work out your salvation with fear and trembling
Modernity tends to tell us that all fear is bad. We should subject our environments and ourselves to the degree that fear is no longer allowed. We are made to feel ashamed for feelings of fear. After all, it seems servile. And what is more antithetical to the modern spirit of independence than service. But what sort of fear is this that Paul recommends? It is not fear of loss or fear of suffering so much as awe before God.
For God is the one who, for his good purpose,
works in you both to desire and to work.
It isn't just Paul teaching and working with the Philippians. It is also, and mainly, God who works in them. When they realize that not only their works but even their very desires for goodness come from God himself they become fearful in the right way. In a way, it is a fear that they themselves might get in God's way and prevent him from doing all that he wants to do in them. But then, realizing that even that desire comes from God, their awe should increase still more. The most fearful part is that even the right fear is a gift of the Spirit. It is a change in perspective that those who depend on mercy must learn to embrace.
What is asked of disciples is not easy. We are called to place Jesus before father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even our own lives. We are called to carry our crosses. In fact it is impossible for man but not for God. All things are possible for God. In Jesus we can do all things but apart from him we can do nothing. Fear of the LORD is largely a treasuring and protectiveness of the union of dependence. It refuses to let even the least grace offered slip through our fingers.
Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion?
...
Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down
and decide whether with ten thousand troops
he can successfully oppose another king
advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops?
We don't have enough to build the tower. We don't have enough troops to win the battle. To be on our own apart from God is a fearful thing. But that is only the first stage of fear. It is met by the hope that God will in fact fight for us if we let him. The second stage of fear is to realize, knowing what we are like, that we risk abandoning the winning side to satisfy our own fleshly desires. But eventually we learn that God who has begun the good work in us is willing to bring it to completion. But even at that stage we see how much everything depends entirely on the generosity and mercy of God. We walk in awe at his work in us. We fear displeasing him in any way just as we would fear displeasing the most treasured of lovers. This fear, still gift, allows us to stay united with God until that union is at last consummated.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
The fear of the LORD liberates us from all other fear. The LORD is our light and our salvation, along with the psalmist, whom then should we fear? The fear of the LORD enables us to love without counting the cost. It allows us to make our very lives a gift of love.
But, even if I am poured out as a libation
upon the sacrificial service of your faith,
I rejoice and share my joy with all of you.
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