# 40 2018 Dev. Php. 2:12,13. Work Out! Read verses 12-29. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw Gremar and I closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.
Philippians 2:12,13 “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,13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose”.
Again Paul begins with therefore, pointing back to what he said before: Jesus’ glorification vs. 9,10,11. Paul also gives us some insight into his situation he is in house arrest but he hopes to be released. He commends Timothy and Epaphroditus. “He hopes in the Lord to send Timothy” to Philippi, Paul holds Timothy up as an example to them and to us. Timothy does what we should do: he looks to the interest of others as the interest of Christ. Paul also commends Epaphroditus who apparently risked his life to bring the help the Philippians sent Paul. Whenever Followers of Jesus cross borders and cultures to bring the Gospel by way of evangelism, education, developing infrastructure and agriculture, we risk our lives. Paul tells the Philippians to rejoice “and honor people like” that.
Verses 12-13 tells us, “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling”. We are saved by grace alone, but this tells us we play a role in salvation in terms of our faith response to God’s grace. It would be like a physical work out contributing to our physical health and in this case contributing to our spiritual health. Paul says: “do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure “children of God”. Let us put it into the terms that minimize the church today: pride, self-righteousness, condemnation and a disregard for those who have not yet responded to the grace of Jesus. As Paul points out, this is a serious issue because “it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” God’s will and good purpose is to bring every person back to Himself! In the power of the Holy Spirit we “will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life.” Some translations: “as you hold out the word of life”. The implication is that we live the word in our daily lives for others to read!
How do we work out our salvation? By obeying the “Word of life”. God’s Word sets the direction for followers of Jesus in this life. That means that we spend time with the Word, that means we take time to listen to the Holy Spirit and it means to learn Jesus: His thoughts, His teachings, His actions while He walked on this earth. When we work out our salvation we work alongside God!
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