Philippians 2
14Do all things(AE) without grumbling or(AF) questioning, 15that you may be blameless and innocent,(AG) children of God(AH) without blemish(AI) in the midst of(AJ) a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine(AK) as lights in the world, 16holding fast to(AL) the word of life, so that in(AM) the day of Christ(AN) I may be proud that(AO) I did not run in vain or labor in vain. 17Even if I am to be(AP) poured out as a drink offering upon(AQ) the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.
I can't say I've done a very good job of this lately. It's the end of the school year. Translation: Kids have checked out mentally and are asking questions like, "Can we watch a movie?" and "When are we going to the park?", which kills productivity and makes me, more than at any other time of year, feel like a babysitter rather than a teacher. I am not unique; the problem is systemic. Naturally, the blanket "Those kids..." statements start trickling, then pouring out of the mouths of teachers, and it's hard not to agree. Pretty soon I find myself mired in a negativity that seeps into every thought, every word, every action, first with the students, then with my family. It's amazing the difference an attitude makes.
Abraham Lincoln once said, "Most people are only as happy as they make up their minds to be." I think Paul is touching on the same theme here. God cares not only about the ends but the means; not only with what we do but how we do it. If we give or serve in the Church with a bad attitude, not only does our sacrifice become a hollow one but we rob ourselves of the joy that accompanies the gift. One must only look to the example of Cain and Abel to see what God thinks of sacrifices offered with stinky attitudes. Conversely, I think (this is my opinion, not scripture) God is more pleased with misguided sacrifices offered with the best intentions and attitudes than He is with the best sacrifices offered with ill motives or bad attitudes.
When it comes to most things in life, attitude is far more important than aptitude.
Philippians 2
12Therefore, my beloved,(AA) as you have always(AB) obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13for(AC) it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for(AD) his good pleasure.
I know...again. But its really amazing what God does in His time. I feel like God's been dealing with me on this particular passage. A few days ago I was reading another chapter in C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity" titled "Faith" and guess which verse came up...yep. It's too good for me to paraphrase so I'm going to temporarily ignore copyright infringment laws and put the whole passage up here hoping that my trespass will be forgiven since it was in the interests Bible study. In the chapter he's talking about the conflicting extreme views held by different Christian groups regarding salvation. On the one hand are those who say "Good actions are all that matter" and on the other hand are those who say, "if you have faith, it doesn't matter what you do." The passage picks up in the middle of this debate:
"The Bible really seems to clinch the matter when it puts the two things together into one amazing sentence. The first half is, 'Work out your salvation with fear and trembling'--which looks as if everything depended on us and our good actions: but the second half goes on, 'For it is God who worketh in you'--which looks as if God did everything and we nothing. I am afraid that is the sort of thing we come up against in Christianity. I am puzzled, but I am not surprised. You see, we are now trying to understand, and to seperate into water-tight compartments, what exactly God does and what man does when God and man are working together. And, of course, we begin by thinking it is like two men working together, so that you could say, 'He did this bit and I did that.' But this way of thinking breaks down. God is not like that. He is inside you as well as outside: even if we could understand who did what, I do not think human language could properly express it. In the attemp to express it different Churches say different things. But you will find that even those who insist, most strongly on the importance of good actions tell you you need Faith; and even those who insist most strongly on Faith tell you to do good actions. At any rate that is as far as I can go."
C.S. Lewis may not have been a trained theologian, but he had a talent for expressing complicated thoughts and theories in ways that are simple for the common man to understand. Like Dr. Zacharias, He interprets this verse to express a duality in Christianity where God is sovereign but man has a responsibility to act.
So with all the theology settled, what application does this have for us? First, it is a reminder that religion is not enough. To simply profess faith in Christ or, on the other hand, to just be a good person does not please God. He desires His children to cultivate a relationship with Him. When we develop a relationship with Christ - when we learn to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength - we will seek to please Him with our actions, and both parts - the faith and the works - will fall into place. Second, and refreshingly, while we work hard to please Him in all we do, the fate of the world does not rest on our shoulders. We give our best to God, and leave all our insufficiencies to the One who is all sufficient; our imperfections to the One who is Perfection; our failures to the One who never fails.
What a verse. What a thought. What a Savior.
Philippians 2
12Therefore, my beloved,(AA) as you have always(AB) obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13for(AC) it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for(AD) his good pleasure.
14Do all things(AE) without grumbling or(AF) questioning, 15that you may be blameless and innocent,(AG) children of God(AH) without blemish(AI) in the midst of(AJ) a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine(AK) as lights in the world, 16holding fast to(AL) the word of life, so that in(AM) the day of Christ(AN) I may be proud that(AO) I did not run in vain or labor in vain. 17Even if I am to be(AP) poured out as a drink offering upon(AQ) the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.
That phrase "work out your salvation" has had me hung up for about two weeks now. How is it that if salvation is a free gift of God that Paul tells us we must work it out? I don't think this means that we do some kind of work to earn our salvation but maybe that it takes continual effort for the work of salvation to be completed in us. We have to constantly put ourselves in a place where we allow God to work in us. This takes a considerable amount of effort.
I was listening to a podcast by Ravi Zacharias the other day in which he was explaining the Biblical balance between the responsibility of man and the sovereignty of God. He was trying to explain how although God's plans are not and cannot be voided by the actions of men, we do have freedom of choice. He used this verse as an example of this balance as mentioned in scripture. "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (responsibility of man) "for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work, for His good pleasure." (sovereignty of God). The entire fate of mankind doesn't lie solely on the shoulders of men, but neither does it lie entirely in the hands of God unless we release it to Him. This is not to say that God's actions are dependant on us - not at all. But rather it is to say that the degree to which we become like Him and realize His plan for our lives is, to some degree, dependant on us. While God has a plan for each of our lives, he still gives us an opportunity to either give control over to Him or completely mess things up.
I believe this is the great struggle of humanity: to give up control of ourselves. Stated more simply, to give up control. This is the substance of Pride; the root of all sin. When we release ourselves and all He has given us back to Him, He is able to do some of His most incredible work. It is only when God has broken us of our pride that we are willing to admit that He is better able take care of us than we are to take care of ourselves. Only at this juncture can God truly "will and work" in us "for His good purpose". This is not meant to be a one-time act of contrition, but a continual process - a "working out" - of allowing God to chip away at our claim to ourselves; allowing Him to reveal the pieces of our beings that we didn't even know we were keeping from him; giving Him access to more and more of our minds and our hearts until He will one day, one glorious day, as we shake off the fetters of this life, become completely His.
The journey is long, but so is eternity. The cost is great, but not compared to our reward. Give us resolve, Lord, to continually commit ourselves whole-heartedly to the work You are doing in us. In Christ's Name.
