Fear & Trembling

Yesterday I was reading over Philippians 2, and a phrase stuck out to me that has always seemed odd: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (2:12).

I know that I’ve heard that phrase many times over the years, but I’ve never really understood it. “Fear and trembling” has always sounded so antithetical to our well-loved (and Biblically-based) idea that “God is love” and that “perfect love casts out fear.”

What could Paul possibly mean by “fear” and “trembling”?

In my wondering, I turned to a commentary on the word ‘trembling,’ and discovered that the whole phrase is meant to communicate one idea. Here’s what I found:

“with fear and trembling, used to describe the anxiety of one who distrusts his ability completely to meet all requirements, but religiously does his utmost to fulfill his duty” (Thayer’s).

We are totally unable to do the work necessary to save ourselves or to make that salvation manifest in our daily lives. Yet in some mysterious way we are called to co-labor with God as He works in us to progressively chisel into our daily lives what He has already declared to be so in the heavenlies through our faith in the shed blood of Jesus.

With this in mind, then, it seems to make perfect sense that Paul would next remark that “it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for {His} good pleasure” (2:13). I like how the NLT phrases it: “For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.”

How do we do it, then? Practically, I think it means that we are to actively move with God as a passive recipient of His transforming power.

Standing at the bottom of the cliff, looking up, the precipice of our calling in Christ is high. We could not ascend to it on our own. However, we each have a responsibility to take the initiative to start climbing, and after having begun, to place one foot and one hand right after the other. As we go, we find that there is One greater than us giving strength and agility to our limbs. We are responsible to decide to go; He is responsible for everything else. The daunting greatness of the task gives us cause to humbly look to Him who is able as He calls us to go higher up and further in.

It means a mix of humility and hope – on one hand, a sober distrust of my own power to make me more like Christ; on the other, a tenacious trust in God’s ability to do the work of redemption within my own soul.

I think it could be summed up in this prayer: “You are God; my life and salvation are in your hands. I want to humbly move with you as you move in me to make me more like your Son.”