Imagine you have been asked to pick a verse to display in your church sanctuary. What verse would you pick?
Some churches display the Ten Commandments, which is not a good choice. The law is holy, righteous, and good, but it has no power to make you holy, righteous, and good. Displaying the Law of Moses will only stir up sin and agitate your flesh.
I would prefer to display the Law of Christ or the Law of Liberty. Since these are new covenant laws, there is no danger of them inflaming sin. But there is a danger that some will read them through the wrong lens, so maybe not.
Some churches put this psalm above their entryways:
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. (Psalm 100:4)
Other good psalms include Psalm 46:10 (“Be still, and know that I am God”) and Psalm 150:6 (“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord”).
Some display verses about the love of God, such as John 3:16 (“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”) or Romans 5:8 (“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”).
You might prefer a verse about Christian unity, such as Matthew 18:20 (“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them”), or a verse that encourages faith, such as Proverbs 3:5 (“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”).
But I have a verse that I think trumps all these choices. (If you have a better verse, let me know in the comments.) This is the verse I would pick:
For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)
Now, here is a verse to live by. It’s a verse that inspires trust in the Lord and keeps us from self-righteousness. This verse has three key phrases:
1. I am confident
What wonderful news for anxious believers. “I am confident” means “I am fully convinced” that what God has begun in you, he will see through to completion. You are not perfected by your good works but by his good work. You can count on it.
2. Good work
The great and glorious work that God is doing in your life is this: he is bringing forth your eternal identity. This is not a repair job, but a new work of creation.
In Christ, you are already new. What remains to be done is for you to grow into the person you are in him. This growth is brought about through the supernatural power of God (see Col. 2:19).
3. Will perfect it
“He will perfect it” means “he will complete it.” Your salvation and security rest on God’s faithfulness, not yours. You can trust him to finish what he began.
Saint, you do not need to worry about being half-finished or half-saved when the Lord returns. What God has begun in you, he will finish. He will bring you safely to his heavenly kingdom (1 Cor. 1:8, 2 Tim. 4:18).
He will never give up on you or write you off as a lost cause.
Isn’t that the best news ever? Isn’t this something we need to be reminded of regularly? Come on, now. Can I get an Amen?
If the church had a full revelation of what God is doing and has promised to do, we would never be tempted into dead works or law. We would quit striving and struggling and allow the Lord to shine through us.
A church that believed the words of Philippians 1:6 would be restful and fruitful. It would bear the sweet fragrance of Jesus and reveal the power of God to the lost and hurting.
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