“Do all things without murmurings/complaining and disputings/arguing.”
Let’s begin with “do all things.” This covers a lot territory and, frankly, it is a tall order. It means that no matter what is going on in our lives, we need to face it all without murmuring/complaining and disputing/arguing, (We are probably more at home with using “complaining and arguing.”) Frankly, some of the people we have to deal with make it difficult for us to stop complaining and arguing. But those people do not give us the permission to complain and argue. Dealing as Christians with difficult people is part of our spiritual growth. We might also think about the times that we might have been one of those difficult people. (just saying) “Do all things without murmurings/complaining…” Some things come to mind when I read this prohibition to stop complaining. One is that we stop complaining about what is going on in our churche. There are some things that happen to us about which we really feel a need to complain. ( As you might guess, I am writing about this from experience.) I used to complain about traffic, etc. My late wife, Mary, would tell me that the complaining was not doing any good. I would tell her that it makes me feel better to complain to get it off of my mind. She told me, “You might be getting rid of it, but you are giving it to me.” Another thing that comes to mind is self-pity. It can cause us to crawl inside of ourselves and complain instead of dealing with life’s frustrations by asking the Lord to help us deal with them. I must confess that it is awfully difficult not to complain at times, but the Bible tells us to “do all things without complaining.” I think that you get the point that I am making, i.e., instead of complaining we need to pray. “Do all things without…disputing/arguing…” There are some people who make it difficult not to argue. (I am confident that I have been one of those people at times.) This is a difficult order to follow. There are just some things that make us want to argue. What I try to do now is to stop and think whether or not an argument would solve the issue. You know as well as I, that an argument will only make the issue more difficult. I have never solved anything by arguing. This does not mean that we should never disagree, but that we should disagree like Christians without complaining and arguing. I have made a resolution not to argue about anything unless arguing might serve some good purpose. I have discovered that most of the time, arguing will not serve any good purpose. In verse 15 Paul gives us the reason not to complain and argue: “That you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.” This brings to mind what Jesus said about us being the lights of the world: “Let your light so shine among men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” This is not an easy order, but we do need to give serious thought to it. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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