Discipleship courses at some point all emphasize this verse, and encourage the assurance of sanctification in the young believer’s life. What a promise, that no matter how discouraged or defeated the Christian is, he has the assurance that God is at work and like a master artist, the Lord will finish His masterpiece! The disorganized threads or, at best, a picture with very jagged edges or reversed coloring—that is the way our lives sometimes look. Not much beauty—until the picture is turned around and finally seen in its completion. That is like the work of the Master in our lives. In the end, we will finally see the exquisite masterpiece, made up of the many dark-lines, jagged edges woven into a smooth-flowing, beautiful image of Christ.

We must ask some hard questions of this passage. Was Paul giving his opinion and only speaking of the Philippians? Would he say the same to the Corinthians? To be sure, at times, he does seem to give an opinion, for example, “Now concerning virgins I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who by the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy” (1 Cor 7:25). But what he was saying there is that the Lord Jesus, while on earth, did not teach on the subject Paul was addressing to the Corinthians. So also in writing to the Philippians, he was speaking as the inspired Scripture writer when he says, “I am confident …” in our verse. If Paul is confident, then we can be also.

But is he talking only of the Philippians or only to faithful Christians? He just got through commending them for their faithful participation in the gospel. So is this “promise” perhaps conditional on a Christian’s faithfulness? Three things militate against this. First, the entire book is written to the Philippians, and we surely don’t discount the entire book as being only for them. Secondly, he called the Corinthians “saints” (1 Cor 1:2). So comments about sanctification cannot be limited to the believers’ faithfulness. Third, if the Philippians’ faithfulness was something Paul thanks God for (as opposed to thanking the Philippians), then their progress in the faith is credited to God, not to them.

Therefore, the promise of this verse is not limited to just the Philippians or just to faithful Christians. God in His grace began a good work in each Christian, including you and me, and He will finish His work. He will graciously combine the dark lines of our failures with many blessings, to produce a wonderful picture of Christ in us.