Tara-Leigh Cobble

Paul's words to work out their own salvation is not a call to figure out how to save yourself.

If you could do that, you wouldn't need a savior.

The context here and in everything else he says helps clarify that he's talking about living lives that demonstrate the gratitude and awe we feel toward God for saving us.

This is a nod to the process of sanctification, where God works in us to conform us to the image of his Son.

The Philippians have already seen firsthand how Paul responds to being imprisoned.

When they imprisoned him, he used it as an opportunity to share the gospel.

In fact, there's a good chance his former prison guard is one of the people reading this letter.

And now Paul is in prison again, probably in Rome at this point, and he's still singing the same tune, the gospel of Christ, all day long.

He knows that his trials aren't without purpose.

Trials can even cause our confidence in Christ to increase, he says.

He doesn't know how things will shake out, but he's hopeful and trusting and surrendered.

He gets pretty vulnerable with them and says, look, I'd rather just step over death and into the other realm and be with Jesus right now.

But on the other hand, it's probably better for you guys if I stick around a little bit longer.

So I'm guessing that's what he has in store, but I'm good with whatever.

He encourages them to be strong in the face of persecution too, not to be frightened by it all.

And in 129, he says something that none of us really want to hear.

He says that not only has belief been granted to us, but that suffering has been granted to us.

That's not really the prize I was hoping for.

I'm more interested in the crowns.

But he goes on to say how we should live in harmony in the midst of suffering.