Apostolic Admonitions I ~ Work Out Your Salvation: Philippians 2:12-16, especially vs. 12: "Therefore, my beloved...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."
We begin today another weekday course of five readings in the Epistle to the Philippians. Let us recall that Philippians is a letter of appreciation from the Apostle. He had received financial help for his personal maintenance while he was in custody, awaiting trial. However, being a good father in God, St. Paul also took this opportunity to counsel his "beloved" congregation concerning their life in Christ. In today's reading he is advising them concerning salvation.
As the Apostle launches into the topic of salvation, observe what a classic Orthodox "statement of opposites" he makes: they are to "work out their own salvation," but "it is God who works in you" (vss. 12,13). The statement is classically Orthodox because it emphasizes a truth with two aspects, which, at first reading, might appear contradictory.
If one frets about "who" accomplishes the work of salvation, he sees here that the Apostle speaks as if both God and the Philippians were responsible for their eternal deliverance. In fact, seeming opposites actually constitute a true, balanced statement concerning the synergistic relationship of God and man in the process of salvation. We work out our salvation; but unseen by the world, God works in us, encouraging, illumining, and filling us with His grace (vs. 13).
Christians know full-well that it is the good will of God the Holy Trinity which yokes us to Christ in the work of salvation, and not only for ourselves but for the entire creation. We are called into unity with Christ to defeat the demonic powers that act to divide us from one another and nature alike. For this reason, in the Divine Liturgy, we pray for the revelation of Christ’s whole Body, asking for the descent of the Holy Spirit both upon ourselves and upon the gifts set forth before God. Each one works at his own salvation "in fear and trembling" (vs. 12), because salvation is a treasured gift from God, with Whom we are cooperating. How truly awesome is He Who stands with us to save us, for our deliverance is "His good pleasure" (vs. 13).
Let us also observe that salvation is not merely an individual matter between one's self and God. We are children in the family of our Father, Who is in Heaven. Therefore we are members of one another, united under one Head in the Body of Christ. The salvation of others is our concern. As white corpuscles rush to any point of infection in a physical body, so let the prayers of Christians hasten to the Lord on behalf of their brethren in Christ who are in need.
Observe that the Apostle does not speak of mutual concern in generalities. Rather, he teaches that action must be taken to "Do all things without complaining and disputing" (vs. 14). If we look ahead in Philippians, we see St. Paul using a specific issue to address the truth of corporate salvation. He implores "Euodia...and Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord" (Phil. 4:2), and the rest must "help these women who labored with me in the gospel" (Phil. 4:3).
Not only is the salvation of Christians linked to the salvation of one’s fellow Christians, but by its nature salvation means being concerned for those among whom we "shine as lights in the world" (vs. 15) - for non-believers outside the Christian community.
In this dark world, which is groping amidst hatred, violence, death, and meaningless pleasures, we are the light of Christ; yet if our own souls are dimmed with the darkness of sin, our prayers cannot help. Let us "become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation" (vs. 15). The Apostle says, "become," for our "salvation work" includes cleansing ourselves of all that keeps us from being light in the world.
O Good One, accept whatever good will is in us and send us a like measure of strength.