Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. [Philippians 2:14-15]
This verse, in this version, was my verse of the day. I’m not sure which translation it is. Again, the translators broke the sentence into two by adding the period after generation. Just like the last time I came across that style, it made me pause and think.
I love the word pairings in that first sentence. Grumbling or arguing. Blameless and pure. Warped and crooked. It’s as if Paul wanted to make sure we understood – and one word just wasn’t quite enough. By letting that sentence stand alone, the translators encouraged us to take note of that.
Everything we do as children of God must be without grumbling or arguing. The Greek words are exactly that … grumbling and arguing (or debating). Neither of those traits hang well on a Christian. It’s like wearing a suit that just doesn’t fit, something looks off. It’s hard to proclaim the love of God one moment and grumble/argue the next. Our testimonies about our wonderful God just don’t jive with how we act.
Instead, children of God are to be blameless and pure. Blameless in English is about the same as blameless in the Greek … without fault. Pure means unmixed. I remember the old advertisement for Ivory Soap, “99.9% pure.” As Christians, I’m pretty sure God is bumping that up to 100% pure.
And we are to accomplish all this while living amid a warped and crooked (morally corrupt) world.
More tomorrow.
