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No.44.
The Epistle to the Philippians (11).
pp. 156 - 160
The central point in the great hymn to Christ that we have been considering was His
obedience unto death (Phil. 2: 8; Heb. 5: 8). The Apostle Paul now brings the thought
of obedience to bear upon the situation at Philippi:
"So then, my beloved, even as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but
now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure"
(Phil. 2: 12, 13 R.V.).
He says, in effect, as the Lord obeyed, so should you also! Paul does not seek to force
this obedience in a harsh way. He addresses them as "my beloved", but at the same time
his commands are definite and must be carried out. Just as they were obedient when he
preached the gospel to them at the beginning (Acts 16:), so they must continue to do so
as believers, whether he is present or absent.
The next phrase has sometimes been taken out of its setting to teach that man can
work out salvation for himself, if he tries hard enough. The constant negation of human
works and merit in connection with the sinner's salvation all through Paul's writings,
makes this impossible. "Working out" is not the same as "working for" salvation.
Salvation is received as a free gift by faith in Christ (Eph. 2: 8, 9), but, once received, it
must be "worked out" in daily life and practice by the believer.
It must not be inferred, however, that such an one is left to do this in his own strength,
for "God works in" and gives the grace and strength so to do. Here we have the seeming
paradox of Divine power and human responsibility illustrated. Whether the Apostle has
in view the church at Philippi as a whole, and not individual Christians, as some
expositors assert, is debatable. To say that the individual cannot be in view here because
of the former injunction not to consider self but the interests of others, is
misunderstanding the situation. The self-interest to be avoided is the concern for
self-advantage in the things of this life, not the spiritual things concerning the life to
come, and in any case, a church's spiritual growth is geared to the growth of each
individual member.
This "working out" must be done, not with swagger and a false assurance, but with
"fear and trembling". The same phrase is used in II Cor. 7: 15 for the attitude of the
Corinthians to the visit of Titus, or the attitude of the servant to the master, with Christ in
view (Eph. 6: 5). This "fear and trembling" recognizes the frailty of the flesh, realizing
how easy it is to stumble and fail the Lord. Here indeed we can have "no confidence in
the flesh" (Phil. 3: 3), but every confidence in the Lord's empowering, God working in
us, so that we can accomplish this to His glory. The verb energeo, "works in", has the
same root as our word "energy"; it is mostly used of Divine action in the sense of