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causing action in someone else (compare the mighty resurrection power that "worked in
Christ", Eph. 1: 19, 20).
This dynamic power is ours by the appropriation of faith, so that not one of us can say
that our "working out" day by day is impossible. This practical response is well-pleasing
to the Lord; it leads to His "good pleasure", and seeking to please Him should be first
priority in every believer's life and aim. This is the key to continual fruitfulness and
satisfaction.
Paul now adds a word of warning:
"Do all things without murmurings and disputings; that ye may be blameless and
harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse
generation, among whom ye are seen as lights in the world, holding forth the world of
life" (2: 14, 15 R.V.).
The Apostle goes back to the failings of the people of Israel when journeying in the
wilderness. As the O.T. record shows, their walk was disfigured by constant grumbling
against the Lord and His servant Moses. They could not stand up to the test of faith that
such a journey imposed. The comment of the epistle to the Hebrews is clear: ". . . they
could not enter in because of unbelief (for disobedience)" (Heb. 3: 19). This chapter and
I Cor. 10: should be carefully weighed over in this context. "Neither murmur ye, as some
of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer" (I Cor. 10: 10).
In fact God's longsuffering with this lasted out until the tenth time that they grumbled
and rebelled (Numb. 14: 22, 23), and then He solemnly pronounced that such a
generation should not enter into the promised land and thus they all died in the
wilderness, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, who had fully responded in faith to
the Lord.
The Philippian believers were warned to remember this and we should do the same.
Too often grumbling is looked upon as something that we can indulge in without sinning
too much, but we should bear in mind that such conduct has at its root, unbelief, which
God can never tolerate, nor does it go with a life that is manifestly Christ-centred. The
Philippians must not be content with just being believers; they must be manifestly so in
their lives. The word "be" in verse 15 is not the verb "to be", but genesthe "become", or
"show yourselves to be". Inward saving grace must be manifested by outward conduct,
specially to a world of darkness and ignorance of the Lord. This is enforced by the words
amemptoi (blameless) and akeraioi (harmless).
Amemptos means "irreproachable", a life at which no finger of criticism may be
pointed. Such a life results from the "working out" of the "in-working" Divine power
that the context stresses. Akeraios is the word the Lord uses in Matt. 10: 16, "harmless as
doves" or in Rom. 16: 19 "simple concerning evil". In contemporary Greek it is
employed of undiluted wine, or metals which have no weakening alloy, hence unmixed
or pure. These words set forth vividly the will of God for His children. Their lives must