Philippians 2:17-30

Introduction

Paul closes chapter two with three examples of people working out their own salvation while rejecting the spirit of murmuring or disputing. Their effort demonstrates that they were blameless (A lifestyle committed to being doers of God’s word and not hearers only), harmless (not willing to mix sin with their service for Christ), sons of God, and reflecting the light of Jesus in a dark world that is crooked and perverse. The three examples are Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus.

Paul narrates how his examples are linked to the Philippian Christians success. In other words, working out your own salvation does not just benefit you but benefits the Lord’s churches. Consequently, if we do not work out our own salvation the opposite occurs; we hurt the success of the Lord’s churches. Therefore, working out our salvation may be the difference between success or failure in one of the Lord’s churches. If we fail to workout our own salvation then we may not be available or credible to be used of God to bring success to His churches.

If we are not blameless, harmless, behaving like sons of God and shinning the light in a dark culture, then we are living for our ambitions and pursuits, which could preclude us from being available for service in the Lord’s church and discredit or disqualify us for service. The churches of Jesus Christ do not simply need people present and willing to serve. We need people who love God’s grace enough to humbly submit to grace reigning in their lives.

I alluded to this verse a few weeks back, Paul wrote in Romans 5:21:“That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus were beneficial examples to use because the various shapes of their ministry resembled grace reigning and triumphing through their lives.

People can discern the differences between shapes so they can identify what the shape is. “A circle is a round, two-dimensional shape where all points on the edge are the same distance from the center.” Conversely, a square has four right angles in which all the sides are the same length. So, it is easy to identify a circle from a square. Similarly, people can discern the shape of our lives - whether we are serving the Lord or our selves - through the distinguishing features that define our shape.

This morning, I want to explore the shapes of ministry through Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus’ ministry. My prayer is using the discoveries of this exploration to guide us in determining whether our shapes says that we are working out our own salvation, or working out our own sinful desires.