Sermon Tone Analysis

I am not sure what all comes to your mind when you think about gentleness and being gentle.

Maybe you think about gentleness as acting soft or lightly.

On days when I get up early in the morning before anyone else—others in my house are still sleeping—I get ready to leave gently.

This is what that means.

I don’t stomp around the house on the hard floors.

In fact, just the opposite; I take my steps gently.

I don’t slam doors to rooms or kitchen cupboards.

Just the opposite; I gently close doors.

If someone else gets up I don’t yell out “good morning” at the top of my lungs.

Rather, I gently whisper a good morning so that I do not wake anyone else up.

Today we are considering what gentleness looks like as a spiritual fruit.

Here is what the apostle Paul has to say to the church in Philippi about it.

Alright, at first glance you may be asking yourself what this particular passage has to do with the spiritual fruit of gentleness.

After all, gentleness—or being gentle—is not mentioned by name anywhere in the words of this passage.

But I think we can get there.

Let’s work our way through what this passage is saying, and I think we arrive at a place of understanding gentleness as a spiritual fruit we bear.

passage begins with a “therefore” — we need to understand what comes before this in order to make sense of what is being said here

Let’s set up some context for these verses.

The passage begins with a “therefore,” meaning we need to understand what comes before this in order to make sense of what is being said here.

I’m going to save time by backing it up to the verse that actually begins this section of Philippians and sets the entire tone for the theme of these verses.

It is the statement Paul makes at the beginning of chapter 1:27.

“Stand firm in the ONE Spirit, striving together as ONE for the faith…”

Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel.

What does the apostle Paul mean by that?

He gives us a pretty strong hint here that unity has something to do with it.

“Stand firm in the ONE Spirit, striving together as ONE for the faith…” We skipped over the first 11 verses of chapter 2. It is a passage which urges humility in relationships with one another and points to the humility of Christ as our example for this; again saying that this is for the purpose of maintaining ONE Spirit and ONE mind (Philippines 2:2).

vs 13 — Greek energās = activity which causes something to be

Bring it up to verses 12-13 where we began our reading for today.

“Therefore…work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”

This is a hard verse that is easy to misinterpret.

The Bible is NOT telling us that our eternal salvation is something we have to work for.

I think the Bible is pretty clear that we can never—by our own works—attain salvation by our own doing.

What, then, is this working out all about?

First, note that verse 13 also mentions work.

But in verse 13 it is God who is working.

And God is working in his people for two things: to will and to act.

But this work that is mentioned twice in verses 12 and 13 are not the same word.

These are two different words from the Greek.

The work mentioned in verse 13 is the Greek word energās.

It is where we get our English word energy.

It means activity which causes something to be.

It is not work in the sense of labor or a job.

It simply refers to the kind of activity which causes something to happen.

That’s what God’s work is in this passage.

It is the activity of his Spirit in the lives of his people which causes something to happen.

vs 12 — Greek katergazomai = showing a result that is produced

The work mentioned in verse 12 is a different Greek word.

It is the Greek word katergazomai which refers to showing a result that is produced.

Think of it this way.

When the math teacher gives an assignment with a complex math equation, often the teacher does not want you to simply write down the answer; the teacher wants to see something more.

What does the math teacher say in the instructions?

Show your work.

That’s katergazomai.

Let me see how you got this result.

This work that God is doing in his people by the activity of his Holy Spirit to will and to act in his people—all things that are results of our salvation in Jesus—let that work show!

All of this is an ongoing explanation of the statement Paul began with back in chapter 1:27.

Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel.

Let God’s work of salvation in your life show for others to see.

Bible uses the word fear as a reference to awe, reverence, respect — (not terror)

show the work of God in my life by embracing an attitude of humility with one another out of reverence and respect for God

Next, let’s talk about “fear and trembling” for a moment.

The word fear in the Bible often is not a reference to terror or worry.

Many times in the Old Testament we see the Hebrew expression the people ought to live in the fear of the Lord, that we should be people who fear the Lord.

That does not mean that we should be terrified of God.

The Bible uses the word fear as a reference to awe and reverence and respect.

It is an instruction from the Bible to live in a posture of humility in reverence to God.

This makes perfect sense for Paul to mention here in this passage since the verses that open Philippians 2 are all about embracing an attitude of humility.

The reason we embrace this attitude of humility is out of reverence and respect for the Lord.

Is this starting to make more sense now?

Show the work of God in his people by embracing and living out this attitude of humility with one another out of reverence and respect for God.

All of that is a set up for what’s next.

Everything I’ve talked about so far has been about verses 12-13 which are the summary of everything going back to chapter 1:27.

Now in verse 14 the passage moves to the heart of this teaching.

Do you want to know how it is that we work out our salvation with fear and trembling?

Stop complaining and arguing.

The word which is translated as complaining or grumbling is actually quite rare in the New Testament.

However, its Hebrew equivalent shows up more often in the Old Testament, particularly in Exodus.

Quite often in the wilderness narrative of Exodus we find the Israelites complaining and grumbling.

That generation never made it out of the wilderness.

The ones who lived in constant grumbling and complaining never made it to the promised land.

Paul takes this language from the Old Testament and brings it forward to address what is going on among the people in Philippi.

And the Bible preserves those words to speak appropriately into our world today as well.

It seems so easy in our world today to fall into grumbling and complaining and arguing.

In fact, it is so easy in our world that it I find it happens automatically.

Sometimes I start complaining without even realizing that I am complaining.

Our world has made griping so second nature that sometimes I am not aware of my own grumbling.

Let’s be honest for a moment; that’s all of us.

Hold up here for a moment.

Because if at this point in my talking about a culture that grumbles and complains and argues, your first reaction is to think of somebody else, then you’re missing the point.

Scripture is not a sledge hammer for us to swing at other people; scripture is a mirror for us to see our own reflection.

This is not about other people’s complaining or arguing; it is about my own grumbling and my own complaining.

Because here’s the thing, I am not responsible for your spiritual fruit, and you are not responsible for my spiritual fruit; we are each responsible for our own spiritual fruit.

It begins with my own assessment of the ways I am allowing myself to embrace an attitude of grumbling and complaining and arguing.

how I do I get rid of the grumbling and complaining and arguing?

This leaves us with a tough question though.

So, how I do I get rid of the grumbling and complaining and arguing?

Sure, it’s easy for Paul to just write those words, but it does not seem quite so simple to actually carry it out.

After all, we love complaining.

It is the reason we have the saying that misery loves company.

When I lived in Kalamazoo there was a few other men I would meet for breakfast regularly.