Everyone has to work... without grumbling

Our sermon text this week, Philippians 2:14-18, tells us that we should “do all things without grumbling.”

Building off our message last week about “working out our salvation with fear and trembling,” we should infer that Paul is telling us that we must also work out our own salvation WITHOUT GRUMBLING, because others are working out their salvation too.

There is a bigger reality for Christians that tempers our discontentment. When we encounter undesirable circumstances and situations, what is most important is not that we voice our disapprovals and frustrations, but that we keep working.

Notice that the verse isn’t just saying, “Don’t grumble,” – it is saying, “do all things without grumbling.” The focus is on the work that we are called to in life, and the way that we do the work.

Digging into those two words, “do all things without grumbling or questions” – or, as another translation states, “without murmurings and disputings…”

Murmurings: Use in the sense of secret debate among people; and of displeasure or complaining that can be more private and inward.

Disputings: Internal and external expressions of doubt.

So the grumbling and questioning is indicative of someone doing work, but is inewardly feeling displeasure and complaining privately, which causes doubt about the work itself, often spilling over into secret debate among people related to the frustration that caused the doubt.

Your work is not as effective when you grumble about it.

Work done while grumbling undoes the work. Verses 14-16 are one long sentence completing one big important thought that Paul wants the church to heed: Do all things without grumbling SO THAT you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you are to shine as lights of the world.

As the church, we are a people set apart for God, dwelling in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation. We are supposed to shine as bright lights. But grumbling dulls our brightness. 

The language of this passage is indicative of Deuteronomy 32:5, where the wilderness generation of Israel had their spiritual progress thwarted by grumbling and complaining. They didn’t let the big picture of their freedom temper their frustrations in the desert. 

Notice the reason that Paul gives. Don’t grumble “SO THAT” you may remain blameless and innocent… blameless does not mean “sinless”… It means “all in”. So the passage seems to indicate that it is hard to be “all in” on the work, if you are grumbling about the work. So work done while grumbling, undoes the work. 

So what about that word “innocent”. It seems that work done while complaining about the work, is the kind of work that is guilty of a charge. If we are doing our work in the midst of a twisted and crooked generation among whom we are to shine as bright lights, Paul is saying that when you complain about the work, the twisted and crooked generation can rightly discount the work, by accusing you of being guilty of complaining about the work. OR, to say it another way…

Work done while grumbling is a type of hypocrisy. 

A lost world sniffs out hypocrisy quickly. It probably goes something like, “you say that my heart needs to be changed by Jesus, but your heart complains about the very work that might bring about my heart change.” Or, “you say that this is important, but it seems that you would rather be doing something else…”

What a humbling reminder that for us grumbling is not just a behavior problem, but a heart problem.

It stems from discontentment. Some of us are problem solvers that tend toward what can be better. We are always assessing. But assessment void of contentment and recounting God’s goodness can make us guilty of grave sin. Some of us may be blamelessly trying to make things better by providing solutions to problems. But some of us might also have gone beyond faithful problem solving, to being guilty of the sin of having a critical spirit. 

"“We should prize duty more highly than to be distracted by every trivial occasion. The authority of the command so overawes his heart that he is willing to spend himself and to be spent in discharging it.”  — Jeremiah Burroughs, “The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment

Verse 16 reminds us that in order to avoid grumbling that we might be bright lights in a dark world, we must hold fast to the Word of Life.

Many of us overestimate our own strength. We think we can spend little to no time in God’s Word, and then launch off into some endeavor or serving opportunity, only to find ourselves grumbling and mostly frustrated with circumstances and people. But by God’s design we have an indicator, like a check engine light on a car. If you are trying to serve God and others, and you start grumbling and complaining and recruiting other people into your little group so that you can “vent”, it is like a personal “check engine light” that is telling us we are a bit low on the Word. 

In other words, the only way to NOT grumble is to hold fast to the Word of God. Some helpful verses to cling to… 

• Jesus came not to be served but to serve.
• Look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
• I will most gladly spend and be spent on the souls of God’s children.

Paul provides a grumble-free solution to the Philippian church by inviting them to join him in a life that, though challenging and inconvenient and uncomfortable, is marked by a spirit that says, “I am glad and rejoice with you all.”