Work It Out With Fear and Trembling

On the last Sunday of 2017, the pastor walked First Baptist Jackson through Philippians 2:12-18, a passage he said fits well for standing at the edge of one year and facing another. The sermon centers on what it means for a community of believers to work out their salvation together, and what it looks like to shine as lights in the middle of a broken world.

What was said

the pastor started by reading back through the first eleven verses of Philippians 2, which he called his favorite passage in the New Testament. He noted that scholars debate whether verses 5-11 were already a hymn Christians knew before Paul wrote them down, and said it does not matter much either way because what they describe is plainly true: Christ left the glories of heaven, took on human flesh, humbled himself all the way to death on a cross, and God therefore exalted him and gave him a name above every name. That picture of Christ's descent and God's exaltation of him sets the stage for everything that follows.

From there he turned to verse 12, "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." He was quick to say that Paul addresses the church as a group throughout Philippians, so a better rendering would be "work out y'all's salvation," with each person individually responsible within that community. He also drew a distinction between "working on" salvation and "working out" what God has already worked in, quoting the end of the verse: it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. Human effort alone will fail without God's prompting and power.

The pastor spent time on Acts 4, where Peter tells the religious rulers directly that it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom they crucified and whom God raised from the dead, that the healed man stands whole before them, and that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. He said our society wants to believe that sincerity in any religion is enough, but Scripture does not leave that door open. There is one way, and it is Jesus.

Moving into verse 14, he drew a sharp contrast between grumbling and complaining. The grumbling word, he said, sounds like what it is, a constant low murmuring, and it corresponds to an internal dialoguing in the will. The complaining or disputing is that same attitude working its way out into action. He told a story about a man he knows with limited mental capacities who was put on an exercise bike and grumbled the whole time, getting nothing out of it, until someone shared Philippians 2:14 with him, after which he stopped complaining, started losing weight, and did much better. The point was simple: the more you dwell on how much you hate something, the worse you will do it.

He connected verse 14 back to verse 13 by way of will and action. "Pure," he said, has to do with the will, being unmixed, like white paint with nothing else stirred into it. "Blameless" has to do with action. The two together, being and doing, describe what it looks like to be children of God without fault in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation, a phrase Paul draws from Deuteronomy. He noted that Israel was called to be a light to the surrounding nations but instead cloistered itself and hoarded God's blessing. Followers of Jesus are not to repeat that mistake.

The pastor then spent time on the drink offering imagery in verses 17-18, since it is so foreign to most Western readers. He showed images of libation altars from Egypt, Greece, Africa, Nepal and elsewhere, and even mentioned the practice in some rap culture of pouring out the first portion of a drink for those who have died. The point in every case is the same: the first portion is poured out and appears wasted. Paul says that even if his own life is being poured out like that in a Roman prison, if it is poured out on the sacrifice and service of the Philippians' faith, he is glad and he rejoices. He tied this back to the start of the chapter, noting that Paul already said he did not know whether it was better to die and be with Christ or to remain and bear fruit, and here he is saying the same thing from a place of peace.

He closed by circling back to the four questions that open Philippians 2: is there consolation in Christ, comfort in his love, fellowship of the Spirit, true affection and mercy? The answer to all four is yes, and because all four are yes, Paul says fulfill my joy by being like-minded, of one accord, of one mind. The pastor summed up the tension he had held throughout: God places real responsibility on each person, but it is under his sovereignty that he does so, and it is God working in us to will and to do that makes any of it possible.