Our Spiritual Growth - A Final Word

Before I leave the topic of spiritual growth, I want to leave you with one other thought. This thought flows out of the following text: "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, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Philippians 2:12-13).

In this text we see two apparently contradictory truths. In v. 12 Paul tells us that we must continue (never stop) to work out our salvation. He isn't telling us to work FOR our salvation. That would contradict what he says elsewhere about salvation being UNEARNED on our part (see Ephesians 2:8-9 for example). What he is saying here is that we need to always be striving to work our salvation OUT into every area of our life - like when you add an ingredient when you are making a cake and you stir the cake batter to make sure the ingredient gets worked throughout the entire batter. OK. Verse 12 tells us we have something to do. But then in v. 13 Paul tells us that it is God who works inside of us to get us to the point where we desire to do his will and then actually purpose to do it! So v. 12 - we do it and in v. 13 God does it. SO is this a contradiction? It may appear to be so - but only in our feeble finite minds. In some mysterious way (that I have yet to figure out ... and if you have, please let me know!) our spiritual growth is BOTH totally dependent upon us AND totally dependent upon God.

So what does this mean for us? It means that if you and I want to grow in our spiritual lives, then we must be BOTH working as if our growth was totally up to us AND praying as if our growth was totally up to God! So - determine today to work and pray! Work and pray! Work and pray . . .

Oh the mystery of godliness is great (see 1 Timothy 3:15)!!!

Thanks for stopping by,

pj