Working out your salvation

Philippians 2:12-13 (NLT)

12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

The apostle writes the Philippians saying they always followed Paul’s instructions when he was with them. But now that Paul is apart from them he instructs them that they are to continue on their own to take to heart their salvation and work on the results of that salvation. In doing so they are to obey God, keep a deep reverence for Him and also show respect for His awesome power which deserves a reverential fear.

Bill White, pastor of outreach at Emmanuel Reformed Church in Paramount, California tells us Craig C. had been an alcoholic for more than a dozen years. He'd lost everything he had, including his wife and son, due to his selfishness and addiction. Things began to change after he gave his life to Christ, but he still fell regularly into his old habits. It didn't help that he'd lost his well-paying job and was clerking at a local grocery store that was well stocked with all his favorite drinks. After a few years of going back and forth between Christ and the bottle, he finally cut the ties, and, out of obedience to Christ, quit his job.

With no income and hope only in Christ, he was in desperate condition. After an interview with a sheet metal company down the street from his new church, he cried out to God. "God, if you give me this job I will give you my first paycheck." Surprisingly, he got the job.

He clearly remembers the day when he got his first paycheck. Stacks of bills needed to be paid. Penniless but determined, he endorsed it over to the church and walked it to the church office without waiting for the Sunday offering. That was the moment, he says, that changed his life because now he understood what it meant to trust God.

As of today, Craig has been sober for 25 years, he's a manager at that sheet metal company, and he serves as an elder at his local church.

Craig didn't need someone to take instructions from; instead he allowed Christ to work in his heart. He allowed Christ to help him work out the purpose of his salvation and Craig gave his life for the life Christ gave him.