Day 3 – Read Philippians 2:1-18, Pray Psalm 19:14

When our lives are lived without grumbling or disputing, what do we prove ourselves to be (vs. 15-16)?  How might these things relate to one another?  Let’s be very practical.  Take your neighborhood or workplace as an example.  Will you be seen as children of God, above reproach, as lights in a dark world, if you grumble and dispute like everybody else?  What if you live out the gospel in the power of the Spirit and do not grumble or dispute like the world around you?  Which will identify you as a child of God?  Jesus’ words come to mind here, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God (Matthew 5:9).

This is an essential realization.  Being a Christian is about…well, it’s about being a Christian.  Not doing certain “Christian” things.  It is who we are before what we do.  If you are a believer in Christ you are a Child of God in Christ.  That is your identity, your security, your destiny, your authority. 

Walk in that identity.  Grumbling and disputing, negative attitudes and speech are not consistent with who you are in Christ!  They don’t belong!  Walk in your authority as a Child of God (John 1:12), and replace those things which don’t belong in the life of a child of God in Christ with those things

which do belong, and which show you to be a child of God, a straight guide to a crooked generation, a light in a dark place!  This is the gospel confidence challenge!  Be who you are!  Not like the world! 

Ephesians 4:29 gives us the put off/put on principle related to speech, based on our new identity in Christ.  Put off the old self and put on the new, Gospel-driven, Christ-honoring self. 

 ²⁹ Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. ³⁰ Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

What speech are we to put off?  What speech are we to put on?  What are some examples of unwholesome speech? 

What defines the replacement speech?   What are some examples of words that are good for edification, as opposed to unwholesome?  Child of God, unwholesome words do not belong!  Replace them with edifying speech!  .