Work out Your Salvation

 

The Apostle Paul writes, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:11-12).  Paul knew salvation was a gift from God, not something the diligent believer could achieve through works.  However, once the gift was received, Paul also knew, as we need to understand, that it does take great effort to live as a saved person.  Following Jesus is free in the sense that he welcomes all without qualification.  Free?  Yes.  Cheap?  No.  Following Jesus requires to give our all in developing as disciples.

In the verses immediately preceding Paul’s ‘work out your own salvation,’ the apostle tells of Jesus ‘emptying himself and taking the form of a slave.’  Why did Jesus give up so much and suffer so much?  He did that you and I might be saved.  He took the death our sin brings on himself.  He put in the ultimate effort, and he expects us to give everything to be his followers.

Consider Jesus’ words in Luke 14.  “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even life itself cannot be my disciple.  Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”  Jesus’ call is a far cry from the effortless mandate to just “believe” issued in so many churches.  We ignore our master’s own words when we present Christianity as something simple and something that doesn’t require anything of us. 

Of course, by “hate” Jesus actually meant prioritize.  He loved his own mother and provided for her as he hung dying on the cross (John 19:26).  Sets of brothers were among the disciples.  Jesus did not despise family relations.  But loyalty to family (or to any human institution) had to come below the top priority: loyalty to Jesus.  When these causes conflicted with each other, Jesus did commit to God’s mission for him over and against his own blood relations’ objections (Mark 3:31-35).  Follow him as his disciple is the primary life calling for all believers, above any vocation or familial role.

Hence, living a life of faith requires much of us.  We must work out our relationship with God through prayer, worship, study, service, and an intentional effort at refining our attitudes so that we see the world and see people as God does.  We have to stay determined, carrying our crosses.  We give ourselves to discipleship.

Under the specter of the society-disrupting COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have put faithful living (and other things) on the shelf.  We’ve become physically, relationally, and spiritually lazy and inert.  It’s time to get up and get working!  We can follow Jesus with determination and safely socially distance.  And we must.  Enduring the political strife and working through the minefield of racial tensions requires that we keep our eyes on Jesus and act out of His values and His priorities.  We can only be ready to live as Jesus followers during turbulent times if we commit to growing in our faith. 

Thus, the best way to live in our times is base our outlook on who Jesus is.  We do this by growing in our knowledge of who Jesus is.  We grow in our knowledge by working on our faith.  So, my fellow disciples, get to work!