We need to do all things without murmurings and reasonings in order that we may become blameless and guileless, children of God without blemish, holding forth the word of life so that we may shine forth as luminaries in the world.
We may not have big problems with other people, neither do we cause any big division or dissension, but what about our murmuring and reasoning? Do we still murmur and reason in our Christian life and church life?
Murmuring is mainly from emotion; we may be discontent with the things happening to us, with our family life, with our job, and with the church life, so there’s a low volume complaining going on.
Brothers and sisters alike, we may just complain and murmur, whether to this one or to that one. And reasoning, always overthinking and thinking beyond what is being manifested, maybe even considering that there are different motives behind what others do and say…
Murmurings are of our emotion and reasonings come mainly from the mind; if we do not work out our salvation with fear and trembling, then we by default complain and reason.
God’s salvation has as its goal to make us the same as Christ, even the same as God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead; we receive God’s salvation at the time of our regeneration, but we need to be obedient to work out our salvation in a daily way.
The entire Triune God has come into us, in our spirit, to operate in us both the willing and the working; as we agree with His inner operating, He can work in us, He can operate in us, and He can do in us what He desires to do.
Hallelujah, God operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure, and we cooperate with Him by simply saying Amen to His speaking, to His word, and to His desire to work Himself into us.
When we exercise our will to say Amen to His word and His inner operating, He will spread from our spirit into every part of our soul; He will spread into our mind to renew it, into our emotion to subdue it and temper it, and into our will to make it pliable and willing to cooperate with Him.
The good pleasure of God’s will is to operate in us so that we may reach the climax of His supreme salvation; but when we murmur and reason, we are being frustrated from carrying out our salvation to the fullest extent.
May the Lord save us from our murmurings and reasonings, and may we no longer be rebellious to complain and reason but cooperate with the Lord’s inner operation!
Doing all things without Murmurings and Reasonings to be Blameless and Guileless Children of God
We should do all things without murmurings and reasonings in order that we may become blameless and guileless, children of God without blemish (Phil. 2:15).
To be blameless is to have no blame in our outward behaviour, while to be guileless is to have no guile in our inward character. To be guileless is to be simple, artless (not political), or innocent (Matt. 10:16).
God desires that we, His children, would become blameless through the working out of our salvation. But are we blameless, or do we still have areas in our life that can provide a base for others to blame us? Do we blame others? Then we also can be blamed.
Many times when things happen, we are quick to blame others or blame the situations.
If we look at Paul and Silas, when they were in prison in Philippi, Paul didn’t blame Silas for their being imprisoned, neither did Silas blame Paul for his speaking – which may have gotten them into prison.
But we tend to blame others, blame the brothers, the sisters, the elders, the family members, the situations, the environment…we pretty much blame everything and everyone else except ourselves.
When we blame others, we make ourselves not blameless; because we blame others, we give the enemy the ground to build up blame in us, and others will have something to blame us.
But through the working out of our salvation, we are becoming blameless and guileless.
The more we are in the church life, the more we become smarter, experienced, learned, and more political; actually, we are becoming old. Yes, we may become smarter, but we are old, stale, not as simple and guileless as we used to be.
We need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who operates in us; this salvation will make us both blameless and guileless, simple and pure.
As children of God, we have God’s life and nature (see John 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:4). We are not just Christians or disciples of Jesus – we are children of God.
We may be “little children”, but we still are children of God, partakers of the divine life and the divine nature. By the divine birth we possess the divine life and nature; we have the nature of God and the life of God.
The goal of God’s salvation is to make us blameless and guileless, children of God possessing and living out the life and nature of God.
We need to be saved and delivered from all the murmurings and reasonings which operate as gophers, working underground, within us, causing us a lot of distractions. And as we are saved, we become blameless and guileless, children of God without blemish!
Lord Jesus, save us and deliver us from our murmurings and reasonings. May we do all things without murmurings and reasonings in order that we may become blameless and guileless, children of God without blemish. Amen, Lord, may we not blame others and may we also not offer any ground to others to blame us. Save us from being political, complicated, stale, and old. Dear Lord, may we live according to the divine life and nature in our spirit to be in reality children of God without blemish in the world.
Shining as Luminaries by Holding forth the Word of Life in the midst of this Dark and Corrupt World
In the midst of this dark and corrupt world, which is usurped by Satan (see 1 John 5:19; 2:15-17), our function is to shine as luminaries by holding forth the word of life (Phil. 2:15-16).
The two inner gophers – the murmurings and reasonings – try to damage and frustrate God’s working in us and on us; this is something inward.
Outwardly, however, there is this crooked and perverted generation, this dark and corrupt world around us.
When we look around us we feel that the world is becoming more and more perverted, more corrupted; on one hand there’s all this advancement in technology, communication, transportation, commerce, etc, but on the other, the moral level is the lowest it has ever been.
The corruption and perverseness is prevalent in today’s age, both in politics, commerce, society, education, and every aspect of our life.
And here we are as children of God having this pattern of the God-man Jesus being presented to us – we are charged to work out our own salvation in the midst of this perverted and corrupted generation.
We need to know what kind of generation and in what age we live in; we should not be deceived by the abundance of content, news, multimedia, entertainment, and opportunities around us but seethe monstrous system growing in the world.
The whole world lies in the evil one, and the pernicious one operates in and among all men to poison us and damage us.
Inwardly there’s the murmurings and reasonings, and outwardly there’s the dark and evil world. Our function is to shine forth as luminaries, holding forth the word of life.
As luminaries we do not have light in ourselves; rather, Christ is the sun, the church is the moon and the believers are the planets to reflect Him by holding forth the word of life.
To hold forth the word of life is to apply it, to present it, and to offer it to the world by living out Christ.
In Acts 5:20 the angel told Peter to go and speak the words of this life; his life and work magnified Christ so much that even the angels saw Christ in the disciples, so he told him to go and speak the words of this life.
As believers in Christ who live in the dark and corrupt world today, we need to be reminded that, through God’s salvation, we are becoming luminaries, reflectors.
We need to come to the Lord, the light, and enjoy Him, be infused with Him, and shine Him forth by reflecting Him to others. We have a divine ability to reflect God to others by holding forth the word of life.
This is more than preaching the gospel – this is to illuminate this dark world by the words of this life! Wherever we are, at work or at home, at school or on the street, we should not put ourselves under a bushel but let our light shine, holding forth the word of life.
We need to come to the Lord and behold Him so that we may reflect Him. We can’t shine on our own – we need to come to Him, be enlightened and shined on by Him, and let Him shine through us.
What we need is not more activities and things to do for God but more shining; we need not more decorations but more illumination and shining! We need the illumination by holding forth the word of life.
Lord Jesus, remind us that, wherever we are, we can shine forth as luminaries in this dark world by holding forth the word of life. May we not put our light under a bushel but may we keep coming to You to be enlightened and shined on by You, so that we may reflect You to others. May we hold forth the word of life by applying it, presenting it, and offering it to the world by living out Christ. Hallelujah, we have a divine ability to express Christ and live Christ by reflecting and expressing the Christ we enjoy, experience, are infused with, and are saturated by!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Ca și copii ai lui Dumnezeu fără vină și fără vicleșug, strălucim ca luminători în lume.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ricky Acosta for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Philippians, msg. 11 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Experience of Christ (2019 Memorial Day Conference), week 2, Knowing and Experiencing Christ as the Pattern.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Just to enjoy Thy word, / Hold forth the word of life; / God’s luminaries, blameless, shine, / Amidst this world of strife. (Song on, Just to enjoy Thy word)
# We must ever preach the gospel, / Holding forth the word of life. / We must never shirk our duty; / Saving man from sin and strife. (Song on, We must ever preach the gospel)
# Lord, I do love You, operate in me, / Be my salvation, save me constantly / To hold forth Your word, life to others afford; / Shining You, so radiantly, dear Lord. (Song on, Lord, I do thank You for another day)
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