Philippians 2 is a powerful chapter. As you read the passage below, do you believe you can “do everything without complaining or arguing"?
14 Do everything without complaining or arguing. 15 Then you will be innocent and without any wrong. You will be God’s children without fault. But you are living with crooked and mean people all around you, among whom you shine like stars in the dark world. 16 You offer the teaching that gives life. So when Christ comes again, I can be happy because my work was not wasted. I ran the race and won. (Philippians 2, NIV)
More than likely, your answer to the question above is driven by your understanding of what it means to be a Christian.
For many, being a Christian means going to church, reading your Bible, being relatively “good” and saying a prayer asking Jesus to forgive you and save you. This is so when you die you know you will go to Heaven.
We have heard so often that Jesus died for us because we are sinners. It becomes natural then for us to think that we cannot live out verses like these because we see ourselves as “just a sinner.”
Jesus did not come for the mere purpose of having you go to Heaven when you die. His desire is for Heaven to come in you now, for you to be made new!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV)
Yes, we all come into this world as sinners through Adam’s sin, but through the work of Jesus Christ, we are changed.
Verses, like those referenced earlier, aren’t meant to scare us. Nor are they meant to be a list of rules that God requires us to live out in order for Him to be pleased with us. Rather, they are a description of who we are in Christ. Through His work in us, making us new, this is who we were created to be.
You were created to shine like a star in this dark world!
Blessings,
Pastor Matt