Taking Care of Business
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13 NASB
Work out – I remember the day I boarded the plane from Seattle to New Jersey. I was leaving behind the life I wanted – and the life I ruined. My disobedience destroyed that life. Sin always does. My two oldest boys, then only tiny children, were crying. Over the years the disaster of my selfish choices wreaked havoc on them. Something was lost that will never be recovered. Years later, the pain remains. My brother was there. He gave me a card with a line from The Hobbit. “The road goes ever on.” I wept all the way to Chicago. If I had only listened to Paul.
There is a road of trial and pain, but it doesn’t have to be the road of remorse. Paul instructs us to remain obedient while we are working out our salvation. The Greek is katergazesthe. It is a command. “Bring about, accomplish, finish” your salvation! Did you think everything was done when Yeshua said, “It is accomplished.” Hardly. He finished His assignment. He did not finish yours. He just made it possible for you to take care of your business.
It’s instructive that Paul places the words “fear and trembling” before the verb katergazomai. This means the emphasis is not on accomplishing the task but rather on the emotional intensity that must accompany the task. “Fear and trembling” is a good Hebrew combination (yirah va-ra’ad – see Psalm 55:5), associated with pleadings before the Lord or the overpowering majesty of YHWH (see Exodus 15:15). Paul captures both the awe and the power of God, experienced as sinner and saint. This is the working environment of redemption. No man can finish what God has set in motion without feeling the enormity of the challenge and the insufficiency of his capability. Without God, all is lost. But, of course, Paul immediately tells us that God is with us. Quaking before the Holy One of Israel, acknowledging the daunting prospect of God’s demands, we are comforted by His abiding presence. In fact, we work it out only because He is working it in. Paul’s conjunction reminds us of John’s statement, “We love Him because He first loved us.”
The road of conformity to the image of the Son is filled with struggle, not “best life now” prophecies. It is a road of sacrifice. It is a road of death to self. No one can walk this road alone. It will crush him. But every person who desires to be seen in the light of His glory must work out rescue found along this way. Abraham was called to a place he did not know. Jacob wandered in the wasteland. Moses led the people through empty places. Our legacy is our destiny. Washed by the blood, we are now polished by adversity.
Topical Index: work out, katergazomai, yirah va-ra’ad, fear and trembling, Philippians 2:12
-Moses led the people through empty places.- Yes, he did brother Skip- but he also was under the direction of and followed the instructions of Yah. This was not Moses idea, but rather Him who knew His own children had a deep need of something “extra.” That “something” was the “polishing” (as you put it) of the desert places.
Been there? Done that? – In the words of Yeshua: “in this world you (me and you!) will have tribulation. We (all) will see trouble/tribulation/affliction/sorrow/suffering. There is no success without suffering. Either we suffer or someone before us has suffered- our toil and the sweat of our brow is part of the plan of G-d. Dear brothers- “no pain/no gain.” This is the will of G-d. We will suffer. Suffering (get it down big, plain and straight) is necessary.
How was the Son of Man and the Captain of our Salvation made perfect? Let us let the scriptures speak to us (what a novel concept!)- “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him” (Hebrews. 5:8, 9). This(?) is “Your Best Life Ever?”
Again (and again) let us let the word of G-d answer.. “And after you have suffered a little while, the G-d of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” Does this occur “instantly?” No..- this dear friends is sanctification, the lifelong process of G-d working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure- that being to conform us (through heat and pressure) into the image of the Son. This is not a blasting heat- it is a blessed heat. We must (each and all) go through G-d’s refining fire. Burning away the impurities so that the Silversmith may see His reflection when He looks into our lives. Pain is part of this process. Emotional pain, physical pain, monetary pain- plain ol’ Pain. I don’t like it- I don’t want it- but I have given unto Him my “YES”- and have said with my Master- “not my will- (what I want) but Your will- be done.” -Whatever it takes, I am willing.
Is “fear” involved in this decision to follow Christ? Yes, the fear of the LORD. I enter in with “fear and trembling.” But what does the word of the LORD tell me? “Only” three hundred sixty six times- “fear not.” (Again?)- what are the instructions of Yah?- ‘There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” (1 John 4.18)
“Washed by the blood, we are now polished by adversity.”
I cannot recall who wrote: “Except by shipwreck, we are brought to shore.”
Great words, Skip. Thanks.
Skip,
Once again, you lead by example. Thanks for your vulnerability and the profound lesson to be learned from it. I so appreciate your words of wisdom. You’ve earned the right to speak them! You’ve been “polished” and “brought to shore.”
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” (1 John 4.18)
A little ‘follow-up’ to this verse. Please remember- we punish prisoners, we chastise our children!- There is a world of difference – the difference between lightning and a lightning bug- between “punishment” and “chastisement!” We (who are parental units) do not “punish” our children, -we “chastise” them. Brother Skip, -I’m remembering your most excellent written piece- “The Art of Discipline.”
Why do we chastise our children? (Can’t do anything about the neighbor’s kids- can we?) Nope!- only our “own!” Chastisement is one of the “marks” of Ownership! “If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” (Hebrews 12.8) Chastisement is always with a “view” toward correction! Little Johnny- are you listening? Do you (now) have “ears to hear?” “Yes, Father”- I’m listening.. “He does all things..well.” What do the scriptures say? “The LORD is good” Amein. All the time. And to everyone..
Very moving today, Skip. Thank you for being so open. Washed by blood, polished by adversity–I love that. It’s so true. I imagine Abraham had some fear and trembling when he led his family to a place he did not know. I’m sure Moses had some fear and trembling when he went back to Egypt to lead his people out. Jacob ran away and must have been filled with fear and trembling. Yet, each of them was used mightily by Adonai. The fear of the L-rd is the beginning of wisdom. Yirat Adonai–may we be filled with the fear of the L-rd.
All well said with gratefulness & wisdom from above – aren’t you glad we live & move & have our being in HIM… ♥
jan
Thank you Brother for yet another word that has been “earned” and not just learned. Ian quoted an unknown source and it too, stuck me: “Except by shipwreck, we are brought to shore.” I couldn’t help but think of the number of souls who ‘went down with the ship’, as well as those may have junped ship but who perished in the shark infested waters. As for me I was one of those foolish ones who tred water in the vain hope that the ship would rise again and all would go back to the way it was. I was tossed to and fro by the winds and beaten and bruised by the waves of adversity, but stubbornly refused to cry out for help or be found by the rescue crews that were sent out to find and save the lost. Like Jonah “the waters compassed me about, even to the soul; the deep was round about me; the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars closed upon me for ever.” It was only by grace that He had compassion on my floundering, foolhardy, dispirited, exhausted and sinking soul that He directed the currents to wash me to the shore and upon the rock where I now gratefully stand. Thank you Yah. You have indeed “deliver (ed) me out of many waters.” Psalm 144:7
Skip – your openess and insight are touching and wonderful. Today after months of feeling like David in Psalm 69 – Yah rescued me. I almost drowned in boisterous seas!! I shall share when I am anchored safely in the harbour!
‘Our legacy is our destiny. Washed by the blood, we are now polished by adversity’. Ah yes…it is truly so. May I humbly reflect a shinning vessel of obedience as I move into my calling.
Christine
“We love Him because He first loved us.”
“You Belong to Me” by Grey Holiday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkd9snB2dN0 3:47 MIN
“In fact, we work it out only because He is working it in….”We love Him because He first loved us.”
When you juxtaposed these two statements Skip – it clicked for me. Or at least, connectors came into being such that an awareness and appreciation of Hashem was reinforced and went deeper into another dimension. It was like an epiphany. When those moments come, it is glorious and you want to shout it out on the mountain tops.
My core scripture I Thess. 5:24 is in alignment with the above. “FAITHFUL is He Who is calling you to Himself and utterly trustworthy, and He will also do it [that is fulfill His call by hallowing and keeping you” (Amplified).
To me, that is an awesome revelation. It’s like if I asked G-d what His calling was and one of them would be, “To fulfill your calling in Me.” I mean, does G-d not fulfill His calling? No. So there is no way He can fail in fulfilling our calling in Him unless WE exit out. Unless WE choose not to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling with Him or not love Him as He continually and steadfastly loves us.
That’s why I really love the passage in Exodus 33. In short, the Lord is preparing Moses to bring the Israelites into the Promised Land but He tells Moses that he’s NOT going to go in with them because they are a stiff-necked people. Basically, they haven’t been working WITH the Lord the whole way. Through their attitude and actions, they’ve been working AGAINST Him making it a struggle every step of the way. So G-d expresses how He is fed up with them (verse 5).
So he says to Moses that He will send an angel with them (for guidance and protection) and he will even give them the victory over all the enemies in their path but HE WILL NOT GO WITH THEM INTO THE PROMISED LAND!
Now, as the appointed leader of the Israelites which numbered in the tens of thousands Moses could have thought, “Wow. It doesn’t get better than that. An angel of the Lord to guide and protect us. All our enemies will be driven out before us.” But I think Moses thinks about it again (as G-d always gives us the chance to assess the opportunities before us.) And he thinks, “Hey, there is something missing here.”
And Moses says to the Lord (verse 15) — IF YOUR PRESENCE DOES NOT GO WITH ME, DO NOT CARRY US UP FROM HERE!”
In other words, “Even the enemy has their own angels and can have victory over all their opposition so in that sense unless YOU COME WITH us, we’ll be just like all the other nations! You are why we are whom we are. You are why we are even going into the Promised Land and You’re not coming with us.
We can only do this if You do it IN and WITH us!”
I think those are the words the Lord wanted to hear.
So that is why it is so important to become ECHAD (at one) with our Master because we can feel His pleasure in us as we journey towards wholeness – Shalom – His peace that goes beyond understanding.
And was not this prayer of Moses answered by Yah? For He has said, – “Never will I leave you;
-never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13.5)