“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 in order to fulfill his good purpose.” Philippians 2:12-13

Paul wasn’t saying that people needed to work for their salvation in these verses. Jesus completed the work of salvation once and for all on the cross. But new believers had many ways to work out what God had done in them.

Salvation is called the new birth for a reason: Like a newborn baby, the newborn Christian gradually learns how to feed herself, walk as Jesus walked, and exercise her spiritual gifts. She also does the daily work of putting off the old sin nature and putting on her new, Christ like nature.

A believer works out her salvation with “fear and trembling,” but that doesn’t mean she’s afraid of God. It means she’s deeply respectful of the Lord and his will for her life.

“For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” Philippians 2:13

Shine, Believer

Paul placed a lot of emphasis on keeping a positive attitude.

“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.” Philippians 2:14-16

Paul knew from experience how a bad attitude could tarnish a person’s testimony.

He had lots of reasons to grumble as he languished in chains in Rome. He had been unjustly arrested by his fellow Pharisees – members of “a warped and crooked generation” – and as a result he nearly lost his life in a shipwreck and ended up in prison.

If all of that hadn’t happened Paul might have gone on his fourth missionary journey, but instead he was stuck in Rome, relying on visitors to bring news from the mission field and sending them back with letters to the churches.

Paul had learned that grumbling and arguing accomplished nothing, but choosing joy and gratitude made life better for him and everyone around him. He shone like a star in that prison because he chose joy.

“But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you should be glad and rejoice with me.” Philippians 2:17-18

Timothy and Epaphroditus

Timothy had been a great partner in ministry with Paul for more than ten years.

“I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare. For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.” Philippians 2:20, 22

Epaphroditus was from Philippi and the Philippian church had sent him to Rome to give aid to Paul while he was imprisoned. Epaphroditus became ill and nearly died while he was in Rome, but God spared his life and Paul was deeply grateful for this mercy.

As much as Paul valued the companionship of Timothy and Epaphroditus, he sent them back to Philippi to encourage the believers and attend to any needs they had. Paul worried about the churches when he couldn’t visit them himself.

“Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety.” Philippians 2:28

Paul’s Credentials

Paul’s opponents in ministry were the Judaizers who came to the churches and insisted that the new believers obey the Law of Moses as well as trust Christ. Paul had already thought this through and dismissed circumcision as a requirement for salvation.

It wasn’t as if he didn’t understand the Law of Moses. He had all the credentials of a true Israelite.

“Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.” Philippians 3:5-6

But when Paul became a Christ follower he gave up every other credential and identity.

Paul’s Desire to Know Christ

“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him.” Philippians 3:7-9

Paul wanted righteousness as much as any other Pharisee, but now he understood that only in Christ would he find “the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.” (Philippians 3:9) Knowing Christ was Paul’s greatest desire in life. The Amplified Bible probably gives the most powerful translation of what Paul said next:

“[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him, [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [that it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death.” Philippians 3:10, Amplified Bible

Paul Presses On

It’s hard to imagine anyone who wanted to know Jesus Christ more than Paul, but he felt he had only begun to scratch the surface of that great pursuit.

“Not that I have already attained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14

Paul encouraged other believers to follow him in seeking the Lord, but he knew there were people who lived as enemies of the faith while calling themselves Christians. Their hearts secretly belonged to the world.

“Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.” Philippians 3:19

Rejoice!

Given his circumstances, perhaps the last thing anyone would expect to hear from Paul was,

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” Philippians 4:4

How could Paul be so joyful when he was in chains? He had learned how to deal with the things that stole his joy.

He quieted his anxieties by praying about everything and presenting all of his needs to God. He practiced gratitude and as a result he became a contented man. Doing these things gave Paul a transcendent peace and that peace guarded his heart and mind.

In other words, Paul had learned how to discipline his thoughts. It’s not that he never got distressed. We know from his letters that many times he was hurt, sad, and angry.

But Paul had learned the secret of re-directing his thinking onto peaceful paths. Paul set his mind “on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1) and he chose what to think about.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” Philippians 4:8

Source of Strength

It was only after explaining these faith practices that Paul told his readers about the great reward of faith: the ability to keep his balance in every circumstance.

“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:11-13

Some people claim Philippians 4:13 as their life verse, but skip the verses that precede it. Paul knew he could do anything with Christ’s help because he had been severely tested and discovered the Lord’s strength. He had stopped trying to live under his own power because he knew that the strength found in Christ far exceeded his own.

Paul knew that God would give other believers whatever they needed, too.

“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19

After the Letter to the Philippians

Two years after Paul wrote to the Philippians, he was released from his imprisonment in Rome and he finally set off on a fourth missionary journey. He probably revisited the churches he had planted more than a decade earlier. He may have made it as far as Spain.

About six years after his release, Paul was arrested and imprisoned in Rome again, probably during Nero’s persecution of Jews and Christians. This time Paul was held in the Mamertine prison, a dungeon under the streets of Rome.

It wasn’t a place of punishment; it was a holding pen for condemned prisoners. They were dropped into its dark, cold, foul recesses and raised out of it by ropes. When Paul wrote to Timothy and Titus from that prison he longed for his warm cloak and the comfort of his scrolls.

Eventually Paul was pulled up from that dark prison and marched through the streets of Rome to the place of execution where he knelt and was beheaded – a cruel end to the great missionary.

I would like to think that Paul’s own words, “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain,” steadied him in his last moments. Someday we who believe in Jesus will join Paul in glory and then we will learn the rest of his story.

To see a timeline of the Apostle Paul’s life, check out this website:

https://www.blueletterbible.org/study/paul/timeline.cfm