Demonstrating Salvation By Obedience

As Christians, we are to love each other.  As we have seen, certain actions may be considered loving, but without the proper underlying attitude, they mean nothing.  When we have a proper attitude of love, there will not be a sense of competition between us, but a sense of respect and concern for each other’s wellbeing, as Philippians 2:2-4 tells us.  “Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.  Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.  Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”  I Corinthians 3:3 makes it clear when there is conflict between us, we are not walking in the Spirit.  “For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”  Conflict and competition is proof of a carnal, unspiritual state.    

We need to develop the same attitude as Jesus had, as Philippians 2:5-11 tells us.  “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Jesus, God’s own son, was God from the very beginning, yet he voluntarily became an ordinary human being, living as a poor working man, even allowing himself to be executed on the cross in obedience to God the Father’s wishes because he loved mankind.  Because of his obedience, he has been given authority over all God’s creation, and is to receive the respect and honor of every person who has ever lived.  He is not only our savior, but also our example as to how we are to live. 

If we have truly believed in Christ and received the Holy Spirit, we ought to demonstrate it in our daily lives whether there are other Christians around or not, as Philippians 2:12-16 tells us.  “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.  Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.”

It is the Holy Spirit in us which gives us the desire and enables us to do what God wants.  As a result, there shouldn’t be any grumbling of fighting on the part of Christians, even though they are surrounded by wicked people.  Their attitude makes them stand out like lights in a dark place, offering hope to the world, reassuring their teachers, like Paul that their efforts have not been wasted.