Sponge

Philippians 2:12-13 NIV

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, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

What Is Inside You?

When I was teen, I began to make rapid progress as a Christian.  I read my Bible daily, prayed, attended church services faithfully and was an active part of the youth program.  I didn’t smoke or drink or use drugs.  I was made a children’s Sunday school teacher and served as narrator for our church Christmas Cantata.  (They wouldn’t let me sing)  I had become intrigued with contemporary Christian music and was starting to read books about the faith.  During one of my daily Bible readings, I came across a verse that sent me reeling.  There was nothing profound in it; the simplicity of its message was like a hammer though.  Up to this point and even much longer I played lots of basketball and I was on the court no different than any of the other players.  I talked trash and I used lots of foul language.  Now I justified my cursing by saying that I was just expressing myself; that just like adjectives and adverbs make language more colorful and expand on communication capabilities, so too curse words were an effective way o making my points stronger and more demonstrative.  But then I came face to face with Colossians 3: 8.  But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. (NIV)  I was now up against it because I realized that God was not pleased at all the cussing coming out of me.  Profanity was clearly prohibited by the Lord.  But that profanity was within me…it did not spring out of a vacuum.  I had to decide not only how I was to deal with the swear words coming out of me but also the cursing that was within me.

If you were a sponge and were squeezed, what would come out of you?  Would it be love and mercy and kindness or anger and frustration and worry?  How do you look on the inside?  Where no one else can see, what do you find there?  This is not a matter of what have you hidden from others.  It is a question of what actually you are right now.  Much is made in the field of psychology of how we mustn’t bottle up our feelings and that may or may not be important.  Our concern today is much more profound.  What shall we do about who we really are?  What will you do about who you really are?

The Bible makes much of what you really are rather than what you or others think of who you are.  Paul the Apostle took seriously this matter of what is inside you and said, 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, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13 NIV)  There is something that happens to us when we put our trust in Jesus Christ to make us new people.  Through Jesus’ death on the cross, a profound change occurs in us.  The Bible calls it “salvation” and that is a good term for what God does in us through Christ.  Jesus referred to it as being “born again”.  In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” (John 3:3 NIV)  A miracle occurred when Jesus gave up His life on the cross.  It opened the way for God to come into us and become a part of us, His personality merged into ours.  To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27 NIV)

Now it is strange to think of Christ being a part of us and we have to adjust our thinking to accommodate this.  If Christ is in you, then that impacts every bit of your life.  You think with Christ being a part of your thinking, you have emotional responses to situations and Christ is a part of that too.  Even your actions are done with Christ as a part of them.  Through the work of Jesus Christ dying on the cross, this is actual and not symbolic.  The life of Jesus Christ is joined to yours and the two lives become one new life.  Paul put it this way.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3 NIV)

We are like a sponge filled with Christ.  The way He comes out of us though is if we obey what He tells us in Scripture or by direct revelation at a personal level.  That is what Paul means by “as you have always obeyed.”  Our salvation is worked out of us when we do what God tells us to do.  For example, when the Lord told the Apostles to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came upon them, they could have decided to go other places…to Bethel, to Capernaum, to Nazareth.  It would have been logical to leave Jerusalem because the opposition to Christ was strongest there and it was potentially deadly.  They stayed though and the Holy Spirit did come upon them and Christ came out of them through speaking in foreign languages and preaching that changed the lives of those who heard it.

Another example would be when Peter was told to go meet with a group of non-Jews and answer their questions about Christian faith.  This would have been absurd to Peter before Christ became a part of him.  Peter had thought that God didn’t want Jews to have anything to do with non-Jews but with Christ joined to him, it became clear that God loved non-Jewish people and they too were to gain salvation.  A Roman soldier was told by an angel that he needed to hear the Christian message from someone he did not know, Peter.  Cornelius stared at him (the angel) in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked.  The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.  Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. (Acts 10:4-5 NIV)  When the servants of the Roman soldier came to the house where Peter was staying, the Lord spoke to Peter about going with the servants to meet with Cornelius the Roman.  Peter obeyed and like a sponge, the Lord was squeezed out of Peter and Cornelius and his family and friends became Christians.  This would not have happened though if Peter had disobeyed God.

Another example is found in the book of Acts.  Paul and Silas were traveling through what is now western Turkey when the Lord spoke to Paul in a dream to go across the Aegean Sea to Macedonia.  There they began preaching and even saw a few people become Christian but soon Paul and Silas were arrested and beaten and thrown in prison.  It was a terrible situation for them yet because Christ was living in both and had changed their personalities, like a sponge, Christ was squeezed out of them.  They joyfully sang praise songs and worshipped God in their cell.  This sort of happiness and contentment would not have been possible if the Lord was not a part of them, joined into their personalities.  When the pressure of being beaten and imprisoned squeezed them, out came the joy of the Lord.

Obedience to God brings out the best of us.  Take any command the Lord has given us:  do not judge or criticize, love your enemies, be sexually pure, pray and don’t worry, tithe.  Whenever we obey one of the least of God’s commands, Christ is squeezed out of us and our salvation is put into effect.  Your salvation is meaningless in the world about you if you don’t do what God tells you to do.  Every common act of obedience to Christ on our part is a miracle in the world.  Just think what our Lord will do through you if you do what He says!  Who knows what lives will be changed by the power of Christ working through you!  Consider just this one act of obedience.  Our Lord tells us to forgive what someone did to hurt us deeply.  We do forgive that offence.  As a result, that sin is no longer attached to the person.  You would stop talking about that sin and wrecking the person’s reputation.  People who would reject and maybe even despise that person would be open to loving and encouraging her.  She no longer has to live with the pain of what she has done…doesn’t have to hang her head in shame when she thinks about you.  Salvation has come to her and to all who could be hurt and angered by what she did.  It is not overstating this to say that generations could be impacted by our simple obedience to the command to forgive those who hurt us.  Salvation slips into lives through forgiveness.  It is a basic axiom of Christianity.