In his letter to the Philippians, the Apostle
Paul writes about all the things the people there have been doing. And he
says he rejoices at all of it. Paul rejoices at the faith the people have
shown. He rejoices at all the good things they’ve done. He rejoices
that they’ve stayed unified and are able to work together for the Lord.
He even rejoices at all the things he believes they’re going to be able to do,
more things and better things, because they are allowing the Holy Spirit to
work through them.
But then, Paul writes this: “Continue to work out
your salvation with fear and trembling.”
What’s that about? What does Paul mean that we need
to “work out our salvation”? After all, we’re saved by our faith in Jesus
Christ as the Savior, right? What more is there that we need to “work
out”? Did Jesus not work it all out for everyone when he was crucified
and took the punishment that should have gone to us? What’s Paul talking
about?
And how about the “fear and trembling” part? What’s
up with that? I mean, God loves us, right? God is full of grace and
mercy and forgiveness. And besides, salvation is the thing we all
want. Salvation is the best thing there is, really. So what’s this
“fear and trembling” thing? How do “fear and trembling” fit into
salvation?
Well, I think the answer to both of these questions is in
the very next thing Paul writes. Paul writes, “For it is God who works in
you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose”
You and I work out our salvation by doing God’s will.
We work out our salvation by allowing God to act in and through us. We
work out our salvation by fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives.
This section comes right after the section we read last
week, the one about humility. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
Remember what Paul said humility is--valuing others above ourselves. So,
if you and I are going to do this, we need to put God in first place, others in
second place, and ourselves in third place. In other words, the only way
we work out our salvation is to put aside our own will, so we can do God’s
will. We work out our salvation by putting aside our selfishness and
self-centeredness and allowing Got to act through us. We work out our
salvation by putting aside our own plans and purposes, so we can fulfill God’s
purposes.
So okay, that may be how we work out our salvation.
But what about the fear and trembling? Why are fear and trembling part of
working out our salvation?
Fear and trembling are part of it because what we’re
talking about is not an easy thing to do. It’s not easy because it
involves letting go of control of our own lives. It involves giving that
control to God.
And that’s scary. If we talk it seriously, it’s
scary. It does involve “fear and trembling”. Because if we give
control of our lives to God, we don’t know what God is going to do with them.
The thing is that most of us are really fairly happy with
our lives as they are. Not over-the-moon happy are anything. We
know our lives are not perfect. Most of us can think of ways our lives
could be made better. Sometimes those ways involve winning the Powerball,
but still. We know our lives are not perfect.
But while we know our lives are not perfect, most of us are
relatively happy with the way our lives are. And if we’re not happy, at
least we’re fairly comfortable with it. It’s what we know. We’ve
come to terms with our lives. Yeah, things could be better, but things
could be worse, too. So, we go with it. It’s what we’re used to,
and for the most part, it’s okay.
But if we give control of our lives to God, well, who knows
what might happen God might have all kinds of things in store for us that
we never would have thought of and that we never wanted to be any part
of. God might take us to places we really don’t want to go. God
might give us things to do that we really don’t want to do. God might
give us people to be with whom we really don’t want to be with. And God
might also lead us to give up things that we really don’t want to give up.
All of those things are scary. When we work out our
salvation by truly giving control of our lives to God, we are taking a giant
leap of faith. There’s a lot of fear and trembling involved in working
out our salvation.
And the thing is, for us to truly work out our salvation,
we need to do this completely willingly. If we give up control
reluctantly, if we give up control half-heartedly, if we give up control
grudgingly, that’s not going to result in working out our salvation. The
first time something does not go the way we want it to go, we’ll try to take
that control back for ourselves. Listen to what Paul writes: “Do
everything without grumbling or arguing”.
We cannot work out our
salvation by just kind of giving control of our lives to God. We cannot
work out our salvation by just giving control of part of our lives to
God. You and I need to give control of all of our lives to God, so
God can work in us “to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.”
That’s not an easy thing to
do. I cannot say I’ve done it. But listen to what Paul says happens
when we do: we “become blameless and pure, children of God without fault
in a warped and crooked generation.” We will “shine among them like stars
in the sky”, because we “hold firmly to the word of life.” And then, Paul
says, “I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor
in vain.”
That sounds awesome, don’t you
think? To shine like stars in the sky? To become blameless and pure
children of God? Not only would that be awesome, but it’s what the world
needs right now, right? Paul wrote about “a warped and crooked
generation”. It seems like there’s a lot of warpedness and crookedness
going on, and I think there’s not just one generation responsible for it.
We’re in some really strange
times right now. There seems to be a lot of darkness, and not a lot of
light. But these are the times when Christians are needed most. The
world needs us, as Christians, to shine like stars in the sky.
Now, I don’t mean that in an
arrogant way. The world does not need Christians who say, “Look at
me! Look at me! Look at how I shine!” I mean, again, last
week we talked about how we’re supposed to be following Jesus’ example of
humility. Jesus did not brag about how great he was. And you and I
are not supposed to brag about how great we are, either.
So, how do we shine? How
do we become this light that the world needs? Some of you probably
already know what I’m going to say. We become that light by following
Jesus Christ. We become that light by doing the things Jesus told us to
do.
The things Jesus told us to do
are pretty simple. Not easy, but simple. We’ve been through them
before, several times. Love God. Love your neighbor. Love
your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Treat others the
way you’d like them to treat you. Go and make disciples of Jesus Christ.
Again, those things are not
easy, but they are simple. And one of the reasons they’re not easy is
because they’re not what the world tells us to do. The world does not
tell us to love our enemies. The world tells us to attack our
enemies. The world does not say to pray for those who persecute us.
The world tells us to turn the tables on them and persecute them. The
world does not tell us to treat others the way we’d like them to treat
us. The world tells us to treat others the way they actually do treat
us. If someone acts like a jerk toward us, we’re supposed to be jerks
back. And make disciples of Jesus Christ? The world tells us to
keep that Jesus stuff to ourselves.
Again, it’s simple, but it’s
not easy. But as the saying goes, if it was easy everyone would do
it. If it was easy Jesus would not have had to come to tell it to
us. If it was easy, being a Christian would not be any big deal.
But being a Christian is a big deal. It has always been a big deal.
And being a Christian is as big a deal now as it has ever been.
Paul says that, when the people
of Philippi do this, “I am glad and rejoice with all of you.” And he
says, “So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.” Following Jesus is
something we should all rejoice about. And bringing someone else to
Christ is something we should rejoice about, too.
Much of this world is “warped
and crooked”, as Paul puts it. It needs the light that we, as Christians,
can give it. When we work out our salvation in this way, it does not just
help us. It helps everyone around us. If enough of us do it, it
will help the whole world. We may have some fear. We may even
tremble. But we can do this. We can shine like stars in the
sky. And when we do, the whole world will be drawn to our light.
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