2009 Nov 22 - Working out your own salvation (Phil. 2:14)

We made it to Philippians 2:14 this week with quite a bit of discussion.

David summarized the opening verses of chapter 2 again, setting the stage for today’s passage. When we got to “work out your own salvation,” the discussion began with this thought:

We can tell God “no” on our own. We can only say “Yes” with God’s help.

Like any other relationship, both parties have to agree. In the case of God, He has already said “Yes” to us. That’s the reason we have the power to say either “Yes” or “No” ourselves. In that sense, even the power to say “No” is because God has been at work.

Not only has God issued an open invitation to us, but He is persistent. The Hound of Heaven (http://poetry.elcore.net/HoundOfHeavenInRtT.html) by Francis Thompson was mentioned.

How did God invite us to join His kingdom?

We talked about how God’s invitation appeared to each of us. Several mentioned that they were raised in Christian homes and can’t remember a time of open rebellion against God. We mentioned Paul’s experience (Acts 9), which was probably affected by his watching Stephen’s martyrdom (Acts 7). Seeing Christianity in action does have a strong influence. Others described the invitation as coming through “just thinking” about the meaning of life and realizing God could make a difference. Still others mentioned life changes, such as becoming parents, and wanting God to be involved from that point on.

Many of us began with the faith of a servant, but we now have the faith of a child.

The faith of a servant means that we keep checking to see if we’ve pleased our master. This faith recognizes God as being in charge. But it is centered on “Am I doing everything right?” There is a lot of uncertainty, if not downright fear, in this faith.

The faith of a child means that we relax in knowing that God loves us and is on our side. This is the faith John mentions (John 20:31) when he says that “by believing you may have life.” This includes an assurance that we are saved.

We need to believe in God’s power enough so that we allow Him to change our lives.

We got back to the idea of “fear and trembling.” It does not mean that we are to live in
constant fear that God is about to cut us off. But the following points came out in
discussion:

• We should think carefully about what Christianity means, deliberately and thoughtfully.
• Being a Christian is serious business. We are part of God’s purpose for the world.
• We do need to be aware of the consequences of our choices. This is a healthy “fear.”
• Lukewarm Christians do more damage than unbelievers.
• We are not to compare ourselves to other Christians, though their lives may encourage us to do better.
• God wants to help us avoid sin.

We will begin next week where this discussion left off:

We can’t transform our lives any more than we can save ourselves.