Philippians 2:12-18 A Reason to Rejoice WC
McCarter
Introduction
READ Scripture- This is the Word of God
The Work of Salvation (12-13)
The point
that is driving last week’s passage and our passage today is the one stated in
Phil 1:27, “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ.” Verse eight, which we saw last week, is a key
verse for this passage (Silva, 117). The
idea of humility points back to the preceding section, and the idea of
obedience leads to the following passage.
The word, “Therefore,” then, compels us to take the Christ hymn as our
example. We are to take Christ’s
humility and obedience as our example for how to live. Also, the commands of this passage are to be
obeyed on the basis of Christ’s lordship which was just referenced and
described at the end of the hymn.
The text
does not say:
1) Work to acquire your salvation
2) You may have your salvation, but
now keeping it depends on you
3) You have
no responsibility in your salvation because it is only God who works
There are
various interpretations:
1) Paul is concerned with the
well-being of the community (J.H. Michael)
2) Because God works we work (John
Murray)
3) Connection between God’s
sovereignty and our responsibility (Carson)
4) Present
out-working of their eschatological salvation within the community (Fee)
I’ll take a
stab at it:
I have
always viewed this phrase to mean that we need to work out what our salvation
means. It is something that we need to
do in our minds and then practice it in our everyday lives. I think that I am still “working it out.” No matter how mature we get, we must still
continue to work it out in our minds and in our lives (SEE Jn 6:27-29; Matt
11:29; Phil 3:13-14). It’s of the mind—it
is our attitude that reflects in our obedience (remember, “let this mind”).
We have an
incentive to push on – God is working in us. So, press on with fear and
trembling. If we are going to work out
our salvation—grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, continually search Him
out as our utmost treasure—it should be done with fear and trembling, which
points us back to vv9-11. This is not a
casual thing; it’s an awesome thing. God
has given us salvation, we can only have a sense of holy awe and wonder (SEE
Rom 13:11-14).
Blamelessness (14-16)
Faith in
Christ is ultimately demonstrated in obedience to Christ—not in the sense of
following a list of rules but willingly coming totally under His lordship
because you trust Him—being completely devoted to Him. So, the question is, how are they going to
corporately respond to the salvation God has given them? In other words, what are some practical ways
of working this out? He gives us four
(two in 14-16 and two in 17-18):
[1] Do “all things” without
complaining/murmuring or disputing/arguing (self-denying contentment). Paul must have grumbling Israel in mind as
they came out of Egypt: (1) Backed
against the Red Sea with the Egyptian army in pursuit the people said [Exod
14:11-12], “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die
in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt
with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is
this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may
serve the Egyptians’? For it would have
been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the
wilderness.” (2) When the people were thirsty and there was only a bitter spring
they said [Exod 15:24], “And the people complained against Moses, saying, ‘What
shall we drink?’” (3) When the people grew hungry, instead of trusting the Lord to
provide, we are told [Exod 16:2-3], “Then the whole congregation of the
children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh,
that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by
the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this
wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (4)
And the list goes on: they complained about water another time and Moses struck
the rock to bring forth water; they complained about the bread from heaven so
God sent quail; they complained about Moses as mediator so God spoke to them
directly; they complained about God speaking to them and thought that they
would die; they complained on numerous occasions that they should return to
Egypt; and on and on.
To avoid
this kind of distrust of the Lord and awful infighting is to become blameless
and harmless; it is to become like Christ.
We live as children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse
generation. And this generation is no
different than any other. This age is marked
by crookedness and perverseness. Yet, we
are children of God. We do not live in
this way. We are to be found without
fault, and when we are, we will shine as lights in the world. The world is crooked, but we are to be
straight. The world is perverse, but we
are to pursue holiness. Was Israel a
witness to the pagan nations around them?
Were they light in that darkness?
They were not. Do not follow them
in their rebellion. The people of God
are those who make peace.
[2] The second practical way of working
out their salvation was to give Paul, their
Christian leader, a reason to rejoice (strive to please workers). Paul was their father in the faith. He was their apostle. He had gone to them to share the Good News
and now asked in return that they would fulfill his joy and give him a reason
to rejoice. On the Last Day, the Day of
Christ, Paul wants the Philippians to be blameless. He wants them to hold fast to the word of
life. This will give Paul a reason to
rejoice, knowing that he had not worked in vain.
Sacrifice (17-18)
[3] Continue to sacrifice, as you have
before, and Paul’s sacrifice will be complementary. This echoes the OT sacrificial system (SEE
Num 28:7).
[4] Rejoice and be glad with me. The joy comes from our relationship with
Christ and with one another in Christ, as well as from the certainty of our
end. The suffering will be a direct
result of trying to bring others in on the joy.
Conclusion and Christian Application
You see,
this is what it means to follow a crucified Savior, a suffering Servant. He has taken up His cross in obedience to the
Father and out of love for us, and we, too, are to take up our crosses and
follow Him in obedience. We do not work
for our salvation as if we can earn it.
We work out our salvation, growing in our understanding of the grace and
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Once
we begin to understand things in our minds, we put them into practice in our
lives and Christian community.
(1) We move forward with fear and
trembling, in awe of God’s grace in Christ.
(2) We do everything without complaining
and arguing. We pursue holiness.
(3) We hold fast the word of life knowing
that it is by grace that we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ and that is
not in any way our doing.
(4) We suffer but rejoice in it knowing
that Christ has suffered before us and has been exalted to the highest of
places. We rejoice knowing, also, that
our futures are secure in Him.