Philippians 2:12 (written by the Apostle Paul.)
This seems fundamentally wrong for these days and times, in terms of how a Christian ought to approach life.
Of course, this mortal life is tragic - as well as joyous; and we ourselves are weak, and prone to fear, resentment, dishonesty and many other sins - as well as blessed by divine freedom and the capacity for love.
But I am sure that Christians are not intended by Jesus Christ to regard our salvation with fear and trembling; and that - indeed - to do so is a sin akin to despair.
F&T is a sin because it is evidence of a lack of faith in God's goodness and power.
On the contrary; salvation is in our own hands; as is evident throughout the Fourth Gospel - which (to simplify) means that if we want salvation, we can have it.
We get it by following Jesus Christ - and that "following" means after this mortal life; and following analogously to a lost sheep following a Good Shepherd.
For us (here, now) the great thing, the great problem - is Not-at-all about the difficulties of navigating salvation; but much more fundamentally and lethally Not Wanting Salvation.
It is therefore misguided and counter-productive to emphasize the uncertainty of salvation, to make it a matter properly approached in a spirit of F&T.
(As if God was a stern monarch and Judge - rather than God being our loving parent/s.)
What we need and ought to be doing, is not inculcating an attitude of fear and trembling; but instead helping people to want salvation...
Firstly by clarifying what salvation is; secondly by clarifying what are the alternatives.
And then (hardest of all) getting people to think about this matter sufficiently deeply and consecutively, to decide what they really hope-for, for themselves - on a timescale of eternity.
9 comments:
" salvation is in our own hands; as is evident throughout the Fourth Gospel - which (to simplify) means that if we want salvation, we can have it. "
isn't this precisely what St. Paul is saying? 'work out YOUR OWN salvation'. now, I myself am not a Philippian by any means, more a Galatian, but it seems to me the point, which St. Paul should be commended for making so clearly in a time and place like the one he did live in, is to work out OUR OWN salvation.
I also think it's sometimes good advice to approach, not our salvation, but our working out of it, with fear and trembling. one of the tragic things of our age, to me, is how insensitive it is, to both beauty and ugliness, to happiness and to sorrow. atheism has numbed our imagination, and thus also our senses. most have no consciousness, not even a glimpse, of the stakes of this mortal life, how fragile things are. so it's not the salvation part, but what we bring to it, and that is decided here, in my view. thus fear and trembling, in my opinion, is an appropriate response at least sometimes.
but one needs reassurance beyond this, which Paul gives in the next verse: 'for it is God who works through you'. This God is the Holy Spirit, of course. I guess what I am saying, and it's a point I like making, is that St. Paul is a great writer, and terribly misread, perhaps even more so than Jesus. And he has things to teach, or I have things to learn from him.
To the last point, about what we should be encouraging: this is the ultimate goal of course, because only a positive vision can conquer a negative one. yet negative feelings are often what starts a search for something positive. I can say for sure this is true of me. "There is something wrong", "The evil in the world is real", "God" - these are the chapter headings of many personal books. Unfortunately, for some it's not the last chapter, "apostasy". Fear and trembling seem like good advice.
I would consider everyone in the west working out THEIR OWN salvation with fear and trembling an improvement over not working it out at all, or not taking responsibility for it, another popular option.
@Laeth - OK, but that's not how I understand it!
@Bruce,
which part?
do you not believe that each must work out their own salvation, and that it is God (as the Holy Spirit) who works through them?
you have a problem with the fear and trembling, that i understand. but that is most clearly not the main point of what St. Paul is talking about, it's a detail. and maybe traditionalists take it as the important part, but it's clearly not.
@Laeth - I apparently don't understand Paul's intentions in this writing, in the way that you do. Also, I am challenging the way that (so far as I can gather) this passage has actually been interpreted and taught over the past several generations.
@Bruce,
of course. I am challenging it too.
@Laeth - While there are exceptions to every statement, as a generalization I think Christians need to drop (or, at least, set-aside for a while) the "fear" line - here as elsewhere; because otherwise fear obliterates the possibility of true understanding.
There is, and has been, far too great an emphasis on fear as a basis for being-a-Christian. Before seeking a place for fear in the Christian life (which indeed there is, and must be) - the point needs to be grasped that Christianity is about hope first and foremost.
And for there to be hope - Christians must have confidence in their own salvation - so long as salvation is properly understood, which is very seldom is. (Put negatively) The Christian must not fear being denied salvation - so long as he really wants it. He must not suppose that the properly Christian life entails fear and trembling - a situation which (once embarked upon) has no end.
As usual, wrongness is maintained by at least two errors, so that if only one is corrected then the wrongness is maintained by the other error. So Christians who regard salvation as a permitted escape from the default of being sent to justified Hell, cannot accept that salvation is a choice, an opt-in.
'With courage and trust' is how I mentally reframe that commonly quoted verse. Courage to get past the safety rails of external Christianity, trust that doing so will not end in more confusion.
Maybe “work out your own salvation with a sense of awe and deep seriousness, as befits something incredibly precious” or something like that would capture it (not saying this is how it’s always been understood - but I think it’s the proper way to understand it). It brings to mind the image of a young father being handed his newborn child and receiving the baby with “fear and trembling.”
A comment in a letter from William Arkle to a friend seemed to encapsulate my attitude:
"Perhaps what you and I are trying to get away from mostly, is the word "work". We don't want to *work* at life... that is an insult to God and our own Godness, for no sublime gift would be classified as work, but we want to imply the relationship between the violin and its player; only we are the violin and the player."
So I am challenging the idea of "working" at our salvation as well as the F&T. Some things are more truly serious than "work" and then they are Not work - although it is tempting (in talking to others) to make much of our seriousness by emphasising the fact of our "working hard".
I feel about work much as I feel about "busyness" - and how aversive I find it when people are asked how they are , and they smugly reply "Oh busy, busy..."
On a cosmic and eternal scale, I don't suppose there is any virtue in working per se, and busyness is seen as - at best - a tragic imposition.
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