Philippians 2:14

Our adult class on Sunday spent some time on this verse and engaged in some great discussion concerning its meaning and application. I decided I would simply share some quotations from a few other believers on this verse without any commentary of my own. So, here we go:

Philippians 2:14 - Do all things without grumbling or questioning, ...

J. B. Lightfoot: "Be ye bot like Israel of old. Never give way to discontent and murmuring, to questioning and unbelief. So live that you call forth no censure from others, that you keep your own consciences single and pure."

Homer Kent, Jr.: "Compliance with Paul's exhortation should be 'without complaining or arguing." The first term describes the grumbling discontents among the congregation, and the second depicts the evil reasonings and disputes that usually follow. Are these directed against God or against each other? Neither alternative is foreign to the context. The passage is influenced by Deuteronomy 32:5, and the example of Israel's complaining, which was chiefly against God, was used elsewhere by Paul to instruct the church (1 Cor. 10:10). ... Emphasis in the command falls on the word everything ..., which is actually the first word of the verse in the Greek text. Most Christians are able to do some things without complaint. IT is when we are exhorted to be doing 'all things' with a joyful spirit that the difficulty comes. Yet the outworking of our Christian faith in daily life lays this responsibility upon us."

John Calvin: "For every man that has learned carefully to submit himself to God, without claiming anything for himself, will also conduct himself agreeably among men. When every one makes it his care to please himself, two faults prevail: First, they calumniate one another; and secondly, they strive against one another in contentions. In the first place, accordingly, he forbids malignity and secret enmities; and then, secondly, open contentions."

Henry Airay (16th century English commentator): "We must live thus and do thus, that we may be blameless. That is to say, that we may not give to anyone any just cause of complaining of us or blaming us. And this is set down for us as a mark to shoot at, at which in our life we must level as nearly as we possibly can, to live without blame and reproof among people. But is this possible? Could our Savior Christ himself, or could his apostles and disciples, escape the reproof and hatred of the Jews? No, they could not; neither could we."

Charles Spurgeon: "The apostle says, 'Do all things' --- by which he seems to teach the activity of the Christian Church, for the Christian religion is not mere thinking or feeling, but doing and working for God. 'Do all things without murmurings' without murmuring at God's providence--- which was a common vice of the heathen, who, on their tombstones often recorded their protest against God for having removed their darlings, and upbraided him as cruel and unkind for taking away their relatives. 'Do all things without murmurings against one another.' Let your love be so hearty and sincere, that ye do not envy your richer or more talented brethren. Let there be no low whispers travelling through your assemblies against those who ought to be esteemed among you. Whatever ye do, let no murmuring be mixed with it, but labour with delight, and suffer with patience. Let there be no murmurings even against the ungodly world. If they be unjust, bear their injustice in silence; be not always offering complaints; there are a thousand things which ye might speak of, but it is better that like Aaron ye should hold your peace. To suffer in silence shall dignify you and make you greater than ordinary manhood, for then you shall become like Him, who before his accusers opened not his mouth.

"The apostle continues, do all things without 'disputings.' Dispute not with God, let him do what seemeth him good. Dispute not with your fellow Christians, raise not railing accusations against them. When Calvin was told that Luther had spoken ill of him, he said, 'Let Luther call me devil if he please, I will never say of him but that he is a most dear and valiant servant of the Lord.' Raise not intricate and knotty points by way of controversy. Remember, you have adversaries upon whom to use your swords, and therefore there is little need that you should turn their edges by dashing at the armour of your fellows. Dispute not even with the world. The heather philosophers always sought occasions for debate; be it yours to testify what God has told you, but court not controversy. Be not ashamed to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, but never do it in a spirit of mere debating, never because you wish to gain a victory, but only because ye would tell out what God hath bidden ye reveal.

"'That ye may be blameless.' Men will blame you, but you must seek as Christians to lead lives that give no occasion for blame."

John MacArthur: "Whatever the elements of working out your salvation are, do them all without grumbling or disputing.  In other words, in all your Christian living, in all that you do by way of obeying God, in all that God is working in you to will and to work for His good pleasure, be sure you never complain.  That’s the idea. 

"So, we now have then a companion to verses 12 and 13.  Verse 12 says, 'Work out your salvation.' Verse 14 tells you the attitude in which to do it.  Can you get that?  This is the attitude in which you work out your salvation.  It is an obedience without complaint.  You don’t complain about what God calls you to do.  You don’t complain about what He asks you to do.  You don’t complain about the circumstances in which He asks you to do it.  Who are you to complain in view of your sins?  It is grace that you are not consumed, and complaining is in itself a wicked proud sin.

"So, here you have a very general 'work out your salvation.'  Why does he come down so narrow and say, 'Do all things without grumbling and disputing?'  Isn’t that very narrow and very limited?  No.  That’s the attitude that fits the general command.  Why?  Because life isn’t going to always serve you up what you’d like.  God’s going to allow you to go through trials and testings and difficulties not to make you gripe, but to help you to pray, to teach you to trust, to teach you to be grateful and thankful for what you have because you can see the hard things as well.  So, this is not a narrow, isolated command, this is a broad general attitude that in all things related to your working out your salvation, you do them without ever grumbling or ever disputing."

Enslaved

During my message this past Sunday morning, I shared some thoughts I had on the word "enslaved" in Galatians 4:3.  The root of the word is "doulos" often translated "servant" in English.  But I have known for some time there are other Greek words meaning "servant" and the best translation of  "doulos" is "slave".  Paul repeatedly refers to himself as the "slave of Christ".  In English, there is quite a difference in meaning when you compare "servant" to "slave". 

My thinking on "doulos" has been supported in my reading of earlier Christian authors and preachers.  English preachers such as Spurgeon will translate the word as "bond slave".  Augustine refers to Christians as "slaves of Christ".  There are many examples of such usage by a variety of authors, too many to list in a simple post. 

Then, a few years ago, I chose to use the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) for my daily Bible readings.  I was blown away when I read its translation of the New Testament and saw "doulos" consistently translated "slave"! 

In Galatians 4:3, Paul explains how, prior to Christ, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.  We were in bondage!  Reformed folks frequently describe the depravity of man by noting that apart from Christ we are in "bondage to sin", a phrase using the imagery of slavery.  Yet, for some reason, we do not press the usage of the word bondage and the concept of slavery when we think of our position in Christ.  Why is that?  Did He not buy us with a price?  Are we not His peculiar possession?  Do we not call Him Lord (which means "master")? 

Yes, over the past couple of years I have become convinced we need to speak and write more on the subject of our "slavery to Christ".  We are not simply His servants; we are truly His slaves!  We are not free to our lives how we want and call ourself Christian.  No, we are to live our lives as He demands!

By the Providence of God, a book from Thomas Nelson publishers arrived at my home yesterday.  I am a "blogger" reviewer.  I chose this book as the next one I wanted to review simply for one reason:  it is written by John MacArthur.  I knew the title was "Slave" but assumed Dr. MacArthur was writing on the Bible and the subject of physical slavery perhaps from a historical perspective.  Needless to say, I was blown away today when I opened the first chapter and read:

"Yet, the Bible uses one metaphor more frequently than any of these.  It is a word picture you might not expect, but it is absolutely critical for understanding what it means to follow Jesus.  It is the image of a slave." (page 12)

Sure enough, Dr. MacArthur is writing on the Biblical usage of the word "doulos" and how it should be translated "slave" and what that image should teach us about living as a Christian.  Forget the "healthy, wealthy, and wise" preachers.  The Bible tells us we are to live in Christ as a slave.

Now that's radical!

I'm grateful God has put this book into my hands at this moment.  In two days I will be on my December vacation and one of my objectives is to devour this book and to seek the Lord to help me better understand how I should live not simply as a Christian but as a slave of Christ.

May He be praised!

Sermons and Their Delivery #3: Plagiarizing Sermons

The preacher was expounding Philippians 2:5-8 for his congregation. He proclaimed:

The fourth thing He set aside were His eternal riches. It would be impossible for me to explain how rich He was but I know what 2 Corinthians 8:9 says, it says He was rich but for your sakes He became … what? … poor. He was so poor, He said the foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head. I always think about John’s gospel where it says, "And every man went to his own house and Jesus went to the Mount of Olives." Why? He had no house. Poor.

What a great exposition! Maybe you are thinking, “I wish my preacher could preach like that!” Unfortunately, the man who proclaimed these words was not the author of them. With only minor modifications, these are the words of Dr. John MacArthur . My best estimate would be the sermon that morning was 80% of MacArthur’s sermon verbatim.

I regret to say this is not the only incident of its type I have personally heard. One year I heard an Easter Sunday morning sermon from 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 which described six gifts of the resurrection. The sermon was well delivered. However, the preacher was not speaking his own words. For the most part, the message was one delivered by Dr. John Piper on March 31, 1991 to his church.

Fellow ministers of the Gospel, this is plagiarizing pure and simple. Piper’s organization says:

The essence of plagiarism is to give the impression that the ideas or words of another person are actually your own. This can be done intentionally (in which case it is outright theft) or unintentionally but either way it is wrong.

One minister I confronted on this matter said he didn’t see anything wrong with it. He was simply borrowing from another’s work. To quote a sentence or two from another servant of the Lord in your message may be borrowing. To quote their message almost verbatim without noting your source is plagiarizing. I tried to convince him of this fact pointing out that any student of mine who submitted a paper which used the material of another author to the degree his sermon did would receive a zero for their paper because it was plagiarized. He was not convinced. Years have passed but I have since heard him plagiarize other messages.

Another “preacher” I once heard not only quoted the text of another minister but also used that minister’s personal illustrations as his own. He passed off the words and the experiences of another man as his! Yet, when I accused him of this, he did not deny it but neither did he admit to any wrong doing other than saying, “I no doubt could have done a better job of putting it in my own words.” Using your own words, doesn’t eliminate the plagiarism, brother!

One preacher to whom I pointed out his plagiarism noted, “As many pastors, finding enough time in a week is certainly a difficult thing.” Good grief, man, are you God’s servant or not? As a pastor there is nothing more important in your ministry than preparing and proclaiming the Word of God. If you can’t find the time to do so then you need to eliminate some of the other things in your life (e.g., your golf game).

Certainly there will be weeks when ministering to your congregation will reduce your sermon preparation time. But even then you are God’s chosen servant. You know His Word. Seek Him in prayer and trust His Spirit to use you despite your lack of preparation.

The first time I discovered a preacher plagiarizing another’s message, I was shocked. However, if you do an internet search today, you will discover many men are plagiarizing messages. Even “The Wall Street Journal” contained an article on this subject in 2006.

Plagiarizing is theft pure and simple. Those who commit this act are violating the 8th commandment (“Thou shalt not steal”). Furthermore, they are also violating the 9th commandment (“Thou shalt not bear false witness”) because they are deceiving their congregation by giving them the impression the words, the thoughts, the structure of the message they are hearing is that of the preacher when, in fact, they are those of another.

Having confronted some who are guilty of this sin, I know many of them will disagree with my last paragraph. They do not believe they are stealing or deceiving anyone. If you truly believe that, fellow preacher, then I challenge you to stand before your people with your plagiarized sermon this Sunday and tell them upfront what they are about to hear are the words of so-and-so. You won’t do it, will you? Why? You won’t do so because you do not want them to know the truth. Your conscience tells you what you are doing is sinful.

Brothers and fellow ministers in Christ who are guilty of plagiarizing your sermons: PLEASE CEASE THIS PRACTICE! I call on you to confess to the Lord your sin, ask for forgiveness, ask Him to help you prepare your own expositions, and then confess your faults to your people. If you cannot do so then you should step down from your pulpit. If your church confronts you on this matter and you will not repent then you should be removed on the grounds you are not proclaiming the Word of God. Rather, you are preaching the word of MacArthur or Piper or some other Christian leader.

Let us be true to God’s calling and preach His Word, not the words others preach about Christ. Let’s not be one of the seven sons of Sceva (Acts 19:13-16).