1Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? 2Don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3Don’t you know that we will judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? 4If then you have to judge things pertaining to this life, do you set them to judge who are of no account in the assembly? 5I say this to move you to shame. Isn’t there even one wise man among you who would be able to decide between his brothers? 6But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers! 7Therefore it is already altogether a defect in you that you have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? 8No, but you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that against your brothers.
9Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, 10nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortionists, will inherit God’s Kingdom. 11Some of you were such, but you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.
12“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are expedient. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be brought under the power of anything. 13“Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,” but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14Now God raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power. 15Don’t you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16Or don’t you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, “The two”, he says, “will become one flesh.” 17But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. 18Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Working Out Your Salvation
Blacksmith Working at the Anvil
In recent years, I have met believers who maintain that as new creations in Christ, we have no real duty to strive to “do better” to live a life of holiness. They claim this for several reasons. First, they claim that since the Bible says we’ve been made holy (sanctified), then we essentially are sinless. They don’t use those words, but that is the essence of what they are saying. This is a very dangerous teaching because it insinuates that grace results in no need to exert any effort to live in a manner worthy of our calling (Ephesians 4:1). If we don’t need to do something to live in a manner worthy of our calling, why does Paul tell us to do so?
These sweet Christians are mired in the misunderstanding that words can be used in different ways. When I say I love salmon and I love my wife, I am saying two very different things. The word sanctification is used in various ways in scripture. When scripture tells us that we are sanctified in Christ, it is speaking to the fact that we have been justified (1 Corinthians 6:11), meaning our sins have been paid for on the cross and we have been “set apart.” Jesus took the penalty of our sin on Himself. Secondly, they maintain that it is too stressful to have to “strive for” holiness, and that it somehow runs counter to the whole business of sanctification and grace. This “striving” is indeed work, but it is fundamentally the work of surrender. Paul tells the saints in Rome, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice.” This means giving up your own agenda and asking God to replace it with His agenda.
This second type of sanctification is what Paul is talking about when he says to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. It is the exhortation to engage in sanctified (holy) living actively. This exhortation is repeated in 1 John 2:27, John 14:15, James 1:22, Romans 6:22, and many others. I think “working out your salvation with fear and trembling” is succinctly stated in Colossians 1:10. Paul urges, “So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him; bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” Walking in a manner is not something you are, but something you do. And, you and I can only do this successfully in and through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The beautiful part is that as you choose to walk worthy of your calling, God will enable you and empower you to do so. Paul adds that as you work out this salvation with fear and trembling, it will be God who is working in and through you to do that which pleases Him. Don’t get hung up on this. Don’t overthink it. This is not an admonition to work for your salvation. It is an admonition to consciously move out of the way and let God have His way with you. He desires to work in you as He wills for His good pleasure.