Live blameless lives in a godless world
Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe 16 as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. 17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
Willing and acting according to God’s good purpose requires the correct attitude of the heart. Grudging obedience is not really obedience at all. So Paul urges, “Do everything without complaining or arguing.” In the course of our lives as Christians, we are often called on to do things that do not come naturally to us, things that our selfish natures angrily rebel against. We are often asked to do things that we know will bring scorn and ridicule from our non-Christian friends and associates. We are to do all these things, Paul says, without murmuring or complaint. There is to be no second-guessing of God, no grumbling about what God expects of us, no rationalizing or calculating about how we might escape our responsibilities or get by with doing less.
No parent is pleased when a child does as he is told yet grumbles throughout the entire task. That child makes it obvious that the task is not being done willingly. His heart is not in it. Christians’ lives of obedience to the Lord should be not just a matter of actions, but a matter of the heart. God does not want service or dollars or anything else from us without our hearts. Have you checked your attitude lately?
Christians who live their lives for their Lord from their hearts will be “blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation.” “Crooked and depraved” describes the world without Christ. Christians live in a world that has left the Lord’s straight paths and become morally and spiritually warped, but they are to be different. Their conduct ought to be blameless before the world, their motives pure before God. As they live such pure and blameless lives, Christians will “shine like stars in the universe.”
By God’s grace the bright light of the gospel has dispelled the spiritual darkness that was by nature in Christians’ hearts. Now God wants Christians, who have the light of life through Jesus, to be both light reflectors and light bearers in the sin-darkened world. As light reflectors, Christians should stand out from their worldly contemporaries as light shines in darkness. Their words and actions should cause people to see that believers belong to Christ and should lead those who observe them to glorify God.
Likewise, believers are to be light bearers. They are to hold out the gospel light to those who are still in the darkness of spiritual ignorance and unbelief. What a pity it is that we Christians so often walk in the darkness of this world instead of bringing light to the darkness.
Finally, Paul gives his words of encouragement another very personal turn. In all they are, in all they do, in all he is encouraging them to be, Paul wants the Philippians to be a cause of boasting for him on judgment day. Paul enjoyed a warm and affectionate relationship with the members of the congregation at Philippi. He had founded the congregation and was still its spiritual counselor and friend. He loved the Philippians and found real joy in their response to the gospel. When he stands before the Lord on judgment day, he wants their lives to be evidence that his apostolic labors were not in vain. Paul had labored strenuously for the Philippians. What a wonderful testimony to the effectiveness of Paul’s efforts would their faith and Christian lives be at the final judgment.
Like Paul, pastors experience many discouragements in their ministry. Sometimes it appears that their gospel teaching is falling on deaf ears. Sometimes their efforts to guide their listeners to God-pleasing Christian lives meet with little apparent success. But eternity will reveal that the diligent efforts of faithful pastors and teachers were not in vain.
What a wonderful relationship exists between a pastor and those he serves when the pastor can make, and the congregation will respond to, an appeal as deeply personal as the apostle makes here.
Earlier, in 1:25, Paul had indicated to the Philippians that he expected to be released from his imprisonment. That did not change the fact, however, that he lived each day aware that his life could be required of him at any time. In connection with his personal appeal to the Philippians, therefore, he speaks of his possible martyrdom as “being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith.”
In the Old Testament rituals, the drink offering was poured out next to the altar on which the burnt offering was sacrificed. Paul regarded believers’ lives of obedience to the gospel as living sacrifices to the Lord (Romans 12:1). His own martyrdom, should it occur, would be a willing sacrifice on his part, a sacrifice poured out next to the sacrifices of the Christian lives of the Philippians. Far from hindering his labors on the Philippians’ behalf, his martyrdom would crown those labors. Viewing it in that light, the apostle could find joy even in the prospect of such a death, and he wanted the Philippians to find it too. He wants believers of every age to share in his joy.