Today's verse will be familiar to many of us but read it, along with the Devotion, with an open mind. What is God saying to you?
Therefore, my
dear friends, as you have always obeyed — not only in my presence, but now much
more in my absence — continue to work out your salvation with fear and
trembling.
Philippians 2:12 (NIV)
As
Christians, our salvation is a gift given to us by God’s grace, through
Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and not something achievable through merit,
penance, good deeds, being nice to everyone, or any other way. This verse is clearly not about earning our
salvation.
So,
what exactly does this verse mean?
Two ways
of looking at it come to mind:
- Work out. This verse challenges us to ask the question, ‘What does being saved look like, day to day?’ It refers to our walk as Christians – we are to figure out what that walk should look like.
- Outworking. We don’t just have salvation, like some trophy on the mantle piece. Our salvation should be a lifestyle choice, which involves our motivations and actions. We live differently because we have salvation and this is the outworking of our salvation. This is sanctification (becoming more like Christ).
Some
examples:
God
says ‘Be Holy as I am Holy.’ How does this affect my life, for example, what
comes out of my mouth or what I choose to think about? Asking these questions
is working out my salvation. Being holy (or godly) is the outworking of discovering
what it means to be holy. Perhaps this
means that I keep my mouth shut instead of joining in gossiping at work or maybe
it involves a decision not to watch that particular TV show which has explicit
sex and violence in it.
Jesus
commanded us to love one another. Working out my salvation causes me to ask
questions about love. Do I really love others? Do I love those who are
difficult to love? Loving others is the
outworking of my salvation. We should be stamped with a hallmark of love, which
reads ‘We love because He first loved us.’ This is working out our salvation.
We
are taught to forgive others. Working out our salvation is a lifestyle of being
quick to forgive and continuing to do so, however many times we may need to.
Working
out our salvation also causes us to ask the question, ‘What is my mission?’ and
to pursue that purpose or calling we have been given.
What
about all this ‘fear and trembling’? This passage is part of a letter, which Paul
was writing to the followers of Christ in Philippi, in Macedonia. It was in
this same city that Paul (along with Silas) was thrown into prison and then
experienced his miraculous release.
Firstly,
here’s what I believe ‘fear and trembling’ isn’t. It is not God wanting us to
have anxiety over whether or not we’re saved. God desires our walk to be godly
and convicts us as we allow Him to correct us, but He does not condemn us nor
desire us to be physically terrified about our salvation. His grace covers all
of our shortcomings.
‘Fear
and trembling’ are Paul’s words and I can see two reasons for his use of them.
- Paul knew better than most the costs and risks involved in following Christ and he was urging the Philippians to be wise to and prepared for the possible persecution they may endure.
- God is serious about holiness. His grace is free but it is not designed to be a free ride. God’s desire is that the outworking of our salvation would be honouring to Him, pleasing to others, healthy for our own wellbeing and world changing.
© Rosaleen Donnan 2014