Truth Today Newsletter: Philippians 2:14/with ministry update

People don't know how wrongheaded complaining and arguing are. It echoes back to the Garden of Eden, where Adam complained about Eve, and Eve complained about the serpent (Genesis 3). And also to the wilderness where the Israelites complained at every turn.

It's a sour attitude, arguing and complaining. To have the attitude that you have oppose people at every turn and try to have your way and not yield and just be difficult, making up conflicts where it didn't exit to just fill a need for attention and to be the center of things, making things all about you, creating a scene, and its all just unnecessary, and a wrong bent of the mind, that is antithetical to social cohesion.

And Paul truly wants unity and cohesion, and that was why he emphasized humility, that we should not try to be a clog in the wheel. That was why he laid before us Jesus' example of obedience. That was why he mentioned the need to not only obey, but also advocated the same attitude that was in Christ to be in us, where everyone subsumes their rights, their egos, in relation to others.

That is why he mentioned Jesus' attitude to the Father. He is trying to say that when it comes to Christians, we have equality, but sometimes you leave aside that equality to be able to serve one another, just as Jesus submitted to the Father even though he is equal to the Father.

He is speaking against the passive (grumbling) and active (arguing) resistance. Some people round up oppositions and create for themselves an opposition army, maybe to make their position more viable, or to be seen as popular.

When John and James came to Jesus, they wanted to make themselves a group of elites and demanded to be placed right beside Jesus in His kingdom, second only to him in power and prestige (Mark 10:35-45).

They want to be the center of attention, making things about themselves. They might have looked at the other disciples and thought that they do not have the pedigree, that they are the ones that has more to bring to the table, that the connection that they and their family can bring is an added advantage. They may have wanted social ascension or to maintain the one they had. They may want to secure their family legacy and privilege in the new kingdom, but Jesus said it would cost them.

Jesus then said the one who would be the leader is the servant of all, the one who, more than others, puts aside his desires to meet the needs of others, not the self-involved one, but the one willing and ready to use his time and energy to serve others.

But people do not know how dangerous arguing and grumbling are. Read the story of Israel in the wilderness, it was one incident of complaining and the other. Note that you cannot truly obey and argue at the same time.

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For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they were all drinking from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But God was not pleased with most of them, for they were cut down in the wilderness. These things happened as examples for us, so that we will not crave evil things as they did. So do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” And let us not be immoral, as some of them were, and 23,000 died in a single day. And let us not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes. And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples and were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So let the one who thinks he is standing be careful that he does not fall. No trial has overtaken you that is not faced by others. And God is faithful: He will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear, but with the trial will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:1-12)

Look at the list of what God was not pleased with.

Craving of evil things
Idolatry
immorality
Putting Christ to the test
Complaining

If we want to pick one thing that we think does not belong in that list, won't that be complaining because we think so little of it? Is it that there is so much complaining around us that we have become desensitized to it?

The complainer is just seeking to create a scene, to make everything about themselves (remember, this is in relation to God and the things of God), and wanted to unleash the inward discontent and a spirit of heaviness and draw attention to themselves (James 4:1-3).

Some people are bored, and then they want to stir up dust. They want to throw many things at you to see what sticks, looking for your pressure point, and then they take it to the next level of "hell," while smiling in the process, so it is difficult to point a finger at them.

And some are bottomless pits of complaints. Ever complaining and never in a place of trust in God.

It may be insidious, and God's response was to destroy them with a destroying angel. Beware of complainers, grumblers, and arguers.

It's like people saying: though I am present, I would complain, argue, create a scene of embarrassment, be an irritant, a faultfinder, libel, slander, be unbending, willful, and confrontational, seeking to have my way, raise my voice because I really don't want to be here, doing your will. I want to be somewhere else doing my own will. Sad!

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