Vol. XXXIX September 4, 2007 No 9
WORKING OUT WHAT GOD IS WORKING IN
by Tom McLemore
In Philippians 2:12, 13, Paul writes, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” God’s people need continual motivation to be active and fervent in the service of Christ, and this passage provides a great encouragement to Christians. When understood fully, it suggests wonderfully the objective to which we must dedicate ourselves.
Obedience to God and Christ
Philippians 2:12 identifies a prevalent problem often observed among God’s people–superficial motivation. Leadership is essential, but the object of leadership in Christ is to produce a response to God and Christ which is not dependent upon the leadership, i.e., which can continue even in the absence of the leader. How often has leadership promoted dependence upon the leader so that when then leader should be absent, there is no activity. This is the result (whether unwittingly or intentionally) of leaders’ promoting dedication to themselves rather than to Christ.
How often have ministers conducted their work, making everything revolve around them, so that when they leave a congregation the work slows to a halt? How many times has the work been the minister’s or some other leader’s alone, never coming to have been “owned” by the church? Too often have church leaders allowed and promoted this, and as the result, progress has been limited. The biblical model calls for ministers (and all other leaders) “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11).
This can happen in families as well as churches. When children who were brought up in a Christian home are not faithful when they leave home, the question is raised as to whether the parents succeeded in promoting dedication to Christ. They were able to produce obedience while the children were at home, but there was a failure to cultivate genuine faith in Christ which would produce dedication to Christ in life after leaving home.
Paul manifests a healthy model of leadership, one wherein people are motivated to obey God and Christ whether the leader is present or absent. Clearly, his approach to leadership was to cultivate a direct relationship to God and Christ and to urge obedience to them. Thus, the response was the same whether he was present or absent. The only hope for progress in the church is for leaders to succeed in focusing the motivation in a direct relationship between the people and God and Christ.
Work Out Your Own Salvation
The terms “your” (Philippians 1:27, 28) and “your own” (Philippians 2:12) are in contrast to Paul’s thoughts of his immediate “salvation,” particularly his deliverance from his present situation of being imprisoned for the cause of Christ (see Philippians 1:19; 2:23). How Paul’s deliverance may be “worked out” he describes in Philippians 1:20-26. With these thoughts in mind, and characteristically for Paul, he broadens his view to encompass the general salvation of his brethren. More concerned about their eternal destiny than his immediate condition, and viewing his present plight only as it may affect their eternal well being, he writes to encourage them. This is the backdrop for the appeal to “work out your own salvation.”
What does this appeal mean? Paul certainly does not encourage people to ignore the standard of authority (the holy scriptures) and to formulate one’s own way of salvation according to human wisdom. Paul does not mean, “Figure your salvation out for yourself.” In this postmodern, pluralistic age, where standards and authority are readily denounced and resisted, it is most important to recognize that there is one faith once for all delivered unto the saints (Ephesians 4:5; Jude 3). That one faith will be the authoritative standard until the last day and is that to which every soul must conform as long as earth stands.
It is true that living faith is active faith (Hebrews 11; James 2:14-26), and it is true that it is God’s plan that his people engage in good works, because it is precisely unto good works that we are created in Christ (Ephesians 2:10, et. al.). These general truths form a solid foundation and prepare us to consider precisely what Paul is saying in our text.
Salvation is a process which is begun at conversion and brought to completion in the day of Christ. Paul wrote the Philippians while “[b]eing confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). Salvation is not the beginning of the process alone or the end result alone, but the whole process. What Paul is urging here is to see the process through to the finish. That is why it is so important to “hold fast to what we have attained” (Philippians 3:16).
Furthermore, “your own” is in comparison to Christ’s work to bring about salvation. The obedience of Christ is the model for the Philippians, and the point of connection with the Christ hymn of vv. 5-11 is the fact that Christ went all the way that it was necessary to go (from equality with God to the utter lowest level of the humiliation of the death of the cross as a voluntary slave) in order to produce our salvation. Also, the fact that glory and exaltation follow obedience, as the Christ event shows, encourages the willingness to go the distance that the Philippians must go in order to see their own salvation through to the finish. So it is with us.
“Your own salvation” may also refer to the absence of the apostle, who is indisposed to be able to help them in person. They must assume responsibility without the benefit of his personal encouragement. Just as Christ suffered, Paul was suffering, and the Philippians were permitted to suffer (Philippians 1:28, 29). It is in this light especially that the exhortation to go the distance has significance.
For God is at Work in You
Approached from yet another perspective, Paul is urging Christians specifically to be developed in reality into what God has made us by faith...to be in our experience what God declares us to be in Christ. In other words, work out what God is working in.
The important thing to note is that God is in charge of the process, and he is the active agent therein. It is God who wills and works, and it is his good pleasure which is the objective. Working out salvation is a matter of submission and compliance (cf. “as ye have always obeyed”) to the divine will and working. “Fear and trembling” indicates how serious a matter it is, and the phrase highlights the fact that absolute reverence for God and Christ is required in order to see salvation through to the finish, to work out what God is working in. It is serious business.
According to Ephesians 2:10, “…[W]e are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” This statement parallels Philippians 2:12, and our work is to be what the gracious and good God has produced by creating us in Christ. “Good works” in Ephesians 2:10 ultimately means being what God has made us to be, living as God has created us in Christ to live. I.e., working out what God has worked in.
“For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9). God is the vine grower, and Christ is the vine (John 15:1-8). God is growing us, and God is building us. When we bear fruit, and when we grow into a holy temple, we are working out what God is working in. Leaders are to cooperate with God in bringing this about.
Another way of considering what Paul means in Philippians 2:12, 13 is found in Hebrews 6:7-10. There the writer expresses the idea of bringing about in life, producing, performing the things that accompany salvation (cf. Heb. 6:7-10), i.e., letting one’s salvation be manifested in words and actions, living out one’s salvation. This involves working out what God is working within (what he wills, what he is doing, what pleases him). This means that his will, objectives, and pleasure are the determining factors in our decisions and activities. When we grasp and put this concept to work, the result will be our putting into practice what God is doing within, and what comes out will be what God wills within.
To Live is Christ
Of course, we must remember that the power for bringing all this about is from God rather than from ourselves. Paul wrote to the Ephesians of “...the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead...” (Ephesians 1:19, 20; cf. 3:20, 21). Yet, what can we be doing in order to facilitate what God is trying to accomplish within us? In another epistle, Paul described himself as longing for Christ to be formed in his readers (Galatians 4:19). God desires for his children to be conformed to the image of his son (Romans 8:29) and that “all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). From reading Paul’s epistle to the Philippians, it becomes clear that thoughtful and prayerful concentration on Christ is the key to what he desires of the Philippians (and of us) as well.
Hear Paul: “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain....Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus..., seeking...[the] interests...of Jesus Christ...Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 1:21; 2:5, 21; 3:7-16).
Philippians 1:27-28 describes what it means for Christians to live out their own salvation/deliverance: “Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, and are in no way intimidated by your opponents. For them this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation. And this is God’s doing.” Let us work out what God is working in!
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