Useful Bible Studies > Philippians Commentary > chapter 2

Obey God joyfully and gladly

Philippians 2:14

It is truly wonderful when a person receives a right relationship with God (Luke 15:7). God forgives that person’s evil deeds. The love of Christ will never leave that person (Romans 8:35-39). The Holy Spirit enters the person’s life (Romans 8:9-11), and will support that person through all the difficulties of their life on earth. Afterwards, that person will live always with Christ in heaven (1:23).

However, some Christians seem to find no joy whatever in their relationship with God. They complain about every difficulty in life; they do not see those problems as opportunities to trust God more. They protest about everything that God wants them to do; however, they still do these things, perhaps because they are too afraid to do anything else. Like the servant in Matthew 25:24, they consider God to be a hard master.

In Philippians 2:5-8, Paul urged his readers to think about Christ. Christ suffered greater loss and worse difficulties than any Christian ever will suffer (Isaiah 52:13 to 53:6). However, he did not complain (Isaiah 53:7; 1 Peter 2:21-23). Instead, he chose to obey God gladly and willingly (Hebrews 10:5-7).

If we do not obey God joyfully and gladly, then we are not truly obeying God (Deuteronomy 28:47; Psalm 100:1-2). Instead, we are behaving like God’s people in the desert, who complained against God (1 Corinthians 10:1-12). The cause of their wrong attitude was unbelief (Hebrews 3:7-19), in other words, they refused to believe God.

God’s goodness, his promises and his love provide constant reasons for his people to be glad (Lamentations 3:22-25; Habakkuk 3:17-18; Romans 8:28). Therefore, Christians who believe God will never blame him for their difficulties in life. Instead, they will gladly trust him.

Next part: Shine like stars (Philippians 2:15)

Please use the links at the top of the page to find our other articles in this series. You can download all our articles if you go to the download page for our free 1000+ page course book.