Living Each Day for Christ

Knowing and enjoying Jesus Christ is the most supremely important thing in life. I’m not saying that it’s the only important thing. But knowing and enjoying Jesus is of foundational importance.

Over the past several weeks, we’ve been working through the book of Philippians. This part of the Bible, Philippians, it’s actually a letter written by a man named Paul to the Christian church of a city called Philippi. And throughout this letter, Paul has been showing us how knowing Christ has personally affected how he thinks about life, and how he lives.

Paul’s identity is tied up with being a servant of Christ. Paul’s closest partners are the people of Christ – fellow Christians. Paul loves others with the affection of Christ. Paul’s actions, whether in life or in death, are aimed at for the honor of Christ. The message Paul proclaims is the gospel of Christ. The humility of Paul reflects the mind of Christ. The obedience of Paul is a response to the Lordship of Christ, in reliance on the ongoing grace of Christ. The commands of Paul to the Philippian Church correspond to the holy character of Christ. Every aspect of life is informed and influenced and invigorated by Christ!

And as we’re going to see in our text, Paul is earnest in living for Christ, and he wants us to have this earnestness, too. Because a heavy, glorious, great day is coming, when you, and I, and everyone else on earth – Jesus Christ will return to earth, and we will see him in his glory. And it will become clear to us on that day – the day of Christ – whether our lives counted for something, or whether we spent our lives chasing after vanity and empty things.

So if you haven’t already, please turn with me in your Bibles to Philippians, Chapter 2. This morning I’ll be reading verses 14 through 18. Philippians 2, verses 14-18. But before I read our text, please pray with me:

[Pray and Read Text]

Paul’s Objectives for the Church

God’s forgiveness and favor aren’t things that people earn, by their good works. Instead, forgiveness and favor are gifts that God gives to us as an expression of his kindness. He gives them to us through His Son, Jesus Christ, who died to put sin to death, and who rose from death to bring sinners to life. And this means that obeying God’s commands is something we do, then, not to earn God’s saving kindness, but to further enjoy the saving kindness he has already granted to us in Christ. We discussed that quite a bit last week.

And this week, now, you’ll see that Paul has given specific commands for the Philippians to follow. He wants them to actively pursue a holy, Christlike life in a certain way. But in addition to this, he also gives something of a rationale for why he’s so concerned about it – why it matters.

I’ll try to simplify and summarize Paul’s flow of thought here in the text before we jump in: First, in verse 14, he urges the Philippians to adopt a certain sort of behavior. And why is he doing that? Verse 15: in order that they may be blameless children of God. And why does he want this for the Philippians? Verses 16 through 18: So that in the day of Christ, he may be proud that his work wasn’t in vain, even if it means that his life has to be poured out for the sake of their faith.

So there are three things Paul wants to see happen – three objectives. He wants to see certain behaviors. And that’s because he’s wants there to be blamelessness in the church. And that’s because he wants to be able to boast in the day of Christ. So there’s something of a stairstep of three objectives. And these three objectives of Paul will be my three points this morning. Objective 1: Behaviors that are Upright. Objective 2: Blamelessness in the Church. And Objective 3: Boasting in the Day of Christ.

Behaviors that Are Upright

So, first, objective 1: Paul wants to see behaviors that are upright in the Philippian church. Up until this point in Paul’s letter, he’s already given a few commands about specific behaviors. Early on in Chapter 2, Paul told the Philippians, “Do nothing from selfish ambition and conceit,” and “let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also the interests of others.” And since Paul is giving these specific commands, it indicates that these were problems that the Philippian church was dealing with. There were people in conflict. They weren’t seeing eye to eye. And people were stubbornly holding to their selfish desires and preferences. They weren’t willing to compromise. They weren’t honoring and loving their brothers and sisters.

And Paul’s words in verse 14 seem to have been aimed at similar types of situations. He gives a simple command that has two parts to it. He says, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing.”

The word grumbling I think you’re all pretty familiar with. Grumbling happens when your heart is discontent. Normally you probably grumble out loud. But it’s also possible to grumble silently, internally – to have a complaining heart. In either case, this grumbling posture is never a good thing.

But it’s something that we can jump into so easily, without even thinking about it. The Philippian Christians – they apparently had a problem with grumbling. Maybe they were stubbornly competing for control in the church. Maybe they weren’t following through on their commitments to each other. Maybe some people were always serving others, and other people never pitched in to help. Whatever the issue was, the Philippians seem to have reached by pitying themselves, or blaming each other, or criticizing God – or maybe all these things at the same time. They grumbled.

The dangerous thing about grumbling is that we often think that our grumbling is okay. We fool ourselves into thinking that we have a right to be frustrated – because we tell ourselves that the problem is 100% that other person, or that thing that happened. For as long as our spouse keeps forgetting to unload the dishwasher, or for as long as our kids keep leaving Legos out on the floor, or for as long as our boss or our teacher keep giving us projects we need to complete – we believe that having a complaining, grumbling heart is acceptable – maybe even inevitable.

But if we have a grumbling, resentful, dissatisfied heart, it shows that we have a problem. Whenever we’re grumbling about problems or people, what we’re ultimately doing is we’re grumbling against God. We’re complaining about how he’s been governing the universe. We’re denying his wisdom and goodness. We’re puffing ourselves up in pride, assuming that we know better than He does. Grumbling is an act of rebellion against God’s authority.

Interestingly, the Greek translation of the Old Testament (that was in common usage in the days of Jesus and Paul) – it uses this word, grumbling to describe the people of Israel. You may remember that God raised up a man to rescue the people of Israel out of their slavery to the Egyptians, so that they could go worship the LORD in the wilderness. But after being rescued out of their slavery, life in the wilderness wasn’t always easy. At one point, in Exodus 16, the people began to realize that their provisions are running out, and that there wasn’t a food source in the desert. And so the people began to grumble – “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Here they are, just a few weeks after being rescued out of their back-breaking slavery to the Egyptians, and the people have already forgotten everything God has done for them! They’re already jumping to bad conclusions about God’s motives. They’re already expressing a desire to rebel against the God who saved them. They’re walking in pride and unbelief. That’s what grumbling is.

Paul doesn’t want the Philippians to make the same mistake. He wants them to remember the God who saved them, who’s at work in their midst to empower them, and to care for them. They shouldn’t be like that unfaithful generation, who grumbled against the LORD in the wilderness. Instead, the implied alternative is that the Philippians should give thanks.

Because we have two options before us. Grumbling and giving thanks are functionally opposites. A grateful heart counts its blessings. A grumbling heart complains. A grateful heart is filled with contentment. A grumbling heart is filled with resentment.

Having a grateful heart doesn’t mean that we can’t grieve when people harm us, or when painful, tragic events happen to us. But even our deepest griefs will give way to joy if we understand what God has done to rescue us. God has raised up a man, Jesus Christ, to lead us out of our slavery to depravity, death, and the devil. And Christ is bringing us into a new land – into his kingdom – where we will live as children of God forever.

And if we understand the power and permanence of what God has done, we can have joy and gratitude, even on the darkest of days. It doesn’t make sense that Christians would grumble, if they really understand what God has done for them. So Paul says, Do all things – let everything you do be done – without grumbling.

But he adds something else here – “Do all things without grumbling or disputing.” In addition to grumbling in their hearts, and grumbling behind people’s backs, the Philippian church seems to have also been engaged in face-to-face conflict and disputing. And when Paul urges them to do all things without disputing here, the word he uses suggests that he’s not only asking people to stop arguing with each other – but he’s urging them to stop thinking in a combative way.

Have you been in one of those situations, before, when someone said something hurtful to you? And then for the next few days you’re thinking about how you could have defended yourself, or what you could have said as a slick comeback. The posture of your heart toward that person becomes a “me vs. you,” or an “us vs. them.” Your mind plans ways to win a victory over the person, instead of planning out how to reconcile, or how to forgive. But Paul makes it clear – nothing that we do should be marked by this adversarial, disputing attitude.

Now, when Paul says we should do all things without disputing, this doesn’t mean that all forms of debate or argumentation are forbidden. On occasion, you may need to explain Biblical truth and argue for it. But there’s a difference between that and having an argumentative heart. When we’re in conflict with others, God wants our hearts to be aimed at restoration rather than revenge. Our hearts should be motivated by affectionate concern rather than arrogant conceit. If we’re disputing with people in the church because we’re seeking control, or self-promotion, or the embarrassment of people we don’t like – then our pattern of life is contrary to the new identity that God has given us in Christ.

In all that we do, grumbling and disputing should be absent. We shouldn’t let either weed grow in the garden of our soul, or else it will choke about the spiritual fruitfulness God has called us to enjoy.

Blamelessness in the Church

So Paul is asking the Philippians to live according to these two, very specific, instructions, because Paul knows that these are things the Philippians have been struggling with. And he wants the Philippians to be aware. He wants them to put away their old ways of darkness, so they can live blameless lives that are consistent with their new identity. He wants them to be blameless children of God.

This is my second point, and Paul’s second objective: Blamelessness in the Church.

In verse 15, Paul says that he wants the Philippians to be, “blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life…”

The word blameless here refers to a life that’s marked by integrity. Job was referred to as being a blameless and upright man. It doesn’t mean that he was perfectly sinless. Only Jesus has lived a life like that. But Job had a blameless life, in that it was above reproach. No one could find a pattern of conduct in him that was indecent or immoral.

Similarly, the word innocent here means to be uncontaminated. Paul wants the lives of the Philippians to be unpolluted by grumbling and disputing. The water flowing from the fountain of their heart shouldn’t be mixed together with micro-plastics, agricultural chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. Paul wants them to be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish.

Again, Paul isn’t saying that we need to do a certain number of good works in order to earn a place in God’s family or to transform ourselves into his children. But Paul is simply saying, we should have a life that actually fits with who we, as Christians, now are through faith in Christ. If we’re children of God, there should be some family resemblance between us and our Father. We should be developing the same mindset, the same love, and the same character. We should be holy, because God, our Father, is holy.

This is part of what Paul’s getting at when he refers to us as being “children of God without blemish.” But in addition to this, this phrase without blemish, would have brought to mind imagery relating to the Old Testament sacrifices. You may remember, one of the key ways that the Israelites worshipped the LORD in the Old Testament was by offering sacrifices. And God told the people that whenever they brought an animal to be sacrificed, the animal couldn’t be deformed or sick in some way. Instead, the animal was supposed to be without blemish – that’s the same word that Paul uses here.

Now, the Old Testament animal sacrifices for guilt and for sin – those have been fulfilled once for all by the death of Jesus. He, like a perfect lamb without blemish, was put to death to take away the sins of God’s people. But in the New Testament, Paul speaks of a different type of sacrifice – an offering of worship and thanks – that we should continue offering up to God. Romans 12, verse 1 – “I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

God has set us free from the Egyptian slavery of our sin, and he calls us to come worship Him in the wilderness of this life by offering up our lives to him without blemish – without grumbling and disputing. Paul has worship and sacrifice imagery on his mind here. Paul makes another reference later on, in verse 17, which I’ll discuss later.

But while we’re still considering Paul’s desire for there to be blamelessness in the church, there are three phrases in the text here that help to describe what that blamelessness should look like.

First, Paul intends that the Philippian would be “children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.” Paul makes it clear that the cultural norm at that time wasn’t godliness. The Greek word for crooked here is actually related to the word scoliosis. The moral compass of the world has been bent out of shape in a damaging way. They are out of alignment with God – even violently so. And yet, Paul assumes that the Philippians will be without blemish, not by running away and hiding from the world, but from persisting in their faith while in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.

In fact, Paul anticipates that if the Philippians live as blameless children of God, they’ll shine like lights in the world – this is the second phrase we see, at the end of verse 15. When we’re living as people who are grateful instead of grumbling, and who are forgiving, instead of fighting – when people see that we’re honest, and hard-working, and faithful to our friends and our spouses, and diligent to teach and nurture our children, this isn’t normal in the world. Even if people don’t like what we believe, many of them will be drawn to how we live.

So, as a Christian, you shouldn’t be afraid of looking strange, or having a way of life that looks different from your neighbors or coworkers. In a world of darkness, light will seem strange. Pursuing Christlikeness will be different from the selfish ambition and grumbling that the world is filled with – and that’s a good thing.

But notice, there’s one more phrase here that describes what it looks like to be a child of God, without blemish, in the beginning of verse 16: we hold fast to the word of life. And this is because, if we aren’t committed to the Word of life – the good news of the Bible – if we take it for granted, if we ignore it, if we allow our minds and hearts to be influenced by the headlines and the messaging of the world – then we won’t be serious about being blameless children of God. Our burning love for God will grow cold. Our respect for God will be replaced by narcissism and fear of man. Our desire for God will fizzle out into indifference.

God has given us His Word so that we can know him, and know ourselves, and know what he wants for us. God has revealed truths in this book that can be found no where else. This is where we find out about God’s steadfast love and faithfulness, and his justice against evil, and the expansiveness of his salvation for sinners. This word of Life, is what God ordinarily uses, to call people to himself, and to correct them, and to comfort them, and to keep them. The blameless child of God is the one who grabs ahold of this word of life, and who holds fast to it, to live according to all God has revealed for our good.

Boasting in the Day of Christ

And Paul tells us why he wants the Philippians to live like this, as blameless children of God, in verses 16 through 18. Because he wants to boast in the day of Christ. This is my third and final point: Boasting in the Day of Christ. Paul wants the Philippian church to be blameless, “… so that in the day of Christ, [he] may be proud that [he] did not run in vain or labor in vain.”

Paul’s word choice here might be surprising. He says he wants to be proud in the day of Christ. And up until this point, Paul has been urging the Philippians toward humility. That’s the opposite of pride, right? He’s been telling them to set aside their selfish ambition and their empty conceit. They should instead count others more significant than themselves. They should be adopting the humble mindset of Christ. So why is Paul talking about being proud here?

Well, this word, which the ESV translates as proud – it doesn’t exactly refer to being proud as in being arrogant, or stuck up. There are multiple other Greek words Paul could have used if that’s the sort of pride he was talking about. Instead, Paul is literally saying that he wants to have “grounds for boasting and rejoicing” on the day of Christ.

Now again, we often think about boasting as something negative. Usually, when people boast they’re claiming that they’re better than other people, or they’re trying to rob God of the credit he should be getting. But Paul isn’t speaking about boasting in that sense. He isn’t saying he wants to be proud as an alternative to being humble. Instead, he wants to be proud as an alternative to being ashamed.

Paul wants to be able to look back on his life and conclude, “My life was spent in a commendable way. My life really counted for something.” Paul wants to have grounds for right boasting, that his life was genuinely well-lived. He wants to be able to rejoice without shame or regret on the day of Christ.

And this actually isn’t the first time Paul refers to the day of Christ in this letter. It’s already been on his mind. In Philippians 1:6, Paul said “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Also Philippians 1:10 – Paul has been praying for them, “so that they may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.” Paul has even given us a preview of the day of Christ in Philippians 2:10: “…at the name of Jesus, every knee [will] bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The day of Christ is also called the day of the Lord. And other parts of the Bible describe that day in more detail. The Lord will descend from heaven publicly and loudly. The dead will be raised. And all people will see the imperial glory of Christ and will be brought before him – either for final judgment, or for eternal life in the new heavens and new earth.

But here in Philippians, Paul doesn’t go into too much detail about the day itself. His main point isn’t to teach people about what that day will be like. Instead, his main point is to help the Philippians see that day is profoundly and ultimately important in shaping how we should live. He wants people to prepare for it. He isn’t just telling people what winter will be like, but he’s telling them to make sure they have a coat, hats, and gloves, so they’ll be ready when winter comes.

We all know that there are certain significant days in life that require preparation. It’s important to study in order to be ready for the day of your final exam. There are steps you need to take to be ready for the day of your graduation, or the day of your wedding, or the day that you have a baby, or the day that you finish that big project at work, or the day that you retire. But even though these are all significant days, there’s one day that’s greater than every other. Tragically, it’s a day that we’re hardly ever talking or thinking about. The day that your life should revolve around is the day of Christ.

Is the day of Christ on your mind? Is it having any impact on how you live? Your financial decisions, and the words you’re speaking to people, and the music or listening to, and the ways you’re using your downtime – are you going to be proud of those things on the day of Christ? Or will you be ashamed and disappointed?

When Christ comes on that day, it won’t matter so much whether your salary was big or little. It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or muscular, or whether you had advanced degrees or popularity. That’ll all be trivial. But the important questions will be did you conduct yourself as a servant of Christ? For the sake of King Jesus, were you honest? Were you patient? Did you rely on him for your weekly tasks, and give him thanks for your accomplishments? Were you a diligent worker, who avoided wasting company time? Did you care for the souls of the people in your workplace? Did you care, physically, emotionally, and spiritually for your family? Did you pour out your life to God, as an expression of your worship?

This is what Paul indicates he’s doing in verse 17. He says, “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.” Paul’s again using imagery from the Old Testament sacrificial system. When an animal sacrifice was made, a small amount of wine was poured on at the end, called a drink offering. And Paul is telling the Philippians here, “If by me pouring myself out, it brings the sacrifice of your faith to completion, and results in your lives being offered up to God in worship, it’s worth it!” He knows, that in the day of Christ, he won’t be ashamed of his life work. The active faith of the Philippians will have been well-worth his effort.

And as Paul anticipates his future joy, he urges the Philippians in verse 18, “Likewise, you should be glad and rejoice with me.” Here, Paul is, from his Roman imprisonment, living under the threat of death, he says, “Rejoice with me!” It’s really something to notice – Paul isn’t grumbling. He isn’t living out of his identity as an impoverished prisoner, but He’s continuing to live as a blameless child of God, shining in the world, holding fast to the word of life. And he’s setting his heart on the day of Christ. Paul’s already rejoicing in that day, and he’s inviting us into his joy, as well. Will you have grounds for boasting that day? Will it be a day of joy for you? Let’s pray that it would be – please pray with me: