“Work out your
own salvation...”
In Phil 2:12-13, the apostle Paul writes about our relationship
with God and emphasizes the importance of our dedicated attention to personal
involvement in that salvation which is afforded us in Christ Jesus.
Note: “Therefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do
of his good pleasure.” It is God working in us when we work.
If we are not interested in going to heaven above all else, we will not go
there.
This does not mean that we have to “work our way to heaven”
in the sense that what we do will earn us a place there. What is intended
is that we continually work, that we work until the end. There is not
to be a “let-up” in our activity as children of God. We must have zeal
for God.
A zealous person, according to Vine's Expository Dictionary
of New Testament Words, is an “uncompromising partisan.” God's word teaches
us the importance of continuous, zealous activity. Paul writes about
the Lord, that he “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all
iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works”
(Titus 2:14). Are you “zealous of good works?” This
is what the Lord requires of his “special (peculiar) people.” Do you consider
yourself one of God's special people?
When it is said of a person that he has been “working
out,” we understand that he has been actively involved in strenuous exercises.
So it is with the child of God. He must be an active participant in
his salvation, and must be that until the end. Note these words of
encouragement from the inspired writer.
We are encouraged to be “steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is
not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58). Are you one of God's good
workers?
Bill Lambert