I think you owe
@Preacher4Truth a bit of an apology. He was trying to help you. It is good to ask God to help you to work out those parts of His word that you may find difficult.
First of all, Paul is telling the Philippians that their motivation must not last only as long as Paul's presence among them. Having trusted in Christ, they must not sit back and think "Let go and let God." If God is your Shepherd, He will lead you in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake; but the evidence of His leading will be your following. God's sheep are a special breed; they are distinguished by their ears and their feet. They hear the Shepherd's voice and the follow Him (John 10:27).
Paul teaches that the Christian is a new creature in Christ Jesus, but he also teaches that there is a relic of our old sinful nature that resides, not in us, but in our flesh or 'members.'
'For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these things are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish' (Galatians 5:17).
'For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is [not in my heart but]
in my members. O wretched man that I am!' (Romans 7:22-24).
So what our we to do about this?
'Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness.......etc. Because of this the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience' (Colossians 3:5-6; Romans 6:12). We are to battle, struggle, fight against indwelling sin, showing even our more darling sins no mercy, but hacking them down before the Lord like so many Agags (1 Samuel 15:33). I once read a splendid article that likened our indwelling sin to the Amalekites. They attack us when we are at our weakest (Deuteronomy 25:17-19) and, like God, we are to declare constant war against them and destroy them wherever and whenever they rise against us (Exodus 17:16). But alas! In this life we shall never be able to defeat them utterly (1 Samuel 30:17). However, we have this promise from God:
'sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace' (Romans 6:14).
So to work out your salvation in fear and trembling is to battle against sin, for if sin
does have dominion over you, that is an indication that you are not under grace. But if you are under grace and battling against indwelling sin to destroy it, then you will succeed progressively because,
'It is God who works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure.'