Philippians 2:15

Philippians 2:15. that ye may be blameless and harmless. The verb implies that the process will be a gradual one, ‘that ye may become,' and the whole context makes its clear that the advance will be one which will make itself felt by others. ‘Blameless' no doubt primarily before men, but also with the further sense of 1 Thessalonians 3:13, that they may be presented blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ‘Harmless,' the word used, Matthew 10:16, as a description of the Christian character, and explained, Romans 16:19, in such a way as to show that it is without any admixture of evil, pure,

children of God. As Dr. Lightfoot points out, the reference is to the description of the children of Israel (Deuteronomy 32:5) in the LXX. God had chosen them, but they behaved with so much murmuring and want of trust in the wilderness, that they are described as no longer His children, but full of spots and blemishes, a crooked and perverse generation. That the ‘children of God' shall be known unto men by their works is declared by St, John (1 John 3:10), ‘they will do righteousness and manifest brotherly love' the very marks on which St. Paul insists in this Epistle.

without blemish. The thought no doubt goes back to the description of the spotless victims which alone were fit to be offered to God under the old covenant, and which spake typically of the Lamb without blemish and without spot of the Christian covenant. As their Master was, so His followers must strive to be.

in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. The spirit of Christianity is that Christ's people are not concerned only for their own salvation, but that all men should come to the knowledge of Christ. For them, therefore, it is God's intent that they should not be taken out of the world, but only be kept from the evil, and that their conduct should make them like the salt of the earth, a purifying and saving influence wherever they are.

among whom ye are seen as lights in the world. The word rendered ‘lights' is found only here and Revelation 21:11 in the New Testament. In the LXX. it is used for the luminaries in the sky, and in classical writers for ‘windows' through which light is admitted. The sense of ‘luminaries' is no doubt that which St. Paul intended. Christians are to be the lights of the world, shining, however, with the reflected light of Him who is the only true light. The verb ‘ye are seen' refers both to the duty of the servant of Christ to let his light shine, and also to the certainty that in the end such light will gain attention and attract followers. Men through it will come to glorify God.