Points for Reflection:

• Does believing in the Lord necessarily mean that one is saved?

• How should you express your views when facing disputes within the church?

• Do you find God's standards for Christians' conduct too high?

Believing is Equal to Salvation?

Philippians Chapter 2 discusses a very important issue: salvation. There is a teaching prevalent today that once a person believes in the Lord, he is saved. You might hear someone say: Thank the Lord, so-and-so is saved! But in reality, leading a person to believe in the Lord is only the beginning of salvation. Whether this person will ultimately be saved, we do not know, nor is it for us to judge. Leading a person to believe in the Lord is like leading them out of Egypt, but whether they can enter the Promised Land of Canaan is unknown. Just like the Israelites who left Egypt, some died in the wilderness because they complained at the slightest difficulty and had no faith! Those are the ones who do not obtain the promise.

So how does Paul discuss salvation? In verse 12, he says:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12)

This is salvation in Paul's eyes. We must understand Paul's theology; he never said, You are saved, or He is saved. If Paul does not discuss it this way, what authority do I, as a pastor, have to say whether you are saved or not? We should not have this blind view of salvation; it is a kind of blind optimism and is very dangerous! What I want to teach everyone is Paul's theology. If you read Hebrews and Philippians, and then read other parts of the Bible, it will become very clear to you. You need to look at it comprehensively, not taking things out of context.

In this chapter, Paul says that you should work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Has it been worked out? No! If it had been worked out, there would be no need to continue working on it. In fact, this is the same as the truth of salvation that Jesus Christ spoke. What is the truth of salvation that Jesus Christ spoke?

Jesus answered him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (Mark 12:30). If someone does not love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, are they considered saved? We do not know if they will love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength in the future, but just looking at their current state, if they were to be saved, it would be too unfair!

Brothers and sisters, we cannot look at salvation only for a moment; we must know that we must cling tightly to the Lord within Him throughout our lives. But in some churches, they make this gospel very cheap: if you believe in the Lord, believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth, you are saved! (Romans 10:9-10). Is that what the Bible says? Yes! But that is not the entirety of Paul's theology. Paul's theology does emphasize believing in the heart, but the study of that word believe is vast! If you truly believe, then you must be a person who loves with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Not only do you believe at that moment, but you will live in belief for the rest of your life!

So what exactly is this work of salvation that Paul wrote about, which requires fear and trembling to accomplish? Let me give you an analogy. Accomplishing the work of salvation is like going from one place to another, from this world to the kingdom of heaven. Have you not chosen to walk this path? Then walk it to the end! As long as we have not entered heaven and come before the living God, we must strive to enter! If we fall into a cliff halfway, are we saved? No! So God has opened a path for us, a path that must be squeezed through, that must be entered with fear and trembling.

Once, I went to climb Mount Hua. When I reached the summit, it was as narrow as a line! Standing on the ridge, there was a deep abyss on one side and a deep abyss on the other. It was raining that day, and I was holding an umbrella. A gust of wind blew the umbrella away. Fortunately, I did not try to grab the umbrella, or I would have fallen! My point is that even for leisure activities, when you climb to the top of Mount Hua, you have to be fearful and cautious, honest and disciplined, and not careless. How much more so when we walk this path to the kingdom of heaven!

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. (Matthew 11:12). Violence has the same meaning as Paul's fear and trembling. So if some people say they are already saved, then basically they are not yet saved. A humble person never says, I am very humble. If a person says he is very humble, then basically he is not a humble person.

The Meaning of Fear and Trembling: Humility, Obedience

Why did Paul mention here that we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling? The reason lies in the opening paragraph of this chapter:

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. (Philippians 2:1-2)

This is the work of the Holy Spirit. What comes from the Holy Spirit must be the same and brings unity. But if it is encouragement, comfort, or fellowship that creates disunity, then it must be from the devil! Although in theory, there is compassionate exhortation, if that compassionate exhortation can create strife, then it is not from God either.

The church is a place that not only attracts the presence of God but also attracts many demons! Because demons love to cause trouble in churches where God is present. If there is no presence of God, the demons do not need to cause trouble, because they already control that place. Brothers and sisters, you will understand step by step why Paul said to work out your salvation with fear and trembling when talking about salvation.

Because some inspirations, ideas, and insights come from the Holy Spirit, and some come from the devil. You cannot simply assume that something is from God just because it has some comfort, some spiritual inspiration, some compassion and mercy, or some exhortation. Comfort, inspiration, and exhortation that come from God must bring unity! If you have any comfort, inspiration, or exhortation that, when spoken, creates strife, then it is definitely not from God.

After speaking the first two verses, Paul then says: Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:3-4).

If you consider others better than yourself, will you humbly listen? Yes! This also applies to myself; I should not think that I am better than you, and you should not think that you are better than me. This phenomenon may or may not occur in our church. But if everyone has a unified mind, explores together, is humble with each other, and serves each other, then thank the Lord, the Holy Spirit is really at work!

So how do we work out our salvation? Brothers and sisters, you must pay attention to the word obedience. Paul spends a lot of time talking about obedience before he talks about fear and trembling! Look at verse 12: Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. It is talking about the issue of obedience.

Even a church as obedient as the Philippian church should work out their salvation with fear and trembling. Why? Because carelessness can easily lead to disputes. Brothers and sisters, we must know that the church is not task-oriented but should be oriented towards unity and obedience. For example, if everyone is spreading the gospel on Weibo and retweeting every day, but many disputes arise as a result, what will happen? That is task-oriented. That is not called obedience-oriented.

In a small group or a certain ministry, everyone gets excited while talking, and once they get excited, they start arguing. Once they start arguing, the devil comes in. After the devil comes in, you still feel: Look, that's what I meant, why don't you understand? This matter was originally a good thing, but because of the argument, it became a bad thing that was used by the devil. You must be very careful!

Therefore, brothers and sisters must have a certain quality, and that quality is called obedience. Without obedience, there is no image of Jesus Christ, and there is no sign of salvation. It can only be said that there are still many demonic images in this person.

The image of Jesus is humility and obedience, even to death. Even to the point of death, one must still obey. Do not be arrogant or conceited, otherwise the devil will come, and there will be disputes. Since we do not want to have the image of the devil and want to strive to live out the image of Jesus, what is the image of Jesus like? It is verses 5 to 11: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself—do you see that? This is the faith of Jesus Christ! The faith of Jesus Christ is not about arguing until your face is red, not about arguing who is right and who is wrong. If you are right but do not have the image of Jesus Christ, can that be called salvation? So we really have to examine ourselves carefully to see what kind of people we are! If you are a disobedient person, then it is very dangerous!

Let us look further: And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—this is incredible. Even to the point of death, I must obey—even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. These words are truly good!

So, if you want to become the highest, there is only one path: humility and obedience. If you deviate from humility and obedience, God will surely make you the lowest. There is a path to the highest in this world, and there is also a path to the lowest. The path to the highest is humility and obedience; the path to the lowest is pride and arrogance. So, deep down, everyone really needs to have a heart of fear and trembling, examining how much pride and disobedience they still have, and rejecting these one by one. Because without obedience, the devil will surely enter, and where the devil enters, there will surely be disputes. Therefore, with humility comes obedience; with obedience comes unity; with unity comes the work of the Holy Spirit; with the work of the Holy Spirit, everyone is within blessings.

Brothers and sisters, in our generation, God has a will, which is to link obedience and salvation together. Without obedience, salvation is almost a虛無縹緲 (xū wú piāo miǎo) thing. So Paul says in verse 13: for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life. (Philippians 2:13-16).

Paul did not even say to the Philippians in this letter, Philippians, you are already saved. Today, when we compare ourselves to the believers in Philippi, we are far behind them, are we not? Even if there are some who are even worse than us, we cannot assume that we are saved and start relaxing our demands on ourselves!

Some people are like this, sitting there all day thinking about whether they are saved or not. One day passes like this, and another day passes, and they are still entangled in whether they are saved or not. As a result, they forget to strive to love the Lord and forget to strive to do God's words. Isn't this falling into the devil's schemes?

If you hear someone arguing whether a person is saved or not, it is basically not in accordance with the Bible. The salvation spoken of in the Bible refers to: In this world, I must strive to fulfill the mission that the Lord has given me, so that we can become children of God without blemish, so that we can shine as lights in this world, holding fast to the word of life.

If such people still need to have fear and trembling, shouldn't all of us have fear and trembling now? How can we say that I am saved and can be degenerate? How can that be? The saying that one can be saved no matter what one does is not considered the gospel. The gospel that Paul revealed in the Bible is what counts, so let us do according to what Paul taught.

Do Not Follow Man's Teachings, But Take the Bible as the Standard of Conduct

Paul then mentions himself. If for such obedience, for such a gospel, even if I am poured out as a drink offering on it, it is worthwhile to die on it! (Philippians 2:17) In fact, I myself have such a longing: If I lead this group of brothers and sisters and establish a Philippian-style church, even if I die, it would be worthwhile.

Verse 17 is what Paul said. Paul, for the sake of the gospel, could lay down his life. I believe that many of us cannot do that yet. But even such a person, facing execution in a few days, merely says: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7) What does this mean? It means: I have merely fulfilled my duty. Then we really have no qualification to talk about whether we are saved or not. This is simply a meaningless discussion, without any value. If you want to be saved, you must keep running towards the goal set by Paul, on the path of Jesus Christ.

Paul not only mentioned laying down his life. He later cited two figures, one is Timothy, and the other is Epaphroditus. Epaphroditus did not complain at all, even if he was going to die, he didn't care: he risked his life to almost die (Philippians 2:30). See that? He simply did not care about his life! Later I discovered that those who can love the Lord with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their mind, and with all their strength are those who do not care about their lives.

A person who truly believes in Jesus Christ will certainly not say it's over, it's over, I'm going to die, I'm going to die. He will never be afraid of death, and he will never put death in his heart, because he knows that leaving this world to be with the Lord is an incomparably good thing. If you are not afraid of death, what are you afraid of if there are problems at work! What are you afraid of if you face difficulties in life! There is nothing to be afraid of. When you are not afraid, you will surely overcome!

This Epaphroditus is remarkable. While Paul was in prison, he was outside taking care of Paul. Unexpectedly, one day he himself fell ill. Many people see this and think: Look, he was with Paul, but Paul did not heal him. Actually, it is not like that: Epaphroditus was healed because Paul prayed for him! Don't misread it, he was almost dead but not yet dead.

On the one hand, Epaphroditus had Paul praying for him, and on the other hand, he himself did not care about life and death. As a result, although he was almost dead, he still could not die! Those who are afraid of death will surely die, but those who are not afraid of death will not die! Why? Because you are not afraid of death, death cannot threaten you, so you can drive away the spirit of death and continue to live.

If one day the Spirit of God really wants to take us away from this body and back to heaven, that is not called death, that is entering eternal life. Keep striving, keep doing it, don't be afraid of failure, don't be afraid of not being able to do it. We run forward, and God will accomplish it for us. It is not we who do it, but God who does it.

Paul's standard for faith is very high, because God's standard is also very high. Some people will say: With such a high standard, who can do it? Brothers and sisters, don't think like that. Paul and Epaphroditus did it, and Timothy did it too! So let's not take those who can't do it as the standard, and even more we should be vigilant not to think that we are the standard: if I can't do it, no one can do it, if I can't, no one can. What is the logic of this? Paul and Timothy are both people of flesh and blood, and so is Epaphroditus. The Bible also records many people who are also people of flesh and blood like us, but they also did it.

We need to constantly change our perspective, and constantly encourage ourselves: I can do it, I can become God's immaculate child! We run forward in this direction every day, and when we run forward, God will personally accomplish it! How God accomplishes it in us is a wonderful thing. It is God who does it, and makes us immaculate children.

We must cultivate such a concept, and not take ourselves as the standard, if we take ourselves as the standard, it will be troublesome. Suppose someone lays hands on a patient to pray, but if he had not laid hands, it would have been better, but after the prayer, the patient died, and then he said: Let's forget it! In the future, if I encounter this kind of thing again, I will not lay hands on people to pray. This is because he takes himself as the standard.

The faith that takes yourself as the standard is not true faith, so if you encounter a setback, you will collapse immediately, how can that be possible? What should it be like? It should be said that I did not do well this time, but I continue to pray, and God's anointing will become stronger and stronger. Next time I go, the patient will not die.

Without taking our own experience as the standard, we must return to the Bible and take the Bible as the standard. The Bible says that you must be God's immaculate children, then we will be immaculate children. I know I can't do it today, but one day God will enable me to do it! Such a concept will enable us to enter into salvation. Such a lifestyle of striving will enable us to enter into salvation. When we begin to fear and tremble, we will enter into salvation. We should not just talk about it, but really put such a concept into practice!