“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. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life.” Philippians 2:12-16a (ESV)
What would the Kingsman learn from this passage? More importantly, what would he apply?
Paul is writing to people he loves. People who already know Jesus. He’s not introducing them to the gospel. He is calling them to a quality of life that matches the gospel they have received. That is a word aimed directly at the Kingsman.
Here are four things in this passage worth considering.
The first is to work out what God has worked in. The instruction to work out your own salvation is not a call to earn it. Paul is writing to people who already have it. What he is calling for is the deliberate, intentional, serious process of bringing that salvation into full expression in the life being lived. It is the kind of language you would use for someone who has received something significant and is now fully engaging with what it actually means and what it requires of them. The fear and trembling is not about cowering before God as though He is waiting for you to fail. It is about taking seriously the weight of what has been entrusted to you. I find that to be a useful check. There are times when I relate to my walk with God almost casually, as if the extraordinary privilege of knowing Jesus and being filled with the Holy Spirit is somehow routine. This verse speaks against that. It calls for a reverent intentionality. It calls the Kingsman to give his discipleship the same seriousness he would give to anything he truly valued.
The second is to trust the One who is already at work. This is the verse that powers everything else in the passage. It is God who works in you both to will and to work. That covers the desire and the action. The motivation and the deed. There are seasons when the desire to be what God has called you to be feels distant. When you are not sure the willingness is there. In those seasons, it matters enormously to know that God is working in you to bring about the very willingness that feels lacking. The Kingsman learns not to rely on his feelings as the primary indicator of where he stands, because feelings can be unreliable reporters. He leans on the promise of this verse instead and makes himself available to what God is doing, even when he cannot clearly see it.
The third is to watch the atmosphere he carries. This one is close to home. Grumbling and disputing are natural responses to a fallen world. When things do not go the way you expected, when people act in ways that seem unjust or thoughtless, when demands feel disproportionate to the resources available, grumbling feels almost like a reasonable protest. It feels like you are simply telling the truth about the situation. But Paul identifies both as things that directly undermine the whole project. And he is not vague about it. He says all things. This removes most of the exits. What I have come to understand is that grumbling and disputing are not simply personal failures. They poison the atmosphere of every environment you inhabit. There is a real difference between a man who grumbles his way through difficulty and a man who holds a steady disposition when things around him are unsettled. People notice that. The Kingsman is not called to pretend. He is not required to give the impression that everything is fine when it clearly isn’t. But there is a significant difference between honest engagement with difficulty and the kind of chronic, low-level grumbling that signals to everyone around him that he doesn’t really trust God with the situation.
The fourth is to let his life hold out the word of life. Paul ties everything together. The man who takes his salvation seriously, who trusts what God is doing in him, who manages the atmosphere he carries — that man becomes visible in a way that has nothing to do with performance. He simply contrasts with the environment around him. In a crooked and twisted generation, integrity stands out. Steadiness stands out. Care for others without an agenda stands out. The Kingsman is not sheltered from that crooked and twisted generation. He walks into it every day, in his workplace, in his neighbourhood, in the environments where no credit is given for faith commitments and no one is impressed by religious language. In those spaces, his character speaks. And what anchors that character is holding fast to the word of life. Not the approval of the generation around him. Not how well he manages to look the part. The word of life. The gospel. The living truth of who God is and what He has done in Jesus Christ. That is where the anchor sits. That is what keeps the light burning.
That is the life this passage is describing. That is the life the Kingsman is called to live.
For His Name’s Sake
C. L. J. Dryden
Shalom
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