chewing more on Philippians 2:12-18

Philippians 2:12-18

12Therefore, 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, 13for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
14Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe 16as you hold out[a] the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. 17But 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. 18So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

Something that I have been chewing over the last few days is the thought that people have, especially Christians, that we have to DO something to earn God's love, grace, support, etc.


What drives me nuts is people who do everything that they can to try to earn God's acceptance of their lives. Its like, "Maybe if I get rid of everything, God will be happy with me" or think that by getting rid of everything that could be a potential stumbling block we are making God happy and ultimately being good Christians.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that because Grace abounds we should sin and keep doing things that break our relationship with God. Please hear my heart on this, God is not pleased with us trying to WORK our salvation OUT! He doesn't want us to try and earn what HE's already paid for. The best analogy I have ever heard about this was from Pastor Benny Perez.

Let's say you decide to give an extravagant gift to someone. In the story Pastor Perez said, a watch. He went through an explanation of how his wife bought a beautiful, expensive watch for him for his birthday. He then went on to say what if He felt like giving it away to someone. What if he gave the gift away and the person accepted it saying thank you. Then the next morning the person who had the watch is over at your house mowing your lawn, washing your car, painting your house and cleaning your sidewalk. When asked the person would say, "I was trying to repay you for the gift you gave me."

What is it about our culture that we can't just simply say "thank you" for a gift? We go around in a self-righteous funk of trying to earn the gift?

That's not right! I understand trying to keep our relationship with God on good standings, but we don't do that Jesus did that for us.. All we have to do is follow him...

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