What He said!, Pt 10: Trembling

Philippians 2:12-16a             12Therefore, 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, 13for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. 14Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16as you hold firmly to the word of life.

In Hebrews 12 :1-2, the writer (no one is sure who wrote the Book of Hebrews) cautions us to run the race (of our salvation) by focusing our eyes on Jesus who ignored the temporary discomfort of life by focusing on the goal laid before him.  Our Philippians passage focuses on much the same thing except from a more practical perspective.  All of us believers came to faith at some specific point in time usually as the result of some friend or church member who counselled and mentored us.  But most humans are very relational people, and we have the tendency to attach the ‘great leaps forward’ which we encounter to those people instead of embracing them in their own right. 

Paul is arguing against that in this letter sent to people he had personally mentored.  The man who led me to faith in Jesus was an extremely flawed person, but I didn’t see it for a long time.  He couldn’t do anything wrong in my eyes, but as I grew in faith I began to see him as a complicated human who had strengths and weaknesses much as we all do.  The point Paul is making here is that we all have the final responsibility for our growth in Christ.  Our sanctification is the result of our own activity and actions, not the result of the human ‘star’ to whom we have attached ourselves.  So let’s talk for a minute about how our actions facilitate or hinder our sanctification.

I think all of us would recognize that sin hinders our sanctification, but there is a deeper issue here.  More and more, people are coming to realize that, like the Philippians, we live in a twisted and depraved generation.  There is little an individual can do about that except chose to live in a contrary way.  If our society is flowing in a way inconsistent with Scripture, then we should live in the contrary way, that is, in full consistency with the Word.  I was stopped at a traffic light the other day watching people walk by and I noticed one particular man with an utterly vacant look in his eye.  There was no ‘there’ there, but otherwise he seemed completely normal.  I’ll never know if he was on drugs or alcohol or was high, but such people need to know there is another way of life, don’t you think?  We children of God need to be that one thing of beauty that stands out in the ugliness of this world.  How do we do that?

Even though each individual’s salvation is a once and forever thing, the balance of our life afterwards is what tells the world about our depth of devotion.  One of the greatest weapons Satan has is to subvert a public figure.  When a national preacher or evangelist falls people wonder why they should bother believing in Jesus.  “It doesn’t seem to make any difference,” they say.  Here is where we make that shift in allegiance, that moment of epiphany which I’ve spoken of in earlier posts, from our mentor to God Himself.  Much of the reason teenage years are so difficult for parents is because this is the period when young adults are transitioning away from following their parents’ rules to figuring out their own rules of how they interact with the world.  It is the same for us believers.  Our mentor may be absent, as was Paul from the Philippians, but this just means we must now think through with an independent and obedient mind just how the ‘rules’ of the gospel apply to us in the here and now.

But why face this process with ‘fear and trembling’?  Fear and trembling is a term from the Tanakh (what some call the Old Testament) which denoted being afraid of the mighty power of God.  There are many instances where God corrected the disobedient Israelites.  No, fear here means reverential awe at the wonder and majesty of God, and the realization that in the midst of our sinful weakness we desperately need His strength.  None of us move through life without struggles, what Scripture calls trials and tribulations, but we need to remember what the Word says about such things:

28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28, NIV)

And even more so,

2Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:2-4), NIV)

When Paul says to ‘work out your salvation with fear and trembling’ he means that it is important to stand for God, to apply Godly principles to our everyday life, and to be constantly aware that we will fail miserably if we attempt to do it in our own strength.  Those things are difficult, but it is really hard to do those things consistently.  It is hard to give control over our lives to God.  But remember, he made us and so he has ownership over us.  The trouble is it is hard to give up submission to the world.  We find ourselves saying we love God, but still abuse alcohol, or engage in porn, or have rageful anger.  Such situations reveal that we ‘name the Name’ only because we think we have to, not because we lovingly want to.  This is the epiphany I have spoken of:  to be so in love with God that we will do anything to please Him, including giving up past connections, or dissolve unhealthful relationships, or change jobs.  Believers often are called hypocrites because we seem so unhappy in our faith.  We gripe about our struggles, blame God, or Satan, when in reality it’s just life:  stuff happens.  Is God real in our life, or not?  Do we deny that God has the ability to intercede in our life?  Do we name the Name, but don’t walk the walk?  Do we ‘have a form of godliness, but deny its power’ (2Timothy 3:5)?

So moving forward in our faith means constantly, and consistently, submitting more and more of our lives over to God without griping about it.  That kind of witness is powerful and almost powerless to resist.  Go for it!