The Apostle Paul has a way of moving from the sublime to the mundane with considerable ease. He exhorts the Philippians to work out or show forth their salvation with the assurance that God is at work in them to make them willing and able to do what is in accord with his will. Then to illustrate, he mentions something contrary to God’s will, and the sin he names is not adultery or murder or something else that misses most of the readers of CHRISTIANITY TODAY but a sin that is very prevalent among otherwise respectable Christians: the sin of murmuring.
The English word murmur comes (via Latin) from the sound made by people who are grumbling. So, apparently, did the Greek word. We all know the kinds of circumstances that produce grumbling. We don’t think we’ve been given our fair share (Matt. 20:11; Acts 6:1). Others aren’t behaving the way we think they should (Luke 5:30) or they are saying things we don’t like (John 6:35–66). Sometimes we do something good for others, yet spoil it by murmuring (1 Pet. 4:9).
Murmuring is wrong because it refuses to face the situation openly and plainly. Instead of speaking directly to the person involved, we complain behind his back. Instead of speaking specifically about matters that can be changed, we grumble about things in general. Often things that are wrong can be made right—but not by murmuring. The way to do it is to bring the matter up openly and specifically, as Paul does in some of his exhortations to the Philippians.
We need to realize that grumbling about the way our congregation does things, or about taxes, or the weather, or our neighbors, is not some innocent diversion, common though it may be. God views it as a serious sin, and Paul is bold enough to say that the absence of murmuring is a mighty testimony to the power of God in transforming us so that we may shine as lights in a dark world.
