You Can Work It Out

I remember hearing the Beatles crone, "You Can Work It Out," back in the 60s but never dreamed those words would be the inspiration for a religious blog.  But here I am working it out.

Paul clearly wrote, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast" (Eph 2:8, 9).  And, just as clearly, he wrote, "...work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil 2:12).  So, in the modern vernacular, "Sup?"  Or in my native tongue, What's up with that?"

What's up with it is not a contradiction (Oh, really?).  What is up is what is left out so often when we read statements like these: The next verse. Or, as Paul Harvery used to say, "The rest of the story."

Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do." Philippians 2:13 says, "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose."

While we cannot work for our gift of salvation, we can work it out, or "...shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the Word of life" (Phil 2:15, 16).  To work it out is not to earn it by our deeds but to reflect the gift by our actions.

Jus' Sayn.