Work Out Your Own Salvation

Philippians 2:12 – 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.

It is our responsibility to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We are the ones who are accountable for our spiritual state in the Lord. No one can walk the walk for us and there is no one on this earth who can force you and I to drink the living water that Jesus so freely offers.

God can only do a work in us IF we allow him to do so. Something that we all do often is take our eyes off our own walk with the Lord and analyze someone else's. It seems so easy to see the sin in someone's life. We tend to put ourselves on God's judgment seat and try to correct the person's walk with God. Some of us need a good slap up side the head and a bite of reality to know that God is God and He knows the sin and flaws in the lives of those around us and He will attend to them in His time, not ours. It is no good getting into self-righteousness and judgment towards one another. I encourage you dear brothers and sisters that we must correct the sin in our own lives before we even attempt to correct the lives of others.

Luke 6:41-42 – Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

How can we help others get out of the dirt if we cannot see the mud that we are buried in? If the Lord has not moved upon your heart to speak, then don't speak. If the Lord has not anointed us to bring a message to a brother or sister, then we are to close our mouths. Dear brothers and sisters, we should never compare our walk with the Lord with someone else's. Many of us tend to forget very quickly that they are only to pray and encourage, not fix and correct. God is the judge and He will fix and correct the sin in someone's life.

So I encourage you dear brothers and sisters to look at your own walk with Jesus before you pass judgment on someone else. Fix your own spiritual state before you start giving advice to others on how to fix theirs. Encourage one another. Instead of tearing one another down, try lifting one another up.

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