Obedience
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
This passage begins with therefore that means it is related to the previous passage. Earlier in the chapter Paul was exhorting the Philippians to have the mind of Christ, which is the mind of humility and sacrificial love. Paul then wrote of how Christ was the perfect example of humility, and because of this he was exalted by God the Father.
So, Paul was providing the Philippians with two reasons to be humble and to love sacrificially, firstly, this is the mind of Christ and secondly, if we join him in his humility, we will join him in his exaltation.
But what does that have to do with these verses, what is the connection? Well, it's obedience, verse 7 and 8 says “(He) Emptied himself taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death and a cross.” A servant is obedient to his master, and a humble obedience to God is what marked Christ out from others. He was perfectly obedient to the Fathers will. And so, Paul is effectively saying, ‘therefore, do likewise’.
Obedience does not come naturally to us, we will happily do the dishes after dinner when we do it out of our own initiative, but as soon as one of our family members tells us to do the dishes, well that does not feel the same does it? What's the difference? It’s obedience, we seem to have a distaste for it, a reluctance to obey others. And this problem reaches to the very core of our sinful hearts. We don’t want to obey God, for we dislike obedience, we want to be our own masters, making our own rules, and this causes us to rebel against him, we disobey him.
But in this passage Paul is urging the Philippians to continue in obedience, for that is the way of Christ. And in fact, obedience to God is how we work out our salvation. We should obey him with reverent fear, seeking to honour him in all we do. As I said earlier, obedience does not come naturally to us, but God is continually working in us, enabling us to obey him.
Many non-Christians believe that becoming a Christian, will restrict their freedom, if they become a Christian then they will have to leave behind ways of living that does not correspond with God’s will. And while it is true that the Christian does have to leave behind their sinful way of living, this is not restricting freedom, in fact obeying God is freedom - if we have a Creator who has a purpose for his creation, then surely freedom is found in doing what the Creator intended for us to do, rather than rebelling against him.
“Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
So obedience isn’t bad, it is grace from God, we should be like the Psalmist of Psalm 1, delighting in the law of God, for obedience to his law is enjoying God, we enjoy God by obeying him.
I will speak more on these two verses tomorrow, but may we enjoy God in obedience to him today.
