Philippians 2:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Do you see that the Apostle teaches the Philippians not to murmur? Murmuring belongs to ungrateful and unfeeling servants. Tell me, what son murmurs while laboring for his father's benefit, and while laboring for himself?

Consider, he says, that you labor for yourself, that you gather treasure for yourself. Murmuring belongs to those who labor for others and work for others. But for one who gathers for himself, why murmur?

Is it because his wealth does not increase? That is no reason. Why should one murmur who labors voluntarily, without compulsion? It is better to do nothing than to do it with murmuring, because the work itself loses its value.

Do you not see that in our own households we always say this: it would have been better not to do it than to do it with murmuring? Often we decide that it is better to lose our servant's service than to endure a murmurer.

Murmuring is burdensome and unbearable. It is close to blasphemy. Otherwise, why were those murmurers so punished? Murmuring is ingratitude. The one who murmurs is ungrateful to God. And the one ungrateful to God is truly a blasphemer.

What is especially important is that at that time there were continual temptations and frequent dangers. There was no rest, no consolation, and thousands of troubles poured in from every side. But now there is deep peace, now tranquility.

Why, then, do you murmur? Because you are poor? Think of Job. Because you are sick? What, then, if you too were seized by sickness and at the same time conscious of so many perfections and virtues as that saint was?

Consider also that for a long time he was covered with worms, sat on the dunghill, and constantly scraped away the pus. "And his wife said to him," it is written, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die" (Job 2:9).

But has your son died? What if, like him, you had been deprived of all your children, and that by a cruel death? You know well that for parents there is much consolation in sitting beside the sick, closing the mouth, shutting the eyes, touching the cheeks, and hearing the last words.

But this righteous man was granted none of this. All his children were buried together. And why do I say this? If, like that blessed patriarch, you had been commanded to slaughter your own son, offer him in sacrifice, and see him burned, what would you have done?

And what was he like when he built the altar, laid the wood, and bound the child? Are some people reviling you? What would become of you if you heard this from friends who had come to console you?

Today we have many sins, and we are rightly reviled. But then one who was "blameless, righteous, God-fearing, and turned away from evil" (Job 1:1) heard the opposite from his friends.

Tell me, what if you had heard reproaches from your wife? "Let the stars of its dawn be darkened. Let it wait for light, and have none, and let it not see the eyelids of the morning" (Job 3:9).

Why do you say this, senseless woman? Is your husband the cause of this for you? Not he, but the devil. "Curse God," she says, "and die." Would it have been easier for you if your husband lying there had said this and died?

There is no sickness heavier than this, though you name thousands. Job's sickness was such that he could not even remain in a house or under a roof. It was such that everyone withdrew from him.

If he had not suffered incurably, he would not have sat outside the city, in a worse condition than lepers. They enter houses and gather with one another. But he spent his nights naked in the open air on the dunghill and could not even put on clothing.

Why? Probably because one disease would have been added to another. "My body," he says, "is clothed with worms and dusty scabs" (Job 7:5). His flesh produced pus and worms, and this without ceasing.

Do you see how each of us shudders when hearing this? If it is unbearable to hear this, was it bearable to see? And if it is unbearable to see, how much more to endure?

Yet the righteous man endured, and not for two or three days, but for a long time. He did not sin even with his lips. What sickness can you name that was joined to so many sufferings?

Was this not worse than blindness? "It makes my food loathsome," he says (Job 6:7). And not only this, but even night and sleep, which give rest to others, brought him no consolation. They were heavier than any torment.

Listen to what he says: Why "do You frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions" (Job 7:14)? When morning comes, I say, when will evening come? And in such sufferings he did not murmur.

Nor did his grief consist only in them, but also in the evil opinion of many. At last they began to regard him as guilty of countless vices, for which he was suffering. Even his friends said to him, "You are punished less than your iniquities deserve" (Job 11:6).

Therefore he himself said, "But now they laugh at me, men younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock" (Job 30:1).

How many deaths is this not heavier than? Yet although he was storm-tossed from every side by such waves, and a terrible tempest rose everywhere, with clouds, storm, thunder, whirlpools, and winds, he remained unmoved amid these great and fearful waves.

He was as though in calm weather, and he did not murmur. This was before grace, before anything had been said of the Resurrection, or of Gehenna, punishment, and torment.

But we, hearing prophets, apostles, and evangelists, seeing countless examples, and having learned the teaching about the Resurrection, still grow indignant, though no one can say that so many calamities have overtaken him.

Indeed, if someone has lost property, he has not yet lost so many sons and daughters. And if he has lost them, perhaps it was for sins. But Job lost them suddenly, during sacrifice, during service to God.

Even if someone has lost both children and such wealth together, though this is impossible, he was not covered with wounds and did not scrape away pus. And if even this happened, he did not have attackers and revilers.

That usually wounds us more than anything, more than the misfortunes themselves. Indeed, if during troubles we grieve so much while having people who console, encourage, and awaken good hope in us, think what would happen if we had revilers instead.

If the saying, "I looked for compassion, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none" (Ps 68:21), is heavy and unbearable, what is it like to find revilers instead of comforters?

"Miserable comforters are you all," Job says (Job 16:2). If we always had this before our eyes and meditated on it, no circumstance would distress us when we saw this athlete, this adamantine soul, this strong heart of bronze.

It was as though he had been clothed with a body of bronze or stone. He endured everything courageously and patiently. Reflecting on this, let us do everything without murmuring and questioning.

Do you do something good and murmur? Why? Are you under necessity? I know, Paul says, that many of your neighbors make it necessary for you to murmur. He hints at this when he says, "in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation."

But this is precisely what is wondrous: to be provoked and yet feel nothing of it. The stars shine at night, are seen in darkness, and lose none of their beauty. They appear even more radiant.

In the light they do not appear in the same way. So you also shine more when you remain upright among the corrupt. It is a wondrous thing to be blameless. And so that they would not say this, the Apostle himself said it beforehand.

“Among whom you shine as luminaries in the world, holding fast the word of life.” As stars shine in the darkness, so you also, being upright among the unrighteous, must strive to shine more brightly. For the expression “among whom you shine” (φαίνεσθε) should have an imperative sense. “Holding fast the word of life,” that is, having in yourselves the seed of life and intending henceforth to live so, and already now having in yourselves the pledge of salvation. Or, as luminaries shine and give life to bodies by warming them, so you also must strive to be a life-giving power for other people.

Therefore blessed Job affirms concerning himself: “I became a brother to jackals and a companion to ostriches” (Job 30:29). Therefore the Apostle Paul says to his disciples: “In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as luminaries in the world.” Therefore Peter, the shepherd of the Lord's flock, says: “He delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the lawless in their unclean manner of life” (2 Pet 2:7). “For that righteous man, dwelling among them and seeing and hearing, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by their lawless deeds” (2 Pet 2:8). But we often complain about the life of our neighbors and try to change place, choosing the solitude of the eremitic life. We do not know that, if the spirit is lacking, place does not help. For that same Lot of whom we speak remained holy in Sodom, yet sinned on the mountain (Gen 19:2 and following). The first forefather of the human race also testifies that places do not strengthen souls, for he fell even in Paradise.

Although in Rome he is now becoming “a sacrifice upon the sacrifice and service of their faith,” he not only does not murmur, but, on the contrary, “rejoices and rejoices together with them all.” Thus he desires and expects from them, instead of grief and despondency over his fate, the joy of joyful greetings sent to him in Rome.

And if someone is called to church in such a way that he must take a few minutes from sleep, even that does not pass without grumbling.” “By saying, ‘without disputings,’ the Apostle forbade wavering of thoughts and doubt in the fulfillment of the commandments. When some commandment lies before someone, let no one say, ‘Will there be a reward for me? Is this good?’ Such doubtful thoughts must not be admitted, but one must act with assurance” (blessed Theophylact). Setting Christians over against the embittered and corrupt pagan world, the Apostle commands them to be completely pure in everything. No one should be able to reproach them in anything. On the contrary, they should be lights of the world and shine as luminaries in impenetrable darkness. This was evidently already partly visible in the good Philippians, who remembered the Savior's commandment: “Let your light so shine before men.” “Strive also to shine by uprightness and blamelessness among the corrupt, as the luminaries shine in darkness,” commands blessed Theophylact. The designation of Christians as blameless children of God has significance in contrast to the designation of the others, Jews and pagans, as crooked and perverse. Both expressions are often used in Scripture (see Deut 32:5; cf. Rom 8:16; Gal 4:5; Eph 1:5; Mt 17:17; Lk 9:41; Acts 2:40). In the opinion of St. Irenaeus, when the Apostle calls Christians luminaries, he points to the fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham, that he would have offspring, the faithful, like the stars. According to St. Gregory the Theologian, this means that they must be a life-bearing power for other people. Jesus Christ, His teaching, and His followers in general are often called the light of the world, a shining light (Mt 5:14; Jn 1:5; Eph 5:11).

Even if God now appointed him to be poured out as a libation upon that sacrifice which he himself had prepared for God from the believing Gentiles, even then he would not lose his joyful disposition. He would even rejoice for the Philippians, for whose good this libation is being accomplished. Therefore they themselves must rejoice, even at such an outcome of the Apostle's bonds.

So also you must appear pure, without any admixture of non-Christian elements foreign to you, in thoughts, words, deeds, feelings, and dispositions. You will be pure, as a ray of the sun is pure. And what is highest of all, you will be blameless children of God, stained by nothing. Having been regenerated in the laver of Baptism, you became, by this new birth from God, children of God. You are obliged to appear as such in deed, in life. And you will appear as such if you act in the manner I have indicated. As dear as it is for you to be such, so zealously must you act as I have told you. “In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.” Well-brought-up children of noble parents are immediately recognized, even if they mingle with a crowd of other children of a lower class. They are seen by their words, manners, conduct, and deeds. So also, he says, although you live among other men descended from Adam, by spiritual birth you are an entirely different race. Since you are another race, you must also appear different in life. Then all who look at you will say, “They seem to be ours, and yet they are not ours. Everything about them resembles ours, but their manner of thought, their rules of life, the purity of their character, their aims and hopes are not ours.” Another spirit of life breathes in them and points to another birth. You will be such if you begin to act as I have said. “Among whom you appear as luminaries in the world.” “Among whom” means among persons of a crooked and perverse generation. “You appear” either affirms that they truly are such, and therefore praises them in order to encourage them to more. Or it points to their significance in the world, and in their person to that of all Christians. It aims to awaken a sense of obligation, as though saying: among them you are obliged to appear as luminaries in the world. The night of ignorance and corruption covers the world. You, as Christians, have been raised up by God in its midst to be luminaries of knowledge and holiness. Such is your calling: “Let your light so shine before men.” “The stars shine at night and are visible in darkness, and they lose none of their beauty. They even appear more brilliant. In the light they are not so visible. So also you shine more when you remain upright among the corrupt. It is a marvelous thing to be blameless!” (St. Chrysostom). “Such are those who can say: ‘The light of Thy countenance has been signed upon us, O Lord’ (Ps 4:7)” (St. John of Damascus). “Strive also to shine by uprightness and blamelessness among the corrupt, as the luminaries shine in darkness. ‘You appear’ seems to be said imperatively, that is, ‘appear’” (blessed Theophylact).