Stop Grumbling and Disputing

Introduction

Sometimes I forget that this world we live in is crooked and perverse. That is the way the world apart from God is described in Philippians 2:15. Starting in verse 14:

14 “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; 15 that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,”¹

Casual and friendly greetings at stores, and kind people in my area that I see periodically, all seem normal. Sometimes I forget that the Bible describes this generation as crooked and perverse. One of the Christian responses we should have for this generation is for us to not grumble or dispute. But what does it mean that the world is ‘crooked and perverse,’ and that we should not ‘grumble and dispute?’

Looking a little deeper into the passage gives us a better understanding of what is being talked about.

The Crooked and Perverse

Crooked

The ‘crooked’ in verse 15 is describing those whose way is not aligned with God. The Greek word means crooked, curved, and is the same root as our English word for scoliosis (curvature of the spine.) In Philippians 2 is used metaphorically to mean “perverse, wicked.”²

The same idea of a world being crooked, is expressed figuratively in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 3. The crooked world is told to prepare themselves to receive the Lord:
4 “THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS,
‘MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD,
MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT.
5 ‘EVERY RAVINE SHALL BE FILLED UP,
AND EVERY MOUNTAIN AND HILL SHALL BE BROUGHT LOW;
AND THE CROOKED SHALL BECOME STRAIGHT,
AND THE ROUGH ROADS SMOOTH;
6 AND ALL FLESH SHALL SEE THE SALVATION OF GOD.’”³

Perverse

Thayer’s explains that this Greek word means, “to turn aside from the right path, [to a path that is] perverse, corrupt, wicked.”

The use of both crooked and perverse in the passage intensifies the meaning. This is the person who has strayed very far from the path to the point of being severely twisted and corrupted. The passage is describing the wicked generation in which we live!

The Wicked

In the Bible, the wicked are those who ignore God’s ways. Psalm 119:155 says, “Salvation is far from the wicked, For they do not seek Your statutes.” Proverbs 3:33 tells us how God deals with those people: “The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked, But He blesses the dwelling of the righteous.”

So to the wicked, Philippians 2 tells us that Christians appear as lights. We have a responsibility to BE lights, because the Scriptures tell us that we ARE lights. God has given us that duty and we should gladly accept it! Philippians tells us to not grumble or dispute so that we can fulfill our obligation. The question is, are we grumbling and disputing?

Grumbling and Disputing

Grumbling

According to Thayer’s, grumbling is ‘secret displeasure, not openly avowed’. Applied particularly in Philippians then, we are told to NOT be that way. Rather we should be, ‘without murmurings, i. e. with a cheerful and willing mind.’

The idea here is that grumbling is a response to circumstances where we are thinking we deserve better, and we have displeasure. “It is an emotional rejection of God’s providence, will, and circumstances for one’s life.”⁴ Rather than rejecting what God has for us, we should embrace it with gladness.

Disputing

Thayer’s says that disputing is, ‘a deliberating, questioning, about what is true,’ and particularly in Philippians, in reference to what ought to be done, it is ‘hesitation, doubting.’ MacArthur describes it as, “This is a negative response to something unpleasant, inconvenient, or disappointing that one self-centeredly believes is undeserved.”⁵

Combined phrase

Combining the two words in the phrase, Bible commentators say that grumbling is the emotional, moral response, and disputing is the intellectual response. Baptist preacher and expositor Alexander MacLaren equated this back to Satan’s question of Eve in Genesis, “Indeed, has God said?”⁶ Truly sobering to think that we would question God in that same way as Satan!

To state the phrase in the positive, we should ‘have a cheerful and willing mind to believe what God has said and not hesitate to act on it.’ We are to be that way so that we show ourselves as lights, and be blameless and innocent before the watching world. Click here for my article on Abiding in The Light.

Application

For me, the challenge sometimes starts right as I wake up in the morning. I don’t feel like doing the job I have scheduled for that day, or my attitude stinks. I can choose right then the attitude I will have. It might take me a while, and I may need to review more than one verse I’ve memorized. Sometimes it is remembering what God has done in my life, and being thankful. Or perhaps the truth of a Christian song brings me back to a correct viewpoint. I don’t always respond quickly, but it is important for me to walk in faith, trusting God for the day’s activities.

Conclusion

I love to spend time with my family and people at church and might forget temporarily about the crooked and perverse generation in which I live. It is important for me to remember that there are many in the world that are not like me -that don’t follow God or agree with my worldview. I don’t want to forget that these are the folks for whom I am lighting the path of truth.⁷

As Christians, we are demonstrating with our good attitudes and behavior that there is a God who created the world, seen and unseen. As we live with ‘a cheerful and willing mind to believe what God has said and not hesitate to act on it,’ our light shines brighter and brighter before this generation.

“But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.” (Proverbs 4:18)

---

1 Underlined for emphasis

2 Thayer’s Greek Lexicon

3 First prophesied in Isaiah 40 and fulfilled in Luke 3. (All caps in the New Testament are used in the text to indicate Old Testament quotes.)

4 John MacArthur study guide for Philippians, 56

5 MacArthur, 56

6 MacLaren’s Expositions of Holy Scripture, quoting Genesis 3:1 where Satan is tempting Eve in the garden.

7 Thayer’s Greek Lexicon “Lights -that which gives light, an illuminator”