by Larry Ferrell | February 9, 2018
Some people today think they have learned the Christian life from a book while sitting on the sidelines. But the real Christian life is learned by getting in the water, in this case the world. We are not to be of this world, but we are to be in this world. We are to live for Jesus Christ in the midst of a wicked and ungodly generation. This is what Paul’s great desire for the saints at Philippi, and it’s God’s desire for us. We are not to retreat from the world, but we are to live for God in the world. We are to do so even though the world is crooked and perverse.

How can we live for Christ in this world? First we must recognize that the world is crooked and perverse. All too often Christians look at this world as we might look at the sky on the afternoon of a June day and say, “The world is not so dark. It’s lovely.” Strip away the halo of the atmosphere of Christianity and its influence, and the blackness God said is there remains. Christians must constantly be aware of the darkness and must determine to be a contrast to it. The world has its goals: pleasure, success, sex, money, esteem. But these are not to be the goals of Christians..

First of all, we are to be submissive to God. The token of our submission is to be an attitude that does things without complaining or arguing. We must get out of the habit of arguing or complaining when God asks us to do things. God says, “I want you to do this,” and we are silent because a dialogue is going on inside us. We are saying, “Does God really mean that I have to do it just like that, or can I do it some other way?” Or are we saying, “Does God mean that I have to do it now? Maybe I can do it tomorrow or next year.” This is what Paul means by arguing.

The second thing that Paul says is to be characteristic of Christians is that they are to be blameless and pure in the sight of other people. The word translated “pure” means without mixture. It was used when talking about pure gold, pure copper, or any other metal that did not have impurities. In the same sense our lives are to be without mixture before others. We are to be aboveboard in our business dealings. We are not to say one thing and do another. We are not to hold part of the truth back or misrepresent the truth. We are also to be blameless. Just as the inward arguing has an outward expression in complaining that is bad, so this good inward characteristic of being our pure has an outward expression in being blameless. There is to be nothing that gives occasion for scandal.

Finally, Paul says that we are to be blameless before God, for we are to live “without fault” as His children. The word used here for “without fault” is also used in Ephesians 1:4, where it is translated “blameless.” It refers there, as in here in Philippians, to a Christian’s relationship to God. It means that our lives will be lived in the sight of God in such a way that they will be open before Him. There will be no barriers between ourselves and God. If we live this, we shall be able to pray as David prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See it there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps. 139:23-24).

This is a process that will go on throughout life. It is not going to be easy. Perhaps you are saying, “Not easy? It’s going to be impossible!” Well no, it’s not impossible. Our God is the God of the impossible, and He does things for us and in us that we cannot do for ourselves. The Bible tells us how this will happen (Gal. 2:20, Rom. 8:3-4, Rom. 12:2, Phil. 2:12-13). What do these verses mean? They mean that a person is incapable of living out the kind of life that God requires of him, but that God is capable of living out that life in a person who yields to His Spirit.

It’s a matter of spiritual life. God comes to a person who is spiritually unborn. He begins to penetrate his heart with the divine sperm of His Word so that life is conceived and the cell begins to grow. There is a period of incubation before the first cry that announces the arrival of new life, and this is followed by an even longer period of education, guidance, and nurturing in the home. At last the child goes forth to live in a way that honors his Father. And he goes forth, not as a computer that only gives back what is fed into it, but as an individual who thinks and decides and responds, and yet thinks and responds as Jesus Christ responds.

That is what God wants you to do. You are to submit to His Spirit, allowing Him to make you a light in the darkness of this world. You are to be blameless and pure both before others and before God. You are to hold forth the word of life to others. Those who have assisted in your spiritual birth and maturing should be able to say, as Paul did of the Philippians, “I…boast…that I did not run or labor for nothing.”

Philippians 2:14-16 Reflection Questions:
What have you been arguing with God about? What is He asking you to do but you don’t want to do it?
How are you doing in being pure and blameless? What will you do to improve this characteristic?
Are you living an open life before God so that you can pray the verse in Psalm 139:23-24?
Are you allowing God to make you a light in the darkness of this world? Are you submitting to His Spirit?

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