Philippians 2
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
No one knows who first thought that being spiritual means withdrawing from the world and living like a hermit, but the idea entered the Christian church at an early period and has had detrimental effects ever since. You may of heard of a monk named Simon Stylites who sat atop a fifty foot high pillar to avoid contact with the world. There was also an Egyptian hermit Anthony that lived most of his life in a desert to get away from the world.
Living in isolation from society is not being spiritual. You will however find folks that will live this way thinking they are doing God’s will.
No Christian must ever say that spending time alone with God is unnecessary, especially time spent in prayer. Yet to live without interaction with the world does not give our prayer and meditation time a practical application. Our Lord who prayed alone in the garden of Gethsemane not only ate with sinners, but he also sought out sinners to eat with. If we are to be more like Christ, what does this tell us?
If we have truth revealed to us in prayer and meditation the full value is cut short if we do not share with others. The world needs to see how a Christian can overcome the power of sin. Your reaction to life’s problems, problems that both the believer has and the non-believer has, will speak more to the world, than you may know. But how can a non-believer see your reaction, if you refuse to eat with him, because he is not a believer and does things that non-believers often do?
In our text we see an example of the role of obedience and humility in living the Christian life that is found in the life of Christ and how Paul used this example to show us the way in which we should be just as Christ. He writes.. “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
Bishop Handley Moule wrote of these verses,
“We have still in our ears the celestial music, infinitely sweet and full, of great paragraph of the incarnation, the journey of the Lord of love from glory to glory by the way of the awful cross. May we not now give ourselves awhile wholly to reverie, and feast upon the divine poetry at our leisure? Not so; the immediate sequel is that we are to be holy. We are to act in the light and wonder of so vast an act of love, in the wealth and resource of ‘so great salvation.’ We are to set spiritually to work.”
Have you noticed that Paul uses the word “wherefore” twice in these verses? “Wherefore” means “because of this” and points to two parallel results of Christ conduct. Jesus Christ humbled himself and was obedient, “wherefore” God exalted him. Also, Jesus showed the course of humility and obedience; wherefore the Christian is to work out his or her salvation.
Some believers thinking they are in the will of God, refuse to eat in places like Applebees because they have a bar that offers beer in them. Can these isolationists not see the impact a believer can have on others if they would allow their light to be seen before others? Think about this for a moment. If Christ had not come into a sinful world, would we have salvation? What if Christ had looked at the sinful world in the same way isolationists perceive the sinful place that serves alcohol? What if he refused to be with sinners such as they? Thank God Christ was not like that.
Philippians 2:12 is a problem for Christians who neglect the context and assume as a result that the verse supports the idea of a self-help salvation. People that see salvation in this light, feel we must help God in our salvation. God gives us maybe 60 percent and we must get the rest on our own. This turns the grace of God into a system of works and merit.
The verse does not teach this at all. On the contrary it teaches that because you are already saved, God has entered your life in the person of the Holy Spirit, you therefore, have his power at work in you, and because of these things you are now to strive to express this salvation in your conduct.
Going by the text alone it is the only clear meaning of the sentence itself. The verse does not say, “work for your salvation” or “work toward your salvation” or “work at your salvation.” It says “work out your salvation”. In other words you have your salvation inside before you begin to work it out. No one can work his salvation out unless God has already worked it in.
When a person comes to the truth of the gospel he still has the same problems, the same misconceptions, the same sins. He now has the Holy Spirit within his heart, and as he responds to the work of the Holy Spirit, he begins to see that the salvation he already has must express itself in action. His salvation must be seen distinctly in his conduct.
If you have known God’s deliverance in your life, then you have entered upon a lifetime of God’s training and encouragement and are to seek to express the character of God in all that you do. You are not to hide this character from the world, by withdrawing from the world. We must live along side the world and let the world see our changed life as God works in us.
Verse 13 tells us…”For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
It is God that is at work in us. God’s working begins with our will.
Notice the word “will” comes before “do” in the verse. God must take over our will, in order for us to do what we should.
Man’s will is the problem folks. Before salvation we want and live for our own will. We reject God, because we long for our sinful ways. After salvation God begins the new work in us, bringing us into his will. If you have seen this truth, you are ready to see that the same God who works in you also, through that, will DO according to his good pleasure.
Ephesians 2
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Have you had that experience? Have you felt the power of God within enabling you to do what God desires? Songwriter Charles Wesley knew God’s power. He wrote…
He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.
The power of God in the believer’s life should be shown and not hidden from the sinful world. Not in that we can boast in what we have done, but in which Christ has worked in us.