Philippians 2:14 also charges us to do all things without reasonings. Reasonings come from the flesh. They are of our mind and come mainly from the brothers. We do not care for finding out the reason for things; we simply desire to live Christ. The four Gospels tell us a number of times that the disciples of the Lord Jesus were trying to find out the reason for certain things. But the Lord Jesus would not let them know the reason. The disciples would ask "why," but the Lord Jesus would not tell them why. If He had answered them, He would have been taking care of their reasonings. To take care of people's reasonings is to take care of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord Jesus always took care of the tree of life. He did not care for people's reasonings.
Murmuring and reasoning both frustrate us from carrying out our salvation to the fullest extent and from experiencing and enjoying Christ to the uttermost. In the church service, we must learn to reject murmurings and reasonings.
Gossip is another item of the flesh. It can be considered as an unnecessary exchange of information. Gossip is idle talk with idle words. In Matthew 12:36 the Lord said, "I say to you that every idle word which men shall speak, they will render an account concerning it in the day of judgment." The Greek word for idle means "not working." An idle word is a non-working word, an inoperative word, a word that has no positive function and is useless, unprofitable, unfruitful, and barren.
Paul told us in Philippians 2:3 to do nothing by way of selfish ambition, or rivalry. Rivalry is different from competition. In a school, the students compete. In athletics, the athletes compete. Competition is not bad, but rivalry is evil. Rivalry is negative competition. Someone may give a good testimony, and another saint may want to give a better one. Someone may bring three persons into the recovery, and another may see this and want to bring in six. If you always want to be higher and better than others and have something more than others, this is rivalry. Rivalry is of the flesh.
If the saints in the church service, by the Lord's grace, exercise to avoid all the thirteen items of the flesh listed above, we will have a wonderful church service. It would even be good if some of these items could be on our wall as frameable quotes such as "No vainglory," "No outward show," "No ambition for leadership," etc.