Philippians 2:13

2:12-18 We must be diligent in the use of all the means which lead to our salvation, persevering therein to the end. With great care, lest, with all our advantages, we should come short. Work out your salvation, for it is God who worketh in you. This encourages us to do our utmost, because our labour shall not be in vain: we must still depend on the grace of God. The working of God's grace in us, is to quicken and engage our endeavours. God's good-will to us, is the cause of his good work in us. Do your duty without murmurings. Do it, and do not find fault with it. Mind your work, and do not quarrel with it. By peaceableness; give no just occasion of offence. The children of God should differ from the sons of men. The more perverse others are, the more careful we should be to keep ourselves blameless and harmless. The doctrine and example of consistent believers will enlighten others, and direct their way to Christ and holiness, even as the light-house warns mariners to avoid rocks, and directs their course into the harbour. Let us try thus to shine. The gospel is the word of life, it makes known to us eternal life through Jesus Christ. Running, denotes earnestness and vigour, continual pressing forward; labouring, denotes constancy, and close application. It is the will of God that believers should be much in rejoicing; and those who are so happy as to have good ministers, have great reason to rejoice with them.

{5} For it is God which worketh in you both {n} to will and to do of his good pleasure. (5) A most sure and grounded argument against pride, because we have nothing in us praiseworthy, but it comes from the free gift of God, and is outside of us, for we do not have ability or power, so much as to will well (much less to do well), except only by the free mercy of God. (n) The reason why we are not statues; and yet we do not will well by nature, but only because God has made of our wicked will a good will.

Php 2:13 . Ὁ Θεὸς γὰρ , for God ) God alone; He is present with you even in my absence. You want nothing, only be not wanting to yourselves; comp. 2 Peter 1:5 ; 2 Peter 1:3 . [ You can do nothing of yourselves; avoid security. Some, trusting too much to their exalted condition, think that they may hold the grace of GOD on the same footing as the Israelites held the food sent down from heaven , Numbers 11:8 , and therefore that it is at their own will either to struggle against it or anew to grant it admission .—V. g.]— τὸ θέλειν , to will ) that you have willed salvation in my presence, and still will it.— τὸ ἐνεργεῖν , to do ) even now in my absence.— ὑπὲρ τῆς εὐδοκίας , of His good pleasure ) To this refer, to will; and to do , to, who worketh .

For it is God which worketh in you Completing and guarding the previous statement. In you, not among you. Worketh (ἐνεργῶν). See on Mark 6:14; see on James 5:16. The verb means effectual working. In the active voice, to be at work. In the middle voice, as here (used only by James and Paul, and only of things), to display one's activity; show one's self-operative. Compare Ephesians 3:20. To will and to do (τὸ θέλειν καὶ τὸ ἐνεργεῖν) Lit., the willing and the doing. Both are from God, and are of one piece, so that he who wills inevitably does. The willing which is wrought by God, by its own nature and pressure, works out into action. "We will, but God works the will in us. We work, therefore, but God works the working in us" (Augustine). For to do, Rev. substitutes to work, thus preserving the harmony in the Greek between "God which worketh" and "to work." Of His good pleasure (ὑπὲρ τῆς εὐδοκίας) Rev., better, for His, etc. Lit., for the sake of; in order to subserve. See 1 Timothy 2:4.

13. For—encouragement to work: "For it is God who worketh in you," always present with you, though I be absent. It is not said, "Work out your own salvation, though it is God," &c., but, "because it is God who," &c. The will, and the power to work, being first instalments of His grace, encourage us to make full proof of, and carry out to the end, the "salvation" which He has first "worked," and is still "working in" us, enabling us to "work it out." "Our will does nothing thereunto without grace; but grace is inactive without our will" [St. Bernard]. Man is, in different senses, entirely active, and entirely passive: God producing all, and we acting all. What He produced is our own acts. It is not that God does some, and we the rest. God does all, and we do all. God is the only proper author, we the only proper actors. Thus the same things in Scripture are represented as from God, and from us.

God makes a new heart, and we are commanded to make us a new heart; not merely because we must use the means in order to the effect, but the effect itself is our act and our duty (Eze 11:19; 18:31; 36:26) [Edwards]. worketh—rather as Greek, "worketh effectually." We cannot of ourselves embrace the Gospel of grace: "the will" (Ps 110:3; 2Co 3:5) comes solely of God's gift to whom He will (Joh 6:44, 65); so also the power "to do" (rather, "to work effectually," as the Greek is the same as that for "worketh in"), that is, effectual perseverance to the end, is wholly of God's gift (Php 1:6; Heb 13:21). of his good pleasure—rather as Greek, "FOR His good pleasure"; in order to carry out His sovereign gracious purpose towards you (Eph 1:5, 9).

Verse 13. - For it is God which worketh in you . "Prmsens vobis," says Bengel, "etiam absente me." Worketh ( ἐνεργῶν ); not the same word as "work out" ( κατεργάζεσθε ) in Ver. 12; acts powerfully, with energy. In you ; not lnerely among you, but in the heart of each individual believer. Both to will and to do ; translate, with R.V., to work ; the same word as before, ἐνεργεῖν . "Nos ergo volumus, sed Deus in nobis operatur et velle: nos ergo operamur, sed Deus in nobis operatur ct operari" (Augustine, quoted by Meyer). The grace of God is alleged as a motive for earnest Christian work. The doctrines of grace and free-will are not contradictory: they may seem so to our limited understanding; but in truth they complete and snpplement one another. St. Paul does not attempt to solve the problem in theory; he bids us solve it in the life of faith (comp. 1 Corinthians 9:24 . he "So run that ye may obtain;" and Romans 9:16 , "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy"). Of his good pleasure ( εὐδοκίας ). As the glory of God is the ultimate end (Ver. 11), so the good will of God is the first cause of our salwttiou: "God will have all men to be saved" ( 1 Timothy 2:4 .). Philippians 2:13

(13) For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do.— In this famous paradox St. Paul calls on men to work by their own will, just because only God can grant them power both to will and to do. The origination of all in God, and the free action (which is in some sense origination) of man, are both truths recognised by our deepest consciousness, but to our logic irreconcilable. In one passage only ( Romans 9:14-24 ) does St. Paul touch, and that slightly and suggestively, on their reconcilement: generally Holy Scripture—in this confirming human reason—brings out each vividly and profoundly in turn, and leaves the problem of their reconcilement untouched. Here the paradoxical form of the sentence forces on the mind the recognition of the co-existence of both. If that recognition be accepted, the force of the reasoning is clear. The only encouragement to work, in a being weak and finite like man, is the conviction that the Almighty power is working in him, both as to will and deed. The word “worketh in you” is constantly applied to the divine operation in the soul (see 1Corinthians 12:6; 1Corinthians 12:11; Galatians 2:8; Ephesians 1:11; Ephesians 1:20; Ephesians 2:2); rarely, as here (in the word rendered “to do”) to the action of men. It must necessarily extend to the will as well as the action; otherwise God would not be sovereign in the inner realm of mind (as, indeed, Stoic philosophy denied that He was).

We are familiar with the influence of one created will over another—an influence real, though limited, yet in no sense compulsive. From this experience we may catch a faint glimpse of the inner working of the Spirit of God on the spirit of man. Hence, while we cannot even conceive the existence of freedom under an unbending impersonal law or force, the harmony of our will with a Supreme Personal Will is mysterious, indeed, but not inconceivable. Of his good pleasure.—Literally, on behalf of His good pleasure; that is, in harmony with it. On the double sense of “good pleasure” see Note on Ephesians 1:5. Here, probably, the meaning is His “gracious will” for our salvation.

Php 2:13 . ὁ must certainly be omitted with all the best authorities. “For God is He that works,” etc. The emphasis lies on Θεός for two reasons. First, in the matter of attaining salvation they have to do not with Paul, but with God. Second, they must enter upon this momentous course not lightly, but “with fear and trembling,” for if they miss the goal it means that they have deliberately rejected the purpose of God. This explains the connecting γάρ .— ὁ ἐνεργῶν . It seems always to have the idea of effective working. In N.T. the active is invariably used of God. The middle is always intransitive. The verb has become transitive only in later Greek ( cf. Krebs, Rection d. Casus , ii., 21). Many exx. occur in Justin M.— τὸ θέλειν . The first resolution in the direction of salvation takes its origin from God. So also does the ἐνεργεῖν , the carrying of this inward resolve into practical effect, the acting on the assurance that God’s promise is genuine. Cf. Ephesians 2:8 , τῇ γὰρ χάριτί ἐστε σεσωσμένοι , διὰ πίστεως · καὶ τοῦτο οὐκ ἐξ ὑμῶν , Θεοῦ τὸ δῶρον . To Paul the Divine working and the human self-determination are compatible. But “all efforts to divide the ground between God and man go astray” (Rainy, op. cit. , p. 136).— ὑπὲρ τῆς εὐδοκίας . “To carry out His own gracious will.” So Thdrt[1]. (see also Gennrich, SK [2]., 1898, p. 383, n. 1). His great purpose of mercy is the salvation of men. To realise this He surrounds them with the influences of His gracious Spirit.

For the word cf. Ps. Sol. 8:39, ἡμῖν καὶ τοῖς τέκνοις ἡμῶν ἡ εὐδοκία εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα . Conyb.-Hows. and Hfm[3]. would join ὑπὲρ τ . εὐδ . with the words following, but this would be unintelligible without αὐτοῦ . Blass boldly reads ὑπὲρ ( οὗ ) τ . εὐδοκίας πάντα ποι . ( N.T. Gramm. , p. 132). Such procedure is arbitrary. Zahn and Wohl[4]. (with Pesh. and O.L. versions) connect the words with τὸ ἐνεργ . preceding, and, comparing Romans 7:15-21 , make εὐδ . = human inclination to goodness, i.e. , practically equiv. to θέλειν . But this is the interpretation of a subtle exegete, which would scarcely appeal to a plain reader. The interpretation given above, connecting ὑπ . τ . εὐδ . with ὁ ἐνεργ ., is thoroughly natural and has many parallels in Paul, e.g. , Ephesians 1:5 ; Ephesians 1:9 , etc. See esp[5]. SH[6]. on Romans 10:1 . These verses are a rebuke to all egotism and empty boasting (see Php 2:3 ). [1]hdrt. Theodoret. [2] Studien und Kritiken . [3] Hofmann. [4]ohl. Wohlenberg. [5] especially. [6] Sanday and Headlam ( Romans ).

That they might not be negligent in working out their salvation with humility, from any conceit or carnal confidence any might have that they could believe and repent when they pleased, imagining their wills to be as pliable to good as evil; the apostle urgeth the effectual grace of God, as a powerful inducement and encouragement to embrace his exhortation. For it is God which worketh in you: they should not despond of any attaining salvation, or think they did labour in vain in the diligent use of means, and should altogether fall under the dominion of sin, considering, though they were free agents, yet the efficiency and sufficiency was of God, Romans 6:13,14 1 Corinthians 4:7 2 Corinthians 3:5 ; who worketh within them powerfully and effectually, carrying on the work through all difficulties and obstacles, with victorious efficacy, till it be wrought, Philippians 1:6 Isaiah 41:4 Hebrews 13:20,21 : God worketh not only by suasion to gain assent, but by a special energy effecting what he would have us to do.