Philippians 2(12–18)

Introduction

Last week we spent our time on verses 5 to 11 of chapter 2, which is that marvellous passage about the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Eternal Son of God; and therefore he is equal to the Father and the Spirit in every way. However, he did not consider his equality with God something to cling on to. Nor did he consider it something to use to his own advantage. But instead, he was prepared to make himself nothing, by taking the very nature of a servant and by being made in human likeness. That is to say, he became like us in every way, apart from sin. And he came as a servant. And so, he did not come to be served, but to serve. And he humbled himself and became obedient to his Father in heaven, even to the point of death on a cross, because it was the Father’s will that he should give up his life as the ransom to pay for our sins and that he should shed his blood to cleanse us from our guilt.

And then, afterwards, after his suffering and death, God the Father exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Paul wrote of the Son’s humiliation and exaltation, his descent to the depths and his ascent to the heights. It’s a wonderful passage, which we return to again and again.

And yet I said last week that Paul was not merely making an aside. He wasn’t going off on a tangent. He didn’t just drop a little theology into his letter for no good reason. He purposely wrote about Christ, because he wanted to make the point to his readers — and that includes us — that we are to follow Christ’s example. We are to have the same mind among us which was in Christ. We are to have his mind among us, so that his way of thinking becomes our way of thinking. In the Lord Jesus Christ, we see displayed before us the perfect example of someone who looked not to his own interests only, but to ours, when he came down to earth from heaven as one of us to give up his life on the cross to pay for our sins. It would have been better for him personally, if he commanded an army of angels to save him from dying on the cross. But it was better for us and for all his people for him to suffer and die to pay for our sins. In Christ we see displayed before us the perfect example of someone who put the needs of others before himself. And Paul wants us to do the same.

I also said last week that Paul had already demonstrated his own willingness to follow the example of the Lord. When Paul wrote this letter, he was under house arrest. He did not know what would happen to him, whether he would live or die. The Emperor might give the order for him to be released. Or the Emperor might give the order for him to be executed. Paul did not know what would happen to him. But as he considered his fate, Paul made clear that it was better for him personally that he should die, because dying means he would depart from this life to be with the Lord, which is better by far than anything else. However, he also made the point that it was better for the Philippians, and therefore it was his preference, that he should remain alive, because then he could continue his ministry to them for their progress and joy in the faith. And so, instead of putting his own interests and needs first, he was willing to put their interests and needs first. And that’s what he wants us to do.

There are indications throughout this letter that the church in Philippi had become divided. Right at the beginning of the letter, Paul stresses the word ‘all.’ To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi. In all my prayers for all of you. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you. All of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you. He mentions all of them. All of them together. All of them as a whole. But were they united? Were they together? Perhaps not.

And so, in chapter 2, he instructed them to be like-minded; and to have the same love and spirit and purpose. In other words, he wanted them to be united. And instead of being governed by selfish ambition and vain conceit, instead of being proud, instead of regarding themselves as better and more important than others, instead of looking to their own interests only, and instead of seeking what was best for themselves, they should be humble like their Saviour and they should put the interests of others before their own interests. In other words, they should be like Christ the Saviour.

By repeating the word ‘all’ at the beginning, and by teaching them to be like-minded, and by some of the other things he says, Paul indicates that the church in Philippi was divided. And this shouldn’t surprise us, because although the members of any church are saints because of Christ, they are also sinners because of Adam, because we have inherited his fallen human nature. We are saints and sinners at one and the same time; and we’ll only be free from sin when we enter the life to come and are glorified in Christ’s presence. And since we’re sinners, we act sinfully towards one another. We are proud, not humble. We are self-seeking, instead of selfless. We fight and we argue. But instead we’re meant to follow the example of Christ our Saviour, who made himself nothing for the sake of his people.

And Paul continues with this theme in today’s passage. ‘Therefore’, he says. Therefore, in view of what I’ve been saying…. Therefore, in view of the example Christ has given us…. Therefore, in view of that, this is what you’re to do. And the verses which follow can be divided into three parts: verses 12 and 13; verses 14 to 16; and verses 17 and 18. In verses 12 and 13 he commands his readers to continue to work out their salvation in fear and trembling. In verses 14 to 16 he commands his readers to do everything without complaining or arguing. And in verses 17 and 18 he commands his readers to be glad and to rejoice with him. So, let’s turn to the text.

Verses 12 and 13

And Paul begins by referring to his readers in Philippi as his dear friends. They are his beloved. He loves them and is concerned for them. And then he says that they have always obeyed. It’s not clear whether he means they have always obeyed him or whether he means they have always obeyed the Lord. However, it doesn’t really matter, because if he means they have already obeyed him, then he means they have already obeyed him in his role as an apostle of the Lord. God sent him to tell them the word of the Lord. And that means God has come to them in the person of the apostle to teach them to repent and believe and to live as his servants in the world. By obeying Paul’s message, they have obeyed the Lord.

So, they have always obeyed. That’s great. But Paul now wants them — whether he’s with them or whether he’s not with them — to continue to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. When the boss is around, everyone will be busy and hardworking. But what will they do when the boss is not around to see what’s going on? Will the workers slack off? Will they take it easy? Or will they continue to work hard so that the presence or the absence of the boss makes no difference to them? That’s what Paul wants the believers in Philippi to be. He wants them to continue to work out their salvation whether he’s present or absent, whether he’s with them or away from them. Indeed, given what he’s said in chapter 1 about living and dying, he wants them to continue to work out their salvation whether he’s alive or dead.

The idea of working out our salvation seems puzzling at first, doesn’t it? Throughout the Bible, it’s made clear to us that our salvation is God’s work from beginning to end. He alone is the Saviour of his people and he has accomplished our salvation by sending his Only-Begotten Son into the world as one of us to deliver us from our sin and misery by his life and death and resurrection. So, God has accomplished salvation for us by his Son.

And God applies salvation to us by his Spirit. He sent his Spirit into our lives to enable us to repent and to believe the good news. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, unable by ourselves to believe. But God sent his Spirit into our lives to enable us to believe. So, when Paul first went to Philippi, he spoke the word of the Lord to a group of women. And it says in Acts 16 that God opened Lydia’s heart to respond to his message. She would not have believed if God did not open her heart. And so, it is God enables us to believe in Christ and thereby to receive the salvation he accomplished for us by Christ’s life and death and resurrection. God sent his Son to die for us; and then he sent his Spirit to enable us to believe. Salvation is God’s work from beginning to end. The only thing we contribute to our salvation is our sin.

And so, as the Bible makes clear, we are saved by grace alone. Our salvation depends entirely on God’s grace, his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. It does not depend on us or on anything we have done in the past or anything we might do in the future. God graciously and freely saves us.

And since that’s the case, what does Paul mean when he tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling? The commentators and theologians offer many explanations, which I won’t go into. The simplest explanation is to note that Paul does not tell us to work for our salvation, but to work out our salvation. He’s not telling us to do what we can to earn our salvation. He’s not telling us we have to climb up to God by our good deeds. We’re not to work for our salvation, the way employees work for their wages. We’re to work out our salvation. In other words, we’re to put our salvation into practice.

So, we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. We’re to rely on Christ and on him alone for our salvation. We’re to rely, not on ourselves and what we do, but on Christ and what he has done. Salvation is by believing and not doing. But, as I’ve said before, while we’re saved by faith alone, a true faith is never alone, because it always leads to action. It leads to obedience. It leads to service. Now that you have received salvation as a gift from God, put it into practice. Work it out in your daily lives. Or, as he has already said in chapter 1, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Live as good citizens of heaven above.

And do it with fear and trembling. In other words, we’re not to treat this as something unimportant, but we’re to be serious about this. We’re to treat this instruction seriously. When someone tells us to do something, whether we will do it or not depends in part on who is saying it. If the person has no authority over us, then we can disregard what they say. But we should pay attention to this command, because it comes from Paul, who was writing under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit. So it is God who is telling us to work out our salvation. God is telling us to put it into practice. God himself is coming to us in the reading and preaching of his word to tell us to live as good citizens of heaven above. And we must not disregard his voice.

But lest we think that God has left us on our own, and we must rely on our own resources, Paul adds verse 13. And in verse 13 he tells us that it is no less than God who works in us to will and to act according to his good purpose. So, we’re to work out our salvation. We’re to put it into practice. We’re to live a life worthy of the gospel. But how can we do that, when we’re sinners who are sinfully inclined to do evil? The good news is that God works in us. He is active in us. He is at work in us to make us willing and able to do his will.

He puts the desire to obey in us. He puts that inclination in us. By nature, we’re inclined to do evil. But because of God, working in us, we’re inclined more and more to do what’s good.

So, God is the one who makes us willing. And God is the one who makes us able. He gives us the ability to do it. Think of the small child who wants to be helpful and carry the groceries from the car into the house. But the bags are too big and the child is too small. The bags are too heavy and the child is too weak. But along comes mum and she helps her child, so that, while the child is holding the bag and carrying it, it’s mum who is doing most of the lifting. And we are not able, by ourselves, to do good, because we’re sinners by birth. But God comes into our lives and he enables us to do his will.

Our Confession of Faith is helpful. It says in chapter 16 that our ability to do good works is not at all from ourselves. It is not at all from ourselves. But it is entirely, or wholly, from the Spirit of Christ. The ability comes from him. And the Confession goes on to say that in order for us to be enabled to do good things, there must be an actual influence of the Holy Spirit working in us, both to will and to do God’s good pleasure. In other words, every time we do good, it’s because the Holy Spirit helped us.

We’re sinners by birth. We have all inherited Adam’s fallen nature. Sinning comes naturally to us. How can we ever hope to obey God? How can we ever hope to do good? The good news is that we’re not on our own, because God is at work in his believing people to help us. He makes us willing and he makes us able.

It seems that Paul is addressing a divided congregation. He’s addressing people who are used to putting themselves above others; and who are used to looking to their own interests and needs before the interests and needs of others. They have become proud and conceited. How can they ever change and become like Christ? It seems impossible. But nothing is impossible for the Lord. Nothing is too hard for him. And when the believers in Philippi set their minds to putting their salvation into practice, they’ll discover that he is the one who gave them the desire to do it; and he’s the one who will help them to do it.

Of course, if the desire is not there, we’re not to blame God. We’re not to blame God if we have no desire to put our salvation into action. Our sin is our own fault and we are blameworthy for it; and we cannot ever blame God for our own shortcomings. So, if we have no desire to put our salvation into practice, the only person we can blame is ourselves. But if the desire is there — and it should be there — if the desire is there, then it’s there because of God, who put it there. And we can rely on his help to work out our salvation and to put it into action in our daily lives.

Verses 14 to 16

And what specifically does God want us to do? This is when we turn to verses 14 to 16, where Paul says to his readers — and that includes us — that we’re to do everything without complaining or arguing. Let me repeat that: we’re to do everything without complaining or arguing. And notice that there are not buts. There are no exceptions. Paul does not say do everything without complaining or arguing except when this happens or except when that happens. There are no exceptions. Do everything without complaining or arguing.

Now, we complain and argue all the time, don’t we? We complain about the boss and the people with whom we work. Husbands complain about their wives; and wives about their husbands. Parents complain about their children and children complain about their parents. And in church, people complain about the minister or they complain about the elders or they complain about some other person or group in the church. And if we’re not complaining about someone, then we’re complaining about something. We complain about our circumstances and the things that happen to us and the things that might happen to us. We complain and we argue all the time.

But here’s the Lord, who is coming to you today in the reading and preaching of his word, and he’s saying to you today that you’re to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. You’re to put it into practice. You’re to take this seriously. And you’re to do everything without complaining and arguing. Imagine if your life were a complaining-free and an arguing-free zone. What a difference it might make to the lives of people around you.

It’s likely that Paul is alluding here to the Old Testament and especially to the stories about the people of Israel, when they were in the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land. And, of course, it’s fitting that he should allude to that time in the Old Testament history, because believers today are pilgrims who are on our way to the Promised Land of Eternal Life. Just as they were pilgrims, so too are we. And one of the things we discover when we read about the Israelites in the wilderness is that they complained and argued about their circumstances; and they complained and argued about Moses and Aaron; and they even complained and argued about the Lord. They grumbled and complained and moaned. Not long after leaving Egypt, their water ran out; and they grumbled about it. Then their food ran out and they grumbled about it. When the spies reported that the Promised Land was good, but the inhabitants were like giants, they grumbled against Moses and Aaron. And then there was that time when Korah rose up against Moses. Why had Moses set himself up as leader? Why can’t I be leader? And so, it went on. They grumbled about their circumstances and they grumbled about Moses and Aaron and they grumbled about the Lord. They argued. They complained. And they provoked the Lord to anger.

And here’s Paul teaching us that we’re not to be like them. We’re pilgrims like them. Like them, we’re on the way to the Promised Land. But we’re not to complain and argue like them. Everything we do — whether at work or at home or in church or wherever we are — we’re to do without complaining or arguing, so that we may be become blameless and pure, children of God, without fault in a crooked and depraved generation.

Paul is once again alluding to the Old Testament. This time, he’s actually using words from Deuteronomy 32, where Moses praised God and then he went on to refer to the wickedness of the Israelites, whom God brought out of Egypt, but who died in the wilderness. So, Moses says about God that he is the rock and his ways are perfect and just. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; upright and just is he. So, God does no wrong. His ways are perfect and just. Who could ever complain about God? And yet the people acted corruptly towards him. They did not act as his children. Instead they acted like a warped and crooked generation. That’s how the NIV puts it. The ESV says they were blemished and that they were a crooked and twisted generation.

That’s what the Israelites were like. And here’s Paul, telling us that we’re not to be like them. Instead we’re to act as God’s children should act; and we’re to be without fault; and we’re not to be a crooked and depraved generation. In other words, we’re not to complain and argue.

We may live in a crooked and depraved generation. And it seems to me that people in general seem to be grumbling and complaining and arguing far more often than they once did. Perhaps it’s because one of the gifts God gave to the world was the idea of divine providence: that all things are under his control; and it is our duty to submit to his will for our lives, even though we may not understand it, because God has a higher purpose in mind. But now that people no longer believe in God, then they no longer believe in divine providence. And so, instead of submitting to his will, they only become angry and frustrated and they complain about their circumstances and they complain about one another and they argue with one another. But God’s people are to be different. And though we may live in a crooked and depraved generation, we’re not to do as they do. Instead of becoming like everyone else who does not believe, we’re to shine like stars in the universe. So, we’re to shine like stars in a dark sky. Paul may be alluding to Daniel 12, where Daniel refers to those who are wise — and he’s referring to believers — who will shine like the brightness of the heavens. Daniel was referring to believers who will rise at the resurrection and shine like stars; but Paul is saying that believers should be like this already, because we should live in such a way that we shine like stars in a dark sky.

And Paul adds that we hold out the word of life. That’s how the NIV translates Paul’s words, but there’s a little footnote beside the words ‘hold out’ which says that it could also be ‘hold on to.’ So, we hold on to the word of life. And that’s the more likely translation, because Paul is writing to Christians who were suffering because of their faith. He’s already told them to stand firm in the faith. He’s already told them to contend together for the faith. So, don’t give in, but hold on to the word of life. Stand firm in the faith.

And so, this is what we’re to do: we’re to do everything without complaining and arguing; and we’re to hold on to the word of life and not let go of it. And so, we will shine like stars in a dark sky. The people around us — who have no faith and who therefore do not know how to respond to this life’s trials and troubles except by complaining and arguing — will see that we are different. We will be like stars, reflecting the light which comes from Christ our Saviour, who did everything without complaining or arguing, and who entrusted himself to his Father in heaven. And if the believers in Philippi behaved in this way, then Paul would know that he did not run or labour in vain, and that all his work among them was worthwhile.

Verses 17 to 18

Our time is almost over. Let me just say that in verses 17 and 18 Paul refers to the practice in Old Testament times of offering to God an animal sacrifice and a drink offering at the same time. The two offerings were made together. And Paul likens the believers in Philippi to an animal sacrifice. And he likens himself to a drink offering. And so, if he dies, it’s as if he was offering himself up to God as a drink offering, which accompanies their faithful service to God.

And just as Old Testament saints were not to make their offerings reluctantly, but gladly, because of God’s kindness to them, so we are to offer ourselves to God, not reluctantly, but gladly and with joy. What a joy it is to know the true God and his Son Jesus Christ! What a joy it is to serve him in the world! And even if we should die, then we should not be upset, because, for the believer, to die is gain. And this means that instead of complaining and arguing, we should rejoice in the Lord.

And so, how do people think of you? Do they think of you as a complainer and an arguer? Is that what they say about you? Or do they think of you as someone who rejoices in the Lord?