Finally, I have time and energy to get back to Bible study and blogging.  Moving is behind me, and life has settled somewhat. 

Here’s the text I’ve been studying:

“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, (12) for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (13)  Do everything without grumbling or arguing, (14) so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped [twisted in ESV] and crooked generation.  Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky (15) as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. (16) But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. (17) So you too should be glad and rejoice with me. (18)”  (NIV)

Light in the World

In Chapter 2: 1-11, Paul’s just laid out Christ’s example of humility and obedience for us – His people, His Church – to imitate. Now it seems he takes a step back and draws our attention to our activity in the world. After all, we are not meant to live in a bubble.  We are to follow Jesus who obeyed and was rewarded. (Ch 2: 9-11)

The question is:  How do we shine like lights in the world?  Verses 1-11 give us a blueprint, or road map of how we as Christians are to be.  In true Paul style, verse 12 starts with (in the ESV) “Therefore”.  The NIV uses the word further.  As always, we should ask ourselves – what is the therefore there for? I think we should look back to chapter 1.   In verse 21 Paul says, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”, but he is convinced (verse 25) that he will hang on around on this earth.  His work is not over yet. He instructs the Colossians – and us, too – to “let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ…” (vs 27a).  To stand firm in unity with other believers.  So now, after his triumphant “hymn” in 2: 1-11, he says, “Therefore”, or since then….in verse 12b: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”.

First, he commends the believers in Philippi for being obedient to the truth of the Gospel, which he has given thanks for in prayer in 1: 3-11. Their obedience is part of their imitating Christ.  Jesus obeyed and was exalted by his Father.  We too, in the pattern of Jesus, need to humble ourselves by obedience, and we also look forward to the joy of being with Christ! 

These Gentile Christians were very dear to him, and he reminds them to keep with the faith even though he is not present.  So, what does Paul mean when he says to work out our own salvation? 

A lot of believers have a hard time with this sentence.  This is something that makes us feel some tension.  And it’s important to be okay with this.  One of the main Christian doctrines we know and cherish is God’s sovereignty over everything – especially our salvation, but we also know that we have responsibility in our life as well.  We know we do not gain salvation by our own efforts; we cannot work salvation into being. Paul’s letter to the Romans makes that abundantly clear. Paul unequivocally preaches salvation by faith alone, through grace alone, in Christ alone in every letter he wrote.  Using the rule of interpretation that says to interpret difficult passages with other easier ones, we can confidently say that his command here must mean something else. 

Looking at other translations is a good start.

The NLT: “work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you to make you willing and able to obey Him.”

The CEV: “So work with fear and trembling to discover what it really means to be saved. God is working in you to make you willing and able to obey Him.”

Those two offer slightly different interpretations.  So having a look at the Greek 😊 may help.

According to the Blue Letter Bible app, to “work out” is “katergazomai” – which means to work fully, accomplish or achieve, to work out ie: to do that from which something results – bring about, result in.  Looking at other uses of the word katergazomai is also helpful.

Romans 5:3 “…knowing that suffering produces (katergazomai) [or brings about] perseverance…”

2 Corinthians 4: 17: “…for this light and momentary affliction is producing (katergozomai) for us an eternal inheritance.

Ephesians 6: 11: “…. put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand (katergazomai) against the schemes of the devil.” 

This working out means to expend energy.  To give our best effort.  There is work to be done. To be engaged with being a Christian imitating Christ!  It’s important to note the phrase work out.  Paul does not say “work FOR”, he says “work OUT”.  Jesus worked for our salvation as we saw in 2: 5-11. 

So, your work, your behaviour, your speech, your whole being, and being obedient to Christ while trusting him for our salvation is what we work out.  For faith without works is dead as the apostle James writes in his epistle.  (James 2)

This is our sanctification. Big word, I know.  The word “sanctify” comes from the Greek word “hagiasmos”, meaning holiness or “a separation”.   To sanctify something is to set it apart for special use or purpose, whereas to sanctify a person means to make him or her holy.  God starts the work in us, by filling us with the Spirit of Christ, and He continues it.  Paul wrote this in 1:6 – “And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ.”.  But we also must pursue it. God guides us to maturity, and the means are His Word and the sacraments.   

Of course, Paul doesn’t leave the reader without understanding because in the same verse he writes, “For it is God who works in you, both to WILL and to WORK, for HIS good pleasure.”  (emphasis mine). Ultimately, the only way we can work out our salvation is because God works it in us in the first place. Strive, yes.  Work hard, yes.  Do good works, yes. But remember that the only way you can have the will or desire to work for Him, to please Him is because God gives it!

So, why with fear and trembling?  Don’t take your faith, don’t take Christ himself, don’t take the gospel lightly, not as a right or just another thing in life.  Our Almighty, Eternal, Infinite God is not a god to be trifled with!  He is holy and awesome and fearful!  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God! (Hebrews 10: 31).  But fear and trembling is not only the response to something horrible, it is also a response to being struck with great joy!  Two passages are instructive for this.  First, Mark 16:8: The women who had gone to Jesus’s tomb early Sunday morning were met by an angel who told them that Jesus had risen.  Their response?  “They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them.”  (not because of disbelief either!).  Or as Matthew writes in 28:8:
“They departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy.”  This is a believing heart! An appropriate response for Christians to have!

Working out our salvation looks like what the author of Hebrews wrote in 12: 1-2 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us…”.  Paul writes to the Corinthians in his first letter, 9: 24 “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”  And later in his letter to the Philippians, in 3: 13,14 “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  Finally, in Paul’s letter to Timothy – likely one of the last letters he wrote – he writes, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

We work out our salvation with perseverance – keeping our eyes on Jesus – the Author and Perfector of our faith.  How?  God’s power at work in us through His Holy Spirit in our inner being. (Ephesians 3: 16).  We can say that Paul’s exhortation to work out their salvation with fear and trembling is like his race metaphor as cited above. We’ve been given salvation and the Holy Spirit, and now we work with it – we imitate Christ in his humility and obedience, striving towards unity, focused on Jesus, remembering that the only way we can do it is because God first wills it in us and gives us what we need to do His work.  And we do this so that we will shine like lights in the world.  Practically, how do we shine?

Verse 14: “Do all things without grumbling or disputing…”. If we follow Christ and seek unity in the Body, it naturally follows that our outward interactions should be seen as kind, calm, loving.  Verse 15: “that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world…”

Grumbling, disputing etc are sins.  We need to fight sins (not just those ones).  God gives us a gift of grace in our salvation.  Our responsibility or duty or obligation is to work out our salvation and obey.  To work it out over sin.  We need to be different, appear different, act differently, speak differently than the world does. No, we do not isolate ourselves. Paul assumes we will continue to live in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.

Paul wrote this in the year AD 60 or so.  Here we are, two millennia later and well, we still live in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.  There is nothing new under the sun because sin still reigns in the hearts of all people.  Our society does not consider humility, joy, selflessness, unity, putting others first etc as good ways to get ahead, or to live without attracting unwanted attention!  The world is prideful, disunified (our countries in North America seem totally divided!), grumbly, dissatisfied, selfish.  Even though the Church will be persecuted by a crooked and twisted generation, the imitation of Christ, unity with other believers, and living rightly before the Lord is of utmost importance. 

Ultimately, don’t we desire to hear God say to us, “Well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master”? We need to walk in Christ’s ways – we need to appear “blameless and innocent” – we should take every effort to ensure that we give no cause for the world to accuse us of wrongdoing. That’s a high standard!  But we are IN CHRIST.  We must live in a sinful world as lights that shine. People should be able to see our good deeds and be led to glorify God in heaven.  We are not to be hidden or covered up – as Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount.  This reminds me of the old Newsboys song “Shine”!

So, how do we do this?  Paul’s got a lot of commands for us!  But Paul does not leave us without help.  Verse 16: “holding fast to the word of life….”.  Hold on to Christ! Hold on to the Gospel! He is the Word of God – He has the words of life – He is the Author and Perfector of our faith!  “…so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”

Paul seems to have a fatherly appeal here to his children in the faith in Philippi.  Paul is saying that when Jesus returns – or when he is called home – he wants to see that those whom he preached to and taught and discipled HAVE held fast to Christ!  It’s like he’s saying, “I just want to know that all my work actually amounted to something.”  He has race and toil imagery in mind when he writes “that I did not run or labor in vain.” See the connection to verse 12 about working out your salvation?

Finally, verses 17 and 18:

“Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.  Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.”

Sounds like Levitical sacrificial language!  Paul is saying that even if he is persecuted and sacrificed/put to death for his faith and that of others, including the church in Philippi – he will rejoice and be glad!  Here’s my paraphrase of the last few verses: “First, I just want to know that my work in not in vain. But even if I don’t see that here, even if I die as a martyr – I will still rejoice in Jesus Christ.”

Okay, what is this “poured out like a drink offering”?  First notice that this is language similar to Jesus’s crucifixion, the Last Supper and our Lord’s Supper.  Jesus was poured out like a drink offering on the cross – his blood was poured out for us. And the cup of blessing is poured out for us.   Paul writes this in 2 Timothy 4:6: “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering to God. The time of my death is near.”. Note the difference: “even if I am” in Philippians, and “I am” in Timothy.  When he wrote this letter to the church in Philippi, he was not near death yet.  But with his letters to Timothy, his death was imminent as he waited in a Roman jail.    Paul’s life in service to Christ was ultimately a sacrificial life – and we know that being disciples of Christ Jesus means we too can expect suffering.  You could say persecution is par for the course in the Christian life!

Just a bit of information behind the “poured out like a drink offering”:  As per Bibleref.com, in the Old Testament, after a priest sacrificed a lamb, ram, or bull, he would pour wine beside the altar. This symbolized the dedication of a person in worship to God.  In Paul’s life, he felt his life was being poured out as an act of worship on behalf of those he served.  From GotQuestions.org, in the New Testament, the pouring out of a drink offering is a metaphor for the blood of Jesus spilled on the cross. Jesus spoke to this directly in Luke 22:20 when he instituted the New Covenant. He picked up a cup of wine and said, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”  Jesus’s sacrifice fulfilled the need of a drink offering, his blood literally pouring out when the soldier pierced his side with a spear. (John 19: 34).

Paul not only sees himself as a drink offering being poured out – but he emphasizes that his attitude is one of joy, of gladness, so he asks for the same in return.  He does not want them to think of his sacrifice as a bad thing, something to cry and grieve over. He’s already told them that even if his detractors are preaching Christ in order to afflict him (1: 15-18), not to be sad or grieved by it.  He’s already told them his suffering is for good, that Christ is to be honored above all.  (1: 19 -ff).

All this reminds me of what Paul wrote in Romans 8: 26 – 30:

“Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit.  For the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to God’s will.  And we know that for those who love Christ, all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose.  For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son in order that he might have first place among many brothers.”

I know this was only on 7 verses, but there is so much richness to pull out that it’s worth spending this much time on a few verses.

I pray that if you are reading this that in some way you are encouraged in your walk with Christ, or that you are convicted to do your own Bible study.   I write this blog to put my learning in a place where others can critique it, learn from it, and perhaps I will be corrected on something, which is a good thing! 

Again, these notes that I write are from my own Bible Study using the technique that Jen Wilkin taught in Women of the Word.  If you’d like to read that book and you’re local to me in Abbotsford, BC, I’m happy to let you borrow mine.  Or just buy it – it’s worth it!   I don’t use the notes from my study bibles or commentaries.  That’ll come later. 

Grace and Peace!