“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.14 Do all things without complaining and disputing, 15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain” (Phil 2:12-16).

This is an excellent description of a child of God. A saint is one who is not complaining or disputing. He is blameless, harmless, and without moral fault. Immediately after declaring the majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ, His death on behalf of sinners and His exaltation above all as King of kings, Apostle Paul presents to us the application of the doctrine. He calls the Christians “my beloved”. He is talking to the believers, whom he loves in Christ. He commands them to start “working out their salvation with fear and trembling”. This is the doctrine: salvation is by Grace alone, thru faith alone, by God’s Word alone, in Christ alone and to the glory of God alone. We don’t do religious works to go to heaven. Good deeds can’t save our souls. We don’t ‘WORK FOR’ eternal life, but we ‘WORK OUT’ this spiritual invisible reality of salvation. In other words, we must produce visible fruits of the Holy Spirit. We must behave as Christians. To be a child of God is the greatest privilege known to man. But privilege has responsibility. As Christians, we must behave responsibly. Agape Love demands that from us!

Another word for “working out our salvation” is “sanctification”. Salvation itself, the act of Justification is free. It is invisible. Jesus paid for it with His Blood. But immediately the sinner is justified by faith, he starts the process of sanctification. This process is done by obeying the truth and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. The Christian must humble himself and cooperate with the God’s Word and with the Holy Spirit. Some Christians are faster than others. That is why some manifests fruits of the Holy Spirit earlier than others. This process is done with ‘fear and trembling’. What is the meaning of that? First, we must fear God. It is true that this fear is not the fear of a slave. But even as a believer, we must fear and tremble before the majesty of the Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth. This fear of God manifests as wisdom, which is defined as practical application of the knowledge of God’s Word. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (PV 9:10). The second meaning is that we must fear sin, the world and the devil. This fear is not the fear of a coward. But we must be realistic and keep in mind that our present enemy is our former master. He has succeeded in making our perfect ancestor, Adam, fall into sin. He is a champion of seduction, deception, manipulation, intimidation, and flattery. As doctors fear viruses and take precautions not to be infected when treating their patients, we need to have a healthy respect and fear of falling into sin. We reject pride, the point of entry of many sins that make the Christians fall.             

God works inside our souls, ‘to will and to do’ for His good pleasure. The Holy Spirit energizes the mind, the emotions and the will so that we cooperate with God’s greater Will in the process of sanctification. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification… “(1Thess 4:3). The Bible reveals that the first two sins that manifest in a Christian are complaining and disputing. Complaining is also translated as grumbling or murmuring. To complain means to be angry and tell someone that something is wrong, that you are not satisfied with it. It is a sin against Agape Love. When you complain, you query God’s Love to you, you grieve the Holy Spirit, and you start backsliding. If you love God and your neighbor, you will never complain about anything. The second sin is ‘disputing’. To dispute it also means to be angry. You disagree with others; you argue, you quarrel with yourself or with others. This is a sin against faith. It produces a double-minded attitude which is called doubt. In the history of God’s people, they never stopped complaining and arguing. Both these sins are the beginning of rebellion against God, which is wickedness, or witchcraft. “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry” (1Sam 15:23). God’s people complained about many things: hunger, thirst, Manna (food given by God), God’s ways and strategy as He led them thru the desert. God punished them for the sin of complaining. Many died in the desert because of their stubbornness and rebellion.

Even today, the story repeats itself. There is a strong tendency to complain against God’s ways and His leading in our lives. We forget that God’s primary motive to save us is to be like Jesus, to build in us strong spiritual character. God is not directly interested to make us happy or wealthy on earth. God wants us to become like Jesus. We do not know the way to the eternal Promised Land, which is heaven itself. Jesus is the Way. We must love Him and trust Him even when we do not understand the process. Love makes us ‘blameless and harmless’, children of light in this dark and wicked world. The word blameless means to be innocent of wrongdoing. It means that none can criticize you in your speech or actions. To be harmless means to be pure in your secret heart, to be innocent in your motives. Jesus said that sinful thoughts are equal with sinful actions. For example, if a man looks with sexual lust towards a woman, he has committed adultery with her in his heart. A covetous man is a thief. A child of God is pure, clean, innocent not only in his actions but in his very soul.

As light is totally different from darkness, and stars are completely different from the night sky, so Christians are different from the worldly people. The world is defined as the humanity that lives like there is no God. All worldly people are crooked and perverse. To be crooked it means to be bent, not straight; dishonest and deceptive.  A crooked politician or businessman takes bribes and cheats his naïve clients. But child of God is loving, loving, faithful, blameless, free from bitterness, wickedness and deception. This is our pattern and lifestyle! Amen!

Finally, to be a believer ‘without fault’ means to combine all these attributes into one. A mature Christian is free from complaining and disputing spirits, and he is blameless and harmless, in all he does. This is the ideal testimony based on fruitful Love and mature Faith. It means to be like Jesus! Love produces a blameless character. Faith produces a harmless attitude. This is how the believer becomes a light to the world. The light of God shining thru the words and deeds of believers exposes and convicts the world of sin. “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, 25 To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, Be Glory and Majesty, Dominion and Power, both now and forever. Amen!” (Jude1:24,25). Praise the Lord!