Can’t Get No Satisfaction? Focus Your Faith on Effort Rather Than Earning (Phil. 2:12-13)

Several years ago our family experienced two different kinds of graduation ceremonies. The first was my daughter Jordan’s graduation from the Sycamore View Church of Christ Preschool. Each year they hold an actual graduation ceremony for those leaving the preschool for Kindergarten. The children wear robes and caps. They are presented with a certificate. A multi-media presentation shows pictures of the kids over the years. The ceremony is so popular that you have to arrive an hour or two ahead of starting time if you want to get the best seats. The second graduation ceremony was my graduation from the Doctor of Ministry program at Harding University Graduate School of Religion. I had just completed four years of college, three and half years of master’s work, and another three years of doctoral work. It was the last degree I would probably ever earn.

One graduation ceremony—mine—was the end of a journey. It was a terminal degree which marked the end of my formal education. The other graduation ceremony—Jordan’s—was the beginning of a journey. Though the ceremony marked the end to Jordan’s years of preschool, it was more of a gateway marking the beginning of Jordan’s elementary school years.

These two different kinds of graduation ceremonies illustrate two different ways of thinking about the doctrine of “salvation.” Listen to Paul’s words in Phil. 2:12-13: 12?Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,? 13?for it is God who works in you??? to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Phil. 2:12-13 TNIV). The Christians in Philippi have already been saved. For example, when Paul spoke to a jailer in the city of Philippi, he told the jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31 TNIV). The Philippians have believed in the Lord Jesus and have been saved. But Paul urges them now to “continue to work out your salvation.” It sounds as if there is something about their “salvation” which needs further “work.”

That is one of the major points which Paul wishes to make in this short text. He wants us to realize that salvation marks the beginning of a journey not the end of a journey. Paul is saying that Christian salvation is more like Jordan’s preschool graduation than my doctoral graduation. It’s more a gateway marking the beginning of something rather than a finish line marking the end of something. Paul believes there’s still something to be “worked out” when it comes to salvation.

But this statement may be confusing given the way Americans tend to think about salvation. As I was driving home from the church office a few weeks ago, I passed a car which had a bright yellow bumper sticker on it. And here’s what the sticker said: “Exposure to the son will prevent burning.” The word “s-o-n” referred to Jesus, the Son of God. And at the end of the word “burning” there were bright red flames. It was saying that you need Jesus if you want to avoid hell. And that bumper sticker summarizes the way some salvation. Some think that salvation is mostly about a spiritual home. Some view salvation primarily as the way we get to our spiritual home. If we have Jesus, if we get saved, then we are guaranteed the spiritual home of heaven. If we don’t have Jesus, if we are not saved, then we are guaranteed the spiritual home of hell. Salvation is mostly about preventing burning—making sure we get to the right spiritual home. And if that’s all salvation is, then it seems like an ending: Jesus has done all that’s needed to put me right with God and guarantee me a spot in heaven. It’s finished. It’s like when the baseball umpire yells “Safe!” as the runner successfully completes a run to the home plate. To be “Safe!” is to have successfully completed the journey home. Some think of salvation in the same way. To be saved is to be guaranteed a successful journey home to heaven. And if that’s all salvation is, then it sounds like Paul is saying we have to work our way to heaven. It sounds like he’s saying Jesus didn’t do enough to guarantee our journey home. We have to work our way home.

But there is another way of understanding “salvation” which makes better sense of Paul’s words here. It might help us to think of the word “salvation” not in a way that relates to our spiritual home but in a way that relates to our spiritual health. The word “salvation” in Scripture can refer to a person’s health. For example, in Acts 27:34 Paul urges hungry soldiers to eat so that they might “survive,” or, literally, “be saved.” In Acts 4:9 the word “saved” is translated “healed” when Peter describes how he “healed” a lame man. The word “salvation” can refer to being spiritually healthy, being spiritually whole, or being spiritually complete. And this phrase “work out” can be translated “work at.” Paul is urging us to “work at” our “spiritual health.” He’s saying that salvation is the beginning of a journey of becoming more and more healthy.

And what is spiritual health? In Phil. 3:10 Paul argues that ultimate spiritual health comes by knowing Jesus and becoming like Jesus. That’s the goal. That’s the standard. Jesus was the healthiest human ever to live. There was never someone so complete, so whole, as Jesus. Jesus shows us what real spiritual health looks like. We are to work at knowing and becoming like Jesus.

Awhile ago Kendra’s Dad had knee surgery. One of his knees was causing him so much pain he could hardly walk. After putting off the surgery for months, Ken finally agreed to have it done. The surgery was successful. But that surgery wasn’t an end: it was just the beginning. The doctor did not come in and say, “Ken, congratulations! You’re all done. You’re as good as new. You can go home and resume your normal activities!” No, the surgery was just the beginning. For the next few months, Ken had to “work at” his knee-health. He had to do certain exercises to stretch and strengthen the tendons and muscles. Paul is suggesting something similar regarding spiritual health. Just as the doctors did all the work to fix Ken’s knee, so Jesus does all the work to remove our sin. But after that saving surgery, we have to “work at” our spiritual health. There’s recovery and rehabilitation we need to engage in. Salvation marks the beginning of this journey toward spiritual health.

And Paul stresses that this journey requires effort on our part. Some of those in Philippi have stopped working at their spiritual health. In Phil. 2:1-4 Paul describes how some of them are acting out of selfish ambition and vain conceit. Some of them value themselves above others. Some of them only look to their own interests. They have stopped working at their spiritual health. They’ve stopped putting any effort at all into knowing Jesus and becoming like Jesus. So Paul urges them to get “back to work.” It’s going to take effort on their part if they want to know Jesus and become like Jesus.

Have you ever watched or heard of the show on NBC called “The Biggest Loser”? Contestants whose health is endangered by their obesity compete to see which of them can return to a healthy body weight by the end of the season. Each contestant loses hundreds of pounds and goes through a transformation. But this journey toward health doesn’t just happen. These contestants radically changed their diet and exercise. They truly had to “work at” their physical health.

And that is perhaps Paul’s greatest challenge in these verses. He’s saying that spiritual health will never “just happen.” Knowing more of Jesus and becoming more like Jesus will not simply “happen.” It requires effort on our part. Some in Philippi had stopped “working out” and now just look at the spiritual couch potatoes they’ve become. It is very easy for the same to happen to us. Consider how hard some of you work to keep in physical shape. You go to the gym early every morning. You run in the afternoon every day. Consider how hard some of you work to be successful in your job. You arrive before anyone else and you leave after everyone else. Consider how hard some of you work to achieve your goals in school. You take the hardest classes. You always do your homework. But now consider how hard most of us work at our spiritual health. For most of us, there is hardly a comparison worth making. The extent of our effort is getting up on Sunday morning and dragging ourselves here. But Paul is saying that we truly want to arrive at real spiritual health, it’s going to take effort. It’s going to take the same kind of effort we give our physical health, our jobs, and our school.

Paul models this effort for us. In Phil. 3:12 he writes about how he “presses on” toward spiritual health. In Phil. 3:13 he writes about how he is “straining toward” spiritual health. These are words of effort. Paul is working hard to know and become like Jesus.

And this effort is not something anyone else can do for you. Paul writes, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation…” He draws attention to his absence. He cannot be with them. He cannot do this work for them. They must take responsibility for their own spiritual health. Certainly Paul believes they can help each other. Most scholars draw attention to the fact that the “your” here is plural—Paul wants the whole church to work at their spiritual health together. This is effort we make with others. But it is not effort we can make for others. We work on our spiritual health with the help of others. But we cannot do that work for each other.

It is tempting to try to hand over responsibility for our spiritual health to others. You teens may think it’s mostly your parents’ responsibility to see to your spiritual health. You parents may think it’s mostly our youth ministers’ and children’ ministers responsibility to see to your children’s spiritual health. We tend to act as if it’s the elders’ or Reach Group leaders’ or preacher’s responsibility to enable our spiritual health. But no one can make this effort for you. Each of you must take personal responsibility for your spiritual health.

But it is important to make two clarifications regarding this effort. First, effort is not the same as earning. In Phil. 3:9 Paul specifically attacks any idea that by our effort we can earn God’s favor or earn spiritual health. He writes that he wants to “be found in [Christ], not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ…” The worst misunderstanding of Paul’s words about “working out your salvation” would be to assume he believes that by our effort and work we can earn righteousness.

Here is how author Dallas Willard explains this: “While it is true that we are saved by grace, that God alone is the author of our salvation, and it is impossible to change our wayward hearts on our own, it is also true that we have important responsibilities in this journey of discipleship. We must understand the critical truth that God is not opposed to people making an effort, but that God is opposed to using our effort to earn salvation. So God is not opposed to effort but to earning. While God’s grace birthed us into the kingdom, our continued cooperation with that grace grows us in the life of the kingdom.” God is opposed to earning—that attitude which says “I can save myself.” But God is not opposed to effort—the actions we undertake to become more and more spiritually healthy.

A second clarification about this effort is that it involves training harder not trying harder. When Paul urges us to “work out” or “work at” he is not merely calling for us to try, try, again. He is calling us to train, train, again. Here’s how Dallas Willard puts it: “As disciples, we are not trying to be different people (which is the road to failure, legalism, and bondage), but we are training to be different people.”

Mike Savage is a friend of mine. He leads the MOVEment ministry at Highland. This ministry sponsors many kinds of recreational activities. Even if you are a novice, the activities are for you. Mike, however is no novice. He just competed in his first half iron-man. It involved swimming 1.2 miles in the ocean with 3-4 foot swells, biking 56 miles with a hard wind, and running 13.1 miles under a hot and cloudless sky. That’s about six hours of intense physical effort over 70.3 total miles. Mike had never done anything like this before. Mike is in very good condition. He runs, bikes, and swims regularly. But as conditioned as he is, there is no way Mike could have just showed up at the competition and just tried hard. No matter how hard he tried, he would not have been able to finish. Instead, Mike had to train. He had to arrange his life around certain practices which would slowly, over time, build his strength.

The same principle applies to our spiritual growth and health. We cannot simply try harder to know Jesus and be like Jesus. That’s not the kind of effort Paul is describing. What we can do is train. We can arrange our life around certain practices which will slowly, over time, lead us more deeply into intimacy with Jesus and imitation of Jesus.

What practices can we train in to help us reach spiritual wholeness? Paul gives us a clue here. Paul urges the Philippians to be obedient: “as you have always obeyed…” Paul used this same word to describe Jesus in the hymn which introduces this section: “he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” With this word “obey” Paul is pointing the Philippians and us back to Jesus. And it is in Jesus that we see the kinds of practices which can train us to know him and be like him.

Gary Holloway will be coming to Highland in October to speak about these practices. In his book You Might Be Too Busy If…Spiritual Practices for People in a Hurry Gary writes that Jesus oriented his life around five practices. By training in these five practices we can grow closer to Jesus and become more like Jesus. These are five Jesus-practices we can train in: Solitude, Silence, Simplicity, Sabbath, and Service. As we make concentrated efforts to spend moments each day with God, seek places of silence, simplify our lives, carve out longer periods of reflection, and engage in meaningful acts of service, we will experience greater and greater degrees of spiritual health.

But Paul saves the most important aspect of effort. Listen again to his words: 12?Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,? 13? for it is God who works in you??? to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Phil. 2:12-13 TNIV). This is the most exciting aspect of spiritual growth. Yes, salvation is the beginning of a journey not the end of a journey. And this journey requires effort on our part—effort focused on training. But Paul closes by making this promise: God energizes our effort, providing both motivation and might. The words “fear and trembling” are there to remind us that God is present. Paul is absent. But he wants us to know that God is present. As we work at our spiritual health, God is present. And that should lead us to “fear and trembling” or awe and reverence. Paul is not saying we should be afraid of this God. After all just listen to what we can expect from this God: for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. This God who is present as we work at our spiritual health is also at work. He is at work within us. God is actually working inside of us.

And God is working at two things. First, he working to give us motivation, what Paul calls here, “will.” As we exert ourselves in practices like solitude, silence, simplicity, Sabbath, and service God will be working inside of us helping us desire spiritual health more and more; helping our hunger to know Jesus and be like Jesus deepen. Second, God is working to give us might, what Paul calls here the ability to “act.” As we use what strength we have to engage in practices like solitude, silence, simplicity, Sabbath, and service, God will be working inside of us making us stronger and stronger and thus able to make greater progress toward spiritual health. This journey requires effort on our part. But God partners with our effort, providing strength far beyond our own.

John Ortberg summarizes this with the image of three boats: a raft, a rowboat, and a sailboat. Imagine that this journey of spiritual health is like crossing the ocean. Imagine that the other side of the ocean is spiritual health—it’s knowing Jesus and becoming like Jesus. We want to get to that goal. We want to reach the other side. But some people might wrongly assume they have nothing to contribute to getting across the ocean. So, they just jump on the raft and drift believing that God will miraculously get them across to the other side. But they get nowhere. Others might wrongly assume they have everything to do with getting across the ocean. If they are going to reach that goal, it’s going to be entirely up to them. So, they get in the rowboat and start paddling with all their might. But they just wear themselves out. But others, however, understand Paul’s text. They don’t jump on a raft or in a rowboat. They get into a sailboat. There is great effort they must expend in the sailboat. They have to keep the sails trimmed and oriented in just the right direction to catch the wind. Each summer I sailed with my Dad on a lake in New Mexico. It was hard work, especially when the wind was strong. But ultimately, if a sailboat moves, it is a gift of the wind. If that sailboat reaches the other side of the ocean, it’s because the wind carried it there. The good news about spiritual health is that God is the wind. If we’ll do our part of trimming the sails and orienting them to the wind, God will carry us all the way to the end of our journey.