Be a Candle (Phil. 2:12-18)

Be a Candle
Philippians 2:12-18

INTRODUCTION:
Much of life is resistance. Many have posted on Facebook how this quarantine has made it easier to eat junk food. For those who would like to lose weight, the quarantine may have made that effort harder. It always requires effort to reach goals. A graduating class had their motto as: “Rowing, not Drifting.” Progress requires effort. Doing nothing is easy and doing nothing easily allows us to slip away.

Shining as a light in a dark world takes effort. But sometimes, we react to that effort with grumbling and complaining.

We ought to be careful what we grumble about… It might reveal more about us than about the situation. I’m reminded of the mom who was driving down the road with her little 5-year-old son in the car with her. At one point, the little boy asked his mom, “Mommy, why do the idiots only come out when Daddy drives?”

We all know that Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12), but just as surely as the moon reflect the light of the sun to brighten the night sky, so you and I are also lights, candles, in a dark world as we try to brighten our dark world. “Be a candle” is the theme for our study this morning and it will come from Philippians 2:12-18…

To se the context of this paragraph, I want to go back to the first few verses to remind us what the chapter is about because it serves an important role in our understanding of this paragraph…

DO NOTHING FROM SELFISHNESS OR EMPTY CONCEIT - 2:1-4:
The first paragraph begins with Paul reminding the Christians what we have in Christ. The “if” at the beginning of each phrase in verse 1 should be understood as “since.” Since we have encouragement in Christ, since we have the consolation of love, since we have fellowship of the Spirit, since we have affection and compassion as Christians, Paul says:

Let’s complete his joy by being united! United in mind, united in love, united in spirit, united in purpose. We need to “Fly United!” as Christians.

But there’s a major barrier to being united as Christians - our egos, our personal feelings, our personal preferences. That’s why Paul requires Christians in verse 3: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit.”

Instead, Paul writes in verse 3, “with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves.”

Again, in verse 4, Paul says, “look out for the interests of others.”

Be interested in other people. Be humble toward other people. In fact, Paul writes in verse 5:

BE LIKE CHRIST - 2:5-11:
Verse 5: “Have this attitude (literally, “mind”) in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Then, Paul talks about how Christ was on an equality with God before He came to earth. But then Jesus emptied Himself and took on flesh and humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on the cross (verse 8).

Because Christ humbled Himself, because Christ exhibited the attitude that Paul is trying to encourage in Christians, then God rewarded Christ: verse 9. He highly exalted Him. He gave Him a name that was more honorable than all other names, a name that will compel respect, worship, and confession from every tongue on earth.

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit; be like Christ. Let your candle shine in a dark world; that’s the focus of the next paragraph, the paragraph for our focus this morning…

WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION - 2:12-13:
Verse 12 begins with “so then,” which means Paul is drawing a conclusion. Because we are to be thoughtful of others, like Jesus who gave Himself on the cross, we are to “work out” our own salvation. That’s the key idea in these two verses.

First, Paul assumes they have and are obeying His commandments. Paul said, “You have always obeyed, both in his presence and in his absence.” The church of Christ in Philippi was established in Acts 16 with Lydia, the business woman and her family as well as the Philippian jailer and his family. Many others over the years had obeyed the gospel of Christ as well. Luke, the medical doctor and author of Luke and Acts, stayed and worked with the church in Philippi a long time. The Philippian Christians were an obedient group of Christians.

And, it is through that obedience that, Paul writes in verse 13, they are “working out” their own salvation. In fact, Paul puts the object of the verb first, for emphasis: “your own salvation, work out.” We do have something to do with our salvation. Our salvation is predicated on our obedience. This verb “work out” is used 22 times in the NT, half of those are in the letter of Romans. In other places, the verb is translated: “effect, accomplish, commit, produce.” Now, put any of those synonyms in the place of the word here and listen to what Paul is saying:

“Effect your own salvation.”
“Accomplish your own salvation.”
“Commit your own salvation.”
“Produce your own salvation.”

Paul is certainly not saying that we earn our salvation! The letter of Romans is very clear on that. But, too many people, especially Protestant scholars and preachers, have taken the “salvation by grace” to such an extreme that they are willing to pervert what the Bible teaches about baptism. Now, there are many people who misunderstand that salvation is by the grace of God and there’s no way that any of us deserve it. However, there are just as many people, if not more, who misunderstand that salvation also requires us to obey God’s commandments.

It is the difference between the grounds or foundation of our salvation - which is the gracious, free sacrifice of Christ on the cross, which paid the penalty for our sins; and the reception of that sacrifice for ourselves, which is our humble and serious obedience to the commands of Christ, which appropriated that sacrifice for us, each individually and personally.

As the old black gospel preacher, Marshall Keeble, use to say: “God has one vote for your; the devil has one vote against you. You cast the deciding vote!” And that vote is cast by you and me obeying what Jesus commanded us to do. We need to do so with “fear and trembling.”

Notice in verse 13 that Paul writes God is at work in us! God is working through His will and He is working through His work, doing what is His good pleasure, His intention, His desire, His will. In Marshall Keeble’s words, that’s God’s vote for us!

If you want to shine as a candle in a dark world, work out your salvation!

DO! - 2:14-16:
The second item Paul mentions here that we need to understand if we are to live humbly, following the example of Christ is to “Do!” That is the command in verse 14 and it covers the next three verses.

First, Paul writes “Do all things without grumbling.” When I think of grumbling, I think of the Israelites in Exodus 16:1-12 who need water. In those 12 verses, the word “grumble” is used eight times. In fact, Exodus 16 is the third out of four consecutive chapters in which the Israelites grumble about something!

Now, there is a difference between “grumbling or complaining” and “constructive criticism.” We talked last week about how to confront loved ones with care. That’s constructive criticism. What’s the difference between constructive criticism and grumbling or complaining? It’s all in the context of Philippians 2: humility! Am I grumbling for selfish reasons, unloving reasons, or am I offering criticism out of love and respect for the other person? When Israel was grumbling in Exodus 16, they are illustrating a complete lack of faith in Jehovah God.

In Acts 6:1, when the widows in the church were being overlooked in the distribution of food, they complained. God did not rebuke their complaint. He used it as an opportunity to strengthen the work of the church by having the apostles appoint deacons to serve those very widows. But in 1 Peter 4:9, Peter says we need to practice hospitality “without complaint.” The motivation makes all the difference.

Secondly, Paul writes: “Do all things without disputing.” That word “disputing” means “to reason thoroughly, to think carefully.” That sounds like a good thing. But, most of the time, the word is used in the NT in a bad sense: “doubts” (Luke 24:38), “speculations” (Rom. 1:21), “opinions” (Rom. 14:1), “dissensions” (1 Tim. 2:8), evil “motives” (James 2:4). With all that in mind, I might translate this word as “nit-picking.” Do all things without “nit-picking.” Again, what is our motivation for our complaint? Are we really just nit-picking?

Thirdly, Paul writes: “Do all things so you will prove yourselves to be” and notice this list:

“Blameless” - This means that we cannot be blamed for wrong doing. If so, it was a decision of the head not of the heart. We make a wrong choice but our heart was in the right place. Through the blood of Christ, we can be blameless but we need to make sure that our hearts are in the right place as we strive to make sure our actions are in the right place.

“Innocent” - Jesus told His disciples to be “innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16) and in Romans 16:19, Paul tells us to be “innocent in what is evil.” It means to be pure and untainted by evil. In other words, we should live so that our motives cannot be questioned, our heart’s desires cannot be questioned. We will sin. But are our motivations and the intents of our heart right with God?

“Children of God” - Of course, Jesus was a child of God by nature; He is God’s only unique Son (John 3:16). However, you and I are children of God by grace, when we were immersed into Christ through baptism (Gal. 3:26-27) and when we exhibit the love that God requires of us: 1 John 4:7.

“Above reproach” - This word means without defect. The animals which were to be offered in sacrifice in the OT were to be “above reproach,” that is “without defect.” Now, you and I can’t offer ourselves to God without defect. Christ is the only one who is “without defect” by His own actions and He offered Himself as a sacrifice “without defect” (Heb. 9:14; 1 Peter 1:19). But, you and I are made “without defect” or “above reproach” when we are immersed into Christ in baptism. Paul explicitly says that in Ephesians 5:26-27.

The challenge is for us to live this way in the midst of a crooked and “perverse generation.” God set everything right, straight, and good in the Garden of Eden. But man came along and messed it up. Man came along and made God’s ways “crooked.” And, I want to point out to you this word “perverse.” This word is a participle, a form of a verb which means “having become and still is perverted.” Satan has perverted the right ways of God. There was a time when “pervert” usually referred to a homosexual. Surely homosexuality is perverting the sexuality that God created and designed. But, all sin is a perversion of what God has created and we live in a perverted society. But that’s all the more reason why we need to do what Paul is telling us to do here:

Fourthly, do all things “in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.” Here’s the idea of us shining our candles, our “little lights” in our neighborhood. The verb “appear” means to “shine,” shine like stars, reflecting the light of the Son of God.

Fifthly, do all things “holding fast” the word of life. That verb “holding fast” means to pay special attention to something. In this context, the words “word of life” come before the verb, again, for emphasis: “the word of life, hold fast.” In 1 John 1:1, this phrase “word of life” refers to Jesus in the flesh. Here, Paul is likely referring to the Gospel message as the “word of life.” In Acts 5:20, when Peter and John were in prison, the angel appeared to them and said, “Go, stand and speak to the people in the temple, all the words of this life.” The Gospel message.

So, the gospel message, “hold fast,” pay special attention to that message: understand it, live it, and teach it. In 1 Timothy 4:16, Paul tells Timothy the same message: “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.” That’s why theology is so important: we can’t live what we don’t know. We can’t trust whom we don’t know.

Now, just as Paul told the Philippian Christians that God had blessed Jesus for His humble obedience, in verse 16, Paul says that the Christians in Philippi will give him “reason to glory” in the day Christ returns. Why? Because they will be found faithful to Christ, letting their candle shine in a dark world. In that way, Paul will not have “run” in vain nor “labored” in vain.

We will never be motivated all the time. That’s why we must be disciplined.

A FINAL, POWERFUL METAPHOR - 2:17-18:
In these last two verses of this paragraph, Paul uses a metaphor to describe himself. “I am being poured out as a drink offering” - all of which is one word. Paul uses the same imagery in 2 Tim. 4:6. Jesus “emptied Himself” (2:7); here, Paul says that he is being emptied as a drink offering, not an atonement sacrifice - that would put Him on the same level as Jesus which Paul would not do - but as a drink offering for a sacrifice, for the spiritual service of the Phillippians’ faith.

For that, Paul is glad to do. “I rejoice,” he says and he calls on them to “share my joy” which is all one word: “rejoice with” me. Connected to that, Paul challenges in verse 18 for them to rejoice likewise and to “share their joy” with him.

To shine your candle in your community, be a drink offering. Pour yourself out as a drink offering to serve the faith of people around you.

Take home message: Be a candle - be unselfish, like Christ. Don’t grumble or nit-pick. Shine your light, holding closely to the word of life. Pour yourself out as a drink offering in service to others.