perverse generation — a description of the whole unbelieving world.

The whole phrase “crooked and perverse generation” is borrowed from Deut 32:5, where Moses describes unfaithful and rebellious Israel as a people who had become "a perverse and crooked generation." Paul applies that description of Israel to unsaved, corrupt humanity.

“Crooked” is from skolios, referring to what is bent, curved, or twisted. The medical condition scoliosis involves an abnormal curvature and misalignment of the spine.

The term was used metaphorically of anything that deviates from a standard or norm, and in Scripture, it is often used of things that are morally or spiritually corrupt.

Solomon speaks of "those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness; who delight in doing evil and rejoice in the perversity of evil; whose paths are crooked (skolios), and who are devious in their ways" (Prov 2:13-15; 21:8; 28:18).

“Perverse” translates a form of the verb diastrepho, which has the same basic idea as skolios but in a more active and dynamic form. Jesus spoke of an "unbelieving and perverted [diestrammene] generation" (Matt 17:17).

The multitude that stood before Pilate and demanded Jesus' crucifixion accused Him of "misleading [or perverting, diastrephonta] our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King" (Luke 23:2).

On the island of Paphos, Paul excoriated the magician and false prophet Bar-Jesus, saying, "You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked [diastrephon] the straight ways of the Lord?" (Acts 13:10).

Several years later he warned the elders from Ephesus that "from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them" (Acts 20:30).

The crookedness and perversity of the modern world are so obvious and pervasive that examples are hardly necessary. Modern culture has radically distorted and deviated from God's standards of truth and righteousness.

As with the church of Paul's time, the church today does not exist near the crooked and perverse world but lives inescapably in its midst.

Because of the expansive development of communications technology, Christians today are continually and vividly barraged with vile language, ideas, and practices to a degree that believers in earlier days never encountered.

It is from this crooked and perverse generation that people need to be saved. In his Pentecost sermon, Peter admonished his hearers “with many other

words as he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, 'Be saved from this perverse generation!'" (Acts 2:40).

In His High Priestly Prayer, Jesus spoke of the world as hating those who are not part of it, namely, those who believe in Him (John 17:14,16).

Yet He asked His Father not "to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one" (17:15). He prayed, "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world . . . that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me" (John 17:17-18,23).

Living faithfully and purely is an absolute prerequisite for fulfilling the Lord's mandate to carry His divine message of salvation to a world lost in sin.

In the first part of verse 15, Paul speaks of Christian character, what believers are to be ("blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach"). Here he speaks about what believers are to say, the content of what they preach and teach as lights in the world.

The way that believers live as children of God has a dramatic impact on how they influence the godless world around them.