“So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence, for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort – for the sake of his good pleasure – is God.” Philippians 2: 12 -13 NET
We are living in fearful and unpredictable times. In such times, messages of gloom and doom and God’s judgment abound. These can lead us to become Christians living in fear of going to hell. Fear of God's judgment turns everything into nothing. Faith in God's Love turns nothing into everything. St Francis de Sales made the following wise observation:
"Those who love to be feared fear to be loved, and they themselves are more afraid of anyone, for whereas other men fear only them, they fear everyone."
God does not love to be feared - He wants us to know His love so that we can overcome all fear. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ came to reveal the love of God and to show us that God is our Heavenly Father who has no desire to condemn anyone to death:
“As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord , I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn from your wickedness, O people of Israel! Why should you die?” Ezekiel 33:11 NLT
We are not called to live as fearful Christians but as disciples of Christ bearing the fruit of love in our lives. God’s will is for us to live in His Kingdom in the here and now so that we can shine as lights in this dark world of sin. The Philippian Christians were exhorted to work out their salvation with awe and reverence. We have been given the gift of salvation which is our deliverance from the bondage of sin. This is but the first step into the Kingdom of heaven in the here and now. Like the Jews who were delivered from their slavery in Egypt, we are on a journey to our Promised Land - a life of freedom as a slave of Christ. It is not just a freedom from sin but the freedom to love God and others. But we have to face the spiritual battle for our hearts and minds as we have two natures in us. We read in the letter to the Galatians:
“The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.” Galatians 5:17 NLT
This is the harsh reality of our human life - we are in the midst of a spiritual warfare and our lives are filled with conflicts, temptations, trials and suffering. When we are under the control of our sinful nature, we are filled with fear and guilt as well as the temptations of lust, greed, pride, envy, anger, gluttony and acedia. We cannot be faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ when we are living as fearful Christians.
We glorify God only when we are bearing the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control. We are to live out our salvation so that the seed of love will germinate and bear fruit in our hearts of flesh. And we do so by the grace of God for it is God who is at work in us by turning our stony, stubborn hearts into tender responsive hearts:
“And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart” Ezekiel 11:19 NLT
So how are we to work out our salvation with awe and reverence? It is not by trying to be “holy” through a blind and superstitious faith in religious rituals but through the spiritual disciplines that can help us practice the presence of God. Christians have the rich traditions of the spiritual disciplines of meditation and lectio divina to renew their minds so that their lives can be transformed.
The writer of the Upper Room devotional on 22nd August 2020 shared how we can waste our energy feeding our fears and doubts and harboring feelings of anger, jealousy, or resentment toward anyone. Advances in neuroscience have found that we can change how our brain function by our thoughts. Neuroscience has given us new and exciting insights about the neuroplasticity of the brain - that we can change our brain by changing the way we think. This has confirmed biblical truths such as:
“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:2 NLT
“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” Philippians 4:8 NLT
“We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5 NLT
To work out our salvation we can cultivate the habit of taking an inventory of our thoughts and feelings so that we are more aware of how our negative thoughts are consuming energy that can be redirected towards loving others. The exercise of paying attention to our thoughts is to help us be more conscious of our sinful desires, ulterior motives and hidden agendas. As we do so, we can replace them with more godly and positive thoughts through the Holy Spirit in prayer. Then we can say with the psalmist:
“Then I said, “Look, I have come. As is written about me in the Scriptures: I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart.” Psalms 40:7-8 NLT
