IN PHILIPPIANS CH. 2 , Paul writes of the internal and external form of Jesus Christ—that is, he is “in very nature God” (Phil. 2:6), and is also the “very nature of a servant.” (Phil. 2:7) Because of our likeness to Jesus in our new nature, Paul calls followers of Jesus to “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Phil. 2:3-4) He reminds us of what is at stake for each of us. “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12), he says, and adds “for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (Phil. 2:13)
Paul takes us beyond our limited view of value and purpose in life. Our highest spiritual aspiration should be to be like Jesus. Paul says of himself, “I have been crucified with Christ. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20) But our battle to attain that state of being is constantly held at the point where our old nature and new nature are in tension. This is a battle that Paul knew well, and cried out against. “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” (Rom. 7:24)
This is a universal internal condition of the human soul, always stretched between the ways of this world and the call of our higher new nature. The resolution to this is to see in ourselves as already accomplished the victory of the Lord Jesus, who “being found in appearance as a man, humbled himself by becoming obedient to death on the cross.” (Phil. 2:8) It is from this example that Paul can find rest in his own struggles, answering his earlier rhetorical question in this way: “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:25)
Our ‘delivery’ from our own weaknesses, from “everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles” (Heb. 12:1), is found in Jesus, the one who is the “perfecter of faith.” (Heb. 12:2) Scripture encourages us to look outside of and above ourselves to “Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Heb. 12:3)
In Jesus, the nature of God the Father and that of God the Son are one in the *dogma of the church. They are not alike, but the same. That nature is perfectly displayed in God in human form—Jesus—and “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.” (Col. 1:19) This is the same nature that is sent to dwell within us at new birth, and how earnestly we desire for that nature to be perfected within us! The fact that we struggle with this may be best reconciled in considering that our current new nature is similar to God, and that one day we will be even more like him. John says, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3)
To consider Jesus’ actions in reference to the strange and uncomfortable union/transformation of our old and new natures is to **“to think out carefully, to reason thoroughly” what this means about the way in which we conduct ourselves with others in this life. And while this impacts everyone with whom we come in contact; it is especially true of others in the universal family of God. Paul, in respect to this obligation to our Lord and Savior, says “Do everything without grumbling or arguing.” (Phil. 2:14) We should be mindful of the O.T. example of grumbling in the community of faith, one that Paul addresses as he admonishes the Corinthian church. (cf. 1 Cor. 10:10) There was murmuring and complaint against Moses and Aaron, and this led to the wrath of God in which “14,700 people died from the plague.” (Num. 6:49) God takes grumbling very seriously.
Whining, grumbling, murmuring, complaining—all are a poor witness to the Spirit within us, and this is Paul’s underlying point in addressing these issues. He says that there is a strong opposite to the effect of such display, and that it begins as an attitude of gratitude to the one whom we serve. This is a consistent theme with Paul—in Colossians he says “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” (Col. 3:23)
In addition to our reverence for our relationship with Jesus, there are two other significant outcomes to consider. One is our witness within the body of Christ; the other is our witness to the lost of this world. Paul’s exhortation against grumbling is “so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.” (Phil. 2:15-16)
Q. Do I express myself in petulance, or in praise?
*“Homoiousios,” Council of Nicea – 325 A.D.
**Louw-Nida 30.10.
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