Background (Philippians 2:5-11)
In our last study we discussed Philippians 2:5-11 where we
have one of the earliest known hymns of the Christian church written to worship
and honor Christ. It describes in bare
outline, Christ’s leaving heaven and taking on the form of a lowly servant and
being obedient to the will of the Father even to the point of death. The hymn ends with a note of triumph as it
reveals that every morally responsible creature in the universe will someday
acknowledge the lordship of Jesus Christ.
Paul’s point in quoting this hymn is that we ought to have
this same humble attitude that Jesus had toward God and others and take the
path He has laid before us. Our
circumstances are no surprise to God, and His intention is not to catch us off
guard or to make us miserable. Rather,
He looks forward to a day of exulting for us just as it will be for Christ.
Philippians 2:12-13 Rescue from the
Power of Sin
Remember there are three stages in salvation. In stage 1 we were rescued from the
penalty of sin totally by the power of God when we believed Jesus’ promise to
give us eternal life. In stage 2,
we are now being rescued from the power of sin, but our success and rate of
advancement depends on our obedience to the will of God. Ultimately, in
stage 3, we will be rescued from the presence of sin, when we are with Jesus.
The first two verses of our text are talking about stage
2, our present rescue, or salvation from the power of sin. Paul is addressing believers who have already
been rescued from the penalty of sin, but it is the power of sin they now need
to be rescued from. This is one of the dominant
themes of the New Testament—exhorting those who already believe to also
cooperate with God in this present rescue from the power of sin.
Philippians 2:12 Step 1—My Will and
Obedience
This is why Paul tells the believers in Philippi to “work
out your salvation” by being obedient to God.
This is the first step in our (stage 2) present salvation—our will must
be obedient to God and we must work at it.
If we don’t, we will experience defeat in this present spiritual conflict. But Paul is quite optimistic about this
process. He calls those believers “dear
friends” and recalls their growing eagerness to follow God’s instructions and
so he encourages them to keep it up. Notice
that they are to “obey” just as if he were present. Now why would Paul even mention these things if
they weren’t ever an issue?
First, because it really is a spiritual conflict for every
one of us and second, we are not always victorious. We all experience a certain amount of defeat
in this stage 2 salvation. So, Paul
adds, “work . . . with fear and trembling.”
This is a Hebrew figure of speech that pictures someone who is doing
their best and knows that without God’s help our efforts are not enough, yet
the Creator of the universe is ready to help us just as Paul indicates in verse
13!
Read about the disciples, the judges, the prophets, and the
kings of Judah and Israel—even the man after God’s own heart—King David; they
all experienced spiritual defeat due to a failure of their will leading to
disobedience. Yes, every one of those
saints in the Bible had feet of clay as do we all. (By the way, this is one of the most
impelling reasons to believe the Bible’s honesty. It always tells the unvarnished truth about
even the greatest heroes of the faith—"warts and all,” as they say).
Philippians 2:13 Step 2—God’s Power
Fortunately, this battle is not left up to us all by
ourselves. Verse 13 tells us that God is
at work in us. It is God’s power on top
of our willing obedience that will bring victory over sin. Those seemingly impossible circumstances that
beg for us to give in can be defeated by choosing to obey and setting out
anyway. We may come up bloodied, hurt,
and discouraged by the pain of the conflict but that’s often the case in
warfare.
Do you see what Paul is telling us here? It is when I choose to do what is right and
then, no matter what happens in the battle, God’s power will give me the
spiritual victory. But if I just sit
back and refuse to move (out of fear – or rebellion) when God says move or sit
down when God tells me to stand, I have already lost the battle.
1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us that “No temptation has
overtaken you that is not common to man.
God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability,
but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape that you
may be able to endure it (ESV).” At
first glance, this may appear that our own ability is always guaranteed to
outweigh the temptation. But, this is
only so because He always provides a way out.
Without that provision, we would fail quite often.
It may have been tempting for Paul to keep his mouth shut
while in prison. But, in chapter 1, he
considered that the seemingly worst thing that could happen—his death—would
mean he would get to see Jesus, so he just kept sharing the good news with all
the soldiers who guarded him, and he said the result was that the whole
praetorian guard had heard the gospel—not exactly what his enemies had in mind! The way out turned out to be safety in prison
while obeying the Lord’s command to proclaim the gospel!
Notice also in verse 13 that Paul adds, “Both to will and to
do for His good pleasure.” God wants you
to be successful in doing His will. He
is rooting for you and He is the One Who is working in you to produce that good
work that pleases Him. He is for
you! But we are no mere puppet. He is doing everything necessary for us to
succeed and now all we have to do is obey.
Philippians 2:14 Working Without
Whining
Okay, so we understand we are supposed to obey the Lord
willingly but why does God allow all this pain and suffering while doing good,
especially in those He claims to love?
In verse 14-16, Paul addresses another crucial part of our
response to spiritual conflict—a part that addresses both this question of
“why” as well as the results in eternity.
In verse 14 we have the proper response to suffering in
spiritual conflict. Paul wants the
Philippians to “do everything without grumbling and complaining.” He wants them to work without whining. We might be tempted to ask, so what? I did the job and now I need to let off some
steam.
When our kids whine, when the troops that work for us
complain, what happens? For one thing it
betrays a lack of respect for the task.
But it also communicates a lack of respect for you to all the
others. It demotivates and demoralizes
everyone. It might as well be saying,
“Ok, I did it. Are you happy now?”
Paul had an earlier experience in Philippi that the church
would have remembered well. It is
recorded in Acts 16 how he and Silas were unjustly thrown into prison for
freeing a slave girl from an evil spirit.
They were beaten with rods within an inch of their lives and at midnight,
when it was too painful to even lie down, this pair was singing hymns, so
everyone could hear them. And in the
midst of their suffering, God sent an earthquake and their chains fell off and
the doors swung open. And as a result,
the jailer and his family believed in Jesus.
Paul and Silas’ attitude spoke volumes to that jailer and it helped him
to believe. No need for Paul to remind
the Philippians about his personal example of doing the exact opposite of
whining and complaining and how it turned out!
Philippians 2:15 Blameless and
Shining
Now in verse 15 we see the results of this kind of
unexpected behavior. In Paul’s case, the
jailer’s eyes were opened in the middle of the night. Paul says here that when we behave without
grumbling and complaining we underscore our innocence. We appear blameless before the world. We shine like lights in the darkness compared
to the corruption around us.
Why do bad things happen to good people? Because they are the ones God trusts to
behave like citizens of heaven. They
continue to do right even when the easier path is to do wrong. And they don’t whine and complain about
it. And as Jesus said, “Let your light
so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify God.” Whining just destroys the whole effect of
“doing good.” But choosing to be joyful
in suffering—wow! It’s a light in the
night.
Philippians 2:16 Exultation in the
Day of Christ
There’s another result of choosing to obey God
joyfully. In our future stage 3
salvation—at the return of Christ—we will not only see our God and Savior,
Jesus Christ, being acknowledged before the universe as Lord of all—we will
exult in His coronation and our own rescue from the presence of sin as well as
the final success of all those fellow believers with whom we worked together
with and mentored and encouraged.
We have a sister-in-law whose nephew is the punter for the
Minnesota Vikings. Whenever Matt Wiles
has a great game, we hear all about it on Facebook. The whole family exults in those great kicks
even though we had absolutely nothing to do with it. Imagine the far greater eternal satisfaction
of seeing the successes of those who have been influenced by our joyful,
willing obedience to God. What will it
be? Whine or shine?
© Eric Thimell 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment