Therefore, my loved ones, just as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence—work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For the One working in you is God—both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you might be blameless and innocent, children of God in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation. Among them you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that I may boast in the day of Messiah that I did not run or labor in vain. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and the service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. The same way, you also—rejoice and share your joy with me!
Phil 2:12-18
We truly are at the crossroads with this Gem. Having just finished our detailed study of That Majestic Passage we are now faced with the verses you see above. We now have to recover from our marathon as one friend put it – “I feel a bit like we have just finished a marathon.” I like it. A Bible Marathon. Yes that’s it. That Majestic Passage was just like running a Bible Marathon. But having recovered from the Marathon, what are we now going to do? We need to have our wits about us as we begin the next segment. Is Paul really saying after all Jesus went through on our behalf, we now must work out our own salvation in fear and trembling? Really? I have heard variations on that theme on more than one occasion. Be careful. It is possible after running a marathon to slip slide into indifference. We talked about the false apostles and the false teachers in the Nuggets recently. I will return to them in the up coming Nugget. Is Paul really suggesting that we must work out our own salvation after giving us such a majestic view of Jesus and what He did on our behalf?
Take time with this Gem to ponder the thought and see what you conclude to be the purpose of this next segment.
- Is it connected to what has gone before it?
- Is Paul really now telling us to work out our own salvation?
- What does he mean by that statement?
- How do we read this paragraph which follows That Majestic Passage?
Beware the false teachers and the spiritual abusers. Time for you to do some pondering before we embark on the next run.
. . . Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. [ASV]Phil 2:12
How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?
Galatians 3:3 [NLT]
Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing!
Ephesians 2:8-9 [MSG]
Do I need to give you any more verses or it is clear now?
Ian Vail