Svithing out salvation

Wherefore, my beloved...
work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling.
----Philippians 2:12

.

I've been to Costco about a zillion times so far this year and they're still not carrying salvation.

I've checked Amazon. No luck.

So I asked Paul and he seems to think salvation requires work. And fear. And trembling.

Interesting.

So I have to work. And I take it from that "fear and trembling" bit that said work must be done under the auspices of somebody somewhat intimidating?

In my REB, this is how Paul is translated:

You must work out your own salvation
in fear and trembling;
for it is God who works in you,
inspiring both the will and the deed,
for his own chosen purpose.

Let's forget all my joking and recognize that the reason we need to fear and tremble, the reason we need to be reverential, the reason we need to be humble and accepting, is because we are not doing the work of our salvation alone, but we have a partner--somebody named God--who is actually in charge and merely asking for our cooperation.

It seems a reasonable request.

No membership charges, always free shipping, good company.

Good deal.

Last week's svithe