"WORK OUT YOUR SALVATION......"
Bible Study, Philippians 2:12-13
“Therefore, my beloved, as you 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 who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13)
God expects His children to keep a humble, and repentant heart before Him, in reverent fear of the LORD.
Paul has provided an illustration here regarding the utmost seriousness in which we are to walk with God. To believe that merely saying one prayer of salvation and then just going on and living as though nothing happened is literally antagonistic to Paul’s message, especially in light of this passage. After acknowledging that his church may suffer backsliding due to his absence, he reminds them that they actually don’t need him, but God, and that they ought to rely on Him to keep themselves in Christ Jesus.
Clearly, he said these things in order to help elevate and encourage them with the hopes of preventing them from stumbling, as well as to help the backsliders turn back to God.
Paul’s words: “Work out your salvation” clearly tell us that we are to be conscientious in our day to day lives; checking with ourselves to make certain that we are following what the Bible teaches. When things come up, we may react in the moment. And when we reflect on the events of the day and recall saying something that was inappropriate, or losing our temper, or feeling a pang of jealousy, we should allow those things, along with the Holy Spirit to motivate us toward repentance.
What Paul is saying here is that we all need to keep a repentant heart and go to God in confession, even without His chastisement. Jesus didn’t die so that we would never have to repent; He died in order that we would have a Mediator, so that we may repent. And moreover, to bypass all the ritualistic, legal commands of the Law of Moses and relieve us from the cold and self-deceiving system of law, as the law makes everything about us and our performance.
Furthermore, God doesn’t want us to hide behind our Savior and use our right standing with Him as an excuse to avoid accountability. His One Time Sacrifice does not equate to our one time repentance.
Simply put, this is how to work out our salvation; to remain in Christ and look out for things that may spark an unrighteous response in us, so that these things can either be avoided altogether or that we make a point to repent over them, either immediately or when going over the events of the day that night during prayer time.
Furthermore, this understanding helps keep us in the fear of the Lord, as it demonstrates to God that we acknowledge Him as KING and reverence His Lordship over everything in our lives.
Interestingly, part of understanding the fear of the Lord is understanding how lost and hopeless our lives would be without Him…….first we would live in misery and meaninglessness, then perish, only to rise unto hell.
But, those who know the LORD already have the victory over the evil one’s plans, and are enabled to remain strong. with God’s abiding, all we need to remember is that God is there to help us, and we need to let HIM!
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25)
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