“Work out your salvation” is all about the working out by all saved person to build a loving and harmonious relationship with each other. And it is only can be fulfilled by surpassing the Law which is the Ten Commandments.
Building a right relationship among the believers is the very much concerns of Apostle Paul on his writing in Phil 2:12, “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”.
It is very logical why Paul urging the Philippians believers to “continue to work out your salvation”:
• We are a person born with a sinful nature, which is called “childhood-well used-selfishness-sinful nature-ingrained-habit”.
It means, I love to be first, I want to be above from others, I don’t want others to boss me around. Selfishness is an ingrained habit that need to be work out. It can only be done by learning the biblical principles of giving. The bible tells, “It is more blessed to give than to received”(Acts 20:35).
• We are not a person who easily to get along well with others.
In other words we are so easy to get angry with others even in some small matters. If they critic me, or say unkind words towards me or they making a fun of me and laugh at me I burst with anger on them. We need to work out this problem and it can be resolve by learning the biblical principles of forgiving.
• We are a person inclined to be disobedient and work not so well when a leader is not present.
“When the cat is away the mouse goes astray”, and that is true, we are like the mouse. Likewise, when a manager or the boss is not around the employees don’t do their job. Just the same in the Church, when the pastor is absent the workers and the members become insolent or wary to each other. More so if the pastor will be gone for a long time, envy and strife shall build up among them.
We must understand that Christianity is a social religion. Meaning, each of us believers must have a genuine fellowship or right relationship to all kinds of people specially to our brethren. Whether they are poor or rich, educated or not and whatever color of the skin all believers should be in harmony on following or obeying the command that say, ”Love your neighbor as yourself”.
If the believers for in some reason shall be against to other believers, what would be their difference from the unbelievers- the unsaved? When a believer will be against the other believer there would be a strife to each other. And when there are strife there are hatred and when there are hatred there are murder committed. Why there is a murder being committed? In the Bible, Jesus teaching about anger is very clear that “hatred which is also anger is the same as murder” (Mat 5:21-26). In that case, it is very plain to tell, all of them are not different from the person who murder someone. They are all murderer! (This case actually happened in the Corinthian Church 1 Cor 1:10-13)
Murder is a direct transgression of the 6th commandment, “You shall not murder” in which Jesus fully explained it as “You shall not be angry”. Apostle Peter also has more teaching on that case he said, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. (1Jn 3:15)
Note: “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer” and “ no murderer hath eternal life”. Note also the word “brother”, why on that verse mentioned brother? As what usually happen in the family, when the parents particularly when the father is not present there would be envy and strife among the children.
All believers are children of God and each children have their own traits, temperament, and upbringing. As what it said, we are a “childhood-well used- selfishness-sinful nature-ingrained habits”, in which we are to make every effort to “work out” to transform ourselves from that condition. After we become completely transformed then we are no longer the same with the person who murder- who is unbeliever- who is unsaved.
The Law which is the Ten Commandments portrays and teach only one thing- relationship. Right relationship to God and to all man is what we are about to “work out”. If we have no right relationship to God and to all man, we are just like the unbelievers and the unsaved. That is why we need to “continue to work out our salvation” by surpassing the Law.
• As an individual believer we are to work out to remove completely our sinful nature-ingrained habit of being selfish, easily to get angry-hateful and bitter.
• As a Church we are to work out with all of our effort not to become like the Corinthian Church full of envy and strife and with all kinds of immorality.
