"Do all things without complaining and disputing, (15) that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world, (16) holding fast the Word of life." Philippians 2:14-16. NKJV
Our attitude says it all. If we're not careful, we can begin finding fault in most things we come across in our life. We can dispute what someone says, especially if we're listening to a preacher who we find difficult at the best of times.
Our remit here, is to be blameless which means to the best of our ability, living without fault. Difficult I know but with Jesus in our lives, achievable. Our text above, also says that we need to be 'harmless children of God.' In other words, we need to live innocent lives wherever we go.
We live in a world that is perverse and wicked; a world that is full of people who practice, one-up-man ship. This means it's competitive and people want to appear better than the other - at everything. The world is full of sin - adultery, pornography, theft, child and elder abuse, murder, drugs and terrorism, just to name a few. There is attitude wherever we look, so the world doesn't need us to add our bad attitudes to this as well.
At times, our attitude can be awful. With our mouth we praise God and with our mouth we berate people who we don't particularly like. This has got to change. We are already in a world full of darkness. If we are children of Light (Matthew 5:14), then we need to shine like a beacon; we need to be that light in the tunnel of darkness. 'Yes, but what difference will it make? We're only one person, they won't take any notice anyway.' We don't know what difference it'll make and its up to the people whether they take notice or not. We're called to shine in this dark world, and that's what matters.
One of the things that we can change is our attitude. When we whinge, moan and complain, honestly, we're no different than the world. When people see us this way, there really is nothing to recommend. They'll think, 'If that's Christianity, I'll stay the way I am.'
Do you get the point? We need to be above reproach. We need, to the best of our ability, to live so that people don't have ammunition to point the finger at us. Think, if a light is not working properly, pretty soon the light will fail and the place will be plunged into darkness. In the same way, we need to ensure that our light does not malfunction, by letting our guard down and becoming involved in worldly issues and things that are no good for us.
A good place to start is by changing our attitude. Why not read and pray Phillipians 4:8:
'Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy - meditate on these things.'
Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard
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