«　WEEK 3　DAY 3　»

　　Phil. 2:13-14 For it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and reasonings.

　　Eph. 1:5 Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.

　　Where within us does the willing [in Philippians 2:13] take place? It must be in our will. This indicates that God's operation begins from our spirit and spreads into our mind, emotion, and will….The grace of Christ is with our spirit. However, God's operating to will in us involves not only our spirit but also our will. Therefore, God's operation must spread from our spirit into our will. As God operates the willing within us, He carries out His working. This corresponds to Romans 8, where we see that God works not only in our spirit, but also in our mind and eventually in our physical body (vv. 6, 11). We will in our will, and we work in our body. The Triune God operates in us from our spirit, through our will, and then into our physical body. (Life-study of Philippians, p. 104)

　　God's operating is for His good pleasure. His good pleasure is the heart's desire of His will (Eph. 1:5) that we may reach the climax of His supreme salvation. Paul speaks of God's good pleasure. The good pleasure of a mother can be observed in the way she loves her child. Using this as an illustration of God's good pleasure, we may say that God's good pleasure is to love us in a way that makes Him happy. God's working in us is to enable us to reach the climax of His supreme salvation. Praise Him that we are now in God's good pleasure! As He operates in us, we cooperate with Him by obeying Him.

　　Philippians 2:14-16 continues Paul's word about working out our salvation. In verse 12 Paul charges us to work out our salvation, and in verse 13 he tells us that God is operating in us. Now in verse 14 Paul issues a warning: “Do all things without murmurings and reasonings.” Murmurings are out of our emotion, mostly on the part of the sisters; reasonings are out of our mind, mostly on the part of the brothers. Both frustrate us from carrying out our salvation to the fullest extent, from experiencing Christ to the uttermost. The context indicates that if we murmur or reason, we do not obey. Obedience to God slays all murmurings and reasonings. In order to work out our salvation, we must obey the very God who operates in us. He Himself is our salvation, and our obedience to Him is the working out of our salvation. The sisters need to realize that when they murmur, they disobey the God who works within them. Likewise, the brothers need to see that whenever they reason, they are rebellious against the One who operates in them. Only by obedience can murmurings and reasonings be put to death.

　　Paul's word in 2:14 about murmurings and reasonings is a further indication that his purpose in writing the book of Philippians was not related to doctrine, but very much related to experience. Murmurings and reasonings are important factors that frustrate our Christian life. From experience Paul knew that if we would work out our salvation, we need to do all things without murmurings and reasonings. Often in important matters we may not murmur or reason. But in small matters we are prone to murmurings and reasonings. Any kind of murmuring or reasoning is disobedience to the inner working of the Triune God. How we need the Lord to save us from our murmurings and reasonings!

　　We have pointed out that murmurings issue from the emotion, whereas reasonings proceed from the mind…. Again and again we need to be reminded of Paul's word in 2:14. When the sisters are washing dishes in the sisters' house, they should remember not to murmur. As the brothers are taking care of matters in the service groups and the church life, they should remember to do all things without reasonings. They should not reason, but simply serve the Lord in the church. (Life-study of Philippians, pp. 104-105, 107-108, 110)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Philippians, msg. 13