Work Out Your Salvation
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Philippians 2:1-13
Work Out Your Salvation
Paul wrote to the Philippians, “Work out your own salvation”. This doesn’t sound too Lutheran, at first does it? Does Paul really mean we have to work in order to be saved? Actually, no. Simply put, Paul is not saying work FOR your salvation. He is saying, work BECAUSE you are saved. In fact, Paul is saying, you have an incredible gift – you have the example of Jesus Christ AND the Holy Spirit partnering with you! The purpose of salvation is not just so you get to go to heaven when you die. This incredible gift, we call salvation, is meant to reshape your decisions every day – your behavior, your relationships, and your priorities. It’s as though Paul is saying, unwrap your gift… you don’t get “more saved” – but “working out your salvation” is actively unwrapping the gift or waking up to realize what an incredible gift you have to be shaped by the mind of Christ.
Awakening
My family and I served as missionaries in Madagascar for a number of years. The Lutheran Church there, calls itself a church of the “Awakening Movement”. They say this, because there is a revival movement within the church of people having their lives changed dramatically by faith in Christ. They describe this revival of faith as “waking up” to the power of God in Christ.
One example of what this looks like is to “wake up” to the power of God over things that you’re afraid of. And in Madagascar, for many people everyday life is dominated by fear of ancestorial spirits. People are afraid to offend the ancestors. There are lots of taboos because of these fears, and fear of breaking taboos and offending ancestorial spirits shape the decisions people make every day. As missionaries, my wife and I studied the local language. Our teacher, Madame Lalao, shared a story about these fears with us.
Traditionally, it is believed that there are taboo days. It is believed that any baby born on a taboo day must be brutally tested. There are traditional healers who teach and enforce this belief. In one village a woman went into labor on a taboo day. In the middle of the night the baby was born. And the traditional healer showed up to instruct the new parents on what they needed to do. As soon as the sun would rise the next morning, they must allow the traditional healer to place their baby on the ground in front of a gate holding back a herd of cattle. Then the gate would be opened, and the cattle would be driven out of their pen. They would stampede where they baby had been laid on the ground. If the baby was killed, it was the will of the ancestors, and if the baby lived, well the ancestors had delivered the baby! This was the test that must be performed on a baby born on a taboo day! Well, that baby’s parents were Christians. They believed the ancestors had no power over them. But, of course, the traditional healer would force this practice. So, in the middle of the night they packed everything they could carry, and they escaped the village, never to return.
That little baby grew up and was our teacher. She and the whole family had “awakened” to the power of Jesus. They “worked out their salvation”, by being freed from killing their baby born on a taboo day. I remember a Lutheran Bishop in Madagascar once heard that there were Lutherans in America who didn’t think it was important that people believe in Jesus any more. That Bishop said, you bring those people to me and I will show them graves of babies born on the wrong day, and tell them that Christians no longer kill their babies. And I will say to them, don’t tell me that people don’t need Jesus anymore!
How does your faith in Jesus free you from fears in this culture?
Another friend of ours in Madagascar was named Felix. Tragically, Felix had a problem with alcohol. Every bit of money he would earn, he used to buy alcohol. As a result, he completely neglected the needs of his wife and children. After years of struggle, his wife divorced him and his children pulled away. He was a devastated man along with his broken family. Then one day, our guard convinced Felix to come to a Lutheran service, called an awaking service. The service involved praying for deliverance from all the temptations and demons that imprison a person. That service was actually in a camp, where people are free to stay for prayer day after day, until they find healing. Felix agreed and he stayed in the camp for three months.
Every day, during those months, people would pray for him and cast out the demons he struggled with. They would teach Felix the Bible – with a focus on helping Felix “wake up” to the power of God in Christ. After three months, Felix was fully healed of his dependance on alcohol. Even 10 years later, when I visited Felix, I discovered that he and his wife and children had reconciled, and he was still free from alcohol. I brought him with me where I was preaching as a visiting pastor, and invited Felix to share the testimony of his life and he did it with great joy.
What Malagasy people mean by “Awakening” to the power of God is more than a doctrinal statement that they believe Jesus is Lord. What they mean is that Jesus’ power is reshaping their behavior…like healing them from alcoholism or freeing them from fear of their ancestors that would drive them to do destructive things.
Designed to Shine/Stars in the World…
When Paul writes in Philippians chapter 2, that we need to work out our salvation, Paul is encouraging us to “wake up” to the power of God…to this incredible gift given us in Christ Jesus. “Work out your salvation” means more than coming to church once a week. That’s a good thing, but there is more to it. Maybe you’re not afraid of ancestorial spirits, and you’re not going to kill a newborn baby. Maybe you’re not struggling with alcohol.
But, what fears threaten you today? Is it fear of not having a job, or your fear of not being affirmed by friends or colleagues, or fears of political threats…can you lay all those fears at Jesus’ feet? Instead of being driven by fears…Paul invites us to awaken to the mind of Christ. Ask the Lord today to direct your path away from behaviors and priorities based on fear. To free you and forgive you from behaviors that hurt you or others, because of your fears.
In prayer to Jesus today, ask the Lord to awaken in you the freedom Jesus showed us in his radical humility, his unity with the least of these. Ask the Lord to help you unwrap this gift of the mind of Christ.
This is personal. But it is also about our life as a community. It is vital for our whole community. In the next verses, just after today’s reading, Paul writes:
“Do all [these] things … in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,
in which you shine like stars in the world.”
Waking up to the power of God, or working out our salvation, will lead to a "subversive" way of life. Subversive to cultural and human traditions built on selfishness, fear, or pursuit of wealth alone. Paul’s word for subversive is much more positive: He says you will “shine like stars” in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.
Paul pushes us to “work out our salvation”, but from beginning to end this is work is truly a gift. Because this waking up, this working out is not done just on your own power. In Paul’s words, “For it is God who works in you,” both to guide your will and to work God’s will in your heart.
The world has lots of dark and broken places in it, and the church – this community with an incredible gift - that can and will shed light in and on those places.
Let us pray,
A Million Acts of Hope across Great Britain (May 13-20)
Pastor Doug Cox