Christ in Everything
Lessons

Philippians 2:14-16 Hold fast to life

Philippians

Date Published

Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing. But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. In the same way you should also be glad and rejoice with me.

Christian Standard Bible, Philippians 2:12–18.

Today as we continue in our study of Philippians, I want to talk about what it looks like to work out our own salvation when God is working and willing in us from this passage.

If we read verse 12 on its own, it could be very easy to begin to fill in the blanks on what it may mean to work out our own salvation. At times, this may be good, as the Holy Spirit may be convicting us of something He desires in us to do. That being said, this passage seems to tell us what that looks like itself. 

Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing.

Philippians 2:14–16.

We ought to read this as one whole- we are to do something, so that we are something, because we are something, in a place, by the ability of something. 

And all of this is rooted out of verse 13, that it is God who is willing and working in us according to his good purpose.

We are called to do everything we are called to do in a certain manner- one without grumbling or arguing, so that we are blameless and pure.

Have you ever actually tried to do that for a day? Have you ever tried to serve others selflessly for a day, doing whatever they may ask of you without saying one unkind word, thinking one selfish thought? I have. And utterly failed. 

The problem is that we think of doing this only in terms of our own actions and not in light of the whole passage. So what does it say? 

You are a child of God.

As Christians, people who have believed on, trusted in, and given our lives over to Jesus, we are children of God. We have a new identity.

Tonight, maybe we all feel like we are without identity. Maybe your career has not turned out the way you thought it would turn out, maybe your marriage did not turn out the way you thought it would turn out, maybe your identity that other people gave you, or even you gave yourself seems to have been lost.

In Jesus, you are not lost. Your identity is sure. You are a child of God, adopted by him.

First John 3:1–2 goes like this:

See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him. Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is.

Our doing and serving should be coming out of this rest, that we are children of God. We don’t serve, or do what God commands us out of fear that if we don’t we will not be able to be saved, we do this out of rest knowing that our Father loves us, and has good plans for us.

You are faultless.

Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him— if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it. 

Colossians 1:21–23

Jesus has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy and faultless! If you rest, and continue to rest in Jesus, you are saved and faultless before him. I would also like to direct us to this verse 23 that confirms this- that we must remain grounded and steadfast in the faith.

There will be so many things as Christians that seek to take our eyes and trust off of the work of Christ on our behalf. It may even be your own good performance! Maybe you break free from addiction, maybe you don’t grumble, maybe you seem to have your life put together, you get out of the mission, maybe you have your own house or apartment, and you slowly begin to shift your gaze off of trust in Jesus, and start to think you are something.

I’m warning all of us tonight, including myself, Our trust must be in Jesus! Our faith must remain sure in Him, not in our own works of righteousness. This is what this means to be grounded in the faith, that if anything we do is good or right, or just we acknowledge that this work of ours is only one of work of the grace of God in our life. 

This faultlessness we have in our life is sure, because it is the faultlessness of Jesus, not the faultlessness of our own performance.

This leads us into the next point of this passage:

Shine as stars, by holding to the word of life.

Our life is a life of beauty in the midst of a crooked generation. 

As a child, I grew up on a hay farm north of Pasco. I would spend a lot of time out in the corner of one of the fields building forts and playing with my dog, Floppy. We named her that because when she was a pup she wagged her tail crazily whenever she saw us.

I remember each Spring I would love seeing little bits of grass grow in the dry corner of the field I played at. Every year it was amazing to me, because we live here in a desert, and not much grows without water. It was so beautiful to see bright green blades of grass in the midst of a gray, weed-filled piece of land.

That is a small picture of our life in Christ. Each time we rejoice in Jesus, and what he has done for us- the word of life, we are like those blades of grass in the desert. We shine like stars in a black sky.

We must hold fast to the word of life. This word of life is Jesus.

John chapter 14 starts this way with the words of Jesus:

“Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. You know the way to where I am going.” “Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Jesus tells us that He is the way, the truth and the life. Because of Him, and through him we have the entrance to the Father. We are saved completely and fully because of the work of Christ on our behalf! This is good news.

So tonight, I hope I’ve encouraged you to look to Jesus. “In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”. Colossians 2:3

Jesus is enough for you. Trust in Him.

By

Christopher Wray

Key Passages

Philippians 2:14-16,  John 14:1-7,  Colossians 1:21–23,  1 John 3:1–2