Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless. But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share your joy
Philippians 2:12-18 NLT
Some of these verses seem downright impossible. Rejoice even if we might lose our lives? Shine like stars in a dark and corrupt world? And the hardest one: no complaining or arguing? These commands seem unreasonable until we look at verse 13—it is God who is working inside of us to change our desires and actions.
The result of truly following Jesus is JOY—joy that the world can't give, and the world can't take away. This doesn't mean we are never frustrated or upset (Jesus had real emotions). Joy means that we remember the light of God, even in the darkness. We know that nothing can stop God's love. Paul could rejoice even when his life was on the line because it was an offering to the Lord, a declaration to the world of the power of salvation.
Jesus has given salvation as a free gift, and He calls us to follow Him, working out and living out our salvation. We honor our Savior with our lives, even as He empowers us and gives us the desire to obey. When we make choice after choice to follow Jesus, eventually even the impossible is possible. Someday even complaining could disappear from a person's life.
Which one of these impossible commands will you work on, with Jesus? Today, will you let Jesus change your attitude and actions?
