“Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing. But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. In the same way you should also be glad and rejoice with me.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the things you learn a as a parent as that there are two ways to do something. You can do it happily or you can grumble your way through it. Well, you don’t actually learn this so much as experience it. Often. This is the kind of thing you expect from children, but adults are hardly immune from it. It is far more common than it seems like it should be for us to forget that grumbling our way along is bad for everyone. When this leaks into the church, it can make a real mess. Paul offers some counsel here to lead us in a different direction. Let’s take a look.

Grumbling is actually cultural. Some cultures grumble because that’s how they’ve developed. Some don’t. Some are marked by gratitude which is a surefire antidote to grumbling. Grumbling within a culture spreads like a weed. It starts small, but it doesn’t stay there. One person griping and grumbling soon becomes a second, then a third, and before you know it, there’s a whole chorus of grumblers.

That kind of thing is poisonous. It breaks down the foundations of a culture until it is a shell of what it once was. It strains relationships to their breaking point, and then pushes them beyond that. It becomes a catalyst to all sorts of other sinful decisions. And as evidence for this, we really don’t have to look any further than the Scriptures themselves.

The people of Israel were perpetual grumblers on their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. Every time something happened that was even mildly inconvenient for them, the first thing they did was grumble. They did this no matter what God had done for them previously. They marched out of Egypt as a free people for the first time in generations and essentially looted the Egyptians on their way out the door all because of what God had done on their behalf. But as soon as they got to the Red Sea and couldn’t think of how the same God who had worked all those miracles to get them out of Egypt was going to get them across it, they grumbled.

They walked through the Red Sea on dry land and watched as God collapsed the parted waters on the pursuing Egyptian forces, utterly decimating the Egyptian army, but as soon as they got a couple of days down the road toward their next stop and couldn’t find an easy and obvious water source in the desert God was leading them through, they grumbled. When they got hungry, they grumbled. When they got bored, they grumbled. When enemies threatened, they grumbled. Faith and gratitude weren’t even on their radar; only grumbling.

Eventually, they grumbled instead of entering the Promised Land when God got them there, and He had finally had enough. That entire generation would die before the people would be allowed to enter the land. They would go back to the wilderness where they would have to wander until everybody over twenty had died. Forty years later, a new generation who didn’t grumble like their now ancestors did were finally ready to receive with gratitude what God wanted to give them. Of course, they would have their own issues going forward, but it wasn’t grumbling anymore.

It’s no wonder, then, that Paul tells the Philippian believers here to “do everything without grumbling and arguing.” But put this in context. Remember what we talked about yesterday. They were to work out their salvation by working with the God who enabled them to work and even to desire to do the work of obedience in the first place. This work constituted the “everything” Paul refers to here. They were to pursue the outworking of their salvation in all the ways God directed them without grumbling and arguing.

The result of their efforts in this direction would be that “you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation.” That seems like a pretty strong response at first. I mean, all they had to do – all we have to do – was stop grumbling and arguing and they would achieve the mark of being pure and blameless before God? What about other sins?

Well, grumbling interrupts our relationship with God because we are focused on being ungrateful and faithless rather than working with Him gladly to accomplish His purposes. Arguing interrupts our relationship with other people for the exact same reasons. Both grumbling and arguing come out of a heart that is discontent and dissatisfied. Such a heart is selfish and prideful, always wanting what it does not have. It is filled with jealousy to selfishly guard the things it considers its own, and envy in wanting what others have that it doesn’t.

In this way, the grumbling and arguing are merely the outward face of this inner brokenness. Getting rid of them means putting a stop to these internal impurities. So, yes, doing everything without grumbling and arguing will indeed result in purity and blamelessness before God. And considering that the world around us that has submitted to God’s Spirit and entered His kingdom are filled with these kinds of things, deviating from that crookedness and perverseness will indeed make us “shine like stars in the world.” The difference between us and them will be glaring.

We can only accomplish all of this, though, “by holding firm to the word of life.” The “word of life” there could refer to a couple of different things. Paul could be pointing to the Gospel message or to the Scriptures more generally. We don’t actually have to pick between those two. Both are correct. We can’t do any of this apart from the Gospel. We don’t have the power to break the cycle of grumbling and arguing on our own. Only the Gospel, driven by the power of the Holy Spirit, can do that in us. And we only know about the Gospel through the Scriptures as a whole. In other words, if you want to be the kind of person who doesn’t fall to grumbling and arguing, get in the Scriptures on a regular and consistent (i.e., daily) basis.

Paul ends this little section by getting personal with them again. Their achieving this mark would be an indication that his work among them was not in vain. “Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing.” Paul is basically saying, “Do this for me.” If he didn’t have the kind of warm and familial relationship with them that he did this could have landed badly, but he did have that kind of relationship, so it would have hit just as he intended it. This wasn’t meant to be a guilt trip, but rather an encouragement. From out of the richness of their relationship Paul is saying, “I want you to do something for me.” We can’t do that kind of thing very often, but every now and then, that’s an okay method to stir someone on to do the right thing.

In the end, even if Paul’s work among them and among others results in his own death, at least he will be able to point to their faithfulness and rejoice. In the same way, they will be able to point to his faithfulness and rejoice. “But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. In the same way you should also be glad and rejoice with me.”

What a God-glorifying thing to be able to rejoice together in mutual faithfulness and commitment to Christ. That’s something we should all desire to do with the other members of the community of faith we are in. Of course, that means being deeply connected to a community of faith, that is, a church. Indeed, none of this is possible without the church. Unless we are rooted in the body of Christ, we don’t stand a chance at experiencing any of this. We’ll just be a part of the grumbling and arguing masses. No, this doesn’t mean that being in a church makes this an automatic fix, as churches can get corrupted and off-mission, but there’s no hope of it without the church. So, let’s lean into the help God has given us in His Spirit and His body and shine like stars in the world. We’ll all be glad that we did.