Big Idea - In these verses, Paul is urging us to a life of obedience, specifically to stop grumbling and arguing and start living together with one heart, one mind, and one love. It is how they can strive together for the Gospel, showing its truth and power by the way they treat each other. What is the place of obedience in the life of a Christian? There are two major ways that our thinking about obedience can go badly wrong. The first to not think about it at all. Many Christians and often many Churches get so focused on God's grace and forgiveness in saving us from sin, very little is said about the topic. No serious attention is focused on changing the way we live. In fact, they may argue that under the new covenant of grace, the old covenant with all its rules and regulations has been done away with. Obedience is no longer a concern for us. Consequently, people with this view make very little effort to live any differently than they did before coming to Christ. As a result, they are not likely to be of one mind, one love, or one heart with other believers - especially those who they don't like or disagree with. They leave behind a train wreck of damaged and broken relationships, all the while praising God that He forgives all their sins! Their favorite worship song is "Just as I am" because they are certain God loves them just the way they are, and they have no intention of ever being anything different! A second way our view of obedience can go wrong is to take the path of serious moralism. This group believes that obedience means strictly following the rules. They would agree that the old covenant has been done away with, but they wrongly think that it has been replaced with a new set of rules. They are very diligent and determined to live according to the new rules, and they look down on and become very judgmental and critical of those who do not keep the rules the way they do. As a result, they are often very angry and argumentative. They think they are right because they do all the right things, and their relationships are often characterized by conflict. They are not usually thought of as kind or loving people. In light of what Paul writes here, they might be moral, but they also are not actually walking the path of obedience as Paul conceives it. If obedience is neither ignoring the rules nor diligently following the rules, what does it mean to obey?

First, it means bringing into full effect the saving work of Christ in your life. This is so much greater than simply keeping a set of rules or moral standards. It is also so much more than simply receiving forgiveness and having our guilt covered by His blood! It means fully applying all the results and benefits of the cross and resurrection not only to how we live, but also in regard to who we are. Jesus died on the cross to forgive sins and to restore broken relationships (reconciled to God and at peace with others), unhindered access to God to draw near to Him and live in His presence, new birth, regeneration, renewal, a life of good works, and a life free from sin (Titus 3:4-8; Eph 2:8-10; 1 Peter 1:3, Heb 10:19-22, Rom 6:11-12, etc). So then, obedience begins by becoming a very different kind of person as the full work of salvation gets unpacked in your heart and soul. If doing all things without grumbling or arguing becomes a rule to follow, you define grumbling and arguing in a very narrow way, and it will be something you may find some success doing outwardly, but your heart will be grumbling all the time until you explode! But, if the saving work of Christ changes your very nature, so that you become the kind of person who is a peacemaker instead of a troublemaker, you will not even know you're living a life without grumbling or arguing! That sounds great, but how do we do that? How do we work to make sure all the results of Jesus' death and resurrection are being fully implemented and brought to full effect in our lives?

Paul explains how to do this, first with a negative, then a positive. First, we obey in the way of weakness and helplessness. It is not by our own strength or power. That is what is meant by doing it with "fear and trembling." For Paul, these are expressions about human weakness and frailty (See 1 Corinthians 2:3–5). This is the chief problem of the person trying to obey on the path of moralism. They believe it is in their power and ability to be a good person, and it is hard not to feel some measure of pride in the accomplishment. But fearing failure is the natural reaction of a person who has no confidence in their own ability or power. In the Christian life, that is a great thing, and in fact, it is an essential quality we must have if we are going to walk in true obedience. But, if I am weak and helpless, unable to be obedient and do God's will, then how does it work?

The answer is found in the positive exhortation. “For it is God who is working in you to will and to do!” When I come to the realization that I am powerless to do the right thing, not only following some external rule but really doing from the heart what God calls us to, then we are in the right place to let Him do what He alone can and will do in our lives! We can work out our salvation, because (for) God is already at work in us! The word "working" in Greek is energew - from which we get the word energy. God is energizing us with His wisdom and power so that we can know His will and do it by His powerful working in us. He is working in two primary ways in our lives. First, giving us the very will and desire to do His will. This is so much deeper than following a set of rules. It means having our very heart and will line up with God's. He puts His heart and His desire in us, so that in the deepest reaches of our soul, we want to do what is right and good. We do not need to look to some external moral code or set of guidelines to help us figure this out. God's will becomes ingrained in our deepest longings and desires. In Romans 7, Paul talks about what it is like to know the right thing to do, and to really desire to do it, but then fail to do it and actually do the opposite. But God does not stop here with just giving us a different set of desires in life; He also gives us the power to put all these desires into practice. He empowers and enables us to do what we want to do, which is fully in sync with His own heart and desires. The result is that we put into practice what He puts in our heart. That is true obedience, not following an external set of rules by our own ability and strength, but doing God's will at the deepest level by making it how we live all of life from the inside out. So, does that mean we are to become some kind of robot or zombie, passively waiting for God to zap us by remote control?

Not at all. We may be weak, but we are not robots. We do have the power of choice and the power of action. It is still our life, and we have to live it. No one else, not even God, will live it for us. We must work out our own salvation. This is so confusing - what exactly then are we to be doing? What we need is to walk in faith. Walking in the path of obedience is doing God's will, that which pleases God. We read in Hebrews 11:6 that without faith it is impossible to please God, it is impossible to do His will, and walk in obedience. Faith is seeing with our spiritual eyes spiritual realities. It is seeing this truth that God is indeed working in us the desire and the doing of His will. It is coming to understand that He does all this for the sake of His own good pleasure - that is, we don't need to do anything to convince God to help us. Long before we ever knew we needed help, He was already helping and working because it is His great joy and delight, it is the work He loves to do, and He is doing it. Not because we prayed the right prayer, or wanted it bad enough. He does it because He loves to do it. Faith is coming to this understanding of God's love and all that He has done to give us everything we need to succeed in living a life that is fully pleasing to Him!