Let Your Light Shine Series

Alexander MacLaren once wrote: ‘We may have as much of God as we choose. Jesus puts the key to the treasure-chamber into our hand and tells us to take all that we want. If a man is admitted into the vault of a bank and told to help himself, and comes out with one penny, whose fault is it that he is poor?” For the last two weeks, we have been in this section of Philippians where Paul is making a case to the readers regarding holiness. We have learned that we are called to live our lives in a way that is worthy of the gospel we have received. We have seen that this gospel conduct shows itself through humility like Jesus, because he is the ultimate example of humility. And we have seen that the goal of all of this is unity as the church because Jesus said that the world would come to know him through our unity if we are one. This week, we come to the outcome of this though process by Paul, and once again, it begins with the word “Therefore”. So, because of everything we have learned last week and the week before, we come to this section of scripture.

God said to Israel, “Be holy, because I am holy”. Because God wants us to become like him, it is necessary that his people be a special kind of people, holy men, and women. The basic idea in sanctification is “being set apart for God”. Those who are set apart live in a way that is pleasing to God. They have no power of their own to do that, but God enables them through the Holy Spirit. Sanctification is not an option. God requires it of all his people. We are meant to be Jesus to a hurting and broken world filled with sin, we are called to be light. So let your light shine. Every Christian should work to live holy and blameless lives, so that we can be light in a world of darkness.

Let’s read this passage, Philippians 2:12 to 18: “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. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless. But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a drink offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share your joy.”

This translation does not include the word therefore at the beginning, but it is there in Greek. I chose a more thought-for-thought translation this week, because it is a tricky piece of scripture that has been misinterpreted throughout history, and I wanted to capture the essence or idea of what Paul is trying to say here. Let me read verse 12 again: “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.” We have already seen that Paul was very close to the Philippians, he spent a lot of time with them, and he loved them deeply. They had a great relationship, and so he makes his appeal on that. They always listened to him when he was with them, and always took his words to heart, but now that he CAN’T be there, it is even more important, he calls them to obey and behave in his absence the same way that they would if he were there with them right now. And then he gives them a command, an imperative in Greek: “Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.” In the NIV and NASB, this verse is translated this way: “work out your salvation with fear and trembling”. I want to talk about that for a second, because it is a very literal translation, but it does not translate the SENSE of the sentence very well to English. The Greek word that we translate as “work out” in NASB and NIV is better translated as accomplish or finish, and it implies having done something with thoroughness. The noun attached to that verb is salvation, or soteria in Greek. This word is used throughout the New Testament, but the sense of the word here is of what that state of salvation entails, which is a haven in heaven, and not whether they were at that moment saved. It is assumed that they are saved already in Jesus! Back in the beginning of Chapter two, Paul says “Because you have encouragement from being united with Jesus, because you have fellowship in the Spirit”, and you may remember I said that the Greek there was speaking of something that was indeed the case, which is why I use the word “because” instead of “if”. Paul had already acknowledged that they were united with Christ in his death, and they had the Holy Spirit living in them. Ephesians 1:13-14 says “And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people.” It is important to know that this verse about working out your salvation is NOT about whether or not you are saved, it is not about working that out on your own. Because that would be counter to the entire good news about Jesus Christ.