12  Stop  Complaining  (Philippians 2:14–16)

Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. (2:14–16)

Modern Western society is by far the most prosperous culture in the history of mankind. Except for the very poor, people have all they need and much of what they want; yet many are seldom satisfied. Consequently, ours is also arguably the most discontented society ever. As the economy has become increasingly richer, people appear more discontent and complain more with each passing generation. Adding to the discontent are the fantasy worlds of movies, television, and advertising. The media, to create dissatisfaction, continually assault with the intent the senses with alluring and often unrealistic images that have been described as “plastic perfection.” Fueling that enchantment is the staunch conviction that personal happiness, though elusive and unattained, is the supreme objective of life.

I once heard a sociologist observe that the typical modern young person lives in a state of sullen discontent, continually dissatisfied with things as they are. Part of the problem, he suggested, is small families, in which fewer children are able to demand more of their parents’ attention and do not have to share anything with brothers and sisters. Combined with affluence and materialism, that situation tends to produce selfish, self-indulgent children who are never content with what they have. Instead of bending to the needs of the family, as is necessary in larger families, the family bends to them. Absent parents, gone to work, shop, and play, try quick fixes for their children’s demands, usually giving them what they want to stop the conflict. Children in that situation have little desire to grow up, realizing that adult society will not cater to their every whim. They want to postpone the responsibilities of a job, marriage and family, and other such commitments as long as possible, because those things demand a considerable degree of conformity to others. When such children become adults and don’t get what they want when they want it, discontentment increases, as do frustration, anger, anxiety, and complaining.

Discontentment also breeds impatience, another defining characteristic of our times. Among the seemingly endless causes of impatience, and often hostility, are long lines, interruptions, talkative people, rude people, high prices, traffic jams, inconsiderate drivers, and crying babies. The last two have actually become causes of serious crime. Inconsiderate drivers often produce road rage, which, with increasing frequency, results in gunfire and even murder. Crying babies have led to child abuse, which occasionally results in the murder of a helpless baby.

Mounting discontent through the years produces the trauma of a so-called “mid-life crisis.” That phenomenon is the reality that there is less of life ahead than behind, and the dreams of bliss are dying.

The biblical commands to believers not to complain (cf. James 5:9; 1 Peter 4:9) are evidence that the church is not immune from discontent. The church today has more than its share of malcontents and complainers. People often leave a church because their children don’t like it, or because they are dissatisfied with some minor aspect of leadership, organization, or policy. Churches that promote self-esteem and self-fulfillment fuel the fires of discontent and complaining. Churches devoted to entertainment and meeting felt needs also create expectations for superficial satisfaction that they continually have to try to meet.

Adam was the first complainer. Immediately after he disobeyed God, he blamed Eve for his sin, complaining to the Lord that “the woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate” (Gen. 3:12). Instead of blaming himself, he blamed God. Some years later, his firstborn, Cain, complained bitterly to God that his punishment for murdering his brother Abel was too severe (4:13–14). Moses complained to the Lord because He did not deliver Israel from Pharaoh quickly enough (Ex. 5:22–23). After God miraculously delivered them by drowning the pursuing Egyptians in the Red Sea, Moses and the people sang a glorious song of praise to the Lord (Ex. 15:1–18). But after going only three days into the wilderness, they complained again because the water at Marah was not fit to drink. The Lord graciously responded by making that water sweet and then leading them to an oasis at Elim, “where there were twelve springs of water and seventy date palms, and they camped there beside the waters” (vv. 23–27; cf. 17:1–7). Shortly after that, however, the people were grumbling again, this time about a supposed lack of food (16:2–8).

After Caleb, Joshua, and the other men returned from spying out the land of Canaan, Caleb “quieted the people before Moses and said, ‘We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it’” (Num. 13:30). Except for Caleb and Joshua, however, the other spies were afraid and faithless, telling their fellow Israelites,

“We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.” So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” (vv. 31–33)

Because of those men’s faithless complaining, “All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, ‘Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!’” (14:2). They then grumbled against God, saying, “‘Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?’ So they said to one another, ‘Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt’” (vv. 3–4). Their complaining turned into outright rebellion as they determined to stone Caleb and Joshua, and perhaps Moses and Aaron as well (v. 10). They rejected God’s plan, God’s chosen leaders, and God Himself. In response,

The Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst? . . . Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. . . . Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you; your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. . . . According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition. I, the Lord, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they will die.’” As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land, even those men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by a plague before the Lord. (vv. 11, 22–23, 28–29, 34–37)

Recalling that tragic time, Asaph lamented, “How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert! Again and again they tempted God, and pained the Holy One of Israel” (Ps. 78:40–41). Another psalmist wrote, “They despised the pleasant land; they did not believe in His word, but grumbled in their tents; they did not listen to the voice of the Lord” (Ps. 106:24–25).

Referring to those same times, Paul warned the Corinthians: “Let us [not] try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer” (1 Cor. 10:9–10). In response to those who complain because God sovereignly “has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires” and who then presumptuously ask, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” Paul replied: “On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?” (Rom. 9:18–21; cf. Isa. 29:16; 45:9; Jer. 18:6). Jude warned of apostates who were “grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage” (Jude 16).

In reality, every complaint a believer makes is against the Lord and is one of the ugliest of sins. And complaining against other believers is especially serious, an affront to God, because those believers are His children. James therefore warned, “Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door” (James 5:9). Similarly, Peter admonished, “Be hospitable to one another without complaint. [Rather], as each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:9–10).

Believers’ failure to willingly, even joyfully, submit to God’s providential will is a deep-seated and serious sin. Discontentment and complaining are attitudes that can become so habitual that they are hardly noticed. But those twin sins demonstrate a lack of trust in His providential will, boundless grace, and infinite wisdom and love. Consequently, those sins are especially odious in His sight and merit His discipline. As Paul explained to the Corinthians, the numerous Old Testament accounts of God’s severe dealing with Israel’s complaints in the wilderness were given “as an example, and they were written for our instruction” (1 Cor. 10:11). Jeremiah asked, “Why should any living mortal, or any man, offer complaint in view of his sins?” (Lam. 3:39). If that is true of everyone, how much more does it apply to believers, whose sins have been graciously forgiven by the Lord?

To deal with the complainers in the Philippian congregation and beyond, Paul first commands them to stop complaining, then gives them reasons for obeying that command.

THE COMMAND TO STOP COMPLAINING

Do all things without grumbling or disputing; (2:14)

The phrase all things refers back to the previous two verses (2:12–13) and sets forth the attitude with which believers are to work out their salvation. Everything involved in that process should be done without grumbling or disputing. Negatively, the basic attitude for working out salvation is without grumbling or disputing. Positively, as the apostle emphasizes throughout this letter, it is an attitude of determination to “rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil. 4:4; see also, e.g., 1:4, 18, 25; 2:18; 4:1).

Grumbling is from gongusmos, an onomatopoetic word that sounds like the guttural, muttering sounds people often make when they are disgruntled. It is a negative response to something unpleasant, inconvenient, or disappointing, arising from the self-centered notion that it is undeserved. The related verb is used of the resentful laborers who “grumbled at the landowner” for being paid the same as those who had only worked one hour (Matt. 20:11). It also describes the Pharisees and scribes who “began grumbling at [Jesus’] disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?’” (Luke 5:30). It is used in John 6:61 of certain professed disciples who were offended when Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves” (v. 53). Paul uses the term to describe the Israelites in the wilderness, who grumbled “and were destroyed by the destroyer” (1 Cor. 10:10).

Disputing is from dialogismos, which has the basic meaning of inner reasoning and is the term from which the English word dialogue derives. But it soon developed the more specific ideas of questioning, doubting, or disputing the truth of a matter. In Romans 14:1, the word is used of passing judgment on another believer’s opinions and in 1 Timothy 2:8 it is rendered “dissension.” Whereas grumbling is essentially emotional, disputing is essentially intellectual. A person who continues to murmur and grumble against God will eventually argue and dispute with Him.

Behind this sin is the reality that although they are citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20), believers live in a fallen world and in unredeemed bodies (Rom. 7:18; 8:23). The Lord often leads believers through times of trial and testing (James 1:2–3) and warns that they can expect to be persecuted because of their faithfulness (Matt. 5:10–12; John 15:20). It is therefore inevitable that circumstances will not always be favorable or pleasant.

Paul had forsaken the many worldly advantages and privileges he had in his former life, counting them as less than nothing (Phil. 3:4–7). He counted it a great privilege, however, to be imprisoned for the cause of Christ, which circumstance “turned out for the greater progress of the gospel,” because “most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of [his] imprisonment, [had] far more courage to speak the word of God without fear” (1:12, 14). The apostle longed to know Christ ever more intimately, to share in “the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings,” even to the point of being “conformed to His death” (3:10). All believers have “been granted for Christ’s sake” the same marvelous privilege, “not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (1:29).

Every circumstance of life is to be accepted willingly and joyfully, without murmuring, complaint, or disappointment, much less resentment. There is no exception. There should never be either emotional grumbling or intellectual disputing. It is always sinful for believers to complain about anything the Lord calls them to do or about any circumstance which He sovereignly allows. Whether the task is difficult or easy, whether the situation involves a blessing or a trial, negative attitudes are forbidden. As he testifies later in this letter, Paul’s own spiritual growth had led him to enjoy this attitude: “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need” (Phil. 4:11–12). His example shows that such righteous behavior is possible.

THE REASONS TO STOP COMPLAINING

so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. (2:15–16)

Paul gives three reasons why believers should stop complaining: for their own sakes, for the sake of the unsaved, and for the sake of pastors.

FOR BELIEVERS’ OWN SAKES

so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach (2:15a)

So that translates the Greek conjunction hina, which, when used with a subjunctive verb as it is here, indicates a purpose clause. Believers are to stop complaining so that they may become the kind of children of God He wants them to be; namely, blameless and innocent. Christians are children of God by faith (John 1:12; Gal. 3:26), by adoption (Rom. 8:15, 23; Gal. 4:5), and by spiritual birth (John 1:13; 3:3–6; 1 Peter 1:23). Because they are His children, they should “be imitators of God” (Eph. 5:1); every Christian is in the process of becoming more like Christ (2 Cor. 3:18). That process includes becoming more blameless and innocent. To forsake grumbling and complaining is an essential part of advancing that process.

Blameless is from amemptos, which has the root meaning of being without defect or blemish. The believer is to seek to be without moral or spiritual blemish. Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist, “were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord” (Luke 1:6). To the Thessalonians, Paul expressed his deep desire that God would “establish [their] hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints” (1 Thess. 3:13). Later in Philippians he speaks of himself as having been “found blameless” as far as “the righteousness which is in the Law” was concerned (Phil. 3:6). The writer of Hebrews comments that, “if that first covenant had been faultless [amemptos], there would have been no occasion sought for a second” (Heb. 8:7).

Innocent is from akeraios, which has the basic meaning of being unmixed or unadulterated. The term was used to describe pure wine that was unmixed with water and pure metal that was not alloyed. Metaphorically, akeraios was sometimes used of what was harmless or innocent. Jesus commanded His disciples to “be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16). Similarly, Paul admonished the Romans “to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil” (Rom. 16:19). The believer’s life is to be absolutely pure, unmixed with sin and evil. Concerned for the spiritual welfare of the immature Corinthians, Paul wrote: “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin” (2 Cor. 11:2).

As children of God, Christians also are to be above reproach. Ammos (above reproach) is closely related in meaning to amemptos (blameless); both words describe what is without blemish or imperfection. Ammos is used numerous times in the Septuagint in regard to sacrificial animals. Moses prescribed that a Nazirite “shall present his offering to the Lord: one male lamb a year old without defect for a burnt offering and one ewe-lamb a year old without defect for a sin offering and one ram without defect for a peace offering,” and that all “the sons of Israel [should] bring . . . an unblemished red heifer in which is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed” (Num. 6:14; 19:2).

Metaphorically, ammos was used of being without blame or guilt. The character of the children of God should be above any legitimate blame, criticism, or censure. Paul uses the word twice in Ephesians, admonishing believers to “be holy and blameless before [Christ] . . . that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless” (Eph. 1:4; 5:27; cf. Col. 1:22). The writer of Hebrews uses ammos of the Lord Jesus Christ, saying, “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:14), as also does Peter, who speaks of Him as “a lamb unblemished and spotless” (1 Peter 1:19). Like every other spiritual virtue, being above reproach is impossible in a believer’s own power. It is only the unblemished and spotless Christ Himself who “is able to keep [believers] from stumbling, and to make [them] stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy” (Jude 24). Believers are in position blameless in His perfect righteousness and need to pursue that holy standard in their practice.

Writing to Titus, Paul gives the supreme motive for pure, blameless living:

Adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. (Titus 2:10–14)

After briefly describing the “day of the Lord [which] will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up,” Peter asks rhetorically, “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,” and then makes the same point in the form of an admonition: “Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless” (2 Peter 3:10–11, 14).

FOR THE SAKE OF THE UNSAVED

in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, (2:15b–16a)

The second reason for not complaining is the negative impact it has on the unsaved, those who belong to a crooked and perverse generation—a description of the whole unbelieving world. Generation refers to the populace in broad terms, world to the evil satanic system by which they conduct their lives. The whole phrase crooked and perverse generation is borrowed from Deuteronomy 32:5, where Moses describes unfaithful and rebellious Israel as a people who had become “a perverse and crooked generation.” Paul applies that description of Israel to unsaved, corrupt humanity. Crooked is from skolios, referring to what is bent, curved, or twisted. The medical condition scoliosis involves an abnormal curvature and misalignment of the spine. The term was used metaphorically of anything that deviates from a standard or norm, and in Scripture, it is often used of things that are morally or spiritually corrupt. It is used in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament), where Solomon speaks of “those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness; who delight in doing evil and rejoice in the perversity of evil; whose paths are crooked (skolios), and who are devious in their ways” (Prov. 2:13–15; cf. 21:8; 28:18).

Perverse translates a participial form of the verb diastreph, which has the same basic idea as skolios but in a more active and dynamic form. Jesus spoke of an “unbelieving and perverted [diestrammen] generation” (Matt. 17:17). The multitude that stood before Pilate and demanded Jesus’ crucifixion accused Him of “misleading [or perverting, diastrephonta] our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King” (Luke 23:2). On the island of Paphos, Paul excoriated the magician and false prophet Bar-Jesus (or Elymas), saying, “You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked [diastrephn] the straight ways of the Lord?” (Acts 13:10). Several years later he warned the elders from Ephesus that “from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:30).

The crookedness and perversity of the modern world are so obvious and pervasive that examples are hardly necessary. Most of modern culture has radically distorted and deviated from God’s standards of truth and righteousness. As with the church of Paul’s time, the church today does not exist near the crooked and perverse world but lives inescapably in its midst. Because of the expansive development of communications technology, Christians today are continually and vividly barraged with vile language, ideas, and practices to a degree that believers in earlier days never encountered.

It is from this crooked and perverse generation that people need to be saved. In his Pentecost sermon, Peter admonished his hearers “with many other words [as] he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, ‘Be saved from this perverse generation!’” (Acts 2:40). Jesus identified the scribes and Pharisees who demanded a sign to prove His authenticity as the Messiah as part of “an evil and adulterous generation” (Matt. 12:23, 39; cf. v. 45).

In His High Priestly Prayer, Jesus spoke of the world as hating those who are not part of it, namely, those who believe in Him (John 17:14, 16). Yet He asked His Father not “to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one” (17:15). He prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world . . . that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me” (John 17:17–18, 23). Living faithfully and purely is an absolute prerequisite for fulfilling the Lord’s mandate to carry His divine message of salvation to a world lost in sin.

In the first part of verse 15, Paul speaks of Christian character, what believers are to be (“blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach”). Here he speaks about what believers are to say, the content of what they preach and teach as lights in the world. The way that believers live as children of God has a dramatic impact on how they influence the godless world around them. But just as right doctrine without right character is hypocritical and ineffective, so also is right living ineffective if believers are not proclaiming gospel truth. To effectively carry out the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19–20, Christians must appear as lights in the world, in other words, “shine as lights.” In its literal sense, phstr (lights) was most often used of the stars. Using the term metaphorically, Paul declares that Christians are to be moral and spiritual luminaries who radiate God’s truth, the word of life, into an otherwise sinfully dark universe.

God’s calling His people to be lights to an unbelieving world did not begin with the New Testament church. Daniel declared that “those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” (Dan. 12:3). Isaiah wrote that the Messiah was to be “a light of the nations so that [God’s] salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isa. 49:6; cf. 42:6). In Romans, Paul addressed unbelieving Jews who

bear the name “Jew” and rely upon the Law and boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, and are confident that [they themselves] are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth. (Rom. 2:17–20)

He then sternly warns, “You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? . . . You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? For ‘The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,’ just as it is written” (Rom. 2:21, 23–24; cf. Isa. 52:5).

In his Spirit-inspired prophecy, Zacharias spoke of Jesus as the coming “Sunrise from on high,” who would “shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:78–79). “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men,” John declared. “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:4–5). In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus Christ called believers “the light of the world” and charged them to let their “light shine before men in such a way that they may see [their] good works, and glorify [their] Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:14, 16). All Christians “were formerly darkness” but are now “light in the Lord” and should therefore “walk as children of Light” (Eph. 5:8), as “sons of light and sons of day” (1 Thess. 5:5).

Obedient Christians will have an extraordinary impact on the world around them. But not every one they come in contact with will receive the gospel light. “This is the judgment,” Jesus said, “that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). The light of God’s Word not only reveals truth but exposes evil. Yet just as the Lord promised, some will be convicted by the Holy Spirit, see a believer’s “good works, and glorify [their] Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16), that is, be saved.

F. B. Meyer wrote,

It is almost terrible to live with these thoughts pressing on one’s heart—that one can never speak a word, never transact a piece of business, that one’s face is never seen lighted up with the radiance of God, or clouded and despondent, without it being harder or easier for other men to live a good life. Every one of us, every day, resembles Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made other men sin; or we are lifting other men into the light, and peace, and joy of God. No man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself; but the life of every one is telling upon an increasing number of mankind. What a solemn responsibility it is to live!” (The Epistle to the Philippians [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1952], 116)

The quality of a believer’s life, whether faithful and obedient or unfaithful and disobedient, is the platform of his testimony. A grumbling, complaining Christian will not have a positive effect on others. For obvious reasons, unbelievers are not attracted to that kind of life.

Holding fast is from epech, which is perhaps better rendered “holding forth,” as in the King James Version. The terms Paul normally used for the idea of holding fast, or holding on to, were ech or katech (cf. 1 Cor. 11:2; 15:2; 1 Thess. 5:21; 1 Tim. 1:19; 3:9; 2 Tim. 1:13). The context of the present text also makes clear that the point is not believers’ remaining faithful to (i.e., holding onto) God’s truth, but rather their sharing with others (holding out) the redeeming word that brings eternal life.

The word of life refers to Scripture and, more specifically, to the gospel. Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). When many professing followers then turned away, Jesus asked “the twelve, ‘You do not want to go away also, do you?’” Peter responded, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life” (John 6:66–68). Many years later, the apostle John opened his first epistle by declaring, “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us” (1 John 1:1–2). After the angel of the Lord released Peter and the other apostles from prison in Jerusalem, he instructed them to “stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life” (Acts 5:20; cf. 13:26), the message Peter later called “the living and enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).

FOR THE SAKE OF PASTORS

so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. (2:16b)

The third reason for not complaining is for the sake of the leaders in the church, who have given their lives in ministry. Paul’s pastoral heart shines through in his deep desire that the Philippians would stop grumbling and complaining, so that in the day of Christ he will have reason to glory. He anticipated the day of Christ, when he could look back and rejoice in the faithfulness of those beloved brethren. The people he served would be a source of eternal joy.

It is important to note that the day of Christ is not synonymous with another similar term, the Day of the Lord, which focuses on the punishment of the unrepentant wicked. Paul reminded the Thessalonians, “You yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape” (1 Thess. 5:2–3; cf. 2 Thess. 2:1–8). But the day of Christ will be solely for believers (cf. Phil. 1:6, 10). Although it will also be a time of judgment, in the sense that believers will “appear before the judgment seat of Christ,” the focus will be only on rewards, not punishment, “so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10; cf. 1 Cor. 3:8; cf. 3:13–14; 4:5).

In saying that he would have reason to glory, the apostle was not expressing sinful pride in his ministry or an obsession with his own importance to the kingdom or in eternal heaven. The verb kauchaomai (to glory) can have the meaning of sinful boasting, as it clearly does in James 4:16. But it can also describe rejoicing, as it does in the present text (the King James Version reads, “may rejoice”). In Romans 5:11, the term is rendered “exult.” Paul was looking forward to receiving the joy that the Lord promises to every faithful believer. “These things I have spoken to you,” Jesus said, “so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:11). Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, which, like love, peace, patience, kindness, and the others (Gal. 5:22–23), is to be sought and cherished. John wrote his letters in part that his “joy may be made complete” (1 John 1:4; cf. 3 John 4) and longed to be “face to face” with those to whom he wrote that their “joy [would] be made full” (2 John 12). David prayed, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation” (Ps. 51:12), and another psalmist exulted, “Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting” (Ps. 126:5).

As already noted, in the present text Paul is speaking specifically of the glory, or joy, he would experience at the day of Christ (cf. 1:6, 10). The apostle was now in prison and, for all he knew at the time, might possibly die there (see 1:13–14, 20–21). As he expressed later in this letter, His beloved brethren in Philippi were even then his “joy and crown” in the Lord and he longed to see them again (Phil. 4:1). Whether that hope was fulfilled or not, he knew that he longed to have the reward of ultimate joy in heaven for his faithful ministry among them.

In His Upper Room Discourse, Jesus told the disciples, “You will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. . . . I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you” (John 16:20, 22). To desire and anticipate joy not only acknowledges Jesus’ promise but follows His example: “[He] for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). To the Thessalonians, Paul wrote, “For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?” (1 Thess. 2:19). In the closing benediction of his short letter, Jude wrote, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen” (Jude 24–25).

The best thing believers can do for their pastors is faithfully to live out the truths of God’s Word that he has preached and taught, so that he can say with Paul, I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. Every pastor desires that the reward of his efforts will be full, that the people under his care love and obey the Lord without grumbling or complaining and with their lives and words effectively demonstrate the gospel to be true and believable. It is the church’s responsibility and privilege to “appreciate those who diligently labor among [them], and have charge over [them] in the Lord and give [them] instruction” (1 Thess. 5:12). “Obey your leaders and submit to them,” the writer of Hebrews admonishes, “for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you” (Heb. 13:17). The greatest joy of any servant of God is the godly living of his flock. “I have no greater joy than this,” John said, “to hear of my children walking in the truth” (3 John 4).