Prayer: Lord, thank You for Your presence and Your rich anointing. Lord, we know that this is all that we need. Lord, we are still looking to You to show us Your way of life. Show us how You would like for us to go on in this way. Open up Your Word to us, and give us the depths of the mysteries concerning Yourself being life to us. Amen.
Philippians 1:19-21 says, “For I know that for me this shall turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death; for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” The main thought in these verses is salvation. To Paul salvation was to magnify Christ even under persecution and imprisonment. If Paul failed to magnify Christ, that would be a shame to him; but if he magnified Christ, this would be his salvation. Salvation to Paul was to magnify Christ regardless of the circumstances.
In chapter one sufferings turn out to salvation, but in chapter two we have to carry out our salvation. Philippians 2:12-16 says, “So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only as in my presence, but now much rather in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and reasonings, that you may become blameless and guileless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, for my boasting in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain nor labored in vain.”
Salvation in chapter two is from murmurings and reasonings. The sisters murmur and the brothers reason. Murmurings and reasonings are two small enemies to the experience of Christ. Because they seem to be so small, we often do not care about them, but they are two signs which indicate that we have been defeated in living Christ. No one who lives Christ murmurs or reasons. Murmurings and reasonings kill our life of living Christ. We should carry out a life without murmurings and reasonings. Between husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, there are a lot of murmurings and reasonings. The females mostly murmur, and the males mostly reason. Even in the so-called “glorious church life,” these things exist. Because we murmur and reason, we fail in carrying out our salvation.
Salvation in chapter two has many elements. Doing things without murmurings and doing things without reasonings are two elements of salvation which we have to work out. Other elements of this salvation are included in verse 15, which says, “That you may become blameless and guileless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation.” In order to be blameless and guileless children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, we must be saved from murmurings and reasonings. The word “perverted” in this verse means to be warped or twisted. Today’s perverted generation is warped and twisted. In such a generation we as children of God, having God’s life and nature, “shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life” (vv. 15-16).
We have to shine as luminaries. A luminary is an object which shines with no light of its own; it shines by reflecting light. Christ is the true light (John 1:9; 8:12) typified by the light of the sun. We as luminaries reflect this light into the world. To “shine as lights” is equal to “holding forth the word of life.” To hold forth in Greek means to apply, to present, to offer. We should always have something of Christ to present, to offer, to the people of the world. To hold forth Christ is to shine. To only speak is inadequate; we have to shine. This shining depends upon what we are, not upon our speaking. We must be people who shine by reflecting Christ as the light.
Salvation comprises several elements in chapter two: not murmuring, not reasoning, becoming blameless and guileless children of God in the midst of a crooked, perverted, warped, and twisted generation, shining as luminaries to reflect Christ, and holding forth the word of life. This salvation with all of these elements is the salvation which we should carry out.
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