Now more than ever we need to work out our salvation by being lights in this fallen world through loving our neighbor as ourselves.
Do any of you love to work out? From what I understand, it’s an acquired taste. A person may begin a workout regimen and hate it right off the bat, but then as they keep at it week after week, they begin to see positive results mentally, physically, or both. The hard work of working out almost becomes addicting and before they know it, they do love to work out!
The bottom line is anything good for us requires hard work, whether it be monetarily, emotionally, physically, or even spiritually, and with that hard work, pain may come at the start. Seems to contradict the goal, doesn’t it?
However, I believe that humans, by nature, have a desire to work out things for themselves. We see it in the Bible and we see it in certain religions, where doing works is more palatable than accepting God's free gift of salvation.
So how do we reconcile Paul’s statement in Philippians 2:12b, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling?” Doesn’t that contradict the fact that we cannot work our way into heaven and that God has given us the free gift of His Son Jesus who finished the work on the cross?
Philippians 2:13 gives us the answer, “For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
You might respond, “Okay, so... how do I work out my salvation?"
Let’s look at how together:
Recognize God’s Power Within You
As we discussed, working out takes willpower, discipline, and a stick-to-it attitude. There needs to be a strong desire to start working out, discipline to continue, and a stick-to-it attitude for it to become a habit. We can apply this same series of attitudes to our walk of obedience to the Lord by first recognizing God’s power within us to renew our minds to that end.
The Apostle Paul tells us in the verse mentioned earlier that it is GOD who works in us! Jeremiah 32:17 expands upon that further: “We believe that you made the heavens and the earth by your great power and your outstretched arm. And that nothing is too hard for you, Lord God. So we pray boldly for things that are impossible apart from you.”
So how do we apply this to working out our salvation? By recognizing God’s power within us “both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13b). Obedience is hard. Yes, I said it. In our sinful state, even as children of God, we can easily fall prey to our selfish hearts and choose what we want rather than what God has called us to do. Sometimes it can feel impossible to stop sinning. Like Romans 7:18b-19 says, “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”
When we recognize God’s power within us, we will pray boldly for things that are impossible apart from God. We need to ask God to help us with any besetting sin we might have and seek Him with our whole heart for help to walk in obedience day after day. In doing so, we will be working out our salvation through the power of God at work within us.
Obey the Spirit’s Leading
Like me, I’m sure you’ve all had that little nudge from the Holy Spirit prompting you to do something. Too often, though, we might respond like Moses in Exodus 4:13: “But Moses said, 'Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.'” Moses felt that he did not have the gift of speach even though God told Him He would give Him the words to speak! That being said, did Moses really even want to go? It would appear he didn’t want to. We can be like that, right? We try to justify our reasons, but the reality is, for whatever reason, we just don’t want to do it. It could be fear, it could be selfishness, it could be any number of reasons, all of which have their root in Satan trying to stop us in our tracks in serving God.
Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” This is how we work out our salvation, by obeying the Spirit’s leading and completing the works He prepared for us to do before the world began.
Repent of Anything Contrary to God’s Will
Even though we have received the free gift of salvation, it doesn’t mean that we have a free pass to sin or to live our lives independent from Christ. I know I’m stating the obvious, but sometimes, we can act that way without even realizing it. How do we act that way? Through selfishness. And I’m sure you all would be nodding your heads in agreement. Selfishness is a real struggle for most people. It makes sense. Of course, we want to look out for ourselves, but we end up taking that too far.
I would say that a majority of the difficult stories in the Bible all had their root in selfishness and pride. Wanting what they wanted at any cost. All wars start in this manner. Most crimes are a result of selfishness. Selfishness is wanting our will and not God’s.
Philippians 2:3-7, which leads up to our passage on working out salvation, says, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” Here, we see in context that this is a means of working out our salvation.
How do we put this into practice? By repenting of our selfishness whenever a selfish thought comes to mind and repenting immediately. We would then find that a lot of issues we deal with such as anger, frustration and anxiety would all disappear.
By becoming disciplined in this manner, immediately repenting of anything contrary to God’s will, we will indeed be working out our salvation through our accountability to God with every selfish thought. In that moment, He will renew our minds to seek after His will.
Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself
The interesting revelation about our topic on working out your salvation is how the entire passage in Philippians 2 is basically giving instructions on how to obey the second commandment which is “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31). “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12b) is literally bookended by those admonitions.
Let's take a look at Philippians 2:14-16b which are Paul’s final exhortations regarding working out your salvation. “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life.”
Now more than ever we need to work out our salvation by being lights in this fallen world through loving our neighbor as ourselves.
This past April, I had the privilege of being able to see the total eclipse of the sun. There are no words to describe the experience. When the moon fully covered the sun and we could take our eclipse glasses off, to see the licks of fire shooting out all around and to watch the darkness fall and the stars come out, I felt like I had a special glimpse into God’s handiwork. I was especially struck by the fact that when there was just the slightest sliver of sun showing through before the total eclipse, there was still a dusk-like lighting outside. It amazed me that so little of the sun could be showing and still create that much light!
If you feel like you don’t have much to offer in the Kingdom of God, that you don’t have spiritual gifts that could do great things for God, I’m here to tell you that you do! Even if you are not a great evangelist filling stadiums with thousands of people, your light has great impact. You may feel your light is small, but like my experience with the eclipse, even though your perception of how you light up the world may seem small, I am telling you that your light is significantly impactful to those you come in contact with.
Don’t ever feel that your light doesn’t matter because it does! Matthew 5:14-16 says, "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven".
When we show the love of Christ to others and let our light shine to all mankind, we are working out our salvation.
May we all work out our salvation not in our own strength but by allowing GOD’s strength to showcase His power and the free gift of salvation that lives within us by recognizing God’s power, obeying the Spirit’s leading, repenting of anything contrary to God’s will, and loving our neighbors as ourselves.
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