“Therefore, my beloved, as you 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 who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12-13
As Paul finishes his example of the Lord’s humility he then applies it
to the Philippians. At the end of verse 12 he challenges them to walk
worthy. “Work out” is an important phrase for some have suggested this means a person can lose their salvation.
Work out Paul uses one Greek word defined as bringing something to completion. It implies effort that results in a particular outcome. It is used in Romans 1 of evil men who “leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful”.
Here in Philippians 2 Paul uses the present tense which means the believer is to continually work at this goal. Endure! The idea is, “keep on working out to completion, to fulfillment” what God has designed for your life.
Your own salvation Here Paul places personal responsibility for this action on each believer. Each will stand individually before the Lord and give an account for their faithfulness in fulfilling yje plan God has laid out for their lives. Therefore one must pay close attention to continually strive for this goal. That is the key to faithfulness, to walking worthy. The key word in this phrase and in understanding Paul’s point is “salvation”. When most people read of it they look back on the day they repented and asked Jesus to forgive them of their sin.
They call that the day they were saved. Yet God defines salvation not as a single date but as a process.
This transformation into the mind of Christ begins the day we are forgiven of our sin . That is the start of the process of salvation. As we live in this life we are to become more like Christ. (This is what Paul has called “let your conduct be worthy’ and “letting “the mind of Christ” be in us. This process of transforming our minds into the mind of Christ, which we never can fulfill in this life, is the believer’s goal during the time the Lord allows after salvation. This life long phase of salvation is called sanctification. The third and final phase of salvation occurs after death when the Lord gives us a new sinless body and the believer lives in the presence gf God. This phase is called glorification.
What can we learn? Paul pleads with the Philippians to endure in their pursuit of loving God with all their hearts and their neighbors as themselves. He knows that the world is won to Christ when people see the love of God through His children. So he desires each individual believer at Philippi fulfill God’s design in their life. Working out their salvation (becoming like Christ) has two major foci. The first is to pursue obedience to God’ s word in our lives. Paul describes this as “straining” or “pressing on” toward the goal of becoming like Christ. This effort involves personal obedient daily living according to the principles and commands of scripture (both negative and positive). At the same time a believer is to reject sin in every form and replace it with righteous thoughts and actions.
The second aspect of working out our salvation is endurance. Repeatedly in God’s word we are told to persist, to be steadfast or to persevere. Salvation is not something we do once and then forget about. Believers are to continue in maturating to become like
Christ. While this will not be completed in our life times John tells us there will come a day when we “will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is”. Thus perseverance in the faith is evidence that our salvation is genuine. If there is no desire in one’s heart to be like Christ, he must examine themselves to determine if they are truly “born again”. One cannot lose their salvation but without a dare to be like Jesus the person must investigate whether there were ever truly saved in the first place. Becoming like Christ is not an obligation that must be attained but a genuine heart’s desire based in love to be like the one who saved
us.