Philippians 2:16 (NLTse)
Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ's return,
I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not
useless.
This verse immediately follows the idea of being shining
lights in a dark world. Not only are we to walk blamelessly in order to be
shining lights, but we are to “hold firmly to the word of life.” The word
translated “hold firmly” can mean to either hold firmly or to hold out to
someone else. The word is used in classical Greek to refer to offering or
holding out a wine goblet, offering it to someone. If the idea is to hold firmly
to the word of life then it means to live and speak in a way that does not
compromise the truth of God’s Word. Certainly, there are several passages of
Scripture that would teach us that. Jude wrote that we might “contend earnestly
for the faith.” As believers, we must not only stop grumbling and disputing, be
we must never compromise the truth of God’s Word.
The interesting thing is that this verse immediately follows
the statement about being shining lights. Contextually it makes sense to
understand this verse to be saying that we ought to be holding forth or holding
out the truth of the gospel to a broken world. We have the truth that sets free
and transforms lives. Fear causes us to turn inward. Even if we stop fighting
and arguing, there is still the need to communicate the Good News to the world.
Turning inward, building walks to protect us from the sins of the world fails
to accomplish our purpose of making disciples. We must not only live by the Word,
we must also share the truth of the Word, the Good News of Jesus Christ.
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