The Apostle Paul sets one of the higher bars of morality when he says, “Do all things without murmurings and disputings” (Philippians 2:14). For surely one could do some things without murmurings. Spa days. Ice cream when it is sunny with a high of 75. Now, the depravity of man teaches that a man can fuss over a double scoop of Mint Chocolate Chip in a dipped cone. But, the point remains, sometimes it is harder to get on without compalining. Sometimes there is laundry to do. Sometimes the bank account runs low. Sometimes the math homework never ends, leaving the young people saying with the psalmist, “Where can I go from you, geometry? Where can I flee from your theorems?”

It is a good thing that this prohibition againt murmuring is delivered right after we are told to work out our salvation for it is God who works in us. Because if God does not work in you, it will be grumbling of every sort. The world is bent and twisted. But you are called to be blameless sons of God in the midst of a perverse nation. And the only way to be a son of God is to look to the Son for cleansing. “As a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).