(Audio version; Music: "Where You Are" by: Mandi Mapes and "When A Heart Breaks" by: Ben Rector)
Introduction
You know
I’m guessing that the people of God in every generation believed their
generation was the most depraved of all time. You can look back at the ancient
civilizations of the Old Testament and find them described as faithless people,
depraved, adulterous, immoral, sons of disobedience, and children of wrath to
name but a few. One of the most profoundly depraved cultures from the Old
Testament has given us a euphemistic benchmark for depravity—Sodom and
Gomorrah. Nevertheless, every generation since then has witnessed its own unimaginable
evil and depravity. In the first century, Nero invented new forms of brutality
against Christians in order to wipe out their moral influence he feared would
transform the depravity of his generation and culture. He used Christians as
human torches to light Rome’s streets and his personal gardens at night just so
he could maintain and perpetuate his power and control over a depraved culture
and protect his own sinful desires. Let me just offer you a few examples of
what sin and depravity has looked liked during a few other generations.
The 7th century gave
birth to the evil of Islam. Columnist Mike Konrad, in an article written for American Thinker chronicles the historic
brutality of Islam where he writes, “The enormity of the slaughters of the
‘religion of peace’ are so far beyond comprehension that even honest historians
overlook the scale. When one looks beyond our myopic focus, Islam is the
greatest killing machine in the history of mankind, bar none.” In his article,
Konrad follows the bloody trail and dead bodies of Islam through the ages and
concludes that Islam is responsible for the deaths of at least 250 million
people![1]
The 19th
century witnessed the rise of Communism. Author, Robin Shepherd, in an article
published by TheCommentator provides
a rough estimate of those who have died at the hand of Communism. Shepherd
concedes that it is difficult to ascertain the true number of deaths because,
“Communist regimes went to great lengths to conceal their crimes, and one of
the most oppressive of all, North Korea, still exists to this day.”
Nevertheless, it is conservatively estimated that Communism is responsible for
nearly 100 million deaths![2]
And the 20th
century gave us an example of evil and depravity nearest to our own generation—Nazism.
Freya Petersen, in an article for the Global
Post reveals that researchers for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum have
catalogued more than 42,500 ghettos and labor camps operated by Hitler’s
regime. I can attest to this because my mother and her family, who were
Catholic Christians, were interned in one of those camps as she fled from her
birthplace of Romania ahead of the Communist invasion advancing from the North.
Many non-Jews, some of whom were Christians, died from disease and hunger in
these lesser-known camps including some of my mother’s younger siblings. Some
of these camps were known as killing centers where pregnant mothers were forced
to have abortions and new-born babies were killed. Although the six million
Jews who were exterminated is not in any way in dispute, researchers are
finding that Nazism is responsible for as many as 20 million deaths from Russia
to France![3]
These are
just a few examples of sin and depravity that originated from previous
generations. Our own generation has watched these evils grow and converge to
wage war against Christianity (and Judaism). However, I am convinced that there
is a far greater danger that Christians are faced with in our day and age. And
it is the same danger Christians have faced from the very beginning—becoming
just like the sinful and depraved culture that surrounds us. This is a danger
far more sinister and destructive than any weapon created by humanity that can
kill the body because it’s a danger that strikes at the very heart of a
Christian’s relationship with God. So how does a Christian fight the battle
against a depraved culture that can be like a growing darkness that threatens
to swallow every good thing in its path? Let
Your Life Shine Like Stars!
Subject Text
Philippians 2:12-18
12Therefore,
my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now
much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
13for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his
good purpose. 14Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15so
that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a
crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe 16as
you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ
that I did not run or labor for nothing. 17But even if I am being
poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your
faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18So you too should be
glad and rejoice with me.
Context
Paul and
his companions established the church in Philippi during his second missionary
journey through the region. The primary purpose of this letter was to thank
them for the gift he received from them while he was in a Roman prison. Paul,
always the caring pastor, wanted to encourage the Philippian believers to
continue being faithful exactly the way they had been to that point. Philippi is
famous for one particular event. In 42 BCE Mark Antony and Octavian defeated
Brutus and Cassius, the assassins of Julius Caesar, in a battle at Philippi.
Later in 31 BCE when Octavian defeated Antony and Cleopatra at Actium, Octavian
assumed the name Augustus (that would be the same Caesar Augustus referred to
in Luke’s narrative of the birth of Jesus) and rebuilt the city of Philippi. He
placed retired soldiers there to ensure loyalty to Rome and established it as a
military outpost. The religious life of those in Philippi was marked by very
syncretistic practices including the worship of Caesar, the Egyptian gods Isis
and Serapis, as well as many other deities. Philippi like all the other cities
in the Roman Empire was marked by sin, depravity and darkness. Paul was
encouraging the Philippian church to resist the darkness of the culture around
them with the message to Let Your Life
Shine Like Stars.
Text Analysis
12Therefore,
my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much
more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
Don’t miss
a very important principle that Paul is conveying implicitly in v. 12a. It is one thing to be obedient
when you have someone in authority looking over your shoulder. It’s quite
another to be obedient when you’re on your own. Your character is not revealed
when people are watching. Your true character is revealed when no one is
watching. You can pretend in public but all pretensions become unnecessarily
burdensome in private so the real you is revealed. Paul wanted the Philippians
to understand that their witness as followers of Christ became all the more
powerful to a sinful and watching culture when they weren’t under his watchful
eye. Paul is encouraging them to stay the long and difficult course of
obedience at all times, whether he is there with them or not. “It is this ‘long
obedience in the same direction’ which the mood of the world does so much to
discourage.’ When the path of obedience to Christ becomes steep and dangerous,
pleasure seekers look for an easier way. Religious tourists hunting for
sensational entertainment, instantaneous enlightenment, and emotional
excitement will jump on the newest rides and take quick shortcuts, but they
will not be found with pilgrims on the long, hard road following the footsteps
of Christ, who was obedient to death—even
death on a cross. Paul’s call to unflagging, Christ-like obedience will not
be popular in a world that so highly values going fast and having fun and so
quickly rejects enduring pain and submitting to authority. But the essential
characteristics of the wise who build their community on Christ is their
consistent obedience to him.”[4]
Christian character is forged in the crucible of long and often painful obedience
to Christ and is most clearly seen in the lives of Christians when no one is
watching.
We have to
be very careful how we read and understand v.
12b. Note that Paul didn’t say, “Work for
your salvation with fear and trembling,” he said “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” It may seem like a
minor detail but countless Christians slog through life wearing the shackles of
the former without ever experiencing the freedom and joy of the latter. Remember
that it is Paul who taught us that we are saved by grace and not by works (Eph
2:8-9). Instead, what Paul is saying here is that while Christians are saved
when they put their faith in Christ, there is a component of their salvation
that works itself out over the course of their lives. In other words, our
salvation is a one-time event but also an on-going process of being obedient to
Christ in all areas of our lives. “The phrase at first glance appears to
contradict other Scripture which explains that salvation is a work of God by
grace through faith. The word translated work
(katergazomai) means to ‘bring about,
produce, or create.’ A more contemporary meaning is one of bringing to
completion or ‘to carry out the goal or carry to its ultimate conclusion.’ Paul
was telling the Philippians to put into practice in their daily living what God
had worked in them by the Spirit. They were not told to work for their salvation but to work out the salvation God had already given
them. These believers were to work it out to the finish as they grew and developed
their spiritual lives…The outworking of the new life in Christ requires
obedience and faith from the believer. The purpose God desires for us to
achieve is Christlikeness, ‘to be formed in the image of his Son’ (Rom 8:29).”[5]
13for it is God who works in you
to will and to act according to his good purpose.
You know,
there’s a reason that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to reside in the hearts and
minds of believers. Based on v. 13,
it’s how God works in us to will and act according to His good purposes. I’m
not sure how many Christians could even tell you what the Holy Spirit does in
their lives even while He’s doing it. If you’re new to being a Christian or
maybe haven’t thought about it much, the Holy Spirit is the Creator of the
universe living in you and through you all without overwhelming you as a person
uniquely created in His image. What that means is the Holy Spirit is constantly
at work in you, if you allow Him, to transform you to look more and more like
Christ every day. The key to that transformation is that you must ask Him and
allow Him to do so. You see, it is no longer a loving relationship if God
transforms you against your will. However, it is a beautiful relationship if
you allow the Holy Spirit to transform you, even if it is ever so slowly, to
will and act according to His good purpose. It can be a dramatic transformation
as it was for the Christians in the Book of Acts who upon receiving the Holy
Spirit began speaking in tongues other than their own. However, for most of us,
the transformation is imperceptible in the moment. Nevertheless, we can look
back over the years and see how a spirit of hatred and anger has been
transformed into a spirit of love and gentleness; a spirit of bitterness and
resentment has been transformed into a spirit of forgiveness; a spirit of harsh
judgmentalism has been transformed into a spirit of mercy and grace; a spirit
of greed has been transformed into a spirit of generosity. We don’t usually
notice it, but it’s happening every day as we allow the Holy Spirit of God to
work in and through us.
“Not only
does God empower their ‘doing,’ but also the ‘willing’ that lies behind the
doing. This is fully in keeping with Paul’s understanding of Christian ethics,
which has not to do with obedience to a set of rules that regulate conduct, but
first of all with a ‘mind that is transformed’ by the Spirit. Such a mind is
‘conformed’ not to this age, but to the character of God, so that behavior is a
reflection of God’s will, what is good and pleasing and perfect to him (Rom
12:1-2). The ‘doing of salvation’ for Paul therefore lies in the ‘willing,’
which means the radical transformation of life by the Spirit. The believer is
not one who has been begrudgingly ‘caught by God,’ as it were, so that
obedience is basically out of fear and trembling over what might happen if one
were to do otherwise; rather, being Christ’s means to be ‘converted’ in the
true sense of that word, to have one’s life invaded by God’s Holy Spirit, so
that not simply new behavior is now effected, but a new desire toward God that
prompts such behavior in the first place.”[6]
14Do everything without
complaining or arguing, 15so that you may become blameless and pure,
children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which
you shine like stars in the universe 16as you hold out the word of
life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor
for nothing.
You know
this person don’t you—the person that complains about absolutely everything;
the person who seems to live for the opportunity to pick a fight with you or
anyone else for that matter over anything and everything? I can almost see you
smiling as the image of that person comes to your mind—a co-worker; a
classmate; a neighbor; a family member; a friend. Let me ask you something, how
much do you enjoy that person’s company? All joking aside, I want to ask you a
really hard question, are you that person? I’m not casting stones but I want
you to think about what a watching world thinks about your complaining or
arguing. What does that tell them about what you say you believe? If you are being
transformed into the likeness of Christ, what does it say about Christ? We live
in a dark and cynical world filled with complaining and arguing and when we
complain and argue we allow that darkness to envelop us so that no one can
distinguish us for the sinful world around us. According to vv. 14-16, Paul wants the Philippians,
and by extension all of us as well, to be different from the sinful culture
around them. Paul says when we resist the urge to complain and argue, we set ourselves
apart from the world and become blameless and pure. We become children of God
surrounded by a depraved culture that stumbles through life in the darkness of
their sins.
When my
girls were young, they weren’t always allowed to do the same things as their
friends. They couldn’t dress the same, they couldn’t watch the same movies or
listen to the same music. My wife and I did our best to keep them, and
ourselves, from being polluted by a sinful culture. We were called weird,
freaks, kooks, etc. However, while the world around us swirled in darkness, we
knew exactly who we were and where we were going. And do you want to know
something? Some people followed us out of the darkness. Do you know what’s
different from darkness? Light! Paul says that when we don’t conform to
behaving the way the world around us behaves; a world shrouded in darkness, we
become like stars that shine in the universe. Think about that—when you are
obedient to Christ, when you resist the desire to complain or the perceived
need to argue, or refuse to conform to the trappings of the dark world around
you, you Let Your Life Shine Like Stars.
“Complaining
and arguing are completely opposite to Christ’s attitude, which believers are
to emulate. They also give people a bad impression of the church and no one
should be able to speak a word of blame against believers. If all that people
know about a church is that its members constantly argue, complain, and gossip,
they get a bad impression of Christ and the gospel. Unbelievers then feel
justified in criticizing the Christians. Probably more churches have split from
causes related to arguing and complaining than from heresy.
Instead,
believers’ lives ought to be clean, meaning beyond reproach, incurring no
justifiable criticism. This does not mean sinless perfection; instead, the
church was to be beyond the criticism of the unbelieving world. Their lives
also ought to be innocent. There ought to be nothing within the church that
would weaken its strength or contaminate the truth. The church’s members then
could be children of God in a dark world full of crooked and perverse
people…the church of Philippi needed to fulfill its mission in the world, and
it could best do so by being clean and innocent children of God right in the
middle of the depraved culture. The contrast with their culture would be so
stark that the believers would shine brightly. They bring the light of truth
into the darkness of depravity, as stars light up the darkness of the night.”[7]
17But even if I am being poured
out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith,
I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18So you too should be glad
and rejoice with me.
It seems
like vv. 17-18 veer off in a completely
different direction but you have to remember that Paul is writing this letter
from prison in Rome. Here’s what Paul is saying: ‘If I am put to death for
preaching the gospel and your life of faith is the result of the gospel that preached
to you, then it was worth it and I’m happy with that outcome. That was my
purpose in preaching the gospel to you in the first place. I did what God sent
me to do so you should be happy with me as well.’
“Paul’s focus of attention is upon
the sacrificial service of the Philippians. Theirs is the main sacrifice
offered to God. The apostle is willing that, if one thing remains to make that
offering perfectly acceptable, his own life be sacrificed and credited to their
account. But he describes that pouring out of his life in death by means of the
modest drink offering. The converts
themselves are the sacrifice, to which the missionary’s life may be added as a
libation. The emphasis falls upon the [service and sacrifice] of the
Philippians’ faith, not on the [sacrifice] of the apostle, however gladly he is
prepared to offer it…
There is
thus every reason for mutual joy…The apostle considers it a privilege to ‘run’
and ‘labour’ for the gospel. Even if he is now called upon by God to make the
supreme sacrifice, that is, to be pour out as a libation, he rejoices, for it
will not only be evident that God has been willing to use him for the sake of
the Philippians in the fulfillment of his apostolic struggle for the gospel,
but also and specifically his sacrifice will complete their offering, making it
perfectly acceptable to him. At the same time he rejoices with all of
them…[Paul] is not only glad at the possibility of being poured out as a drink
offering. He is also able to rejoice with all of them in their sacrificial
service since it is an offering acceptable to God… As he is glad to be a
libation poured out to God, so they should rejoice in this and thus share with
him in his joy. They are already glad about their own sacrificial service. Let
them now rejoice in his willingness to be that additional offering which
completes their sacrifice.”[8]
Application
Have you
ever heard of Ashley Madison? Well maybe you know who that is now but I sure hope
you didn’t know who that was a week ago. I certainly didn’t. Nevertheless, you
probably know who it is after this week. Ashley Madison is a website for
married people to connect discreetly with other married people in order to have
an extra-marital affair! Are you kidding me! I am nearly 54 years-old and I’ve watched
homosexuals try and cram their abhorrent sexuality down our throats and then
demand that we recognize it as normal. I’ve watch Planned Parenthood help
mothers murder their children and then profit of the sale of dead baby parts
all in the name of women’s health and a woman’s right to choose. And now, I
find out there is a website where, for a fee, married people who want to have
an affair are matched up with other married people who also want to have an
affair. So what is the rationale behind this depraved business model?
“Sometimes divorce is not the best option.” Seriously? When divorce isn’t the
best option, adultery is? Before you laugh it off as just some ridiculous
business plan, we found out this week that they had at least 32 million
members. How do we know that? Because someone hacked into their computer system
and stole the personal information of at least 32 million members and released
the names to the public. There were thousands of government employees on the
list but our nation has come to expect that kind of behavior from politicians
and government workers. However, there was one other name on the list that was
disclosed and it was the name of a well-known and prominent evangelical
Christian. Well as you can imagine, that was like red meat to the wolves in our
media that salivate at every opportunity to publicize the failings of
Christians.
Considering
the sheer magnitude of the number of members of Ashley Madison, I’m guessing
that there’s more than one married Christian who is a member. Does that really
surprise you? I may have been naïve about not knowing that there is a website
that arranges for extra-marital affairs that include Christians, but I’m fully
aware that people who profess to be Christians engage in essentially the same
behavior as unbelievers. The divorce rate for Christians is at least the same
if not slightly higher than the divorce rate for unbelievers. A few prominent Christian
denominations have adopted homosexuality as an appropriate alternative
lifestyle in contradiction to very clear biblical teaching. People claiming to
be Christians are just as likely to be sexually active outside of marriage,
addicted to pornography, to be greedy, to be hateful, and to be unforgiving as
any unbeliever. A number of years ago, we attended a church with a charismatic
pastor who was married and had four young children. After a number of years of
attending, the pastor was suddenly asked to step down for personal reason. He
was, thereafter, fired because he was having an affair with a church staff
member. I learned shortly after he was removed that he started another church
in the city and a number of people from the church we attended followed him
there. Within a short time after starting that church, he was removed by the
elders for once again having an affair with a staff member. In a very short
period of time he was hired by another church as their lead pastor. His story
became legend in the church community. A sad legend but a legend nonetheless.
Unfortunately, his story was publicized in the local paper. The paper
interviewed some of the people from the church he pastored at that time and
they said that they loved and accepted him as their pastor because he was just
like they were. He has since been removed as the pastor at that church for once
again having an affair with someone from either the staff or the congregation.
So let me ask you something: Do we really want our pastors and the Christians
around us to be openly sinful so that they can be just like us? How does that
make us better? How does that help an unbelieving world understand the message
of the gospel? How do Christians help a depraved world groping around in the
dark if they shroud themselves in the same darkness for fear of sticking out or
having their own sins revealed? Unbelievers and some Christians risk eternal
judgment because faithful Christians neglect their duty to always be obedient
especially when no one is looking. Paul says that we are called to be blameless
and pure, children of God who are to be without fault within a culture that is
crooked, perverted, and depraved. You are wasting your time lamenting the fact
that the culture is crooked, perverted, and depraved even if it is true. That
proclamation, although necessary, doesn’t change the darkness the covers our
generation nor does it help those who are lost in the darkness. The only thing
that will vanquish that darkness is light. And that light is your life that is
blameless and pure. A life as a child of God without fault. If you want to
change the darkness of our generation and culture, Let Your Life Shine Like Stars.
[1] Mike
Konrad, “The Greatest Murder Machine In History,” American Thinker, May 31, 2014, available from http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/05/the_greatest_murder_machine_in_history.html;
Internet; Accessed August 10, 2014.
[2] Robin
Shepherd, “The historical reality of communist oppression is being ignored. But
the truth must not be buried,” TheCommentator,
October 15, 2013, available from http://www.thecommentator.com/article/4230/so_how_many_did_communism_kill.html;
Internet; accessed August 10, 2014.
[3] Freya
Petersen, “Nazis may have killed up to 20 million people more in concentration
camps than previously thought: study,” Global
Post, March 4, 2013; available from http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/war/130303/nazis-concentration-camps-holocaust-death-toll-Hitlerpreviously.html;
Internet; accessed August 10, 2014.
[4] G.
Walter Hansen, The Letter to the
Philippians—The Pillar New Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: William
B. Eermans Publishing Co., 2009), pp. 171-172.
[5] Max
Anders, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians
& Colossians—Holman New Testament Commentary, (Nashville, TN: B&H
Publishing Group, 1999), p. 235.
[6] Gordon
D. Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians—The
New International Commentary of the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: William
B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), p. 238.
[7] Bruce
Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, and Dave Veerman, Life Application New Testament Commentary,
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 852.
[8] Peter T.
O’Brien, The Epistle to the Philippians—The
New International Greek Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1991), pp. 311-312.
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