Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For
it is God which worketh in you both to will and
to do of [his] good pleasure. (Philippians
2:12b,13)
This text shows a dilemma, that many Christians
are struggling with. Who works what, and why? Do
we have to work out our own salvation, or is it
Jah Who does all these things?
Word-studies give a more clear picture of the
particular sentence. "To work out" (katergazomai)
means as much as "do something
thoroughly" and "salvation" (soteria)
can be translated as "salvation", but
also as "well being" or
"health", as we can find for example in Acts
27:43.
When we look closely to the sentence, it
actually says something like: "Because Jah works
out the willing and the working in you, you must
know who you are in Christ and be yourself
Therein". Some people think, that we have to
work out our own salvation, but it says that we
have to be active with that which Jah does within
us.
It's all about our response to the fact that
Jah did everything. Our reaction to the fact, that
Jesus wants to his fulfilled work to be expressed
in us. Our reaction to the fact, that by being
born again we have become a new creation.
The text also shows, that one thing does not
rule out the other. The fact, that Jah wants His fulfilled
work to be expressed in us, does not say that we
therefore do not have to do anything. It even
says: "with fear and trembling". This
points out to a serious attitude.
But in the same time, we should not think that
we are able to work out our own salvation, as it
is being translated in the KJV. Paul is very clear
about that in the second part of the sentence,
which is not often quoted by ones who think we
have to do it ourselves. Or you could say, that
the Bible contradicts itself in the original
texts.
The "well-being" or
"salvation" that is talked about here,
is about our situation in the here and now. It's
about communion, unity, how to deal with feuds,
these kind of things. The context of the whole
book makes that quite clear.
Therefore, we have to be working with the
things Yesus Kristos works out in us through His
Holy Spirit. Even "with fear and
trembling", that is "intense". We
can find our will, that wants to do good, in the
new spirit that we received when we were born
again. Not within the sin in our flesh, with which
we should not identify ourselves.
An active attitude, wherein with fitting
worship and fear for the Most High, a reaction is
being given to the fact that Jah works out
everything within us.
One Love,
Messian Dread
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