Work out your Salvation

 Read Philippians 2

Paul notes to his partners in ministry that it is God who works in them.  He is working through them and through us to fulfill his purpose.  We are part of the plan.

This should sound familiar.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

God works in us and through us.  It’s his way and because it’s his way, we are blessed when it becomes our way. God could have said, “Here are the rules.  Good luck.  Go.”

He didn’t.  He placed his own Spirit inside of us.  He leads and directs our steps.  We understand this.  We don’t always embrace it, but we understand it.

We know that God is working in us and through us and that he is for us.  His plans prosper us.  Our hope and our future are in him.

That’s cool.  Sounds like fun.  Should be a blast, right?

How about, just as Paul saw his most precious mission set before him—you remember to live is Christ and to die is gain—so too, we have our missions before us.

What does that mean?

It means that we are to work out our salvation as the most important thing that we do.  We are not working for our salvation.  We understand that we are saved by grace through faith and it is this way so nobody can say they had even the slightest part of achieving this state of right-standing with God.

But we are to work out our salvation.  How will we live in response to this wonderful gift that we received by faith?  How do we respond to this thing called grace?  How do we live in the mercy and favor of the Lord?

Paul said, “Show me your stuff!”  We are challenged to study and show ourselves approved.  What’s that mean?

Show me.  How does this whole response to mercy, grace, and favor work out for you?  What is your response?

We know that we are to love one another, but what does that mean?  Is it lock-step obedience?  Is it broken field running carrying this football called love? 

Your response will not always fit into a sports analogy.  You might teach.  You might cook.  You might help someone get dressed or get to an appointment or get a job or just get here on Sunday mornings.

You might be a kingdom builder—someone who earns much or has considerable resources and puts them to work for the kingdom of God in this age.

Your response might be to help someone navigate out of loneliness.

How will you work out your response to this wonderful gift of grace?

It will be somewhat different for each of us, but one thing should be the same.  Our response comes without grumbling or complaining.

Oh, poor, poor, pitiful me.  I am saved by the mercy and grace of God and now I have to do good stuff.  I don’t know if I can handle it.

Poor, poor pitiful me.  We live in the Lord’s favor but Tom makes us read the Bible.  Just for clarification, I don’t actually make anyone read the Bible. I do challenge each of you to read it daily. We have a plan for reading and studying and sticking to that should not be terribly debilitating.

Poor, poor pitiful me—now they’ve got me taking food to hungry people.  I don’t know how much of this is can take.

We should be among the happiest people on the planet.  We are saved from our sin and from death.  We have been given life and challenged to live it to the full.  We have been given good works to do.  Now that sin and death don’t have any say in the matter, we can do what God designed us to do.

This is cause for celebration, not grumbling and complaining.

Who grumbles?  Who complains?  The world that is perishing before our eyes.  Christ is finishing the good work he began in you. 

Paul is saying, I’m close to the end of my race.  I press on, but I know my time is near.

Your time to cross the finish line is coming soon, but for now you run your race of faith and do it without complaint, seeing the example of Christ himself as your standard.

For now, figure out how best to live out this gift of salvation.  Don’t grumble.  Don’t complain.  Live and live to the full.

But what about this fear and trembling business?  Think to the first time that you held a newborn baby.  For most, there might have been a little fear and a little trembling.  If it was the first time you held new life in your hands, it hit you hard.  This life is completely in my hands, at least for the moment.

The same is true of our own lives given to us anew.  Our response to being given life in the name of Christ Jesus, should be as overwhelming as the first time we held a newborn baby.

Fear and trembling translate to the most important thing I have been trusted with as we look at being a new creation.  I will work out this new life given to me as the most important thing from here to the end of the age.

If you find yourself starting to complain, find someone who is at the end of their rope and help them.  Find someone who is grumbling and give them a reason to give thanks to God.

Be a light unto this world.  Here’s the thing in this work out your salvation business. You have so much discretion as to how you will love your neighbor—as to how you will work out your salvation.

Do it as the most important thing you will do for the rest of your life.

Amen.

To the Glory of God

 Read Philippians 2

Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!  Those words get people’s blood circulating.  Some use them as a warning.  Others use them as a war cry before battle.   They should be among the sweetest words that we as believers know. 

We will get to those words in just a bit.  For now, consider that in chapter 1, Paul gives us a bit of his personal quandary.  To live is to continue on mission. To die is to reap his reward now.  It is the best mission ever.  It is the best reward ever. It’s really a win-win:  best mission ever or best reward ever.

Paul extends this mindset as an invitation to the church that he wrote, and to us. These words are among the most difficult for me to preach in the whole Bible.  Why?  The message in the text is so full, that anything I add, seems to detract from its perfect construction.  So, I will read to you.

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

rather, he made himself nothing

    by taking the very nature of a servant,

    being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

    he humbled himself

    by becoming obedient to death—

        even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

    and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

    to the glory of God the Father.

This set of prose is something of a prayer and a poem, perhaps even a hymn, but its message is that Christ emptied himself of all that he was because that was his Father’s will. If it was his Father’s will, then it was his will.

Christ, being God himself, served God instead of just taking his ranking place as his firstborn. Paul tells us to be like minded.

Let us do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain motives.  It’s not all about me.  We are to value others more than ourselves.

This is a tough statement.  We want to love each other.  We say that.  We write that on our bulletins and tee shirts but living it is tough.  To love others, I have to value others.

To love another person, I have to value that person.  When Christ tells me to love my enemy, I have to value that enemy.  That seems impossible.

We must remember that when Christ died for us, we had become his enemies.  While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

While Christ deserved to remain exalted, he humbled himself.

While Christ—God himself—never needed to feel human pain and suffering, he came into this world in the flesh.

While Christ was without sin, he became sin for us.

Perfect God chose to live in the middle of our mess because he loves us.  While he is king, he lived as a servant.

This is our model.  It is not an easy model.  You might be thinking that we would rather go with the blessings model.  Remember, that we received all manner of spiritual blessings.  Why not use that as our model in responding to grace?

But this paradigm of giving all we have—of emptying ourselves in response to God’s mercy and love—is the model most faithful to the example of our Master.

Rules and regulations seem easy compared to this mindset, this attitude of emptying oneself of all that might be considered of value—of all that is divine.  The term is kenosis.

Jesus did this not to show off.  It was not to promote stoicism.  It was not some machismo ritual.  Jesus did this to bring glory to his Father.  Jesus did this to the glory of God.

Through this, we see that God will not leave his Son empty and divested of his divineness.  On the contrary, God raised him up and set his name above all names.

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

    to the glory of God the Father.

When we think of every knee will bow, how can we not think of the awesome, unmatched power of God.  If he says that your knee will bow, it’s a done deal.

When we think of every knee will bow and every tongue confess, I ask that you consider more than power and authority.  Consider that the truth has been made known to the world.

In the moment when every living creature that God created sees the truth of how great the love of God is and that it is manifest in the person of Jesus, what else could the world do but kneel in reverence and proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord.

What’s the difference?

In the first instance, power alone does the work.  You will bow because God is all-powerful.

In the second case, we bow and profess Jesus as Lord because we can do nothing else.  Our very being finally does what it was created to do and we bring glory to God.

We see the works of his hands.  We touch the divine heart that sent Christ to die for our sins.  We know the sacrifice of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

When Jesus emptied himself of his rights and privileges and status and everything that said divine, God was not lessened.  God was glorified.

We receive and embrace the lordship of Christ Jesus now.  We are not waiting for some future date.  We confess now that Jesus is Lord.

The Father in heaven, whom we know best through Christ Jesus and who speaks to us every day through his Holy Spirit, is glorified.

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

    to the glory of God the Father.

It is to the glory of God the Father!

Amen.

Sprinkles on a Cupcake

The world took hold of us and conformed us to its model.  We were lost but God had mercy upon us and sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world but to save it through him.  The Law and the Prophets pointed us to Jesus. 

At some point, we rejected the world and walked away from it.  We repented and believed the good news of life in Jesus Christ.  We were—we are saved!  That should rate a chorus of hallelujahs.

But how have we lived since then? Is loving God and loving one another chief among our core values and redeemed character or is responding to God’s mercy and grace by being his love just something we work in when we can?

Is he our all in all or just sprinkles on a cupcake?  How can we answer that?  Please consider two very direct commands from Jesus.  The first you know well.  Love one another.  The second is more than a command, it is a commission.  Go into the world with the good news of life in Jesus Christ.

There is much more to living in response to God’s grace, but take some time this week to see where you stand in relation to these two very direct commands from our Savior.  Then, ask yourself, If I was accused of following Jesus, would there be enough evidence to convict me?

Are we known by our love?  Do we trust in the Lord with all of our heart?  Are we on the sidelines criticizing other believers when we should be sharing God’s love in our every encounter?

There is a line in the Casting Crowns song Courageous that reads:

May the watchers become warriors

Let the men of God arise

Isn’t it time that our Christian life was more than sprinkles on a cupcake?  Isn’t it time that we get off the sidelines and become known by our love?   Isn’t it time to be known by our love?   Isn’t it time?

The strongest force in the universe

Read or listen to Romans 10

The 10^th chapter of Romans is a continuation of a discussion that boarded this particular train of thought two chapters earlier with the words foreknew and predestined.  They continued with the election of Israel to bless the world.  The last chapter ended on a somewhat depressing note for God’s Chosen People.

To Paul’s credit, he did not know where later translators would break his letter into chapters.

His hope and prayer is that Israel is saved.  They are a people with a zeal for God but they got tripped up in prescribing their own brand of righteousness and gave up submitting to the righteousness of God.

Then Paul makes a statement that as Peter said in his second letter, many have distorted.  Paul said, For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

Jesus said that he was not doing away with the slightest pen stroke of the law and Paul says Jesus is the end of the law, and many pit Paul against Jesus.

But there is no dichotomy.

Paul is not saying that Jesus annulled the law.  He is not saying that he did away with the law.  He is not saying that God’s law given as a gift to his own chosen people was flawed.

He is saying that the law was incomplete without Jesus. 

He is saying that the law does have a destination and that is Jesus.

He is saying that Jesus would not do away with the very thing by which we would know the grace of God through Jesus.

Christ completes the law.

Christ ends all other means of attempted justification.

Christ is the terminal point for all of human history up to that point.

Christ is the beginning of all that forever more proceeds.

Christ truly is the alpha and the omega, and where do we find him at work?

In the innermost part of the human heart.  In the place where our humanness would like to know what must we do to get to heaven or how do we stay out of hell; but Christ alone is the key to our salvation.

The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart, because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For one believes with the heart and so is justified and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.

These are salvation scriptures.  In other discussions, I have pointed out that some verses that Christians like to sling around as salvation scriptures have been taken way out of context.  These two verses are definitely salvation scriptures.

But we have not fully understood them.

This is partially because of how we interpret another set of verses in another one of Paul’s letters.

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
   and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
   in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
   to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:9-11

And so many believe and proclaim with satisfaction that one day God will by brute force bend every knee and exact the words Jesus is Lord from every who has ever lived.  And our human nature—yes especially among believers—says, and I hope it hurts.  You are getting what you deserve.  And sometimes we feel good in that self-righteous moment.

Our standard interpretation of these scriptures is that God will do what he has not done in all of history and extract our free will from us.  He will use the force that created the universe to bring us to our knees and say the words, Jesus is Lord.

That’s sort of accurate.

The key word here is confess. It is an interesting word.  It is a word with which we have attached some undue baggage that probably started accumulating during the crusades and the inquisition of the middle ages.

The Greek word is Homologeo (omologeo) in Romans 10 and Exomologeo  (xomologeo) in Philippians 2.  The main difference is that as it is used in the latter case, it calls the reader to consider all that has preceded it with the meaning. 

And what is the definition of this root word?

To agree

To say the same as another

Not to refuse

To promise

Not to deny

To confess

To declare

To admit what one is accused of

To profess

To praise

To celebrate

Those are hardly words that sound like an almighty being distributing so much pain to the rebellious until they say uncle, or in this case Jesus is Lord.

The newest revisions of the New International Version  use the word profess instead of confess.  The words are not so far apart, except in the meanings we have attached over the last century or so.  When we join the church, we profess our faith.  If you join the Cumberland Presbyterian Church we also give you our Confession of Faith.  It’s not a confession made at gunpoint.

Consider even our flawed legal system in this country.  Don’t get me wrong, for all of our flaws, I will take it above all others in this world.  But consider in what has become the most common outcome in criminal cases—the plea bargain—there is still an allocution.  The judge in the case must hear enough of the facts from the defendant to satisfy him that the offense occurred and that no defense should be pursued.

Realize that in these cases the defendant sometimes lies.  Who’d a thunk it—criminals sometimes don’t tell the truth.  Many judges will just accept whatever the defendant has to say just to clear the docket.

Would God accept a false confession?  Would it be OK for someone to bear false witness against themselves.  The words, Jesus are Lord, are absolutely true but would God accept them as a confession if the one who said them still rejected God?

Would God accept a forced confession?  Even our legal system still rejects these.  Words elicited by thumbscrews, water boarding, or some time on the rack generally don’t fly as a real confession.

Let’s consider one more aspect of this confession or profession of faith that is articulated in the words, Jesus is Lord.  This comes from another one of Paul’s letters.  This one is to the church in Corinth.

Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:3

Let’s see if we can muster a coherent though from these parallel messages from the same author.

If I confess with my spoken words that Jesus is Lord and truly believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead, I will be saved.

Yes!

One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Yes!

No one can say Jesus is Lord without the Holy Spirit.

Yes!

Does that mean that one day everyone will call upon the name of the Lord and be saved?  Does it mean that one day everyone speaking by the Holy Spirit will confess or profess or proclaim or celebrate with the words, Jesus is Lord?

That sounds really good, but there is a whole bunch of other stuff that sounds like hell, and a lake of fire, and a garbage dump, and just really terrible consequences for those who do not profess or confess Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Do I just ignore these parts of the Bible?

I don’t recommend it, but we must not ignore what we read today either.

No one can say Jesus is Lord  without the Holy Spirit.  One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.  The one who confesses Jesus as Lord believing he is who he said he is—the One that God raised from the dead—will be saved.

I asked earlier if that when we read the words every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, if that meant that God will do what he has not done in all of history and extract our free will from us.  He will use the force that created the universe to bring us to our knees and say the words, Jesus is Lord.

And I said, that’s sort of accurate.

For the words that Paul wrote in all three letters to be true and consistent with who we know God to be from what he has revealed to us, the force that created the universe and the same force that will bring us to our knees and give us no choice but to say, Jesus is Lord, must be love.

Could it be that love will shatter every hardened heart on earth, above the earth, and below the earth?

Could love be the most powerful force that ever existed?

Could love be on the same level as God?

You think if God is love, somebody would have told us about it.

I can’t make the difficult passages in the Bible go away and be faithful to God.  And there are significant consequences to rejecting God.

But my fidelity to God is no less compromised by ignoring these words that we considered today.

So I must consider all that has been revealed to me, excluding none to make my understanding easier.

And it could be that many, very many must go through hell to get to good news.

For some that hell exists right now.

For others, it may be an age beyond this one.

We are not diving into another word study right now, but consider that the words from which we derive eternal also mean age.

Paul tells us not to try to ascent to heaven or descend to hell but to believe in your heart the words desiring to come out of your lips.

Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.  But we have believed these words.  We are assured of our salvation. 

But many have not heard and have no assurance or comfort.  They are adrift in a meaningless life.

How are they to call on One in whom they have not believed?

How are they to believe in one whom they have not heard?

How are they to hear without someone to preach to them?

How are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?

Faith comes from what is heard and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.

Heaven and hell are difficult to fully understand.  Jesus gave us parables and figures of speech to help, and with the mind of Christ we grow closer to understanding them.  And we too often consider them faraway places or  even ultimate destinations, which surely they are.

But they are also here and now.

Jesus said the Kingdom of God is within you, it is breaking out all around you.

And if we would look around us, we would also see people going through hell right now.

I don’t believe that any marriage that maintained Christ in the center has ever failed.  I’m not talking just a church wedding, but those cases where Christ is truly Lord of both lives in the marriage.

But so many people have gone through divorce in this country, and some of them lived in hell during that time.

We have a heart for the children in this church, but too many children in this country and even in our community have been physically and sexually abused by a parent or relative or a stranger.  Too many have known hurt that no human should ever experience.  Have they not lived in hell?

Many over the past few decades have seen a full life atrophy to a miserable existence with an addiction to drugs.  This has touched every community in this nation, perhaps every extended family.  Is there a better word for this state of existence than hell?

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!

We live in a time when people need good news.

They need news so good that it goes beyond the tragedy of their life experience.

They need news that transcends the temporary situation.

They need news that says they are not a slave to their past mistakes.

They need news that says they can be born anew.

They need news that they can be a new creation in this very moment.

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!

This is wonderful news for the world but as this 10^th chapter of Romans concludes—though the discussion does not—we are left with the question, “Did Israel not understand?”

Paul concludes the chapter with God’s displeasure of Israel.  “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

Once again we conclude with a wonderful promise of salvation for all and a chosen people who have rejected it.  And once again, this extended discussion by Paul is not finished.

Let’s not write off Israel just yet.  Paul has more to say and its in the next chapter so you don’t have to hunt for it if you can’t wait.

As we break briefly in this discussion, consider this one thought this week.

The strongest force in all of creation is love.

To the glory of God the Father!

Read Philippians 2

Read 2 Corinthians 4:1-5

Paul did not know that his letters would later be divided into chapters.  Previously Paul talked about coming to the end of this life and being with Jesus and wanting that very much but that God has purposed him as an apostle with special work to do in this part of the world, and as far as Paul was concerned, he had more work to do.

He told this very special church that they too had work to do and that in so doing it, they might go through some suffering, but he charged them to stand together in whatever they faced.

Without missing a beat Paul begins this second chapter and issues what seem to be conditional statements but are truly indicative affirmations offered with a literary flair.  Consider them in the Good News Version with a little less flair.

 Your life in Christ makes you strong, and his love comforts you. You have fellowship with the Spirit, and you have kindness and compassion for one another.

He tells them that they are so close to making his joy complete—that is a continuation of his first chapter thoughts about these folks and the fact that they really get what it is to follow Jesus—that just sharing the same love and passion that Paul has for Christ with others will put some icing on this cake.

How can they do this?

Set aside all selfish ambition.  That should ring a bell with putting off the old self and putting on the new.  This line of though should sound very familiar.

Don’t give in to that cheap desire to boast in ourselves.  Be humble.

Be humble to the point that we regard others more than ourselves.

Whoa!  Hold your holy horses there Paul.  Regard others more than we regard ourselves?  Consider others better than ourselves?

Loving our neighbor as we love our self is tough enough.  This charge ranks right up there with Jesus telling us to love our enemies.  How can we do that?

Regard others more than we do ourselves makes for good seasoning now and then but as a main course, really, who can do that?

Here and there, maybe, but as a way of life, how can we regard, esteem others more than ourselves?

Really, how can anyone do that?  How can we do this consistently?

Paul answered the question that he knew would be on the minds of his readers.

 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

 Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
 And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

In most of your Bibles, this passage is probably set apart or italicized or made to stand out in some way, sort of as if were from another scripture.  It is more likely that it is an early Christian hymn or poem or even a believers creed of some sorts.

It is also likely that it was composed by a Jew and not a Gentile as it has a definite chiastic structure.  This form puts the main thought of the poem or the song in the middle.

Note that these verses begin with Jesus in heaven with God, then not considering equality with God something to hold on to.  Next he humbled himself as a servant and as a human.  Next, and this is the center of the poem:  he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

In this single sentence we have the gospel in miniature—God’s love for us poured out at the cross.

Now we see the assent.  He is exalted.  At this name every knee will bow.  At his name every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord and this will be to the glory of God.

This is a wonderful poem or song or whatever literary form it took in this first century and it contains some of the most abused words in these modern days.

How many times have you heard a Christian retort in some way, “Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!”  We use it to retaliate when we think someone is blaspheming the Lord.

We use it to say, “God’s gonna get um.”

“One day, oh one day, you will be on your knees saying Jesus is Lord!”

You had better say it quickly or it is going to hurt and hurt a lot.  God is going to force this confession out of everyone.

Really?

Really?  That’s how it’s all going to manifest itself?

Jesus stepped down out of heaven and became flesh, lived and was tempted as a man, was tortured as a man, and died as a man—an excruciating death on a cross—just so his Father would later inflict so much pain that everyone everywhere would say the words, Jesus is Lord.

Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, he is King of kings and Lord of lords, and Dad still needs to strong-arm his creation to exact such praise?

The God who is not slow in coming but waits with patience so that all may come to salvation will suddenly set aside his everlasting love for a quick fix to hear that his Son is Lord? That might make for a great Shakespearean play, but hardly seems consistent with the God that has been revealed to us.

God will not be mocked.

How then would he arrange for forced confessions?

Why would he desire false gratitude?

Why would he manipulate our lips to say what he longs to hear from our hearts?

Many think, how else will every being everywhere—heaven, earth, and under the earth make such a profession?  Really, many have rejected God and Jesus; how could they utter these words except under duress? 

How could these universal professions be made without the brute force of God imposed on these unbelievers?

Just for a moment, consider the blindness that has taken over the world.  We have eyes to see but the world has been blinded by Satan and the gospel of truth is veiled to them.

But what would happen if this blindness was taken away?

What would happen if every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth that was blind could suddenly see?

What would happen if the truth was set before everyone and everyone had eyes to see?

Would they not drop to their knees and cry out, “Jesus is Lord!”

Would they not know that God got everything right from start to finish?

Would the love of God not be so overwhelming that all everyone could do would be to profess and confess and proclaim the love of God in these words:  JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!

Now at this point, eternal destinations may have already been settled.  I don’t know and I am not asking you to contemplate the soteriological aspects of this.

What I am asking you to do is to consider these verses in their entirety.  What we often do is leave off the very last part.  All of this—from stepping out of heaven to become a sacrifice for our sins to being at the right hand of the Father and especially at the profession that Jesus is Lord—will be to the glory of God!

Think on these words—to the glory of God—for they very much take us where Paul leads his readers.  Paul says to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

Work out salvation?

Fear and trembling?

I thought that salvation was a gift and perfect love casts out fear?  And you would be right to think that.

Paul is telling us to live out our salvation—this wonderful gift that only God could give—and do it as the most important thing we will ever do—to give it the gravity that it deserves.  Live out the rest of your life not worried about heaven and hell but focused on bringing glory to God.

For God is now working in us and we are living our God-given purpose.

Do you remember the words holy and blameless or pure and blameless?  They have come up a few times in Paul’s letters.

God made us this way now we are to live this way.  Our very lives are to bring glory to God.  That is in everything that we do.

In this dark world, our lives should stand out like the stars in the sky.  The world constantly complains about anything and everything.  We give thanks in all things and stick out like a sore thumb.

As we live out these days of salvation, many of which we will live here on this earth and in these bodies that we are wearing now, we are to bring glory to God.

How do we do that?  How about let your light shine before others so that others can see God’s glory in the good that you do.

How do we do that?  How about growing closer to God to the point that you live in Jesus and he lives in you so that you may ask anything in his name and it will be given.  I have been crucified with Christ.  Christ lives in me.  Put aside selfish ambition and vain conceit.  Let Christ live in us so we ask for the very things that God so loves to give.  That brings glory to God!

How about, bear some fruit?  Does the fruit that we bear in service to God not also bring him glory?

How about doing the work that we have been given just as Christ finished the work that he was given?  What work?  We don’t have to reach back too far to remember, to live is Christ and to die is gain.  Let’s take Christ to the world for the rest of our lives.

What work?  How about the Great Commission:  Make disciples, baptize, teach—all done with the authority and the accompaniment of God through Jesus and the Spirit.

How about love that abounds in knowledge and insight and discernment so that we know how to live a pure and blameless people and produce the fruit of righteousness?  Yes, that should sound familiar as it came from the previous chapter.

How do we bring glory to God by living out our salvation?  We do it in the very words that we speak.  Peter reminds us to speak as if our every word were that of a prophet.  Speak as if every word matters, because it does.  Our language is considered, prayerful, and godly and it brings glory to God.

Our service is done in God’s strength, not our own.  God works in us and we live out his will through the purpose that he has given us and that brings glory to God.

The very purpose of humankind is to bring glory to God and enjoy him vey much.  We are to live out our salvation bringing glory to God in everything that we do, and we should enjoy this fantastic relationship that we have with God through his Son so, so much.

Paul tells his readers that his life is being poured out.  He is still running his race.  He is still taking Christ everywhere he goes and where he can’t go he sends friends and writes letters.

Paul explains what’s going on with Timothy and Epaphroditus.  Why?  Paul is not just mentor and teacher; he is family to these people that he writes.

We are family.  Theology and living out our salvation are very important but we never forget how connected we are with each other.

We are all running a race of faith and have a very personal relationship with God through Jesus knowing that God’s own Spirit is right here with us in this day and this time and in this crazy, sometimes dark world.  Our relationship with God is very personal, but it also calls us to connect with other believers.

Consider the people with whom you congregate to worship and serve the Lord.  We are connected.  We are commissioned to connect with those blinded by their unbelief.

How do we do this?

Oh how I wish it were through the crafting of words and sentences, properly referenced, grammatically succinct, and phonetically poetic.  Sometimes it is, but mostly what I write and speak is to those who already have eyes to see.

We minister to a blind world with light and truth.  We have eyes to see.  We are not blind.  We already profess that Jesus is Lord!

We know this to be the truth, but so much of the world is blind to this truth.  How do we reach them?

How do we live out our salvation by taking the gospel of light and peace and love and life to them?

By our language and our love and our discernment and by being a light in this very dark world.  We bring glory to God by living as the people that he made us to be—holy and blameless.

We take the model of Christ’s humility—this kenosis of setting aside his divinity to become human and even die for our sins when he could have remained at the side of the Father and simply condemned us in our sin.  We regard others more than ourselves.

We truly cannot do that, at least with any sincerity, unless we are living for God.  We cannot constantly live at this level of humbleness without God living within us and us living for him.  We too must empty ourselves—not of divinity as Christ did—but of selfish ambition and vain conceit.

For God through Christ has placed himself inside of us already.  Now we are to live out, work out, this divine life that we have been given.  Christ indeed lives within us.

We look forward to the day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord not desiring retribution upon  the blind, but hoping—knowing it will happen before I see it—that the blindness will be lifted and truth will prevail.

That brings glory to God.

Those confessions and professions that Jesus Christ is Lord bring glory to God!  Everyone will speak them with their lips but they will come willing from every heart.

For those of us who have eyes to see today and know and have professed that Jesus is Lord and God raised him from the dead, let us empty ourselves of everything that makes us feel like we are better than those who are blind. 

If we are to live according to God’s will and act according to his purpose, we must have the attitude of Christ Jesus--

who, though he was in the form of God,
    did not regard equality with God
    as something to be exploited,
 but emptied himself,
    taking the form of a slave,
    being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
     he humbled himself
    and became obedient to the point of death—
    even death on a cross.

 Therefore God also highly exalted him
    and gave him the name
    that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus
    every knee should bend,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth

 and every tongue should confess
    that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

To the glory of God the Father.

Amen!