IV. The Christian Life (1:27-2:18)

3. Stand in Obedience (2:12-2:18)

B. Lights in the World (2:14-2:16a)


Some Key Words (07/14/24-07/15/24)

Grumbling (goggusmon [1112]):
| a grumbling. | murmuring, muttering, secret debate or displeasure.
Complaining (dialogismon [1261]):
Negative reasoning, objectionable thoughts.  Doubt or dispute. | consideration, debate. | One’s inward deliberations, reasoning or opinion.  Also questioning deliberation leading to hesitation and doubt.  Here, per Lightfoot, ‘intellectual rebellion against God.
Prove (genesthe [1096]):
[Aorist: External viewpoint, action viewed as a whole.  Indicatives tend to be past action, others follow timing of main verb.  Middle: Subject acts relative to self, or has personal involvement in action towards himself.  May indicate reciprocal action of multiple subjects.  May be deponent, and thus, active in sense.  Subjunctive: Action contingent or probable at some point.]
To become or be made.  To be formed, created.  To be done, accomplished, fulfilled. | [deponent, so active.] To become. | To become, begin to be.  To come to pass, arise, appear. To be done, finished, performed fully.  To be made, imbued with some particular quality, rank, characteristic.
Blameless (amemptoi [273]):
unblamed, not blamed.  Does not speak to the justness of said blame.  The idea is to give no grounds for accusation. | beyond reproach. | deserving of no censure.  Free of all fault or defect.
Innocent (akeraioi [185]):
Without mixture.  Having no deceit.  Not adulterated. | unmixed.  Innocent. | unmixed, pure, innocent.
Above reproach (amoma [299]):
without blemish, having nothing amiss; a sacrifice which will not cause offense. | unblemished. | without blemish, faultless.  Used particularly of sacrifices.  Ethically, having much the same sense.
Crooked (skolias [4646]):
| warped, perverse. | crooked, curved.  Unfair, perverse, wicked.
Perverse (diestrammenes [1294]):
| distorted, misrepresentative, corrupt. | To distort, turn aside from what is right.  To corrupt, pervert.  To be thus corrupt, perverse, wicked.
Appear (phainesthe [5316]
[Present: Internal viewpoint.  Action viewed in its component parts, with the feel of being ongoing and current.  Used for both actions of a moment, and actions of a continuous, ongoing nature.  Middle: Subject acts relative to self, or has personal involvement in action towards himself.  May indicate reciprocal action of multiple subjects.  May be deponent, and thus, active in sense.  Indicative: Action is certain or realized.]
To shine, appear, be conspicuous.  To seem to be.  Middle voice:  to appear in judgment, or be judged by appearance.  What shines does so whether observed or not. | to show. | To bring into the light, cause to shine.  To be bright and resplendent.  To become evident, apparent.  To be strikingly manifest.  To seem in one’s judgment.
Lights (phosteres [5458]):
A heavenly body; sun, moon, perhaps a star. | A luminary, a brilliance. | that which gives light.  Stars as illuminators.
World (kosmo [2889]
world, viewing the world order. | the world in any sense, literally or morally. | an apt, harmonious arrangement.  Adornment.  The world, or universe as thus arranged and adorning.  The earth in particular, with or without its inhabitants considered.  Or the human race.  Often focused on the ungodly who are hostile to Christ, or on worldly affairs, especially in their seductive power.
Holding fast (epechontes [1907]):
[Present: Internal viewpoint.  Action viewed in its component parts, with the feel of being ongoing and current.  Used for both actions of a moment, and actions of a continuous, ongoing nature.  Active: Subject performs action.  Participle: Verbal adjective.  Present participles are contemporaneous with main verb, and indicative of state.  Nominative: Subject.  Here, the plural ‘you’ indicated by the verb phainesthe.]
| To retain, pay attention to. | To have hold on, to apply, attend to.  To hold forth [taken as such here.] To check, delay, stop, or stay.
Word (logon [3056]):
Intelligent word, expressed thought.  Speech with meaning.  In John’s usage, indicative of Jesus as the expressed intelligence of God, God made known. | expression of reasoning, topic of conversation.  Motive.  For John, and with the definite article:  the Divine Expression, which is Christ. | a word, language spoken or written.  A saying.  Logical discourse, instruction, preaching.  [These seem apt here, in my estimate.]  doctrine concerning salvation through Christ, and the kingdom of God.  A written narrative or account of actions.  A story, a matter of discussion.  Reason, or reasoned consideration.  An accounting.
Life (zoes [2222]):
Life of spirit and soul.  More than mere biological life.  Life as the ‘highest and best which Christ is. | life, literally or figuratively. | The state of being animate, alive.  The ‘absolute fullness of life,’ found in Christ Jesus through the hypostatic union.  A blessed life, giving evidence of God’s grace in its obtaining.  Spiritual life, eternal and immortal.

Paraphrase: (07/16/24)

Php 2:15 – Thus, make evident that you are in fact blameless and innocent, that you are God’s child and above reproach, unsullied by the perversity of the world around you, shining as stars in the darkness of the present order.

Key Verse: (07/16/24)

Php 2:14-16 Do all that you do without complaint, without grumbling, without bickering.  This will give evidence of your purity, demonstrate that you are in fact God’s children, and above reproach in this dark world.  Shine as lights, for lights you are!  Hold fast to this word of life, and demonstrate it by living it.

Thematic Relevance:
(07/15/24)

Grumbling and debating, particularly in regard to God’s direction, would assuredly present the very opposite of contentment.

Doctrinal Relevance:
(07/16/24)

Holiness doesn’t come by accident.  It needs purposeful pursuit.
We cannot shine by looking like society around us.
There is no place for a complaint department in the church.

Moral Relevance:
(07/16/24)

There is to be no grumbling or disputing, but that is not to say that we toss aside discernment.  We pray.  We pray for godly leadership, and we ought probably to pray for godly followership.  And in that prayer, we most surely include ourselves.  How I need to hear this!  This grumbling must cease!  And that, not only in the setting of church, but in the home, in the workplace.  Let grumbling and disputing not be found among you.  If you have differences, take it to God.  If you have doubts about your brother, take it to God.  And dear one, take it to Him with the clear understanding and acknowledgement that it may very well be you that needs correcting, and not your brother.  Here, too, is that call to humbly consider what’s really at issue.

Doxology:
(07/16/24)

You have been given to know this word of life!  God has graciously granted unto you the understanding and willing reception of this word.  He has given you life, and not just that life which is of the womb, but LIFE, life eternal, glorious in its completeness, and shining brilliantly in the reflected light of His glory.  You are children of God.  That is settled.  The call here is not to convince yourself of this truth, or to make it possible to become children.  What child ever caused its own becoming?  No, the call is to be manifestly, evidently what you are.  Shine!  Shine because God shines upon you, in you.  Shine forth His word in glad confession.  Here is the Holy One!  And He invites you into His holiness.  Come, be washed clean.  Come, be made new, be made light in the light of Him Who created the sun and the stars.  He is here and He is willing and able to cleanse you of all unrighteousness, and asks nothing in return but that you walk in that new life He gives.  Praise and glory and honor be unto the Lord our God.  He is glorious.

Questions Raised:
(07/14/24)

Holding fast or holding out?

Symbols: (07/16/24)

Lights
I don’t find any articles on the subject, so as a starting point, I will simply pursue those passages which speak of lights, beginning at the beginning.  Genesis 1:14-16 covers the creation of lights in the heavens, by which day and night are established, and by which signs and seasons are discerned.  Among these the sun and moon are foremost, as they give light to the day and to the night respectively.  But it is clear that we are contemplating stars in general, and perhaps planets as well, in that they reflect the light of suns, as does the moon.  God’s making of these great lights, the sun and the moon again being specified, are cause to recognize His everlasting lovingkindness (Ps 136:7-9).  We might take note of how the psalmist sets the sun as ruling the day, and the moon and stars as ruling the night.  As warning, God declares that He will darken all the lights in the heavens, covering the land in darkness (Eze 32:8); a warning of the coming destruction of judgment.  In a much more mundane usage, the jailor called for lights as he sought Paul and Silas in the prison after the earthquake (Ac 16:29).  This is clearly referring to torches or lamps, rather than celestial bodies.  And then, in James 1:17, we have reference to God as the Father of lights, from whom comes every perfect gift, and with whom there is no variation, no shifting shadow.  So, there’s our framework.  Sun and moon govern the day and the night, both, along with the stars, governed in turn by the Father.  And He has power not only to create them and set them in their courses, but also to darken them, and, if we take the example of Moses standing arms raised as Israel went to battle, to pause them in their course, or alter their courses to suit His purposes.  So, what do we have in this imagery?  We have, certainly, the sense of light allowing us to see our way clearly.  And we have, especially in that last verse, the idea of purity and reliability.  All is made perfectly clear in the perfect light of God.  There is no shadow to distort our view of things.  There is no changeability.  And of course, we can also bring those passages from the Sermon on the Mount to bear.  “You are the light of the world.”  Add John’s testimony of Jesus.  “There was the true light, which, coming into the world, enlightens every man” (Jn 1:9).  That clearly did not demand that all who were thus enlightened perceived truly, but they all witnessed truth.  This is, if not our chief purpose, then high up on the list.  If our chief purpose is to glorify God, how better to do so than to reflect His holy light?  How do we do so?  By holding fast to Jesus, the word of life.  How do we do so?  By living holy lives, giving no man just cause to accuse us in anything, and proving blameless in our ways.  And right up there in the means to that end is this instruction to cease from all grumbling and dispute.  But light does not become light by dismissing any consideration of shadow.  Light is light by its very nature.  If we are to be as stars in the heavens, in this regard, we are of like light.  Some may be brighter than others.  The sun is certainly brighter than the moon, and at least from our perspective, shines brighter than any other star.  Yet, other stars are of the same substance, producing the same qualities of light, and the moon, in reflecting the sun, does not emit something that is not light, does not emit shadow instead.  So, our lives are to be as reflecting God’s glory, manifesting His holiness, even if only in diminished reflection.  Even that reflected light remains pure.  The light of the sun, reflecting off the windshield of our car, still illumines with the power of that same light.  We see its result on the ceiling or the wall, and we know that yes, it is the sun which is at root in that light, yet we perceive as well the role the windshield has played in causing that light to shine where it does.  This seems to me an apt picture of our mission.  We are not the light per se, but we act to direct the light of God into places it might not otherwise have reached.  We do so by proclaiming Christ, by living godly in an ungodly world, by walking as unstained by the filth and the anger and the complaining of those around us, thereby offering them evidence of a better way.

People, Places & Things Mentioned: (07/16/24)

N/A

You Were There: (07/16/24)

Why does Paul include this in his letter?  This question has to be asked.  His time is short, his means limited.  Communication didn’t come cheap in that time and place.  There would be the cost of materials, the cost, perhaps, of an amanuensis, and the expense of travel to get the message to its destination.  And withal, Paul is ever purposeful in his communications, marshalling his thoughts and pursuing his concerns in orderly and concise fashion.  So, if he writes of being shot of grumbling and disputing, it seems reasonable to suppose that he has learned of just such an issue being present in the church of Philippi.

That seems wrong somehow.  After all, Philippi stands forth as the exemplary church of the New Testament.  Here was the only church that gave concern for Paul’s support as he pursued his mission.  Here was a church that was on the move, if you will, having proven active participants in the gospel from the very start, and showing real perseverance in that participation all along, even sending their own pastor, if we have his role right, in the person of Epaphroditus.  We might suppose that it is from Epaphroditus that Paul has learned of this issue.  Or it may be that the issue had become more evident in his absence.  Perhaps, with pastor gone, and elders stepping in to take up the slack, some were complaining of their abilities.

I could see that.  In our own church, our pastor is overseas visiting family, and will be gone for a few weeks.  And it falls to a few elders, past or current, to fill the pulpit in his absence.  And it seems inevitable that comparisons will be drawn; that rather than appreciate each for the gifts he brings to the task, there will instead be a compare and contrast happening, and with that, a grumbling at whichever may be viewed as the lesser gifting.  We may do that with those who serve in worship, as well.  Oh, I don’t like his playing as much as so and so’s.  Or, why can’t she sing like that one who used to be our lead?  Honestly, we are like this with most things.  But it’s not the stuff of godliness.  It’s the stuff of worldliness, and it needs to be cast aside, thrown overboard, tossed in the trash bin to be disposed of once for all.

Well, whatever the cause, it would seem that a bit of a competitive spirit had either entered the church, or remained as a residual of former ways.  Philippi was, after all, a proudly Roman city, and this church was drawn from Philippian citizenry.  Old habits die hard.  Perhaps it was just a bit of competitiveness, rather like what we see disrupting the church in Corinth.  Perhaps it was dismissiveness of their current leadership.  Whatever it was, Paul’s instruction is basically, knock it off!  Stop bickering amongst yourselves and recognize God at work in all of you!  Give more thought to your brother’s concerns than your own preferences.  Look at what God is doing, not who He happens to be doing it through.  Care.  Love.  Shine.  Don’t let this habit of yours distort the image of God in you.  Don’t let your attitude corrupt the Light.  No, you can’t in all honesty corrupt the Light.  He is holy and perfectly so, and sin cannot have any impact upon that.  But your armor is being tarnished by these attitudes.  You’re out of uniform.  You, proud citizen of heaven, are not holding that citizenship forth in a fashion to be admired, but are at risk of becoming cause for those around you to blaspheme.  Look to yourselves.  Consider your ways, and repent.

Some Parallel Verses: (07/16/24)

2:14
1Co 10:10
Don’t grumble as some did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
1Pe 4:9
Be hospitable without complaint.
1Ti 2:8
I want men everywhere to pray, lifting holy hands, without wrath and dissension.
2:15
Lk 1:6
Both Zacharias and Elizabeth were righteous in God’s sight, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.
Php 3:6
As to zeal, I was a persecutor of the church.  As to that righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.
Mt 5:45
So that you may be sons of your Father in heaven, for He causes His sun to rise on both evil and good, and sends rain on both the righteous and unrighteous.
Eph 5:1
So imitate God as beloved children.
Dt 32:5
They have acted corruptly.  They are not His children because of their defect.  They are a perverse and crooked generation.
Ac 2:40
With many words he testified, exhorting them to, “Be saved from this perverse generation.”
Mt 5:14-16
You are the light of the world.  A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Men don’t light a lamp just to hide it under a basket.  They put it on a lampstand to give light to the whole house.  So, let your light shine before men.  Let them see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Jd 24
To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless, and with great joy.
1Pe 2:12
Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles.  Then, in those things of which they slanderously accuse you of being evildoers, they will have reason to glorify God on account of your good deeds which they have seen, when God comes in the day of visitation.
Ti 2:10
Don’t steal, but show all good faith so as to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.
2:16a
Ac 5:20
Go your way and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life.

New Thoughts: (07/17/24-07/22/24)

Do to Be (07/18/24)

It seems that some degree of division, or at least debate had arisen in Philippi.  I suppose it’s inevitable, human nature being what it is.  But when we Christians come up against our human nature, the proper response is not to accept the inevitability of it all.  The proper response is to recognize a place in us that needs work, a place, perhaps, that God is exposing to our observation in order that we might come alongside Him in that work which He is now intending to do in us.  Recall, after all, that we have just heard Paul’s reminder that God is at work in us all, both to will and to work for His good pleasure, and as such, we should be working alongside Him with utmost care and attentiveness.  This isn’t some sudden veering of thought for Paul.  The points come together for a reason, and the reason is that this is still an integral part of what has been said before.

So, here we are.  We know ourselves to be called of God, and one hopes we know that this being God’s doing, it is a matter that is settled.  We are His.  I’ll come back to that, I expect.  But we also know that we are far from the perfection that He requires.  And we are not called to become passive loafers, just waiting for God to do His thing.  We’ve been called to action.  Work out your salvation!  Don’t just assume it, even though you have absolute reason to be assured of it in that it comes of God’s own divine determination, and that, from before the beginning.  Yes, you are assured.  No, you are not granted to idle away the interim until He comes.  That was the issue over in Thessalonica.  Trust in faithful God had become excuse to set aside all the necessary work of life.  This may have some differences in focus, but it’s the same issue.  Trust in God was leading to distrust of other believers at some level, at least those other believers who did not see things precisely the same as we do.  And Paul’s not having it.  There’s no place for this in the family of God.  We serve one God in one Spirit towards one Purpose.  No, we are not all identical in our giftings.  No, we are not robots programmed to our task and incapable of doing otherwise.  We are moral agents, whose minds are being renewed.  We are coming to know better, and if we know better, it’s high time we behave better.  If we are maturing in Christ, it’s past time we stopped acting like spoiled children.

Hear the call, then:  “Do all things without grumbling or disputing.”  Understand that there is no complaint department in the church.  The pastor is not there to field your notices of dissatisfaction.  He is not preaching, week by week, to see what sort of scorecards you might hold up.  You are not there to rate him, or to leave likes on his web page, nor to downvote some message that maybe hit a bit too close to home, and you weren’t prepared to receive it.  He’s not there for you to come with your issues regarding this or that fellow member, whether it’s family squabbles, personality conflicts, or even theological distinctions.  Now, if you or somebody else is falling into sin, and a brother has come alongside to make them aware of this, sought to restore them to repentance that they might indeed continue in the grace of God, and the one thus rebuked has refused to change, then yes, there is Scriptural mandate to bring this to the elders, of which the pastor is certainly one, that they might, with greater authority, and, one hopes, keener insight and ability to bring the Word of God to bear, succeed where you have not.  And it may even come to the point of requiring the extremes of church discipline, making the case known to the church at large, and expelling this individual from the body until and unless repentance comes to him.

Understand, then, that there is a distinction between discernment and discipline rightly applied, and the sort of grumbling and disputing that is in view here.  This is more along the lines of arguments over carpet color, or the style of music to be played for worship, or whether pastors ought to be required to wear suit and tie.  It might encompass such things as heated infighting over secondary points of doctrine.  Hey, it happens.  And it happens within denominations.  It is possible, if only just, that those of starkly contrasting perspectives on such secondary matters can yet abide peaceably together in one body, but it’s not always the case.  Denominations, I have to say, are not some evil failure of the Church, but rather, a means by which our Lord graciously provides a godly resolution to our differing without disturbing unity.  Seriously, if you cannot abide others taking a more Calvinistic view than yourself, find a body that leans Arminian.  Or, if it’s Arminianism that so offends your sensibilities, join with a body more inclined towards a Calvinist perspective.  I understand.  I’ve been there from one side, and observed it from the other.  And it’s okay.  But let that departure be without animosity, and without the sort of grumbling and disputing that is on view here.  Let it be with full recognition that despite these differences of perspective, both parties remain true sons of God, devoted to the purpose of pursuing His good pleasure.

Within the body?  Grumbling must cease.  That son who grumbled and complained of his father’s command in Jesus’ parable did, to be sure, eventually come into compliance and go work the fields as dad had instructed.  His rebellion was temporary, whereas the other son, who gave signs of obedience, truly rebelled and, at least so far as the parable relays events, never did repent.  But neither is shown us as a paragon of righteousness.  Rather, it’s an opportunity for self-assessment.  Perhaps you have been resisting the change God is currently pursuing in your own character.  Perhaps you have refused to change thus far, though you know that change is needed.  Well, time to change.  Do in order to be.

I will take this a step further, to life beyond the confines of the church.  When you are at home, do all things without grumbling or disputing.  Perhaps, if you are single and living alone, this is not so much of a concern.  After all, with whom will you dispute?  Well, let’s be honest.  We’re pretty good at grumbling and complaining to ourselves, even when it’s about ourselves.  It may be that we resent the necessities of keeping house, of making meals, of having so little time to pursue our pleasures.  God knows I feel that one often enough!  But add a spouse, and suddenly we’ve got two people with different priorities.  And they have needs for one another.  One has strengths and insights that the other does not.  If they come to loggerheads over a matter, what to do?  Well, don’t grumble, and don’t dispute.  Indeed, the call of Scripture is to submit one to another.  We’re right back to the earlier part of this chapter.  Treat one another’s concerns as more important than your own priorities.  Indeed, let their concern be your priority.

How about in the workplace?  If you are given a task, do you first assess the thing to decide whether it’s beneath you?  Do you assess whether in fact it’s worth doing at all, or whether your leader, or whoever is asking you to do the thing is perhaps out of their element?  Do you tend to your wound, and curry your anger, just waiting for the opportunity to make this awful thing known to all and sundry?  Oh, you may be sufficiently sly as to keep names out of it, lest you bring harm to your own future, but ooh, the sweet release of informing the world at large just what a jerk this guy is, and how you got yours over him!  And what an ego stroke when folks from hither and yon express their agreement and support.

You may recognize this.  Huge swathes of the Internet are, it seems, devoted to just such airing of grievances.  Indeed, we live, it seems in a culture devoted to grievance.  It’s a competition of who has been the more abused, who’s had to put up with the most.  And in such a culture, combativeness is the natural, fleshly response.  The church is not immune.  We live in the midst of this culture.  We are drawn from this culture, and we continue, in spite of our pursuit of the means of grace, to feel the influence of this culture.  This is not anything new, you see, although, as with so much of life, technology has made it easier to submit to the influence.

An aside within an aside.  I happened to watch a brief video last week looking to answer why it is that modern music just doesn’t have the quality, the originality, that it did in past decades.  Okay, on one level, one has to laugh as this has no doubt been the complaint of every generation since music was discovered.  It’s almost a, “kids these days,” old fart assessment.  But his point was more that the technology that is now available to the average user (of which I am most assuredly one) makes it easy to churn stuff out, but it has done so at the cost of demanding less of actual talent and creativity.  If everybody is using software to add drums, maybe guitar, maybe even piano, to their songs, and this is the end product, of course it’s going to start sounding the same.  This is, from my limited reading on the matter, the issue that rapidly besets AI in its current form.  All it can do is draw from the sea of words upon which it has been trained.  It cannot be original, only recombinant.  And eventually, rather like the inbreeding of the royals of old, it leads to artificial insanity.

Okay, let’s try to get back on course a bit.  So, technology has made it easier for us to grumble to a wider audience, and given it’s only our side of the story being told, we can (and do) present it in those terms most conducive to our gaining a positive response as to our own part in the thing.  But it’s one side.  We have, as the author of this diatribe likely has, no clue as to what was happening in the lives of whatever others are involved in their tale.  We have no background on that, and frankly, our author likely has little care for discovering what lies behind the thing that offended them.  I have a brother in this body to which I am attached, who is, at least by the evidence I have, far more inclined to seek to understand what’s going on behind the immediate.  If somebody is behaving awfully, what has led to it?  What’s going on in their lives that they hurt so?  Take the easy and obvious example.  That one who cut you off in traffic as you were coming home from work, do you have any idea what may be going on in his life that he feels the need to drive with such urgency and disregard?  Or do you just jump straight to assumptions as to his lapse of character and judgment, and call down curses upon his head?  Or this truck that took out the powerline in front of our house a few days back:  What was happening with that driver?  Was he suddenly hit by some affliction?  Had he been too long behind the wheel, and had hoped to pull over before he caused an accident?  Did he somehow fail to notice the sound of sparks as those wires came down, or to observe the brief clouds of smoke following him down the road?  Or do we just assume he’s an idiot, determined to avoid consequences for what he just did?

All of this to say, grumbling must cease.  You do not walk this world as one more sad human amongst a mass of sad humans.  You walk as a child of God.  You have, if obedience is in you, let it be known that you serve God, that you love Him and seek to be like Him as best you can.  And as such, those amongst whom you walk contain at least some who know of your professed faith, and look at your example as the defining case of what your faith is in reality.  If your walk is no different than theirs, then by their estimation, your faith is no more beneficial than believing in the Spaghetti Monster.  So, then, child of the light, walk as what you are.  Live what you believe.  Obey the One you serve.

Okay, so what do we do with this attitude that arises in us?  How do we deal with disagreement?  There may be a place for confrontation here, if confrontation can be had with an attitude of loving care and concern, and without being provoked to sin.  For my part, I would advise starting farther back.  Start where you really should be starting, in prayer.  And that prayer should not be for vindication, or with the one-sidedness of those websites I have mentioned.  Be open to the very real possibility that the error is yours, the need for change is yours.  Pray that God would make the proper resolution evident to both of you.  If it’s my brother that has need of change, Father, may the Holy Spirit speak to his conscience in such fashion as he will receive and act upon it.  And if it’s me?  The same prayer.  Speak to me, and grant that I might not only hear You clearly, but hear You effectually, repenting of my error and setting myself to pursue a new course.  This, dear ones, is far more likely to lead to a glad conclusion than is your grumbling and disputing.  So many times I have taken this course, and seen the issues dissolve away.  I may not even be clear exactly what has changed, only that the offense is gone, and harmony has been restored.  And yet, I am too readily moved to forget my own advice, to baste in my offense and then wonder why nothing gets better.  Or, I may be so sure of myself and my right understanding that I seek to plow over the arguments of whomever, probably not even giving an honest ear to whatever explanation may be offered.  Love isn’t in it, only the need for wounded pride to get a bandage applied.  So, yes, all of this is largely talking to myself, and hoping that perhaps I’ll listen in such a way as to be of advantage to my own maturation.

Grumbling must cease!  Wherever it arises.  If it is because my wife has asked for yet another chore to be done, well, first off, let’s be rid of that ‘yet another’ clause.  It’s not time for keeping accounts.  It’s time for serving.  If, by my gifts I can by of service, then, let me serve with cheerfulness, to paraphrase Romans 21:7-8 just a bit.  Let me live as ‘devoted to one another’ (Ro 12:10).  Let me indeed do all things without grumbling and disputing.  These are not, after all, requests to sin, nor to violate conscience.  They are just things that need getting done, and most likely, things that I should have seen the need of doing without such reminder.  Enough, then.

Today, as I go back to the workplace, there will be things asked of me, just as any other day, but let me respond as one who is a child of God.  Let me respond with this same mindset, a willingness to lend my gifts and abilities to whatever task arises, willing to accept the responsibilities laid upon me, whether I think them worthy of my talents (oh, sinful pride!) or not.  Let me be gracious, serviceable, and oh, for the love of God, free of this cynicism that too much defines me.  Time for a change.

Lord, I cannot but hear what I am preaching to myself in this, nor can I pretend it’s the first time I’ve heard it, even from me.  You are speaking to me.  You are identifying, I dare say, the place where You are going to work in me, and may it be, my Father, that I can – this time – lay hold of that power which You have set at my disposal to be as You intend me to be.  Grant that I may weather such opportunities for improvement as come my way today continuing to do so as to be that which I am in You.  And may You have both pleasure and glory from it.  Amen.

Contrasts (07/19/24)

Paul paints a sharp contrast here between the children of God and the sons of this world.  On the one hand, we have a people blameless and innocent.  On the other, we have a people who are crooked and perverse.  But let us not become prideful and forget ourselves!  “For such were some of you; but you were washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1Co 6:11).  We are drawn from that same stock of worldly sons and daughters, and sadly, sometimes it shows.  The question is, as we walk in this world, does it also show that we are God’s children?

Let’s look at these characteristics we are to have, the things we are proving to have by what we do.  We have first this idea of being blameless, amemptoi.  Live your life in such a way as gives no grounds for accusation against you.  This is not to say that blame will not come, for it may.  Jesus certainly found Himself blamed for many crimes, and yet in reality He was sinless, having done nothing against God or man.  Having just read through the jailing of Paul and Silas again in this morning’s Table Talk devotional, they, too, found themselves blamed, beaten, and imprisoned for what was in fact no crime, indeed, for having freed a young girl from demonic possession.  So, this isn’t about just trying to get along with everybody.  For, to get along with everybody we should have to be more like them, and that is precisely not the goal here.

Paul joins this blameless life with being innocent, akeraioi.  Now, if you have a smattering of Greek, you may recognize that both of these compound words define their point in the negative.  To be blameless is to be not to blame.  To be innocent, is to be not mixed, unadulterated.  This gets to purity, or as we might say, holiness.  And that, clearly, is the goal of this process of sanctification in which we find ourselves.  The goal is to set aside every stain of sin, having been washed clean by the blood of Christ, to remain so, a bride without spot or wrinkle.  And let us recognize that this shall come about because of that same Christ Who died for us.  For He loves His Church.  He gave Himself for her, so as to sanctify her, cleansing her with the water of the word, in order that He might present her to Himself “in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless” (Eph 5:25-27).  It’s the same thought, isn’t it, the same goal?  Holy and blameless is blameless and innocent.  This unadulterated purity of innocence is holiness.

What does it mean to be adulterated?  In the world of products, it means the thing you purchased is not exactly what it claims to be.  That extra virgin olive oil you bought at no small price is not as advertised.  The flour you bought for your baking has other organic material in it that did not come of crushing wheat in the mill.  The gas you put in your car is not purely gasoline, but has additives.  Now, that may be accounted a good thing, but then, we can consider the effects of ethanol on your engine, or for that matter, on our food supply.  Corn that has been burned in the engine is not satisfying anybody’s hunger, after all, and land that has grown corn for that purpose cannot grow crops for another purpose.  But what if the adulterating material is water?  Your gas has water mixed in.  You won’t notice it at the pump, but guaranteed, you’ll notice it in due time.  And it won’t make you happy.

Now, we have this as our picture of how we are to go through life:  Unadulterated and giving no grounds for accusation.  But Paul’s not done yet.  He piles on one more for us; to be amoma, above reproach.  And again, we have the idea delivered in the negative:  Not blemished.  Zhodiates points out the relation of this word to offerings.  Here is a call to be such a sacrifice as will give no offense to God in the offering thereof.  Put that back into the image of the pure, spotless bride of Christ.  She is to be a living sacrifice, as Paul instructs in Romans 12:1“Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”  Different terminology, but same idea.  We walk this world as living sacrifices, yearlings without spot or blemish, suitable for the paschal altar.  Of course, our true spotless sacrifice, the Lamb of God, has already taken His place upon that altar on our behalf, and it is thus that we are clean in the first place, His blood having atoned for our sins not for a year, but for an eternity.  But we remain offerings as His bride, cleansed and preparing ourselves for that great wedding day ahead.  As we prepare, we would give no grounds for accusation against us.  In that setting, I should think we must recognize the idea of remaining free of any charge of harlotry, of having dallied with other gods, other worldviews.

And there is your contrast.  The world around you, from which you were drawn and in which you are given cause to remain, is a crooked and perverse generation.  Honestly, it hardly takes much to convince us of that today, does it?  We might know many who are of the world who seem, from what we can see, to be unstained by the worst of these perversions and criminal tendencies.  But then, we don’t have to look too far afield to find those who are.  The news celebrates them.  We have just recently had a month of the year spent celebrating perversion, and calling for sin.  Pride month?  Celebrate your sin?  No thanks.

And here you are.  Here is your calling.  It’s not to go out verbally bashing their choices.  It’s not to go off to funerals and waltz about with signs declaring God’s disgust with the one who died.  It’s not about pointing fingers at all, really.  It’s about not remaining like them.  It’s about presenting a contrast.  It’s about showing, by our lives and character, that there is a better way.  It’s possible to live godly, perhaps not in perfection, but with full intention of trying for perfection.  It’s a deliberate goodness, an unwillingness to succumb to offense, to seek vengeance, to seek to boost ourselves at the expense of others.

Here it is in most basic form:  Prove yourselves to be children of God.  How do you prove it?  By loud declamations?  By insistent claim?  No.  You prove it by living it.  You do so as to be.  What do you do?  Back to the start:  No grumbling, no complaining.  See?  I told you this went far beyond church.  This is life!  This is the contrast.  The world around you loves to grumble and complain.  The news, it seems to me, is bent on pushing everybody to just such a state.  Here in New England, we are somewhat notorious for being never satisfied with the weather, I think.  If it’s cold, it’s too cold, and we’re pining for summer.  Summer comes, and ugh, so humid, so hot.  When will fall be here?  Oh, but it came too quickly.  Trees shouldn’t be dropping their leaves yet.  And every year, it goes on.  How about this, then?  God ordained the seasons, and He has promised that they shall continue in their cycles until that time He has ordained for the end of all things.  All of this about you, the weather, the seasons, the temperature, the humidity, is by His design.  You are by His design.  And will you grumble as to how He has made you?  Far be it from us!  His plans and designs are perfect.  You and I have been perfectly fitted for our place in His order.  Today has been perfectly fitted for His intentions.  And you wish to grumble and complain about it?  Do you see?  You cannot grumble and complain, even about these most mundane things, without effectively taking it up with Him.  And what sort of bondservant will that make us?  What sort of son would we prove to be, always chiding our Father for what He has done?

No, I tell you!  This will not do.  And so, we have a call upon us.  I’ll take the wording of the Message here.  “Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society.”  You know, we have bad air days.  Hit the Weather Channel, and they’ll let you know.  Mind you, from their perspective, it seems every day is a danger to health, the most perfect summer’s day is still cause for alarm in their view.  But you’ve got to get your information somewhere, I suppose.  Far better, I think, to just step out the front door.  But we’ve been conditioned to want to know what’s coming tomorrow, or later today, or this weekend, or what have you.  Never mind how often the forecast proves wrong.  We want a heads up.  But the whole site is plagued by five million ways you’re going to die.

I drift.  A squalid and polluted landscape.  We can recognize that.  We’ve seen it.  As beautiful as Malawi could be, can be, there are aspects of it I would just as soon not deal with.  To get to the church, one must pass through the dump, roll up the windows against the flies, and so on.  Going downtown is a dusty, noisesome business.  But this is not the natural order.  Go out to the countryside, and see what riches God has blessed the land with.  Go and keep your focus on God’s people, and the joy with which they face life.  Here are a people who have heeded this instruction, walking blameless and innocent, as children of God, even in the midst of the corruption and poverty, and pollution that permeates the culture.  And not as chiding their neighbors, not as decrying the false religions practices by others in their villages, but as demonstrating a better way, a pure way; by being ‘a breath of fresh air.’  I expect you’ve encountered people that strike you that way.  It may be rare, but it happens.  There is just such a simplicity, such a joyful innocence about them.  And no, I don’t suppose that innocence is perfectly held, but it is typical.  It comes to be what we expect of such a one, so much so that should we find them angry or upset, it comes as a great surprise, shocking even.  But that’s what we’re called to be!  So consistently blameless and innocent, so constant in rejoicing in our God come what may, that any failure to be so on our part is seen as out of character, and alarming for its rarity.

Be children of God who cannot be censured, as the One New Man translation offers it.  Or, as Paul instructs the church in Ephesus (and all churches everywhere), imitate God as beloved children (Eph 5:1).  I might say as well, as children of a beloved Father.  Live so as to contrast with the mess around you.  Don’t continue in old habits, nor fall back into them.  Don’t go along to get along.  By all means, so far as it lies with you to do so, seek to be at peace with all men (Ro 12:18), but that doesn’t require taking up their habits and their ways.  It doesn’t require that you squelch your own practices and beliefs.  It is possible to live godly without being purposefully offensive.  Indeed, I might suggest that it is impossible to live godly if we are being purposefully offensive.  That was never the intent and it never will be.  Just be authentic, children of God beyond reasonable censure.  Give no grounds for accusation.  And should accusation come anyway, continue in purity, continue uncorrupted.  Imitate God.  Imitate Jesus who, having committed no offense against any man, was yet consigned to the cross, even as the judge confessed His innocence.  “Yet He did not open His mouth.  Like a lamb led to slaughter, a sheep silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth” (Isa 53:7).  Here is your example.  Seek that you may achieve the same purity of heart, mind, and soul.

Be the Light (07/20/24-07/21/24)

We come to the reason for this contrast, the purpose to godly living.  It may be surprising, but it’s not for personal benefit.  It’s not so that you can gain entrance to God’s kingdom, having proven yourself.  It’s not even about maximizing the rewards you may receive upon doing so.  No, it’s about lighting up the world.  What does light do?  Light allows us to see where we’re going, or what’s coming our way, among other things.  If I get up in the middle of the night, I must navigate my way without benefit of light, at least of sufficient light, and the likelihood of bumping into this or that is heightened, particularly if things have been rearranged lately.  But by day, the same route, however recently established, would be perfectly simple to follow without incident.  Lights may serve as guidance or as warning.  And, not least, light exposes what’s there.  And here we are, called to appear as lights in the world.

The world is a dark place, not because it was designed to be so, but because of the effects of sin and of its current state ruled by the prince of the air.  That it was not always so, not designed to be so, is clear in the word itself, going back to the Greek.  Kosmos.  As Thayer offers, an apt, harmonious arrangement; adornment.  There’s the basics of the term, and thus, the world is presented to us as a harmoniously arranged adornment.  On what?  On the universe?  Perhaps, though we know little enough about it for all our peering and positing.  After all, we keep counting up more and more planets that would appear similarly situated, and if visited, might be found just as charming and capable of sustaining life.  Or, it may yet prove to be the case that in fact the earth is unique in all creation from that perspective.  But I suspect we would drive closer to the reality to suggest it as such an adornment upon heaven itself.  Here is God’s artwork on the fridge, if you will, though not as a childish accomplishment that only a mother could be proud of.  No!  As a masterpiece.

Speak to most any gardener, and what is their pride and joy?  It’s the accomplishment of their garden, the artfulness and beauty of it.  It’s been a long and patient work, but here it is, particularly this time of year, in full display, and it’s wonderful.  Though I do not do the gardening around here, I must confess to a very real sense of joy and appreciation as I come home and walk the path to our door.  It is a wonderful walk, flowers all about, the occasional bunny slipping away among the stems, bees and butterflies happily flitting about the petals, and birds in and out for seeds.  And it just smells like home.  There is the scent of the milkweeds in bloom, which I would account one of the most pleasing scents to have around.  There is the scent that rises after a rain, or in the heat of the day, and it’s just wonderful.  All the senses are given something to appreciate.  Is all in harmony in this garden?  All carefully arranged?  Well, no.  It’s not that sort of garden.  It’s not the formal, carefully sculpted thing of a European courtyard.  But yes, in that Somebody has arranged what seeds have taken, which have planted themselves where from last year’s flowers, and in that there is a certain peacefulness to the whole thing.  All is indeed harmonious and pleasing.

Thus was the world intended to be:  God’s garden, and we, its gardeners.  But we proved rather inattentive gardeners, ready to be the landlords instead, or so we thought.  And we allowed the worst, most incorrigible weed entrance, and as weeds are wont to do, it choked out much that was beautiful, corrupted the whole works seeking to take over.  And we just let it happen.  The garden became a dark and tangled mess, and thus it has been ever since.  No longer can we just step out the door of the house, grab a bit of this and that for supper, and relax.  It takes work to clear a patch and keep it clear.  But this remains our task.  This is the mission of the church, to weed the garden and let the sun reach those seeds which God has planted, let the rains nourish them, that growth might come, and the beautiful harmony of the original order reemerge.

Okay, I’ve probably worked that image more than enough.  Back to the light.  We have, of course, the chief reference to this that comes in the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus speaks in the imagery of light.  “You are the light of the world” (Mt 5:14-16).  There’s no maybe here.  There’s no becoming, getting to be such eventually.  It’s current status.  It’s your purpose.  He continues.  “A city on a hill cannot be hidden.”  Why?  Because of the lights.  You set a light on the mountaintop, and it’s unmistakable in the darkness, however small the light.  If line of sight is clear, as it will tend to be for such a height, the slightest light will be discernable at great distance.  He gives another example in case this one doesn’t register.  If you light your lamp in the house, you don’t then proceed to hide it under a bin somewhere.  No!  You put it on the lampstand so that it can serve its purpose and light up the house.  And, we might add, such that all in the house benefit by it.

He concludes with application.  In the same way, let your light shine before men.  Let them see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.  Here is your purpose.  You are the light, now shine.  Let it be seen.  It’s interesting.  I was reading a back issue of Table Talk last night, catching up on articles received while I was making my way through some other book.  At any rate, the article sought to address the question of how we proclaim the gospel in a place that does not permit speaking on the subject.  Many workplaces are, as they observe, making it a fireable offense to pursue religious matters in course of a workday.  Well, to be fair, that’s not what they pay you for, is it?  It may be getting more pronounced, this opposition to such discussion, and it may be done now in the name of DEI, but it’s been an issue for decades, certainly, in many places.  Somehow inclusion doesn’t include this, diversity doesn’t permit of faith, and amidst equity, some things are less equal.  Be that as it may.  The article observes that our lives are one key means to proclaiming the gospel.  I might even say they are the chief means.  It’s all well and good to hold forth preaching as the fundamental means by which God reaches the lost, but who will listen unless there has been the example of a life lived by its tenets, showing its worth?

This is what Paul is getting at in the passage before us.  You appear as lights.  For all that they seem to celebrate this crookedness and perversion, I expect that many out there in the darkness recognize that it is dark, that something’s just off.  They may not understand what.  They may not appreciate the answer when they come across it, but they can see that something’s wrong.  How could they not?  Even the blind, as the saying goes, may stumble across a bit of truth now and then.  But the term we have here is a middle voice term, and in this case, that has impact on the meaning.  It’s not that you shine.  It’s that your light is recognized for what it is.  Like it or not, you are judged based on your appearance.  Now, that’s not a critique of your choice of outfit, or the care with which you attend to hair and face and fingers and such.  It’s an assessment of character, at least to the degree that character becomes evident.

In the workplace, sloth will become evident.  You know the ones who cannot be counted on to get anything done.  And you also recognize those whose diligence and ability stand out.  The manager who proves a sound guide and takes care of his charges becomes known amongst the workers, and that one whose proclivities make it an agony to work for him or her are likewise a byword amongst the workers.  You are observed.  Your ways are known.  If, as children of God above reproach, you are making your way in the workplace, doing all things as unto the Lord, this is going to show, whether you speak of your faith or not.  And such example, as both this article, and observations of others in the workplace attest, can lead to off-hour opportunities for the Gospel to be declared more directly.  The article suggests the preparing of the fields, as it were, by asking open-ended questions, not necessarily with obvious religious tones, but aimed at giving the one questioned cause to consider their answer, and perhaps, just perhaps, to seek out opportunity to discuss things further when not on the clock.

I think that last clause is key.  Not on the clock.  Evangelizing on the clock, while it might give one a little rush of adrenaline, and may feel like showing how carefully you prioritize God in your life, will in fact tend to tarnish the example you give.  If you are pursuing your vocation as unto the Lord, then you owe your employer the best attentiveness to your duties that you can provide.  There are other parts of the day, after all.  There are other hours in which he is not paying for your services, and you are perfectly capable of connecting with this person during those hours, when company rules no longer apply.  Live, then, so as to encourage such connections.  Have you ever wondered why we have so much encouragement to be hospitable?  I think maybe this is a large part of it.  It’s not as much about mutual support amongst the brotherhood, although that is certainly to be encouraged as well, but it’s about living in a fashion that invites those wandering lost souls around you to partake of your company, in order that your hospitable association might lay the groundwork for deeper discussion, for the presenting of the gospel from someone who has earned a hearing.

So, perhaps we can come back to our text.  Appear in their judgment to be what you are.  That’s what this is getting at.  Jesus has said it.  You are the light.  Paul is requesting that we do nothing to disguise or distort that fact.  If you, as children of light, are squabbling over every stupid detail of how the church looks, what the format for service is, or now, I suppose, what our website looks like, how are you different than the social club down the street?  What distinguishes you from a theater production?  If they come to your church to hear the truth proclaimed, and find that you are all squabbling over the accuracy of the message, debating between yourselves as to whether this point or that point was in fact correct, on what basis should they conclude that you are in possession of the truth at all?  By all appearances, y’all are just guessing.

Now, I don’t think for a moment that Paul is advising unconsidered obedience, marching in lockstep regardless of our own conscience.  That would never do!  And his express theology in Romans will not permit us any such conclusion – and how providential to be reading through that marvelous book again as I pursue my explorations of this one!  “Whatever is not from faith is sin” (Ro 14:23b).  That’s it.  Disagree as you must, as faith, through your conscience, insists.  You are led by the Spirit, and so is your brother, though you disagree.  That may be hard to accept, as we seek to hold fast to Truth.  Truth, after all, cannot in fact contradict.  A cannot be simultaneously B and not B.  And from our perspective, at least, in these matters of dispute, at least one of us must be wrong.  And yet, Paul says, follow conscience.  Let faith guide, and where disagreements arise, accept one another as is.  There’s an end to disputing.  It isn’t about abandoning reason and conscience to march in blind lockstep.  It’s about pursuing peace, about living in harmony.  Harmony, as I so often take pains to observe, is not everybody on one note with one timing.  It’s multiple notes, and those notes may very well be in tension at times.  But they proceed to resolution, even though the progression remain distinct.

So, here we are.  You are light.  Let that be evident.  Don’t hide away.  You don’t have to be loud and proud and in everybody’s face with it.  Just be yourself as you are now.  There’s that rather well-known advice from St. Francis.  As generally relayed, “Preach the gospel at all times.  And if necessary, use words.”  Okay, so the attribution is questionable, but hey, the thought came from somewhere.  And at root is this same message:  Don’t just talk it, live it.  If we claim to heed the gospel, but spend all our time squabbling and complaining, who’s going to buy our claim.  I could add another time-worn adage.  “Actions speak louder than words do.”  Light seen is of far more use than light merely described as a concept.

And where the light shines best, all is seen with clarity.  In the perfect light of God, all is seen perfectly.  Is that not rather the message James delivers?  In Him there is no shadow, no variation (Jas 1:17).  He is Who He Is, and He is always Who He Is.  He doesn’t tell you things are one way today, and then demand something entirely different be believed tomorrow.  God doesn’t gaslight.  He Is Light.  It is because of this that we, as we serve our function of being lights in this darkened world, may prove to be an offense though we seek to be inoffensive.  Light exposes, and the better we reflect the true Light of God, the more it shall expose.  But sin does not wish to be exposed.  Sin seeks to operate out of sight, as it were.  Even in such an age as ours, when it seems sin is celebrated and nigh unto demanded of us, this sense of operating from a place of hiding still holds.  The corruption bursts forth, but only because of the progress it made while yet hidden from sight.  The boards of my back deck are clearly nearing end-of-life, as the rot becomes manifest, but that rot began years ago, proceeding along, hidden beneath the surface appearance of integrity.  And now, the light of day makes clear what has been the case for years.  And those boards must be ripped up and replaced.  Sin, once exposed, must either be addressed with repentance and a turning to faith in God, or it shall have its final outcome in death.  Corruption always ends in death unless halted and corrected by healing Light.

Okay.  So, let’s come around the other side of the picture for just a moment.  Do grumbling and disputing indicate that the light is not in fact in us?  I don’t believe we can make such a conclusion.  If that were the case, Paul’s line of instruction would be quite a different thing.  It would be seeking that they might in fact repent and come to the Truth, not that they should set aside these remnants of the old life.  The issue here is with tarnishing the light.  We are lights, but as you may observe in your homes, if too much dust has collected, either on the bulb or on the globe around it, the light dims.  I recall a few years back, having undertaken to clean up the cut glass dangles around the light on the landing of our stairs.  It’s just one of those things that gets taken for granted, and had been for years.  You turn it on for a moment, just to navigate something, or maybe to scan the mail you just retrieved.  But you never really look at it, never give it much of a thought.  But when the dust of years had been scrubbed off those little cut-glass pieces, how it shone!  It was lovely, lovelier than we remembered, perhaps than we had known.  That’s kind of the message here, I think.  Grumbling and disputing are a dusty buildup on our reflectors, for we are, after all, reflectors of light, not generators.  And if we are to shine to full purpose, that dust must be dispensed with.  Get rid of it!  Let the holy light of God show clearly in your demeanor, in your interactions one with another, in your excellent behavior at home and at work.

We are reflectors, then, and another part of the equation for us is testing what it is that we reflect.  There’s the old Bob Dylan tune to the effect that everybody’s going to serve someone.  We could paraphrase that here to advise that everybody’s going to reflect something.  That’s not to say that the individual, the person disappears or becomes inconsequential.  But we reflect.  We reflect our upbringing in the habits we display.  We reflect our society in varying degree.  It may only be in matters of dialect, certain figures of speech.  That, I think, used to be more telling than it is today.  Culture has worked to homogenize us somewhat.  But we may also have come to reflect society in our way of thinking, our way of acting.  And such influencing of our behavior and character may happen all but unnoticed by us.  This is our big problem.  We came out of society, with a lifetime of practice in the habits of society.  Such were some of you, as Paul writes elsewhere.  We used to be just like that.  Had not God laid hold of us and brought us to our senses, we would still be just like those around us, cavorting down the road to ruin.

Well, here’s a warning.  That influence is still there.  The desire to fit in remains a strong force in us, and its actions transpire out of sight, even out of our own sight.  Our hearts being deceptively wicked, as they are, we will convince ourselves that no such thing is going on.  We are devoted to God, availing ourselves regularly of the means of grace and striving to live godly in this fallen world.  But every now and again, perhaps we find ourselves witness to actions of our own that bring us up short, force us to question; are we really?  Or have we succumbed to the world just a bit?  What are we reflecting, the light of Christ or the way of the world?  And to the degree that our answer is demonstrated to drift towards the way of the world, our light dims.  For many today, that dimming factor is politics, and it really doesn’t matter at this juncture which party you prefer, or whether you give no thought to party.  The political has entered into everything, and we must assume, given the constant stream of such input, that it seeks to enter into our faith and practice.  But it mustn’t!

We are intended to reflect the light of Christ, to shine as those clothed in the armor of His service, shining with the glory of heaven.  We do so by holding firm to the ways of our Father in heaven.  We came late to recognition of His ways, so we have to work a bit harder at it.  Yet, not us, but Christ in us.  We struggle with old habits, to be sure, but we struggle in the power of God Almighty, and how can those old habits continue their hold against such power?  I will tell you.  We allow it.  We take our struggles around those habits, because they are too comfortable yet.  We don’t let go because we are not yet ready to let go.  It’s not about ability now.  It’s about will.  Well, praise God that even here, He is working, yes?  We just read it, that favorite passage of mine.  He is working in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Php 2:13), and as we come alongside, as we stop resisting and start abetting, we begin to shine a bit brighter.  Our faith becomes a bit more evident.  Why?  Because we are noising it about, turning every conversation towards an offer of salvation?  No.  Because we are living as we are designed to live, as we are called to live, as servants of God Most High.  We have put on the armor of light, and seen to it that it remains well-polished.  And we go about our days as sons of heaven’s King, seeking His ways and following them, living examples of His character and influence.  We give those around us an alternative to their alternative lifestyle.  We don’t bash them for their choices.  We live to open eyes to the better Way.  And then, when example and fellowship have offered opportunity for earnest discussion from a place of trust, we have a basis to give answer to their questions, and to set this gospel before them.

This is our calling, our purpose.  Let us, then, seek to hold more closely to the path of righteousness, to follow the Way, and to do so with the wide range love and compassion of our Lord.  And let us be ready, in season and out, to give answer for the hope that is in us by His doing.

Give What You Have (07/22/24)

We are arrived at the final clause of our passage, which the NASB presents as, “holding fast the word of life.”  Other translations, such as the NIV, offer a different take.  “As you hold out the word of life.”  It’s reasonable to ask, then, which is it?  Are we holding on or holding out?  The word is capable of both understandings, so it’s not a question of whether one translation or the other is outright wrong.  It is a question of which meaning fits the context.  Thayer suggests that the idea of holding forth this word is more in keeping with the progress of Paul’s thoughts here, and I can see how he would conclude that it is so.  Shining lights don’t do so by shining inwardly, but rather, by shining forth.  Yet, the stars, in shining forth, do not let go of their brilliance, do they?  I suppose, from a purely scientific perspective it must be that they release a bit of themselves in the act of shining forth.  Certainly, when we hear of solar flares, the sense is that at least some amount of plasma escapes the gravitational pull of the star’s core.  But in general, our perception is of a light undiminished by the act of shining.

So, perhaps the answer is to hold that both ideas are intended.  Hold on and hold out.  Hold fast to this word of life.  That, I should think, has to be step one.  It is certainly our great trial in this life.  As we have been considering, and as yesterday’s sermon observed, we are influenced by culture, whether for good or for ill.  I might suggest that some of those influences are relatively benign, mere matters of taste.  But where do these matters lead?  What do they reflect?  How do they comport with the mandate of a godly life?

Start here.  “You hold in your hands the very word of life.”  That’s from the Phillips translation.  Seems like it should end with an exclamation point.  How can you perceive this truth without it exciting your very soul?  Here it is!  In your possession.  You have been given to know life, to possess life!  You have been granted to come to know your Maker, and to know yourself the recipient of His love.  Well, there’s implications to this.  You have it, this marvelous, unexpected gift.  So, attend to it!  Apply it!  Live it!  That’s where Paul’s been coming from the whole way, isn’t it?  Be like Jesus.  You’ve seen how He viewed life, how He disregarded privilege in order to obey the will of God.  You’ve seen how God Himself is at work in you.  That’s part of this word of life you hold!  God Himself is dealing with your issues, changing your perspectives, strengthening your spiritual spine.  As Paul bursts out when writing to Rome, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Ro 8:31).  There’s a similar perception from Jesus, though coming at it from a different angle.  “Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, and having done so, have exhausted their weaponry.  No!  Fear the One who, having killed the body, has still the authority to cast into hell.  Oh, yes!  I tell you, fear Him!” (Lk 12:4-5).  Tie back to Romans again.  “Give to all what is due them:  Tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom.  Give reverence to whom reverence is due, and honor to whom honor” (Ro 13:7).  Reverence.  Fear.  They are the same term, the same idea.  It’s not scrabbling, cringing anxiousness that’s in view.  It’s recognition.  Here is Power and Authority.  Here is One with right of command, and in the case of our God, One who exercises that right rightly.  Here is One, then, worthy of honor and more.  He is worthy of our devotion.

“You hold in your hands the very word of life!”  You hold in your hands the very word of God!  He Who is far and away beyond us to comprehend, whose thoughts are above our thoughts, whose ways are inscrutable, whose refulgent splendor, should we but catch a glimpse of it, would surely swamp our senses every bit as much as a computer over-taxed by too much data to be processed.  We would curl up in defense of our overwhelmed senses, driven to our knees, and driven even to simply lie in the dust and wait for this splendor to pass us by.  But we have word of Him.  We have His choice of self-revelation, informing us of Who He Is, who we are, how we are intended to be.  We have been given life!  Real life.  Life worthy of being called life, utterly blessed, eternal and immortal, excelling the limits of this physical body in which we currently take up residence.

Look, if you haven’t felt it yet, you will.  This body is far from immortal.  The strength of youth, such as it may be, will fade.  The resilience of muscle and bone give way, however much we seek to stave off the inevitable.  Energy isn’t what it used to be.  Sight and hearing are not, perhaps, what they once were.  I’m not looking to lay blame on some habits of youth, or to credit healthier regimens.  The simple fact of the matter is that aging happens.  Parts wear out.  And while we may be able to replace and repair, eventually too many parts have worn out, and this old body is done, no longer fit to hold the spirit.  Then what?  “You hold in your hands the very word of life!”  Life goes on.  For better or for worse, life goes on.

For the unrepentant sinner, this is bad news indeed.  Most today would insist that life consists in doing what you please so long as it lasts, and then annihilation when once the physical factory flames out.  But they are wrong.  This word of life warns of the very thing.  There is a resurrection not only for the redeemed, but also for the reprobate.  And whatever pleasures may have been pursued in this brief time, there remains an eternity ahead, one when justice shall be served in full and without end.  There is something to fear, and this time, I do have in mind that anxious fear of crippling anxiety, now finding its worst imaginings barely scratched the surface of what reality had in store.

But we have hope.  We have this word of life.  We have life!  The Son of God has breathed forth His Spirit into our weak flesh, renewing our spirits within us, rebirthing us from the life of flesh to the life of spirit.  He has rendered holiness possible in us, and indeed, as we see from this most beautiful epistle, rendered it a certainty!  “He who began the good work in you is faithful to complete it” (Php 1:6).  “God is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Php 2:13).  You have been plumbed for holiness.  Your wiring has been updated.  You have been remodeled for eternity.  Yes, your body remains to be done.  Projects like this, it seems, are never done until suddenly they are.  But you have this!  This is your inheritance, your legacy.  Hold onto it!  Apply it.  Live it!

Living it, I dare say, must bring us to the other understanding of that term.  If you hold on to this word of life, and Him Who is the Word, Who is the Life; if you have set yourself to humbly obey your God as He humbly obeyed, then surely, that’s going to include holding forth this word that has been entrusted to you.  If you have Life, it simply will not satisfy your spirit to rest on your own security.  You will long with the longing of God that all might be saved.  You will see those miserable lost souls around you not as negative influences to be avoided at all cost, but as blinded by a severe taskmaster, yet sitting in the darkness of ignorance as regards the hope that is in you.  You will, because your Lord has instructed you and made clear His desire, desire that they, too, might enter into this life you now possess.  You know it is not yours to impart.  That privilege is retained by God alone.  But you can make known what you know.  You can make evident the light of life within you.  You can live so as to stir questions and desire amongst those who encounter you; not the desire of lustful eyes, but the desire for what is clearly a better way.  Live so as to destroy the blinders your enemy has set upon the eyes of his enslaved people.  Show what it is to live as a freedman.  Let them see!  And when they ask questions, let them have the answers.  You have the word!  Speak it.

Okay.  Word of life.  We can develop a propensity for always hearing the concept of word in that special sense that John uses is, as presenting to us Christ our Lord as the living Expression of God’s thought.  But that would be a mistake in translation.  While we may have Him in view, must have Him in view, more often, the idea of a word lies more along the lines of logic, instruction, and preaching.  Now, in the New Testament context, that certainly concerns imparting knowledge of the reality of salvation through Christ, and of the nearness and accessibility of the kingdom of God.  And here, we wish to deliver the word with utmost care, not presenting false hopes, not proffering cheap grace and a get out of hell free card.  It’s not sufficient to run up front one Sunday in some burst of emotion, ‘repeat after me,’ and then, get on with life.  No!  There is call for repentance, and that call cannot be answered by mere chagrin.  It needs active engagement with changing course.  It needs determination.  And frankly, it needs determination such as is beyond you to supply.  It needs actively resting, if you’ll accept the improbability of that phrase.  You rest in God for the outcome, but you actively engage in the process.

That’s what this whole section has been about, isn’t it?  Know that God is working, but you!  Work!  There is again that footnote from my Harper’s Study Bible, concerning the example of Israel rebuilding Jerusalem recounted in Nehemiah.  Work as though God will do nothing, and pray as though you can do nothing.  I am doubtless paraphrasing that poorly, and I recently stumbled across an attribution of that thought to some past hero of the faith, though I don’t recall who.  But the point stands.  This is the Christian life.  Work at it as if it all depends on you, but pray hard, knowing that without God, the effort is doomed to failure.  And as you present the gospel to those who need to hear it, while this may not be your starting point in such a presentation, it needs to be made clear with alacrity.

I think again of Paul’s ‘encouragement’ to the churches he had been planting in the regions of what is now Turkey.  “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Ac 14:22).  That’s not an encouragement we care to hear.  It’s not the happy garden path we were looking for.  But it is so needful that we lay hold of this reality.  Loretta Lynn, whatever you may think of her, had this much right.  “I never promised you a rose garden.”  No, God.  You did not.  You promised that in this world, we would have tribulation.  But You also assured us that You have overcome this world.  Great change is coming.  Great change has already been wrought in us.  We have the word of life!  We have Life!  Hold onto it, do not depart from that which has been entrusted to you.  But give forth from it.  Freely you were given, freely give (Mt 10:8).  It’s not as if you can run out.  This life is eternal.  Make it known.  Make it understood.  Live it.  Demonstrate it.

If I might be so bold as to apply a common bit of snark to it, “Smile.  It makes people wonder what you’re up to.”  This Christian life is no cause for moping.  It’s not a giving up of every pleasure for a life of drudgery and toil.  I have been struck repeatedly in recent weeks by just how high up the list joy is when it comes to describing this life we now live.  I mean, look at it!  “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22-23a).  Now, I cannot say with certainty that Paul was presenting an ordered list here, but certainly, by his own exposition, love is the chief article of the new life, the greatest of abiding gifts, greater even than faith which saves.  And here is joy in second place, as it were.  We might equate it with hope, as concerns 1Corinthians 13:13.  It’s something, isn’t it?  As I believe I have observed recently in these notes of mine, joy is something that transcends language.  It is unmistakable, I think, even where we encounter those whose words we cannot understand.  Assumptions of anger may be mistaken, as also assumptions of acceptance.  But joy?  I think not.  Joy, it seems to me, is unmistakable.  I may not know the reason for it in this person or that, but that it is present will not be denied.  Even in videos of young calves or sheep, the evidence is too clear to be missed.  It’s great to be alive!  May we learn to live in such a way as makes clear that we truly believe this is true, that we are truly alive, and that truly, it is a state most to be desired.  There are a lot of dead men walking out there.  They need life.  They need to see life.  Hold it out to them.  Let them know that all hope is not yet gone.  There is still a God in heaven, and His offer still stands.  Choose you this day.

picture of Philippi ruins
© 2024 - Jeffrey A. Wilcox