God’s plan is to develop us to be partners in the gospel (Philippians 2:1-15)

 I want to speak to you from the book of Philippians.

The message of Philippians is God developing the church to partner in the gospel:

always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,  in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. -Philippians 1:4-5

And The key verse in Philippians is chapter 1, verse 6: 

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

I want to look at Philippians chapter 2, the first half of the chapter; verses 1 to 15:

Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing; 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,

-Philippians 2:1-15 (NASB 1995)

In verses 1 and 2, Paul is saying, “if in any way I have encouraged you in Christ, if in any way my love has consoled you, if in any way you have enjoyed fellowship by the Spirit and if you have experienced the tenderness and compassion of Christ, then listen to me tell you this”:

verses 2 and 3

2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit,

The Philippian church had come under the influence of false teachers who did not model their behavior after Christ.  And the whole church became spiritually sick.  They had fallen out of harmony, out of unity with one another.

Paul addresses this sickness, telling the Philippians what steps are necessary to restore them to health.

The sickness of selfishness or empty conceit  had taken hold.  The cure for this sickness is the second half of verse 3 and into verse 4 which reads, 

“but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 

They needed to change their minds and turn away from selfishness.  They all as a group, I want you to understand that Paul is addressing them as a group, they all together needed to get back to working on something that was not complete.  

In verses 5 thru 11, Paul admonishes the church to have the attitude of Jesus who is our pattern of conduct. He is the example we want to follow of humility, self-sacrifice, self-denial, and self-giving service.

Then in verse 12, Paul talks about completing our salvation together:

“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

“So then, my beloved,”

Paul is saying, “you are a people especially loved by God, but also by me.”

“as you have always obeyed”.   As you have obeyed before, obey now.  To obey means to hear the divine word proclaimed and then to submit to that word.

Paul is saying that we need to obediently work at achieving spiritual fitness within our church community with Christ Jesus as our model.

As in the life of Jesus, so in the life of the church, obedience to the Father’s will must be the supreme motivating force for action.

“With fear and trembling” 

This does not mean we are afraid but that we are deadly serious about completing our salvation together and that we are in awe of and greatly honor and respect fellow church members and our leaders.  

And in verse 13, Paul says:

13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

We have to work to bring our salvation together to completion, but it is God who does the heavy lifting.  

God changes our wills so that we can change our conduct.  

“Work out” in verse 12 means to bring to completion, and “work in”, in verse 13 means God is the energizer who makes your salvation complete.  

God does not work because we work, but since God has worked we can work it out.

God works in us so we can work things out with each other to completion.

God is the great energizer.  God is at work in us, so that we will be able to achieve harmony and health together.  The outworking is salvation for the whole church.  In other words, if we allow God to work among us, He will change us, and we can become a healthy and harmonious church.

The church must avail itself to the working of God and cooperate with God’s working, give permission to God’s working to express itself in their conduct one to another.  The outworking is salvation for the whole church each one of us is a part of. In other words, if we allow God to work among us, He will change us, making us willing to change, and we will  become a healthy and harmonious church.  God creates the desire for us to be healthy spiritually and then gives us the ability to be and act, do and live lives as Christians together as we walk and live.

We must work together with God who wants to work in us and work out our salvation.  God’s purposes for us only come about with our cooperation.  God’s action does not stop us from acting selfishly but encourages us to be unselfish and then supports us to live, act, and behave as Christ did as an obedient servant, “according to His good purpose”.  This means here that God is calling us his church to live in harmony, selflessness and good will.  Paul is appealing to the church as God’s spokesperson.

Verse 14 ”Do all things without grumbling or disputing;

Grumbling, complaining against brothers and sisters is first of all, unfriendly.  Christians should be by definition, friendly people to one another.  Complaining and arguing is a symptom of spiritual illness brought on by a worldly mindset of looking out for number one with an overinflated idea of yourself.  A complainer is a person who is perpetually unhappy.

Having ‘selfishness and empty conceit’ (vs. 3) leads to unfriendliness.  

But being friendly is rooted in:

-humility

-valuing others above yourself

-looking out for the interests of others

-having the attitude of Christ

Murmuring, secret talk, or whispering about others fosters ill-will.  Complaining or expressing displeasure is the opposite of being harmonious and expressing good will.  Arguing is a futile exercise that turns people against each other.  Arguing is rooted in selfishness and vain conceit.  Arguing causes disunity.  Paul commands us to do no grumbling or disputing while engaged in all church activities.

”Do all things without grumbling or disputing;

Why?

The context answering why is certainly the following verse, but also the previous verses 12 and 13; but verses 3 and 4 describe the spiritual sickness that had taken hold that Paul has been addressing:

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;  do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

Grumbling or complaining and disputing or arguing in the church with others, in any activity together with the church is selfish and conceited, unchristlike. 

We can’t become one, have unity (vs. 2), if we are complaining and arguing against others in the church (vs. 14).  But when we have the attitude of Christ (vs. 5) and we work together to complete our salvation (vs. 12), we become better people who are blameless and innocent (vs. 15).

Verse 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,

This radical transformation is only possible when there is a humble positive response of our human will to the demands of God linked together with the creative force of divine grace (vss. 12 and 13)

By working out, bringing to completion our salvation, with fear and trembling rather than grumbling and disputing, the world will now see us as blameless and innocent because we have dealt with our sin as God has directed.

Blameless and innocent means that our behavior is free from any criticism of others.  No one will be able to point to any flaw in all of us because there is none.  How we behave should correspond to how God is inside us.  

We are ‘children of God’ which means there ought to be a family resemblance.  

We live in a twisted, perverted society; a society that has twisted the truth of God, and perverted the ways of God.

To pervert the ways of God refers to the act of distorting or corrupting the true meaning and purpose of God's teachings. This often leads to the promotion of false doctrines that contradict His will and can result in immoral behavior.

One of the big perverse religious teachings today is focusing solely on God's love while neglecting His call to repentance and obedience.

We as Christians are called to shine as lights, which means to live in accordance with God’s truth as people who know the truth.

“Among whom you appear as lights in the world,” means “you are shining”, or better yet, “you must shine”.  We must accept responsibility as God’s children to be lights in the world.  We are like torches, lanterns, or beacons; children of the light carrying the light of truth and goodness to this morally corrupt world.  We as the church are the light (Matt. 5:14, Eph. 5:8a), and are to let our good works, our harmony, selflessness, and service to one another shine to world around us, dispelling the darkness of evil and ignorance around us.

WHY?

Because God’s plan is to develop us to be partners in the gospel.