Deep Joy: The Message of Philippians #6: "The Joy of Faithful Service" (Phil 2:12-30)

Philippians 2:12-13 — Working Out Salvation with Fear and Trembling

And I hope you do take them and turn with me to Philippians chapter two. Philippians and chapter number two. Philippians chapter number two. Philippians chapter number two. And this afternoon we're going to be in verses 12 to 30.

Philippians chapter two, verses 12 through 30. If you grabbed one of the red hardback Bibles that we give away, that should be on page 1041. 1041, Philippians chapter two. And this afternoon we're going to be in verses 12 to 30.

So Philippians chapter two and verses 12 through to 30, page 1041 in the red hardbacks that we give away. It's our custom here at Redeemer, as we do every week, to stand when we come to this portion of our service.

We're reading God's word and we want to show reverence and respect for his word and we do that even with what we do with our bodies. So Philippians chapter two, beginning in verse 12 and reading through to verse 30.

Brothers and sisters, these are God's words. Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now not only in my presence, but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling and arguing so that you may be blameless and pure. Children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world by holding firm to the word of life.

Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn't run or labor for nothing. But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.

In the same way, you should also be glad and rejoice with me. Now, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I too may be encouraged by news about you. For I have no one else like-minded who would genuinely care about your interests.

All seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know his proven character because he has served with me in the gospel ministry like a son with his father. Therefore, I hope to send him as soon as I see how things go with me.

I am confident in the Lord that I myself will also come soon. But I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, coworker, and fellow soldier, as well as your messenger and minister to my need.

Since he has been longing for all of you and was distressed because you all heard that he was sick. Indeed, he was so sick that he nearly died. However, God had mercy on him and not only on him, but also on me so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.

For this reason, I am very eager to send him to you so that you may rejoice again when you see him and I may be less anxious. Therefore, welcome him in the Lord with great joy and hold people like him in honor because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up what was lacking in your ministry to me.

Pray that God would bless the reading of his word and give us understanding as we come to study it. I invite you to join with me as I pray, ask for the Lord's help and we come to his word. Let's pray together.

Well, Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you that you give us this precious gift of the Lord's day to come together, to fellowship, to worship, to put aside the distractions of life for a few moments and to come into your presence.

And we ask that as we come now to the apex of our worship,.

As we hear you speak to us through your word,.

We pray that your spirit would be at work, opening eyes and opening ears and providing fertile soil for your truth to be planted down deep in us. Father, it's our habit here at Redeemer to pray for other local churches week by week.

And this afternoon, we take a moment to pray, especially for a church I was contacted by this a couple of weeks ago now out in Alturas, California, Warner Mountain Bible Church. Small work at this stage seeking to plant a faithful Bible teaching church out there in Alturas.

Pray for the brothers and sisters there who are seeking to determine the Lord's will about seeing this church planted. We thank you for the church that's come alongside them, Grace Bible Church of Bakersfield to provide initial help and support.

Lord, we remember what your word says, that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. So Lord, we pray that you would send laborers. Lord, send them somebody who can serve as their regular teaching pastor, their regular shepherd, who can minister to them and to that community that so needs the gospel.

Father, be with them.

They've already met this morning in their worship, but be with them throughout the rest of this week and be with us now as we come to your word. For we ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. Please be seated.

This afternoon, I wanna speak to you from the subject, the joy of faithful service, the joy of faithful service.

One of the greatest Christians.

I had the privilege of meeting was a man named Reg. We just knew him at church as Reg. Reg wasn't a pastor or an elder. He didn't do any teaching at the church. He, technically speaking, wasn't even a deacon.

He didn't have a lot of flesh to him. He basically wore the same three sweaters and the same three shirts in varying combinations.

All the time.

He was about yay high, like not an impressive human being as impressive human beings go. Reg was what our church called a steward. Basically, he was an usher. But like I said, if you had ever seen Reg, do not let his size or his rather simple demeanor fool you.

I truly believe that that was one of the greatest believers I ever had the privilege of meeting. I would pull up to church on Wednesday night, which was our Bible study night, and typically he was on the door.

He would welcome people, and particularly if he knew you well, he'd wanna talk. I've always had the habit of getting to church half an hour early. Just a personal thing I like to do when I have the opportunity.

So I pull up early, and he's usually on the door, and no one else was, well, a few people were there, and I'm not gonna tell lies. But enough people hadn't come yet that we could sit and have a chat for a little bit before folks would stream in.

And one of the things I discovered about Reg, the more I got to know him, was that Reg had a true servant's heart. You could ask this man to do anything for the church, and his answer would be yes. He was what one of my favorite Bible teachers, Dr. Mike Fabaris, calls an at-a-pat person.

At-a-pat, you may think, what? At-a-pat, any time, any place, anything. You could ask him, and his answer would be unhesitatingly yes. Stack chairs, yep. Mop floors, yep. He had a hobby that was calligraphy, kind of a, unfortunately, a passing hobby, but actually a really cool one.

He was really good at it. Our church had the custom that, for those who were members and regular attenders, we would have communion cards showing that you're welcome to the Lord's table. Church held to closed communion, which is a little different to how we do it here.

But nonetheless, we'd have these cards for folks, and he would, by hand, write everybody's names on these cards. You'd get them at the end of the year, and Reg was the one who did that.

One day, I was just curious,.

And I used to call him Big Man Reg. It was kind of our inside joke. I went up to Big Man Reg, and I said, Reg, level with me, what's your secret? And he said, he had a very thick South London accent that I can't replicate.

I'm from East London, so we sound very different. But he looked at me, he's like, what do you mean? I was like, why are you the way you are? Seriously, I'm just curious, why? He kind of laughed, and when he kind of pulled himself together in that thick South London accent that I can't imitate, he said, brother, I'm just serving the Lord.

I'm just serving the Lord. I couldn't help but think of Reg this week as I studied this passage, because he, like I said, one of the greatest Christians I've ever met, and I think he embodies what I believe the passage in front of us, Philippians chapter two, verses 12 to 30, is all about.

If you really wanted to summarize this whole message in two words, they're in the title of the sermon, faithful service. Faithful service, I ended up leaving that church, and we fell out of contact. I'm not sure if Reg is even still alive today.

He was quite an older gentleman. I should probably check in with some of my friends and ask. But though I haven't spoken to Reg in quite some time, his example lingers with me, because this was a man who embodied, in my opinion, the principles that you see here in this passage.

For those of you who are visiting,.

We've been working our way through the letter to the Philippians this summer, just passage by passage, which is what we typically do here at Redeemer. We work our way through books of the Bible, and we allow the point of the text and the shape of the text to determine the point of the sermon and the shape of the sermon.

So we've been working our way through Philippians, and in our last time together, we talked about humility in verses 1 to 11 of this chapter. We talked about this idea of bringing yourself low for the purpose of serving others.

And I said it last week, but allow me to say it again. If we think of humility primarily as just being really quiet and being unassuming and out of the way, if that's the only conception we have of humility, then we're actually going to miss what genuine humility is.

You see, humility doesn't just manifest itself in being all quiet, unassuming, and out of the way. Actually, true humility manifests itself in our willingness as God's people to serve God and to serve others.

I did say this last week. I talked about the towel and the basin. You know, I call it the theology of the towel and the basin. It's recognizing that we are servants, and we are the kinds of servants who, if we were called upon, should be willing to grab a towel and a basin, kneel down, and wash our brothers and sisters' feet in service, unless we think, well, I'm above that.

You can't possibly ask me to do that. Well, our Lord Jesus did that. That's where I get that phrase, the theology of the towel and the basin from, because that's what our Lord Jesus did. In one sense, we could tag this section, the joy of discipleship, because this is what discipleship really looks like.

Before it's programs and teaching and all of those things which I do think have their place, first and foremost, discipleship is, in light of who Jesus is, following after him in service. Yes, disciples are learners, but they are more than learners.

They are learners who act on what they learn by serving. And of course, as with everything in the spiritual life, serving isn't easy, especially in a world that demands service, but doesn't always expect people to offer it.

You know what I mean when I say that? We live in a culture that basically has discipled all of us, unconsciously or consciously, has discipled all of us in thinking that we are the ones who should be served before we even bother to think about being able to serve others.

In his excellent book, I actually recommended it this week in the study guide that you should have, in his excellent book, Improving Your Serve, no pun intended, Improving Your Serve, The Art of Unselfish Living, Pastor Chuck Swindoll puts his ever-wise finger on the issue of the way he puts it.

He says, quote,.

Our world has become a large, impersonal, busy institution. We are alienated from each other. Although more crowded than ever, we are lonelier than ever. Distant, pushed together, but uninvolved. No longer do most neighbors visit across the backyard fence.

The well-manicured front lawn becomes the modern moat to keep the barbarians out there at bay. Hoarding and flaunting have replaced sharing and caring. It's like we are occupying common space, but have no common interests.

As if we're, as I put it, as if we're on an elevator with rules like no talking, smiling, or eye contact allowed without written consent of the management. Painful though it may be for us to admit here in this great land of America, we're losing touch with one another.

The motivation to help, to encourage, yes, to serve, our fellow man is waning. Oh, bear in mind, he wrote that book in 1981. And for a book written in 1981, Swindoll's words don't really require a lot of changing in 2023.

Service to others, sad to say, even in the church sometimes, is not high on the old social consciousness. And so a passage like this becomes mission critical for God's people. We need to think deeply about what this passage is teaching us.

How can we stay motivated to be faithful? And not just faithful, but faithful servants in a world that doesn't value the need to serve. Really what we're talking about this afternoon is kind of swimming upstream from where our world is, from where our culture is, from where even at times the church with a big C is.

Well, how can we stay motivated to be faithful servants in a world that doesn't value the need to serve? Well, here's my big idea for this message. If you don't remember anything else I have to say, remember this.

We show the greatness of God in salvation by faithfully serving the Lord and serving one another. Real simple. We show the greatness of God in salvation by faithfully serving the Lord and serving one another.

We cannot say that we are those who have experienced the grace of God in salvation if that grace that we have received doesn't turn us from being inward facing people to outward facing people and seeking to serve one another.

And so I believe this text is going to teach us that we show the greatness of God in salvation by faithfully serving the Lord and serving one another. For the rest of our time, I wanna consider two apostolic directives.

Paul's gonna give us two big directives out of this text. Two apostolic directives for growing in faithful service to God and to others. I imagine that if you're a believer here, you want to serve the Lord and you want to serve the Lord faithfully.

Well, how can we do that and do that well? I think Paul's going to give us some advice here that I think is pretty helpful. So I want us to consider two apostolic directives for growing in faithful service to God and to others.

If you or I want to be the kinds of faithful servants who serve God and others, we should start by, well, first of all, seeking to develop the attitude of faithful servants. We should start by wanting to develop the attitude of faithful servants.

Before we can get to the business of faithful service, we have to make sure we've got our thinking straight when it comes to what faithful service is. Now, it's kind of like deciding to do a DIY project and just thinking, oh, I'm gonna pick up a hammer and some nails and just go straight to work without actually planning what it is you're trying to do.

If we're going to be faithful servants, it starts with developing the right attitude. And in the passage before us in verses 12 through 16, Paul's going to essentially give us two parts to the attitude of faithful servants.

The way we know the two parts is because they're the two commands in verses 12 and we'll see in verse 14. Consider first of all with me, if we're going to develop the attitude of faithful servants, first of all, faithful servants are committed to a growing and maturing faith.

Faithful servants are committed to a growing and maturing faith, verses 12 and 13. We've already seen this, those of you who've been here as we've walked through Philippines, Paul has been gone from the church at Philippi, this Roman colony.

He's been gone from this church for quite some time. He was involved in starting this church, but time has passed and he's not been there in a while. In fact, he's writing from prison. But as we've seen already in Philippians, while Paul had been gone, this was not a church that kind of got idle.

In chapter one, we saw that they were strong in gospel partnership, hand joining in hand together for the gospel sake. They were strong in gospel advance, seeing the gospel leave the four walls of the church, so to speak and go out into the world.

And they were strong in gospel progress, pursuing growth in the gospel as God's people. If these guys were in school, we would say that the report card is looking healthy. It's looking strong at this point.

And yet for all the good that they were doing, Paul really doesn't give them any opportunity to, my mom used to use this phrase all the time, to rest on their laurels. You know what I mean when I say that?

It's not a phrase we use often today. I think my mom used to love using it when we were growing up, this idea of, oh, I've, you know, I've done something good. I can just relax now because I did this one thing.

She would say, no, you say, no, no, no, no, no. You don't get to just rest on your laurels. And that was the same for this church. Look at what Paul says in verse 12. He says, therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, told you the report card was looking strong.

Just as you have always obeyed, so now not only in my presence, but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Work out your own salvation, a phrase that has been incredibly misunderstood by all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons.

If you grew up in churches or been around Christians who believe that you can lose your salvation, this is one of the texts they go to, emphasizing the fear and trembling part. But I actually don't think this passage is that complicated.

Yes, it's very easily misunderstood, but it doesn't have to be once you let the text speak for itself. Mind if I share a quick Bible study tip with you? Those of you who are in our summer seminar have already heard this tip from me already.

But if you're not, when you study the Bible, observation, paying close attention to what the text says is more than half the battle. For understanding any complicated passage, the first thing is just to read it a few times.

And not just read it, read it and pay close attention to what's going on. What does this passage, what does this verse say, and what does it not say? Well, really, we need to ask an answer, and I'm gonna make this very quick.

We need to ask and answer three questions to understand what Paul's getting at. Once we understand this, the rest of this gets very, very simple very quickly. The three questions you need to ask are, what does Paul mean when he says, work out your own salvation?

That's the main command here. So you kind of need to figure out what this phrase, work out, these two words, what does that mean? The second question is, well, when Paul says salvation, what does he mean?

And third, why does he say it's worked out in fear and trembling? So what does Paul mean when he says, work out your own salvation? What is the salvation he's talking about here? And why is it worked out in fear and trembling?

Well, let's, again, take our time for just a moment, work through these three questions. Number one, what does he mean when he says, work out your own salvation? Well, those two words are actually one word in the original language.

Bible wasn't written in English, it's written in Greek. So you typically wanna go back and look at what the original language says. And when you do, the word means to cause a state or condition to bring about, to produce, to create.

Okay, well, that, all right, kind of gives us an answer. The next thing you typically wanna do is, how is this word used? Because Greek was not a special language that's written for the Bible, it was a language that people spoke.

They use this language all the time. So you can go back and look at how other people use this word. And when you do that, this gets a little more interesting. There was a Roman poet, his name was Strabo, S-T-R-A-B-O, Strabo.

He uses the word that's here, that's translated work out. He used it to describe the process of working an iron mine for its ore, excuse me. So if you're familiar with mining, you typically have this large amount of rocks, within them is the ore for the precious metal you want, but you can't just obviously take the whole mountain and just use it, you've got to get the ore out of it.

You've got to extract the ore from the mine. That was the word that was used here. And it became pretty well known in Paul's day for that meaning, for extracting the value out of something. So when Paul says here that we ought to work out our, in fact, he says, work out your own salvation.

He's telling you to not work for your salvation, which you can't, by the way. The good news of the gospel is that you couldn't work for your salvation. You were dead, Ephesians chapter two. And so God gave new life through the gospel.

Through the coming of the Lord Jesus, who lived the life that we couldn't live, who died the death that we should have died, through him, we can have eternal life. We cannot work for our salvation because we were dead in our trespasses and sins.

Our salvation is something God could only do. And since that's the case, you can't work for your salvation, which again, is not what Paul says. Paul says you ought to work out your salvation. You ought to get all the value out of your salvation that can be got.

That's what he means here. Well, then that begs a second question. So not only do we need to work out our salvation, but what does salvation mean here? And again, here we need to be careful because salvation in the Bible can mean different things depending on the context.

Sometimes in the Bible, salvation can mean what happens when you are saved from the penalty of your sins. So the punishment that your sins deserve, God saves you from that. That's typically in the past tense.

The fancy term that theologians use is justification. The fact that we are declared righteous. So sometimes the Bible uses salvation in the past sense, or you can put it like this, the way in which we have been saved.

But then there is salvation in the present tense. If in the past we are saved from the penalty of sin, in the present, we are being saved from the power of it. Technical term that theologians use, sanctification, being made more like Jesus.

That the hold of sin over us is being gradually more and more over the course of a lifetime broken, imperfectly in this life to be sure. But we are being saved from the power of it. As Paul says elsewhere, sin does not have dominion over you if you are a Christian.

And then there is the future sense of salvation. So we're saved from the penalty of sin in the past, the power of sin in the present, and the presence of sin we will be saved from in the future when either Jesus comes to get us, or we go to him when we die.

The technical term for that is glorification, that we enter into glory. And that's a future sense, we will be saved. So the question becomes, what is Paul talking about here? Is it the past? Is it the present?

Or is it the future? I think the context really beginning all the way back in chapter one, verse 27 makes it clear, he's not talking about the past, and he's not talking about the future. He's talking about God's work of making us more and more like Jesus, or to use the technical term, sanctification.

God is the one who sanctifies us. We can't sanctify ourselves. We don't make ourselves sanctified, but we do respond to that work of sanctification in obedience. And we have to get that order right. It's not, I make myself holy.

It's no, God is making you holy, and you respond to that work he is doing in obedience. And so when Paul says here, work out your own salvation, he is referring to work out this work that God is doing, extract all the value you can out of his work of making you more and more like Jesus.

Everyone tracking with me so far?

Okay, good.

So what does it mean to work out your salvation? What is salvation here? My third question, what is it? Why does Paul use this language of fear and trembling? This is where people kind of camp. See, fear and trembling, because if you're not careful, you can lose it.

Calm down, please. First of all, my Bible tells me the Christian has no fear of eternal condemnation, none. And if you need a Bible verse for that, Romans chapter eight, verse one. Therefore there is, make sure I get this right.

Therefore there is now no for those who are in Christ Jesus. So no, the Christian has no fear. In fact, we'll see it later on in our reading of 1 John. He's gonna say explicitly that the Christian has no fear in terms of condemnation.

Why?

Because they know the love of God. So he can't mean that because that would contradict other passages in the Bible. No, the fear and trembling here, I'm gonna argue, is not fear and trembling because of judgment, but it's reverence for who God is and for what he has said in his word.

In fact, Paul, a few times, he's gonna allude to the Old Testament in this text. This is one of them. If you're taking notes, Isaiah 66, two talks about the person that God draws near to as the one who trembles at his word, not out of fear, but out of reverence.

The fear and trembling here is not, oh, I'm afraid if I don't do this, God won't love me. Let's be clear. If you are in Jesus Christ, God loves you with an everlasting love. No, no, no. That's not the reason for fear and trembling here.

Fear could be translated as respect or reverence. It's a proper understanding of who God is and who we are in light of who God is. And so you put all that together. And Paul is essentially saying in this verse, Philippian Christians, you're doing a wonderful job,.

But don't stop.

Keep on getting all of the value you can out of this work of sanctification that God is doing, this work of making you more like Jesus that God is doing. Get everything you can out of that. And before I go on, I would be remiss.

I wanna talk to the faith family here for just a moment. I would be remiss if I didn't ask, do you fully grasp the weight of this? I know I've just said it, but let us sit with you for just a moment. Think on it for just a minute with me.

Do you fully get what Paul is saying in these few words? I mean, let me make it more specific. Are we, and I say we, because this text is both individual and specific, individual, excuse me, and corporate.

That's what I wanted to say. Individual and corporate. It's speaking to individual people and it's speaking to the church as a group. Are we actively seeking to take every opportunity to grow, to quote Peter, 2 Peter 3 .18, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ?

That's what I wanted to get specific to our body. One of the things that we've, if you don't know this, go back on our YouTube channel. You can watch our State of the Fellowship from last February. One of the things we've said is we want to make a pillar of the culture here at Redeemer is a culture of every member equipping and training.

Part of that is fueled by texts like this, but we want to extract all the value we can out of what God has so graciously worked in as a number of commentators I read this week put it, we work out what God has worked in.

So again, speaking specifically to the faith family here, are you taking every opportunity that the church provides for this? We've had a number of them. Fellas, we have a monthly Bible study. It's on a break for the summer, but we typically have a monthly Bible study.

Ladies, I know your Bible study is still going on for the summer. Redeemer U is coming back in the fall, our purposeful training time where we're working through matters of doctrine and Christian practice so that we can be better equipped.

We keep a literature table at the back there. You may think, well, I'm not the big reader type. Well, that's why we keep the stuff on there for the most part really short. But if you said I'm going to take one of those booklets back there and once a month, I'm just going to take one a month and just work my way through it.

I've said before that our aim here at Redeemer is not to create a community of spiritual eggheads. You know what I mean when I say eggheads? Like really, really smart people who are kind of fragile and can't do much of anything.

No, we want to be a people who are getting all the value out of God's work that we can. Because you may think, why does Paul start here? He's talking about service. Why here? Simple, because you can't serve if you're not growing.

This is a weighty imperative. It's a weighty command. You can't do this on your own, but God knows that. And so does Paul. So look at what he says in verse 13. So he says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Verse 12, for it is God who is working in you, both to will and to work according to his good pleasure. The word for is working is literally what we got word energy from. That God is the energizing one who energizes us and gives us the power both, look at what he says, both to will and to work according to his good pleasure.

God gives us both the desire for a growing and maturing faith and the ability to do what is necessary to achieve growth and maturity. In a very real sense, no Christian can, this may sound harsh, but bear with me.

No Christian can say, well, God isn't giving me what I need to grow. Can't say that because God has given you everything. So Hebrews 13, we often use it as a closing benediction here in our services. Hebrews 13, may the God of peace who brought up the Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, that one that we often use.

Remember how the second half of that goes? May he equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us, same word that's used here, working in us what is pleasing in his sight. Peter says in 2 Peter 1, after he says, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

He says, his divine power, who God's divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. You see, the question of spiritual growth is never does God want me to grow?

The answer is always yes. The question is never does God want me to grow? He wants you to grow even more than you want to grow. No, the question is never does God want me to go? The question is, what will I do with what God has given me for my growth?

He gives us his word. He gives us his spirit. He gives us the means of grace, one of which we're gonna partake of at the end of our service. He gives us all the benefits of being united to Christ. And the question becomes, what will we do to extract all of the value out of those glorious deposits?

And so Paul calls the Philippians to a growing, maturing faith. And that growing, maturing faith leads to being, number two there, being committed to a joyful public witness. Being committed to a joyful public witness.

Verse 14 through to the middle of verse 16 is one thought. It looks like that even in our English translation, he kind of just says things and add things. It's all one thought. The one thought begins with a foundational command in verse 14.

So you see that there in verse 14? Do everything without grumbling and arguing. By the way, some of your translations will say without grumbling or complaining. Complaining is really not the word here.

There's a word for that. That's not this one. It's not grumbling and complaining. It's grumbling and arguing. It's where we get our word dialogue from. You see, servant-hearted people have neither the time nor the heart for grumbling.

By the way, grumbling here carries this idea of one dictionary put it like this. Behind-the-scenes talk expressing an internal dissatisfaction. We've all done this at some point. You're kind of just, the original word carries this idea of sort of a low-pitched mumble to yourself.

I'm not happy, but I'm talking to myself about how I'm not happy. Paul says you don't have time for grumbling or you don't have time for arguing. He says do everything without grumbling and arguing. And there are important reasons for not becoming grumblers and arguers, if you will.

Verse 15, do everything without grumbling and arguing so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation among whom you shine like stars in the world.

By holding firm to the word of life, then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn't run or labor for nothing. You see, the Christian who has the attitude of a faithful servant chooses the joy of service over the pain of grumbling and arguing because doing so elevates our witness.

Look at how Paul describes this. He says that we become blameless and pure, not in a sinless perfection sense. That's not what he means when he says this, but in the sense that as the people of God live in this kind of way, there are no accusations that can be thrown at us.

That stick.

People can say whatever they want, but if you aren't doing it, none of the accusations stick, don't they? So he says we become blameless and pure. He says that we show ourselves to be children of God who are faultless in a world that is crooked and perverted.