WAYS TO FULFILL GOD’S PURPOSE| Philippians 2:12-13 

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INTRODUCTION

      There was a man who was very handsome, very brave and clever, an intelligent army officer he was in a military service for some couple of years. But when he realized that he was called by God to serve Him, he left his profession and he landed studying theology and now he became army of God and serving God happily.  

      However there are unstopable different ways to fulfill the prouse of God, so let us right now keep our focus at the epistle of Paul in text Philippians 2:12-13 

            Philippians 2:12-13 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.

SETTLEMENT OF THE TEXT

            The good writting of the epistle of Philippians is the letter of Apostle Paul, a joyful letter to the believers of Philippians however because the believers send him gifts with alot of care and concern while he was still in prison. When he wrote this letter he was aware and heard about some problems prevailing within the church.

      At Philip the church was being torn apart because Christians were motivated by party spirit, selfishness, conceit (showing off), pride, and arrogance. But hoping to heal the breach, Paul begged the Philippians to live in a manner worthy of the gospel, to stand together, to work out, to think together, to serve one another, to pay attention to the concerns of one another, humbly to consider one another better than themselves. As Paul was also conscious that the Philippians were experiencing a lot of opposition, so he exhorts them taking the example of his own life on how to respond to hardship with joy.

Purpose: to plead with them to follow him and his teaching as a pattern for living rather than to follow false teaching (3:2-21).

IMMEDIATE CONTEXT    (not needed)  

            Apostle Paul is addressing to the overseers and deacons of Philippi with the thanksgivings and prayer 1:3-11, and verses 12-29 talks about Chains in advancing the Gospel. Also Apostle Paul was encouraging the believers of Philippi to imitate Christ humility (2:5-11). This passage is often referred to as the “hymn of Christ” describes about Christ example, so that they can be a good example of Christ.

Coming back to the text verse 12

1.     Obedient in and out (v.12)

      The word “Therefore” connects the verse or the result and the consequences of the preceding verse of Paul to Philippians believer, Paul out of love uses the word “My dear friends” and in other version it is “my beloved brothers and sisters.” This is to expresses the love, despite of the imperfections of the Philippians believers. In verse 12 it is clearly mentioned that “as you have always obeyed” The Greek word for “Obeyed” is “hoopakoo” which means to hear under, that is, to listen attentively.

      Paul told the believers not to obey only in his presence because Philippians were so faithful and obedient to Christ while Paul was with them. But Paul urges the Philippians believers to remain the same and not to take advantage of his absence but to have a same spirit of obedient even when his presence is apart. The catch phrase “Continue to work out” means to “produce, accomplish, to work fully.” We can understand fully from the word “salvation” that what Paul is asking the believers to work out is to work out on their salvation.  The Salvation mention here in this text is not about the soul, but salvation here means the deliverance from the snares which would hinder the Christian from doing the will of God. One of the snares that the Philippians believers encountered is persecution and opposition which might have hindered their work on salvation. For us too, we know very well what can hinder our work for salvation, it may be hardship, sicknesses, temptations. But as believers we should be diligent in the use of all the means which lead to our salvation. This is emphasized by the words “with fear and trembling.” With great care, they must work out their salvation and they should come short of it. 

        By “fear” it does not mean fear like of darkness in the night; “trembling” is not like trembling in a lion’s cave, but the very feeling as respect and being dutiful as servants who will obey and carry out orders. With fear and trembling the believers will work out and not fall short of the goal which is salvation.

ILLUSTRATIONS

      Some of us, when the social work comes we feel so lazy and don’t want to work instead we want to take rest and sleep. So when we work some of us are so active in the presence of teachers working like anything, but when the teachers is away from the presence then the real color comes. And the evidence is when Sir Micky was displaying the photos of those lazy people who were just standing and some are sitting while others are still working.

APPLICATION

        So, My dear friends I want to put this question to all of us, Can we take this action as obedient? No. obedient is not who work faithfully in the presence of teacher but much more when master is out of their presence. For instance, forget about being disobedient in the absent of the master, how is our obedient to the Lord who is all the time present in our midst. How my life and your lives are in front of the Lord, do we obey the Lord by spending time with Him and doing His will? …

After being obedience in and out what we need to do is that, we need to work or act according to His will that leads to my next point…

2.     WORK AND ACT ACCORDING TO HIS WILL (V.13)

Verse 13 “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

            The word “for” shows the continuation and assurance of God’s made in helping the believers to work that pleases Him. Obedience to God for it is God who works in you, here work means to energize, energizes the heart of the believers to do God’s will, so it is clear that God is effectively at work in the Philippians church. So Paul urged the believers to work effectively and must not be influenced by the trends that happen around, even though there were such problems going on within them, but Paul reminded them that they must strive to act in accordance to the will of God, as we see from the Verse 12.“To will and to act,” means touching both desire and activity and molding their will in order to mould their ways, His will for believers is that they think and do what pleases Him. Although that is accomplished primarily by His own power, when God’s children seek His will and do His work, it brings Him great pleasure.

            Even though the Philippians church had gone through many trials and temptations even from the false teachings but they still abide to what Paul instructed them. And is not only of being obedient but showing concern of believers to Paul a God’s servant of the Lord Jesus Christ as Paul has instructed them to act and work according to God’s will.

ILLUSTRATION

            Sometimes we hear testimonies of our brothers and sisters saying that their mom and dad have made up their mind that if the son/daughter is born a natural birth then “I will allow my child to serve God.” Thus the brothers/sisters landed in this place. They obeyed the words of parents and acted according to what God wills.

APPLICATION

            Through this what I want to convey is that many a times we act or obey what others say, we tend to follow even if we don’t want, trying to show that we obey them and not to discourage them. Therefore be the one who follow your will but not others, because sometimes following others might lead us to some uncertain situation. I believe that we are here because of our own will to work on our own interest, and if not then I believe that we might not give interest on what we are doing now.

            However, our obedience to parents has brought us here, think about our God what will be His expression if we work that which pleases Him by being obedient to Him. How much more will be blessed, He will lead us and used us if we work according to His will like a fruition tree which bear much fruits. So are we really acting and working to His will?

GENERAL APPLICATION AND CONCLUSION

      Through this we can understand that, Paul is reminding us once again that we should not be obedient in someone’s presence, but we need to obey even in the absent. As Paul reminds the believers of the Philippians to be obedient in everything that they do, Paul also means that real obedience is in the absence of someone. By being obedient we also need to act or work according to His will and not on our own because many a times we say that we obey but we tend to do our own will and not His will.

      Therefore, this morning what I want to say to each and every one of us is that; let us try to be obedient in everything that we do. I am not saying that we are not obeying, but many a times as a human we tend to fall short and do something on our own will by not obeying to family, friends and teachers. So as we are preparing ourselves to be obedient to the Lord, even if we go out from NBC, or are we working or take action that pleases God’s ways? If so, let us also follow where God wants to lead and to set the good example. And that will be the fulfillment of God what He wants from us.

WRITEN BY

YERENI YANTHANG