For this series in Philippians, I am going to limit each post to one verse, and hopefully produce a short, succinct read for my friends who follow.

2:15   that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,

In our last post we reviewed a most difficult verse, that is for those who want to hear the Word for their lives and tend to be complainers, grumblers, and murmurers. We saw that Paul was addressing our thought life, and the general attitude the believer is to maintain.

He has recently deisplayed the humility of the Lord in previous verses and our need to mimic Him, and then speaks of our thought life as being positive, loving kind and “not grumbly”. Heart issues are the topic, not our actions, yet with a correct heart attitude comes the proper fruit. This packed passage speaks of the our internal ruminations, resulting in proper fruit, the natural fruit of the believer who do all things without grumbling and murmuring!

Let’s consider the passage, that we may check our lives against the wishes of the apostle.

Four characteristics of the believer are described in this verse

Blameless

Paul has spoke of the blamelessness of the believer earlier in this wonderful book, back in verse 10 of the first chapter (See Philippian Bits – 1:10). To be blameless is not to be perfect in all of our actions, though that should be our goal. No, Paul is addressing our desires that if we do fall into an imperfection (some may want to insert the word “sin” here) with another soul, we need to request forgiveness, to take away the blameworthiness of that imperfection, to reestablish relationship with those who may have something against us.

We are to live in peace with all men, as much as possible. Our neighbor may love to hang on to unforgiveness though we seek it humbly. Their response is out of our hands but we need to be are honest and humble with ourselves and with our neighbor, seeking to maintain/repair relationships.

We can’t do that if we are grumbly!

Innocent

Paul continues with the description of the believers thoughts. He is not describing a verdict being handed down by some human judge in a court hearing, but of the single minded life of the believer. Let me try to explain.

The term innocent is from the greek word ἀκέραιος (akeraios). Notice the leading letter “a”, which in the greek is the same as our “not”. The root word is κεράννυμι (kerannymi), which simple speaks of mixing or mingling, even pouring in some instances. Paul is looking for disciples of Jesus to be “unmixed” in our thoughts, to be of “one mind.”

The term is only used three times in the New Testament, our verse today and the following two.

Matthew 10:16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Note that Jesus speaks of the wisdom of a serpent, and links it with the innocence of doves. This innocence isn’t speaking of a verdict in a court case, (as I so often associate with this word), but of a source of thinking for our actions.

Romans 16:19 For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.

Paul, as the Lord above in the previous verse, links wisdom with innocence. Wisdom is sourced from the Lord and is a mental / internal condition for the believer to request of the Lord and to live in. Such also is the innocence the believer is to live in. Let’s remind our selves of the original meaning of this term, in that it refers to being not mixed. Paul is speaking of our minds to being single minded, unmixed of that which is evil.

These two desciptions of the believers thought life, which produce fruit in our day to day life, is extemely challenging. With the culture we live in, we are bombarded with evil, and we find it easy to slip into a callousness, not concerned about either our relationships with our neighbor or our unmixed thought life. Paul is calling us to a greater calling, a higher life, and that is to follow the Master in the minute by minute challenges we find as we swim through this evil culture.

Let’s continue this wonderful, challenging verse in our next post, for I fear this one is becoming less “succinct” than I originally planned.

Be blessed this day as you seek to honor His word by maintianing(or repairing a relationship) and by having a single unmixed thoughtlife.

God is good, all the time!

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