Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Philippians 2:12

Wherefore, my beloved, 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.

12 18. Inferences from the foregoing passages: the Greatness of the methods of Salvation: the consequent Call to a Life reverent, self-forgetful, fruitful, joyful

12. Wherefore ] The Apostle has now pressed on them the duty and blessing of self-forgetting sympathy and love, above all by this supreme Example. He here returns to the exhortation, in a measure, but now only subordinately; his mind is chiefly now possessed with the greatness of salvation, and it is through this, as it were, that he views the duty and joy of Christian humility and harmony.

my beloved ] So again Php 4:1. Cp. 1Co 10:14 ; 1Co 15:58; 2Co 7:1; 2Co 12:19; where this tender word similarly introduces earnest practical appeals. See too Heb 6:9; Jas 1:16 ; 1Pe 2:11; 1Pe 4:12; 2Pe 3:1; 2Pe 3:8; 2Pe 3:14; 2Pe 3:17; 1Jn 3:2; 1Jn 3:21; 1Jn 4:1; 1Jn 4:7; 1Jn 4:11; Judges 3, 17, 20.

ye have always obeyed ] So too R.V. Lit., ye did always obey; the aorist. And so better here. The Apostle views as one past experience his personal intercourse with them of old at Philippi. See the next words, where such a retrospect is implied.

not as in my presence only &c.] The Greek shews that these words are to be joined with what follows; “work out your own salvation, now in my absence, not only in my presence.”

“As in my presence”: “ as ” suggests the thought, or point of view, of the agent; “ influenced by the fact of my presence.”

work out your own salvation ] “ Your own ” is strongly emphatic. The Apostle is in fact bidding them “learn to walk alone,” instead of leaning too much on his presence and personal influence. “Do not make me your proxy in spiritual duties which must be your own.” Hence the “ much more ” of the previous clause; his absence was to be the occasion for a far fuller realization of their own personal obligations and resources in the spiritual life.

“Salvation”: see above on Php 1:19. The main reference here is to final glory (see remarks just below). But as life eternal is continuous and one, here and hereafter, a side-reference may well be recognized to present preservation from falling and sinning. “In this way of diligence we receive daily more and more of ‘salvation’ itself, by liberty from sin, victory over it, peace and communion with God, and the earnests of heavenly felicity” (Scott).

“Work out”: the verb is that used also e.g. Rom 4:5 (“the law worketh wrath”); 2Co 4:17, a close and instructive parallel. As there the saint’s “light affliction” “works out for him a weight of glory,” so here his watchful, loving, reverent consistency, for his Lord’s sake, “works out,” issues in the result of, his “salvation.” There is not the slightest contradiction here to the profound truth of Justification by Faith only, that is to say, only for the merit’s sake of the Redeemer, appropriated by submissive trust; that justification whose sure issue is “glorification” (Rom 8:30). It is an instance of independent lines of truth converging on one goal. From one point of view, that of justifying merit, man is glorified because of Christ’s work alone, applied to his case through faith alone. From another point, that of qualifying capacity, and of preparation for the Lord’s individual welcome (Mat 25:21; Rom 2:7), man is glorified as the issue of a process of work and training, in which in a true sense he is himself operant, though grace lies below the whole operation.

with fear and trembling ] not of tormenting misgiving (cp. 1Jn 4:18), but of profound reverence and wakeful conscience. So 1Co 2:3; 2Co 7:15; Eph 6:5. Chrysostom quotes Psa 2:11, “Serve the Lord in fear, and exult unto Him in trembling.” The Douay (Romanist) Bible here has a note: “This is against the false faith and presumptuous confidence of modern sectaries”; a reference to the doctrine of a personal assurance of present Divine favour and coming glory. But this is both to mistake the meaning of St Paul’s phrase “fear and trembling,” and to forget such passages as e.g. Rom 5:1-2; Rom 5:9; Rom 8:28-39. It is the formulated tenet of the Church of Rome that “no man can know, with a certainty under which nothing false can lurk, that he has attained the grace of God” ( Canones Concil. Trident., Sess. vi. cap. ix.). See further just below.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed – The Philippians had from the beginning manifested a remarkable readiness to show respect to the apostle, and to listen to his teaching. This readiness he more than once refers to and commends. He still appeals to them, and urges them to follow his counsels, that they might secure their salvation.

Now much more in my absence – Though they had been obedient when he was with them, yet circumstances had occurred in his absence which made their obedience more remarkable, and more worthy of special commendation.

Work out your own salvation – This important command was first addressed to Christians, but there is no reason why the same command should not be regarded as addressed to all – for it is equally applicable to all. The duty of doing this is enjoined here; the reason for making the effort, or the encouragement for the effort, is stated in the next verse. In regard to the command here, it is natural to inquire why it is a duty; and what is necessary to be done in order to comply with it? On the first of these inquiries, it may be observed that it is a duty to make a personal effort to secure salvation, or to work out our salvation:

(1) Because God commands it. There is no command more frequently repeated in the Scriptures, than the command to make to ourselves a new heart; to strive to enter in at the strait gate; to break off from sin, and to repent.

(2) It is a duty because it is our own personal interest that is at stake. No one else has, or can have, as much interest in our salvation as we have. It is every persons duty to be as happy as possible here, and to be prepared for eternal happiness in the future world. No person has a right either to throw away his life or his soul. He has no more right to do the one than the other; and if it is a persons duty to endeavor to save his life when in danger of drowning, it is no less his duty to endeavor to save his soul when in danger of hell.

(3) Our earthly friends cannot save us. No effort of theirs can deliver us from eternal death without our own exertion. Great as may be their solicitude for us, and much as they may do, there is a point where their efforts must stop – and that point is always short of our salvation, unless we are roused to seek salvation. They may pray, and weep, and plead, but they cannot save us. There is a work to be done on our own hearts which they cannot do.

(4) It is a duty, because the salvation of the soul will not take care of itself without an effort on our part. There is no more reason to suppose this than that health and life will take care of themselves without our own exertion. And yet many live as if they supposed that somehow all would yet be well; that the matter of salvation need not give them any concern, for that things will so arrange themselves that they will be saved. Why should they suppose this anymore in regard to religion than in regard to anything else?

(5) It is a duty, because there is no reason to expect the divine interposition without our own effort. No such interposition is promised to any man, and why should he expect it? In the case of all who have been saved, they have made an effort – and why should we expect that God will favor us more than he did them? God helps them who help themselves; and what reason has any man to suppose that he will interfere in his case and save him, if he will put forth no effort to work out his own salvation? In regard to the other inquiry – What does the command imply; or what is necessary to be done in order to comply with it? We may observe, that it does not mean:

(a)That we are to attempt to deserve salvation on the ground of merit. That is out of the question; for what can man do that shall be an equivalent for eternal happiness in heaven? Nor,

(b)Does it mean that we are to endeavor to make atonement for past sins. That would be equally impossible, and it is, besides, unnecessary. That work has been done by the great Redeemer. But it means:

(i)That we are to make an honest effort to be saved in the way which God has appointed;

(ii)That we are to break off from our sins by true repentance;

(iii)That we are to believe in the Saviour, and honestly to put our trust in him;

(iv)That we are to give up all that we have to God;

(v)That we are to break away from all evil companions and evil plans of life; and,

(vi)That we are to resist all the allurements of the world, and all the temptations which may assail us that would lead us back from God, and are to persevere unto the end. The great difficulty in working out salvation is in forming a purpose to begin at once. When that purpose is formed, salvation is easy.

With fear and trembling – That is, with that kind of anxiety which one has who feels that he has an important interest at stake, and that he is in danger of losing it. The reason or the ground for fear in this case is in general this: there is danger of losing the soul.

(1) So many persons make shipwreck of all hope and perish, that there is danger that we may also.

(2) There are so many temptations and allurements in the world, and so many things that lead us to defer attention to religion, that there is danger that we may be lost.

(3) There is danger that if the present opportunity passes, another may not occur. Death may soon overtake us. No one has a moment to lose. No one can designate one single moment of his life, and say, I may safely lose that moment. I may safely spend it in the neglect of my soul.

(4) It should be done with the most earnest concern, front the immensity of the interest at stake. If the soul is lost, all is lost. And who is there that can estimate the value of that soul which is thus in danger of being lost forever?

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Php 2:12-13

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling–Here is

I.

Hope for all.

II. Help for all.

III. Work for all.

IV. A kind word for all. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Salvation

I. Is your own concern.

1. Others may be solicitous about you.

2. You must bear the responsibility.

II. Demands effort.

1. It is not of works.

2. Yet it must be worked out.

III. Must be anxiously prosecuted.

1. With peaceful confidence in God.

2. Yet with fear and trembling. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The way of salvation

I. The invaluable blessing set before us.

1. The blessing itself–Salvation. What is that? Deliverance from sin. Had there been no sin there would have needed no salvation. But having sinned man has lost likeness to God, love for God, life with God, and he wants these restored. But he cannot get them back of himself. Christ, however, has secured them for him; deliverance

(1) from the curse of sin. Christ has taken this upon Himself (Rom 8:1).

(2) From the dominion of sin. That is made the slave which all along has been the master.

(3) From all the consequences of sin.

(a) Separation from God. Being saved from sin man has access to God.

(b) Eternal punishment.

2. Your interest in this salvation. You hear people say, That is my own house, my own business, and lay great emphasis on the own. And your own salvation has a peculiar emphasis connected with it. Christs salvation is a common salvation, and you do well to publish it; but what if heathens should possess it, and you through the want of it be lost.

II. The means of its attainment. Work out, etc.

1. Negatively: this does not mean–

(1) To make an atonement for sin. Salvation in that respect is finished.

(2) That you are saved through your work. There is no more merit in it than there is in receiving alms from a benefactor.

2. Positively; it is–

(1) To labour to believe, and receive salvation–by reading, hearing, meditation, etc.

(2) To labour to secure the enjoyment of salvation. Many have it, but not the joy of it. This is secured by prayer and Christian work.

(3) Labour to exhibit and practise salvation. You cannot hold the world and sin in one hand, and salvation in the other.

III. The encouragement to use the means prescribed. Do not say, trembling soul, thou hast no strength, I would work, but am so feeble. Thy helper is God.

1. He works to will. He does not reform the natural faculty of the will; but sweetly and powerfully constrains that will by His Holy Spirit.

2. He works to do. Sometimes you have the will but not the strength. But as God works in us principles of action–faith, love, and regard for His glory–so when these principles are quickened and brought into practice, what cannot a man do? (J. Sherman.)

Your own salvation

Hearers often allege that preachers deal with subjects in which they have no interest, or with unpractical themes or with mysterious dogmas. No such charge can be preferred against this.

I. The matter under consideration. Salvation; which contains within it deliverance–

1. Prom the guilt of our past sins. This is a matter of grave consideration.

(1) God thinks so, or He would not have sent His Son and His Spirit.

(2) The Church thinks so, or earnest men and women would not make such sacrifices to bring men to this salvation.

(3) The angels think so, or there would not be joy in their presence at sinners repenting.

(4) The devils and lost spirits think so, or the one would not endeavour to thwart salvation, nor the others (as Dives) long so ardently for the salvation of their living brethren.

Nothing so much concerns any one as this.

(1) What is it to have a healthy body if you have a perishing soul?

(2) What is wealth if that which is more precious than the whole world be lost?

(3) What are honour and reputation if we have to hear, Depart from Me.

II. Whose matter is it? Your own.

1. The sin you commit is your own and its condemnation. You may share in other mens sins and they in yours; but a burden lies on you which no one can touch. You must obtain it, for this a personal pardon, or you are undone forever. You must yourself repent, believe, etc.

2. You must personally die, and in that dying we shall have either personal comfort or personal dismay. When death is past, salvation is still our own. There is a personal heaven for a personal believer. But if you have it not, it will be your own damnation. No one will be condemned for you. A substitute there is now, but not then.

3. You may be tempted to forget your own salvation by thoughts of other people. Reverse the process.

(1) Members of the Church.

(2) Official Christians.

(3) Unpractical doctrinists.

(4) Speculatists.

(5) Critics.

(6) Those who have espoused great public designs. Protestant controversialists, reformers, etc.

III. Answers to objections.

1. Is it not all fixed? Dont you believe in predestination? What have we then to do with our own salvation? Is it not fixed whether you shall be nourished with food today or shall go hungry? Why then will you go home and eat your dinner? You do not reason so wickedly and foolishly about any other subject but this.

2. Do you not believe in full assurance? Yes, but presumption is not assurance, and the most fully assured are those who are most careful about their own salvation.

3. This is very selfish. Yes, but it is a selfishness that is needful before you can be unselfish. How can you be of any service to others if you are not saved yourself.

IV. Render some assistance. Ask yourself, Am I saved?

1. Does God work in you? Have you a work of the Holy Spirit in your soul? If so, you are saved.

2. Does your salvation rest wholly on Christ? If you are hanging on anything but the Cross you are deceived.

3. Have you turned your back on sin?

4. If not, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, etc. (C. H. Spurgeon)

The working out of salvation

Salvation is founded on the mediation of Christ, but it is perfected by personal cooperation This is your own salvation, because–

I. It must be wrought out in yourself. It must have all the distinctiveness which pertains to individuality of character.

1. Its sphere is in the man. Christianity is not an outward application, but an inward work; not rites, etc., but life.

2. It is marked by attributes so distinct as to isolate it and make it our own. Every man has his own infirmities, and hence the work of grace differs in individuals.

II. It must be wrought out by yourself. The necessity of Divine influence is assumed–It is God that worketh in you. We cannot be too deeply conscious of our entire dependence; but we cannot be too much alive to our personal obligations. The latter will be the basis of the judgment. The ministry of the Word, etc., are highly important; but they must not be substitutes for personal Christianity.

III. It must be wrought out for yourself. Every Christian is now shaping the character of his salvation in the world to come where everyone will receive, etc. (J. E. M. A.)

The working out of salvation

I. The salvation which is to be wrought out. Salvation has two senses–deliverance, and a being raised to that state of holiness and happiness which God designs. In the text it includes both. Salvation was no: finished on the cross. It was not even secured; since something depends upon our own act. Salvation is a process. The first step is deliverance from blindness and insensibility; the second, from condemnation. Our salvation, then, proceeds into a state of entire conformity to the mind of Christ. Yet it supposes growth, even then. It is also preservation, every moment, from temptation, sloth, neglect, impatience, until at death the pure spirit is committed into the hands of the Father, and enters upon the perfect happiness of heaven.

II. The manner in which it is to be wrought out.

1. Work denotes a vigorous application of the mind to–

(1) Serious thoughts.

(2) Prayerful exercises of faith.

(3) The government of the heart.

(4) The resistance of temptation.

(5) The means of grace.

(6) Practical religion.

2. Salvation is to be worked out. By repentance and faith till justification and sanctification are secured. Our daily contests and attainments must be prosecuted till the conqueror be crowned.

3. With fear and trembling. Beware of the treachery of the heart. The number who have fallen; the immense stake at issue; the frown of God.

III. The encouragement.

1. This settles the disputed point of Divine help and human agency; not philosophically but practically. God does not so work in man as to render him a mechanical instrument; nor does man so work as that the work is attributed to his own powers.

1. A great part of the controversy respecting free will arises from not distinguishing between a power to will and the act of willing. That such a distinction is just, appears most clearly from Gods working in us to do. Now, it were absurd to say, God does, that is, prays, watches, and believes, for us; but He gives the power. It were equally absurd to say, God wills for us; but He gives the power to will; for He restores free agency. Again: If God necessitated our doing, He would not work in us to do, but by us to do; so, if He necessitated our will, he would work, not in us to will, but by us to will. The sense is, that He works in us that we may ourselves will and do.

2. God works in us to will. Several operations are necessary here. He enlightens the mind; impresses upon us the things that belong to our peace; and sets before us the motives which persuade the will. This, however, is not power to do. To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. God strengthens us by the rich effusions of His blessed Spirit. He does not convey all power at once. Some degree of it is given, independently of ourselves. Afterwards, the power is increased according to our diligence, and faith, and improvement. What, then, is there that you cannot attain? God worketh in you.

3. Do you doubt of

(1) Your attaining to saving faith? God worketh in you; and His grace is sufficient.

(2) Your attaining power over sin? God worketh in you; and is anything too hard for Him?

(3) Your gaining complete salvation? God worketh in you; and His almighty Spirit can sanctify the most corrupt and depraved nature.

(4) Your victory over trouble and conflict? Fear not: God worketh in you; and His strength shall be so made perfect in your weakness, that you shall be even more than conquerors.

Conclusion:

1. If you neglect your proper work, think not to blame God. He has both given and offered power.

2. If you have it not, you have not asked, or have not employed it.

3. In proportion as you are strengthened, you act. Live, then, near to God.

4. The glory of salvation is the Lords. You do nothing but in His power. (R. Watson.)

The working out of salvation

Wherefore links this passage to the whole picture from Php 2:6 to Php 2:11. Since the mind of Christ is revealed in His incarnation and death and is set before you as an example, work out, etc. Every Christian duty finds its motive and model in Christ. This counsel–

I. Implies–

1. That something has been already done. The very phrase work out implies this. Salvation has been begun, and is in one sense, a complete thing. We have not to work for salvation, but to accept it.

2. That something more has to be done. The new life has been created, but it must grow or it will die. What is more beautiful than the fervour and rapture of the first love, when young hearts turn to the Saviour as flowers to the light and find in Him their rest and their joy? But this first love may be forsaken. Character having greatly improved may deteriorate, and spiritual health may suffer a relapse. So we are reminded that we must not be merely passive in religion, receiving impressions, drinking in comfort, stimulated from without, but also to be active, cultivating our own powers.

II. This salvation is our own. Something essentially individual between each man and his God. In a sense it is the same in all, and yet it is different. God does not mean your nature to be a copy of any other. One man is impulsive, another is calm; one is bright, another gloomy; one is brave, another like a sensitive plant shrinking from even the breath of opposition. The experience of the gaoler was different from that of Lydia. So it is your own salvation and no one can work it out for you. The battlefield is your own soul, you have to pass through the great crisis of life alone, and you have to die alone.

III. How are we to work it out?

1. By the acquisition of spiritual truth. It is possible to have our Fathers phrases on our lips when we have not the power which lay behind them in our hearts. We are thankful for the wisdom and piety of the past, but a traditional faith will not save us; and while it is unwise to break away from the past, it is unequally unwise to reject the new truth that may be revealed to us. There will then be progress in character. The spiritual truth thus acquired will be the food of the soul.

2. By resolute effort. A man can never become wise or good without trouble. Jesus bids us strive, and Paul to fight the good fight, etc. It is not an easy thing to live the Christian life. The religion of sentimentalism, emotion, ritual, may be easy, but the religion of principle means cross bearing and earnest conflict with sin.

3. Even in the absence of means which are important. The presence of the apostle was a help. There is something in the presence of a friend which cannot be written with ink. The Philippians had done well in the apostles presence; they were to do much more in his absence. Why? To comfort him. As children when their father is from home are taking more care than usual that the windows and doors are properly fastened, so the Christians of Philippi were to be doubly vigilant when Paul was away. External aids are precious, but we must learn to be independent of them when necessary.

IV. The spirit in which we are to do the work–with fear and trembling. This Epistle is full of joy; but it is the joy of a reverent and earnest soul. There is abundant reason for caution, self-distrust, modesty, and humility, since so many have fallen, so many Peters denied their Lord, so many Demases forsaken Him. Be not high minded, but fear. (James Owen.)

The working out of salvation

I. A Christian man has his whole salvation already accomplished for him in Christ, and yet he has to work it out. Notice–

1. The persons to whom these words are addressed. Through applying them to non-Christians they have been perverted to mean: You cooperate with Christ in the great work of salvation, and you will get grace and pardon. But none save Christians have anything to do with them. They are addressed to those who are already resting on the finished salvation of Jesus Christ. If you have not done so, and are applying them to yourselves, remember that when the Jews came to Christ in a similar spirit, asking Him, What shall we do? etc. He said, This is the work of God that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent. The first lesson is not work but faith, and unless there be faith no work.

2. But if salvation be this, How can we work it out? Salvation has four aspects. It means–

(1) The whole process by which we are delivered from sin, and set safe on the right hand of God.

(2) Deliverance from the guilt, punishment, and condemnation of sin, in which it is a thing past.

(3) The gradual process of deliverance from its power in our own hearts, in which it is a thing present.

(4) The final and perfect deliverance, in which it is a thing future. These all come equally from Christ, and depend upon His work and power, and are all given in the first act of faith. But the attitude in which the Christian stands to the accomplished salvation, and that in which He stands to the progressive salvation are different. He has to take the finished blessing. Yet the salvation which means our being delivered from the evil in our hearts is ours on the condition of continuous faithful reception and daily effort.

3. The two things, then, are not inconsistent. Work as well as believe, and in the daily subjugation of your spirits to His Divine power; in the daily crucifixion of your flesh; in the daily straining after loftier heights of godliness and purer atmospheres of devotion and love, make more thoroughly your own what you possess, work into the substance of your souls what you have.

II. God works all in us, and yet we have to work. Command implies power; command and power imply duty.

1. Is there any cautious guarding of the words that they may not seem to clash with the other side of truth? No. Paul does not say, Yet God worketh in you, or although, or remember as a caution. He blends the two together in an altogether different connection, and sees no contradiction or puzzle, but a ground of encouragement–for God worketh in you. That expresses more than bringing outward means to bear. It speaks of an inward, real, and efficacious operation. God puts in you the first faint motions of a better will. It is not that God gives men the power and leaves them to use it; that the desire and purpose come from Him, and are left with us as faithful or unfaithful stewards. The whole process, from the first sowing of the seed until its last fruiting in action, is Gods altogether.

2. And none the less strongly does He teach by His earnest injunction that human control over the human will and that reality of human agency, which are often thought to be annihilated by the view of God as originating all good. The apostle thought this doctrine did not absorb all our individuality in one great cause, which made men mere tools and puppets. His conclusion is God does all, therefore you work.

3. Each of these truths rests on its own appropriate evidence. My own consciousness tells me that I am free, that I have power, that I am therefore responsible. I know what I mean by the will of God, because I am myself conscious of a will. The power of God is an object of intelligent thought to me because I am conscious of power. On the other hand, that belief in God, which is one of the deep and universal beliefs of men, contains in it the belief in Him as the source of all power, who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. These two convictions are both given us in the primitive beliefs which belong to us all. These two mighty pillars, on which all morality and all religion repose, have their foundations deep down in our nature, and tower up beyond our sight. They seem to stand opposite each other, but it is only as the piers of some tall arch are opposed. Beneath they repose on one foundation, above they spring together in the completing keystone, and bear the whole steady structure. Wise and good men have toiled to harmonize them in vain. Perhaps the time may come when we shall be lifted high enough to see the binding arch, but here on earth we can only behold the shafts on either side. Any fancied reconciliation only consists in paring down one half of the full-orbed truth to nothing, or admitting it in words, while every principle of the reeoncilers system demands its denial. Each antagonist is strong in his assertions, and weak in his denials.

4. This apparent incompatibility is no reason for rejecting truths, each commended to our acceptance on their own proper grounds. The Bible admits and enforces both. God is all, but thou canst work. Take this belief that God worketh all in you as the ground of your confidence. Take this conviction that thou canst work for the spur and stimulus of your life.

III. The Christian has his salvation secured, and yet he is to fear and tremble. You may say, Perfect love casteth out fear. So it does: the fear that hath torment. But there is another fear and trembling which is but another shape of confidence and calm hope. Scripture does tell us that the believing mans salvation is certain since he believes. And your faith can be worth nothing unless it have trembling distrust of your own power, which is the companion of all thankful and faithful reception of Gods mercy. Let, then, all fear and trembling be yours as a man; let all confidence and calm trust be yours as a child of God. Turn your confidence and your fears alike into prayer. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The working out of salvation

This work is a work–

I. In your own heart. To obey inwardly; to cherish and cultivate the good feelings which are now in you; to discipline your thoughts, rule your temper, keep your heart in order; to form right habits of daily life; to struggle against your besetting sin; to maintain a Christian spirit.

II. In the closet. Every one knows how difficult it is to fulfil faithfully the duties of private prayer, self-examination, and meditation; and to maintain the habit regularly, and to do it spiritually. To get rid of wandering thoughts; not to slide into reverie. To use form without formality. To make his own room a sanctuary, which he never leaves without carrying from it a holier frame and a higher aim.

III. In your own sphere. In the family and in business.

IV. In the work outside. No Christian should be without some definite form of Christian work. It may be among the poor, with the sick, or in the Sunday school, etc. In so doing you are working out the salvation you have received. Conclusion: Have you been saved? Then save! Are you loved? Then love! Are you happy? Then make others happy! (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The working out of salvation

Note–

I. That great and important truth which ought never to be out of our remembrance. It is God that worketh in us, etc., i.e., It is of His good pleasure, etc. This removes all imagination of merit from man, and gives God the whole glory of His work. The expression means either–

1. To will, including the whole of inward; to do, the whole of outward religion.

2. To will, implying every good desire; to do, whatever results therefrom, i.e., God worketh all inward and outward holiness, or God breathes every good desire and brings it to good effect. The original seems to favour the latter; but either is destructive of pride.

II. If God worketh in you then work out your own salvation. Work out implies the doing of a thing thoroughly; your own, you must do it or it will be left undone forever.

1. Salvation

(1) begins with preventing grace, including the first wish to please God, the first dawn of light concerning His will.

(2) Is carried on by convincing grace or repentance, which brings a larger amount of self-knowledge, etc.

(3) Afterwards we experience the proper Christian salvation, whereby through grace we are saved by faith, consisting of two branches. (a) Justification, by which we are saved from the guilt of sin and restored to Gods favour, which is instantaneous.

(5) Sanctification, by which we are saved from the power and root of sin and restored to the Divine image, and which begins the moment we are justified, and gradually in creases till the heart is cleansed from all sin, and filled with pure love to God and man.

2. How are we to work out this salvation? This is explained by that other passage in which Paul exhorts servants to obey their masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, a proverbial expression! which cannot be under stood literally. For what master could bear, much less require, his servant to stand quaking before him? And the words following utterly exclude this meaning (Eph 6:5, etc.). They imply–

(1) That everything be done with the utmost earnestness of spirit, and with all care and diligence, perhaps in reference to the former word fear.

(2) With the utmost speed, punctuality, exactness, referring to trembling. Transfer this to the working out of our salvation. With the same temper and manner that Christians serve their earthly masters, so let Christians serve their heavenly master.

3. What are the steps in this working?

(1) Cease to do evil–fly from all sin, abstain from every appearance of evil.

(2) Learn to do well–use family and private prayer, search the Scriptures, do good unto all men; and herein be ye steadfast, unmoveable, etc., and so go on to perfection.

III. What connection is there between the former and latter part of this sentence? Is there not a fiat opposition? If God worketh in us, is not our working impracticable and unnecessary? No.

1. God worketh in you, there fore you can work: otherwise it would be impossible. We know that the word is absolutely true, Without Me ye can do nothing; but it is equally true that I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me.

2. God worketh in you, therefore you must work. You must be workers together in Him, or He will cease working. Unto him that hath shall be given; but from him that hath not–that doth not improve the grace already given–shall be taken away what he assuredly hath. He will not save us unless we save ourselves from this untoward generation, unless we labour to make our calling and election sure. (J. Wesley, M. A.)

The working out of salvation

I. The end to be attained. Salvation.

1. Pardon.

2. Sanctification.

3. Eternal life: the whole benefits of redemption.

II. This end is only to be attuned by working. This teaches–

1. Negatively

(1) That it is not a matter of course that men are saved, because Christ has purchased redemption for them.

(2) That salvation is not a benefit which others can confer upon us. Each one must work out his own. No priest can save us.

(3) This is not an easy work. is a strong word, and this working is to be with fear and trembling, i.e., with solicitude, lest after all we should fail. Our utmost exertion therefore is required. Strive to enter, etc. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence. Israel, to gain possession of Canaan, had to fight long and hard. No cross, no crown.

2. Positively.

(1) Our working must be directed to a right end, not to make atonement or merit salvation by our good works. These are the two errors of all false religions, and men who labour in this direction make no progress. The proper course is to obtain an interest in Christ, and to bring our hearts and lives into conformity with the will of God. If a man thinks it enough to believe in Christ and then live as he pleases, he turns the grace of God into licentiousness. We have to subdue the world, the flesh, and the devil.

(2) We must work in accordance with the gospel. Therefore our work must recognize–

(a) The work of Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King.

(b) The work of the Holy Ghost.

(c) The efficacy of the means of grace, none of which are to be neglected.

(3) It must be assiduous and laborious.

III. The encouragements.

1. That God can, does, and will aid us.

2. That this aid is not merely outward, giving us the means and opportunity, but inward and efficacious, giving us strength and will.

3. There is, therefore, a divine consensus, a cooperation promised, analogous to the working of God in nature, and in those cases in which He gave strength to the palsied or the lame.

4. This Divine cooperation is congruous to the nature of the soul.

5. As it is absolutely necessary it should be sought and relied on. (C. Hedge, D. D.)

The working out of salvation

I. Mans part in salvation–i.e., the Christian mans, for the unregenerate have no spiritual germ to work out. We must work energetically–energize, for it is God who energizes in you. We must act as though everything depended on our own personal efforts. This includes–

1. Untiring diligence, improving every moment; making the best use of every opportunity.

2. Thoroughness, wholeness. Half work will not do (1Th 5:23). Mind, heart, body.

3. Fortitude. We must work undaunted by difficulty (Act 20:23-24).

4. With fear and trembling (Eph 6:5). The fear that is begotten by the anxiety to please.

II. Gods part.

1. God worketh, which supplies–

(1) The motive. The good we do is not our own but Gods. The light is not in the window; that is simply the medium through which light passes. The coal burns and throws off light and heat because the sun worked its light and warmth into it thousands of years ago.

(2) The power. He who created the heavens, established the rocks, painted the landscape with beauty, works in us; let us, therefore, though Paul and the whole brotherhood of ministers be absent, fail not.

(3) The reason. God works in, therefore we should work out.

2. How does God work?

(1) In the tree by air, light, heat, rain, and dew, and the tree works out in wood, leaves, and fragrant blossoms.

(2) In man by means of His truth, Spirit, and grace, and we work them out in love, joy, etc. (Gal 5:22-23).

3. God works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. He does this that He may accomplish His gracious purpose in the salvation of mankind–for God willeth all men to be saved. (D. R. Jenkins.)

Salvation worked out

I. What is supposed in the command.

1. That we, while in our natural state, are lost creatures, liable to perish forever. Our being bid to work out our salvation, supposing this to be our antecedent condition, may well keep us humble as long as we live.

2. That there is a way open by which we may be delivered from that condition, for we had never been enjoined thus had we been doomed to perish (verses 6-8; Joh 3:16).

3. That God is very desirous of their salvation to whom this command is sent (2Pe 3:9; Eze 33:11).

II. What is included in the salvation we are to work out. Considering ourselves–

1. As fallen creatures, our first work is to get our state changed, and not to rest satisfied till we are restored to the favour and image of God. Here our salvation in the application of it begins. And with what earnestness should it be laboured after by every one who loves his safety.

2. In a state of grace, but as yet imperfect in attainments. The work of our salvation includes the mortifying of the remains of our corruption in us, the resisting of temptations, the making additions to grace received, and our pressing on to glory. And how much has a Christian to do, as to all these? (2Pe 1:10; Php 3:12-14).

3. As mortal and dying out of the world, the work of salvation includes our preparing for a removal from it, and laying up treasure in another.

III. What is implied in being bid to work this out, and the manner in which it is to be done. That it is a work–

1. In which the soul is to be engaged. Bodily service profiteth nothing alone.

2. In which we are to engage with the greatest intentness.

3. In which the utmost watchfulness is necessary, considering the deceitfulness of the heart, the temptations of Satan, the instances of many who have miscarried.

4. In which the appointed means are to be employed.

5. In which we are to persevere, as he only who endures to the end will be saved.

IV. God works in us.

1. It is God who works in us to will and to do.

(1) Man is naturally averse to the business of his salvation. How plain is this command and how strongly urged, but how few can be prevailed upon to set about it!

(2) When this aversion is overcome it is God that does it.

(a) He touches and turns the will, and by His renewing grace brings His people to love and choose what they previously disliked, and thus He of unwilling makes them willing (Eze 36:26).

(b) He excites that grace which He implants, and thus both the disposition and the act is owing to influence from heaven (Son 1:4). As to His method, usually God–

(i) Opens their souls to their lost and miserable state (Joh 16:8).

(ii) He holds their thoughts close to what is thus discovered as matter of the highest moment, not to be made light of as heretofore.

(iii) By such discovery and view our impression is made upon the conscience, so that the sinner can no longer rest in his present state.

(iv) The awakened sinner is led to importunately inquire what he must do to be saved (Act 2:30; Act 16:36).

5. The inquirer is reasonably instructed in the gospel method of salvation (Joh 3:16).

6. Salvation being represented as attainable the sinner under Divine influence is led to desire, hope, choose, believe.

2. God works of His good pleasure.

(1) Tis of His sovereign grace that He works in any; without any constraint or need on His part; without, nay contrary to any merit in ours.

(2) In whomsoever God works they are to own it a gracious vouchsafement, one to be highly prized and improved.

V. The force of the reason, from such a representation of the divine influence, to quicken and engage us to set about our part with the utmost diligence.

1. What reason have we from Gods working in us to excite ourselves to work out our salvation. It makes it–

(1) Reasonable. His hand is stretched out to pluck you as brands from the burning, let it not be overlooked; His presence is vouchsafed to help the soul to heaven, let it not be slighted.

(2) Possible. However difficult the work, the Divine worker is working within.

(3) Hopeful. What room is there for despondency when God undertakes the design, begins the work, and works on if you do not break off?

(4) Delightful. When God draws the believer runs.

2. We are to work because of the manner of Gods working, viz., His good pleasure.

(1) It is certain that without Gods working we can do nothing.

(2) Perhaps we long neglected the work, and therefore how justly might the Divine favour have been withdrawn.

(3) How much yet remains to be done, and the time allotted is uncertain and short.

Application:

1. Behold the folly of sin.

2. See the mercy of God.

3. How unreasonable despair.

4. How inexcusable the finally lost. (D. Wilcox.)

Salvation worked out

I. What abe we to understand here by salvation?

1. Freedom from our misery.

(1) Guilt of sin (Gal 3:22; Mat 1:20).

(2) Strength of corruption (Rom 7:24; Act 3:26).

(3) Power of Satan (1Pe 5:8).

(4) Wrath of God (Psa 78:31).

(5) Eternal punishment (Mat 25:46; 2Th 1:9).

2. Advancement to happiness:

(1) In this life, consisting in Gods love to us (Psa 30:5) and our love to Him.

(2) In the life to come–consisting in the perfection of our souls (Heb 12:23) and in the enjoyment of God (Joh 17:5; Joh 17:24).

II. What by working out?

1. Our making use of all the means appointed by God for this end (Mat 6:33).

2. Continuing the use of them until we have attained the end (Act 13:43; Rom 12:12).

III. What by fear and trembling?

1. Not with pride (1Jn 1:8).

2. Nor presumption (Psa 19:13).

3. Nor carnal security (1Pe 5:8).

4. But with a holy fear.

(1) Lest we should go the wrong way, or make use of the wrong means (Rom 10:2).

(2) Lest we should fail in the use of the right means (Heb 4:1). (Bishop Beveridge.)

Salvation worked out

I. The one great thing which a man hath to do is to work out his own salvation. To clear up the nature of this work, consider–

1. It is not to be done by the way, but with all our might (Ecc 9:10; 2Pe 1:10).

2. All our other works are to be referred to this (1Co 10:31).

3. We cannot do it by our own strength (Jer 10:23; 2Co 3:5). Why, then, doth God command us to do it?

(1) Gods commands show not our ability but duty.

(2) God, by His commands, puts us upon doing what we can, depending on Him for the rest.

(3) God by His commands enables us to do it (Gen 1:3; Joh 5:6; Joh 11:43; Act 3:6).

(4) None can enable us to do it but; God (verse 13; 2Co 3:5).

(5) We have no ground to expect strength from God to do it, but through Christ (Joh 15:5).

(6) We must not do in our own way but Gods (Isa 8:20).

(7) This is the one thing needful (Luk 10:42).

(8) It is the most honourable work we can be employed in (Pro 12:26).

(9) It is not to be begun only but finished (Joh 17:4).

II. How doth it appear that this is the work we ought to do?

1. This is the end of our continuance on the earth.

2. God calls on us to do it (Eze 33:11), and commands (Act 17:30).

3. He hath shown us how to do it (Mic 6:8).

4. He hath offered us the means (Jer 7:25).

5. He hath promised to enable us in the use of those means to do it (Mat 18:20).

6. All His providences tend to it (Job 36:8-10).

7. And so do His ordinances.

III. How must we do this work?

1. Begin it

(1) with knowledge (1Ch 28:9; Isa 1:7).

2. Repentance; consisting in

(1) a sense of sin (Joh 16:8).

(a) Original (Psa 51:5);

(b) actual (Psa 51:3-4); in our thoughts (Gen 6:5); affections (2Ti 3:3-4); words (Mat 12:36); actions.

(c) Habitual (Jer 13:23).

(2) A sorrow for sin.

(a) Cordial (Joe 2:13).

(b) Universal (Eze 9:4).

(c) Exceeding all other sorrow (Zec 12:10-11).

(3) A hating of sin (Psa 139:21-22.

(4) A firm resolution against sin (Psa 17:3; Psa 119:106).

(5) A constant endeavour to perform those resolutions with faith (Act 16:31).

(a) Assenting to the Scripture in general (Act 24:14; 2Ti 3:16), viz., that the assertions are all truths (Heb 6:18); that the history is certain; the commands Divine (Rom 7:12-14); the promises performed; the threatenings executed.

(b) Assenting to the gospel in particular, viz., that Christ is the Son of God; truly man; the promised Messiah; the only Saviour; our meritorious substitute; our prevailing intercessor.

(c) Applying these truths to ourselves (Jam 2:19); that He is our Lord and God (Joh 20:28); our Saviour and Redeemer; our Advocate (Heb 7:25; 1Jn 2:1).

2. We must carry on this work–

(1) By increasing in knowledge (2Pe 3:18).

(2) By renewing our repentance (Psa 25:7; 1Co 15:9).

(3) Renewing acts of faith.

(4) Watchfulness over our hearts (Pro 4:23).

(5) Frequent exercise of our graces.

3. We must finish this work (Joh 17:4).

(1) By mortifying all our sins (2Ti 4:7; Rev 3:12; Rev 3:21).

(2) Continuing in the performance of all duties (1Co 15:58; Rev 3:11).

(3) Persevering in all places (2Ti 4:7).

IV. Set upon this work. Consider–

1. This is the work you came about.

2. You have comfort of no other works (Rom 6:21).

3. All other works are sin till this be set about (Pro 15:8; Pro 21:4; Pro 12:27; Isa 66:3).

4. Till this be done, ye are incapable of any mercy (Mat 2:2).

5. Subject to all misery–

(1) The curse of the law (Gal 3:10; Deu 28:15-16).

(2) The wrath of God (Psa 6:11).

6. Even in this life this is the best work–

(1) Most pleasant (Pro 3:17).

(a) Here we exercise our best parts (Mat 9:29).

(b) Set them on their proper objects.

(c) Employ them to their proper end.

(2) Most honourable (Pro 12:26).

(a) As the persons we converse with.

(b) As to the employment itself.

(3) Most profitable. Hereby we attain

(a) the most real riches (Pro 23:5; Luk 8:18).

(b) Most satisfying (Isa 55:1-2).

(c) Most lasting (1Ti 6:17).

7. All the power we have of doing anything was given us to do this.

8. Unless this work is done we are undone forever (Luk 13:3).

9. If this be done, we shall be happy.

(1) In our freedom from evil (Rev 14:13).

(2) In our enjoyment of all good.

V. Objections.

1. I have no time.

(1) What hast thou any time for but for this?

(2) Thou hast time for other things (Ecc 3:1-2).

2. We know not how to do this work. I have told you.

3. It is hard work.

(1) It is feasible.

(2) It is not hard in itself, but our sins make it so (Mat 11:30).

(3) Do what you can, and God will enable you to do the rest.

(4) Be but willing, and the work is easy (1Jn 5:3).

(5) Whatsoever pains you take will not be in vain (1Co 15:58).

(6) Heaven will make amends for all.

4. I have done it already.

(1) You may be mistaken (Mat 7:23; Mat 25:11).

(2) Howsoever, you cannot do it too well.

(3) None have done so much but there is more to do.

(a) Hast thou no sin to be repented of (Ecc 7:20);

(b) no lust to subdue (Rom 7:24);

(c) no grace to get quickened (Php 3:11-12).

(4) No ones work is finished till they die; were it otherwise, God would give you your reward (Joh 17:4).

5. Time enough hereafter. No, the best time is now (Joh 9:4). (Bishop Beveridge.)

Working out what is worked in

I. The matter to be worked out.

1. Your own salvation. Charity must begin at home. You ought to spread the truth, but you must first understand it. Ploughing another mans field, dont neglect your own; indicating to another the mote in his eye, do not permit a beam to blind your own.

2. What is to be worked out must first be worked in. An unconverted man can work nothing out, for there is nothing in. You have faith; work it out then; act like a believer; trust God in daily life. Be you Christlike, inasmuch as the Spirit of Christ dwells in you.

3. Salvation is to be worked out. Holiness is salvation. We are not to work out our salvation from the guilt of sin; Christ has done that, but from the power of sin. God has in effect worked that in; He has broken the yoke of sin; it lives and struggles, but it is dethroned, and our life is to keep it down. A man may be saved from the guilt of sin, and yet not saved from the power of pride or bad temper. Your salvation is not complete till you are saved from these. You must fight them till you conquer.

II. The model to be worked to.

1. Every artist requires some idea in his mind to which he is to work. The apostles model is exhibited in the context.

(1) Unanimity (verse 2);

(2) humiliation (verse 3);

(3) mutual love;

(4) in a word, the mind of Christ (verse 5).

III. The spirit in which this is to be worked out.

1. An energetic spirit. From the Greek word work we get our word energy. The bringing out of the new nature requires this, inasmuch as it is a mark of superlative difficulty. God works in, therefore we must work out. The assistance of Divine grace is not given to put aside our own efforts, but to assist them.

2. With fear to offend so good a God of which we read, Blessed is the man who feareth always.

3. With trembling. Before the Lord we do not tremble with affright, but with holy awe, lest we should sin and grieve the Spirit.

IV. The sweet encouragement the text affords. Here is–

1. Help

(1) in an exercise beyond your power.

(2) All sufficient for every emergency.

(3) Which enables you to receive Divine help.

(4) Which shall be more than equal to the power of Satan and all your corruptions.

2. God works in us to will–gives us the desire for holiness, the resolution to put down sin, the stern resolve not to fall into sin again, and He who gave the desire will surely finish it.

3. God does not leave you then; He gives you the power to do, to achieve the victory; therefore fear not.

4. That which He works in you is pleasing in His sight. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Man working and God working

I. We must work out our own salvation.

1. We must be personally active. Salvation cannot be wrought otherwise.

2. This activity must amount to vigorous, sustained working. No excellence anywhere without it.

3. This activity is to be centred on our own salvation.

II. God worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

1. As the first clause seems to throw the work wholly on man, this seems to throw it entirely on God

2. He regulates inclination and action–the motive and the deed.

3. This He does benevolently.

III. The consistency of these propositions. Salvation is of God as respects supreme agency, while our part in it is merely instrumental and subordinate. The atonement is the whole ground of our acceptance. God the Holy Spirit works in us, enabling us to believe the gospel, and purifying our heart by faith. He, however, does not work separately from us, nor control and compel. We, too, are occupied. He works by us as well as in us.

IV. The obligation resulting from a collective view of the case to prosecute the undertaking with fear and trembling. The propriety of doing so appears–

1. From the importance of the work. In small matters men are at ease. There is not enough to engage fully the mind. But no work in its character and issues can compare with this.

2. From the character of the Agent working in us. In conclusion: this subject is

(1) encouraging to the timid,

(2) stimulating to the torpid. (D. King, LL. D.)

Divine influence and mans duty

I. The doctrine of divine influence in the application of redemption. The exercise of this influence is–

1. Sovereign and free. Gods self-existence and independence render it impossible that He should be subject to foreign control, or to any considerations but those that are suggested by His own mind. But His proceedings are not arbitrary or capricious. His reasons are always the wisest, best, and most benevolent.

2. Secret, imperceptible, and only to be discovered by its effect. With what rapidity does He wheel the earth round its axis, and carry it in its annual revolution; and these movements could never have been discovered but by careful observation. When at the approach of spring the fields are arrayed in their beautiful vesture, you cannot see God raising the sap through root and fibre, along stem and branch, and unfolding each bud and blossom. So in salvation. No shout of angelic hosts announces that God has commenced operations; and though we know there is joy in their presence, we can only see the ground of their joy in individual repentance. While the world is stunning us with its noise, and the Christian labourer may be complaining, Who hath believed our report? God may be quietly inspiring multitudes to ask, What must I do? etc.

3. Mighty. Gods system of operations is no languid series of efforts. The same expression is used with reference to the Divine power which raised Christ from the dead, and which binds all things in the universe to work according to the purpose of His own will. This same power is exerted in our recovery.

(1) The obstacles to be surmounted demonstrate this: the mountain of pride and self-righteousness to be laid low; the prejudices to be swept away; the enmity and resistance to be overcome.

(2) So do the changes to be effected; the careless are to be made careful; slaves of sin are to be transformed into children of God. Who, then, can hesitate to apply for this succour, and who can despond who has it?

4. In conformity with the principles of our nature. God always adapts His procedure to the nature of the objects on which He works. You may produce considerable alteration by culture, soil, and climate, but you can never change the distinctive properties of one animal or plant for those of another. So in salvation our faculties remain as they were; but we have new aims, inclinations, purposes, and pursuits.

(1) God does not alter our absolute dependence upon Him as the creatures of His hand. He may increase our obligations; but from the first step in the narrow way to the last it is, Not I, but the grace of God.

(2) God does not interfere with the freedom He has bestowed, and the consequent responsibility under which we are placed. We find that men exercise great influence over our minds not only by mighty considerations and powerful arguments, but by enlisting our sympathies, and enkindling within us their own ardour. Our minds thereby are strengthened, mot enfeebled by the impulse thus given to us. And so God operates with like results.

(3) God does not supersede the use of the powers and faculties He has conferred. He does not take our places or work in our stead. There is no promise that He will pray, repent, etc., for us. He worketh in us, affords His gracious protection and omnipotent aid, not to lull our powers into lethargy, but to stir them up to persevering efforts.

5. The tendency and aim of the Divine influence.

(1) To will refers to those determinations to which the mind cordially comes after a full consideration of its state in the sight of God and of the overtures of mercy made to it. It is implied that these are full and unwavering; for to will is more than to wish. Many good wishes never proceed further; the will contradicts them all.

(2) To do which enables us to reduce determinations to practice. They may be strong and firm, and yet delayed and laid aside and forgotten. It is not enough to be convinced of sin; we must make application for pardon, and trust in Christs merits. We must not satisfy our minds that Christs precepts are good; we must run in the path of His commandments.

II. The duty imposed by this doctrine. Work out your, etc. We have here a summons.

1. To begin in the work. Men say, Why trouble ourselves; until God stretch forth His hand and break the chain of our sins, it would be useless for us to make the attempt. This is to pervert the grace of God to our sure destruction, and to turn into an argument for indolent indifference the most powerful incentive to exertion. The Bible brings Christs message to men. It beseeches universal acceptance. With the external message the dispensations of providence have concurred to warn off the folly and peril of delay, and to urge instant acceptance.

2. To carry on the work. It is not enough to begin the course; we must persevere. And there is much to be worked out: love of sin, evil habits have to be extirpated, the love of God to be intensified, closer conformity to our great Pattern to be attained. The consideration that God worketh in you leaves you without excuse for negligence and without ground for despondency.

3. The work is to be carried out with fear and trembling; with the reverence and godly fear which love inspires–With that man will I dwell who is of a humble and contrite spirit, etc. (R. Redpath, M. A.)

Divine grace and human endeavours

I. Human agency in things which concern salvation.

II. Divine agency.

1. Its reality.

(1) Christian character begins by Divine agency; for it begins in regeneration, which is unquestionably the work of God.

(2) It is maintained by the same, for God works in His people to will and to do.

2. Its necessity.

(1) From the corruption of human nature. Were man naturally inclined to what is good, a counteracting influence would be superfluous.

(2) From the temptations to evil, which necessitate Divine protection.

3. Its source–the Divine will. God works because of His good pleasure. He chooses to work.

(1) Not arbitrarily in the sense of capriciously. We are assured from a consideration of the wisdom, rectitude, love, and unchangeableness of God that for all His doings there are adequate reasons.

(2) Not arbitrary in the sense of having no law. His own perfection supplies laws, which, like their sources, are perfect, and in conformity with them He uniformly acts.

4. Its effect. God works in His people.

(1) To will, under which term we understand desires, intentions, resolutions, and affections. This Divine energy does not impair our will. We are conscious of acting at all times as we will, and never more so than when we seek the things of God. I have chosen the way of truth, incline my heart, etc.

(2) To do. The effect should never be disjoined from the cause, nor the cause from the effect. It is not God works in us, therefore we need not work; but therefore we work.

III. The connection between the two. Both are matter of fact, and must be believed as facts whatever may be our opinion of their relation.

(1) A theory which should harmonize them would supply no additional reason for believing the facts.

(2) The absence of such theory affords no warrant for disbelieving them.

2. A knowledge of the point is unattainable, since it is none other than the manner in which the Infinite mind acts on created minds. We have three sources of knowledge.

(1) Consciousness; the knowledge of what passes in our own minds affords no assistance.

(2) Observation; the cognizance of what comes before the senses avails us nothing.

(3) No testimony but what is Divine could make us acquainted with the subject, and none has been given.

3. But while we know nothing of the internal working of the Infinite mind, we know something of the methods. Gods gracious influence on the soul very much consists in His causing clear and realizing apprehensions of things as they are to abide in the mind. For this purpose He removes hindrances which prevent Divine truth from being known and considered, and consequently from yielding its appropriate fruit.

(1) Inattention. The person whose heart the Lord opens attends to the things that are spoken.

(2) Pride. God shows man things as they are, himself abominable, God excellent.

(3) Love of the world. Things which are seen, being temporal, appear, as they actually are, next to nothing in comparison with the things which are not seen and eternal. Thus trust in God, love to God, hope of heaven, etc., are called into habitual exercise, the will directed to God and goodness, and the conduct proportionably changed for the better. Conclusion: The subject affords materials for–

1. Examination. We may learn from it whether our creed and our practice in relation to the topics discussed are scriptural or erroneous.

(1) Are you rendered careless respecting your affections and conduct by the consideration that God worketh in you?

(2) Are you disposed on the other hand to think lightly of the Divine influence?

2. Encouragement to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, but are conscious of their moral weakness. The very desire is a proof that God has done much for you, and a pledge that He will do more. (G. Burder, M. A.)

The law of spiritual interaction

I. The nature of salvation. It is something to be worked out, a moral process in man himself. On the one hand it is the overcoming and casting out of evil, and on the other the assimilation and development of good. It is restoration from disease to health. The man who is undergoing salvation is both cured and nourished. This is the result of the joint work of God and man–man being able to do his part because God works, and Gods working requiring mans work.

II. Pauls putting of the matter is in perfect agreement with the scientific law that growth and development are dependent on the due interaction between the thing that has to grow and a fitting environment. To this biological law all living things are subject. Take, e.g., a corn of wheat: until it is acted on by a fitting environment it can neither grow nor produce fruit. The grains of wheat found in Egyptian mummies might have been thought dead. Yet no sooner were they sown in appropriate soil than they began to grow, simply because they were duly acted on by a fitting environment. Some of them, while the same in appearance with the rest, were dead; they rotted and disappeared because they were incapable of reacting in response to their environment. The first movement proceeds from the surroundings; then follows the response of the germ. Or take our body. Unless we are blessed with sunshine, breathe pure air, eat nourishing food, etc., we can neither develope, nor retain our health. The same principle holds good in disease. A cure depends on proper action from without by medicine or diet. If there is nothing in them to affect our condition, we go from bad to worse, and if our condition is so bad that the medicine works no responsive action, our case is equally hopeless.

III. What is the real significance of this interaction? Is the organism pushed like a ball set in motion? No. Our environment acts on us by becoming food to us, and light, air, heat, as well as bread and water, are food. And food feeds us by becoming one with us, and energizing in us. They work in you to will and to do. But the power in the food cannot become ours without our effort. We must at least be able to digest. If we cannot do that the most nutritious food will not save us from death. Here again we may say, Work physically, for it is food that worketh, etc. The same with medicine. Our phrase is, Has it begun to work? But the entire man is subject to this great law, man not only as a physical but as a spiritual being.

IV. God is the ultimate environment of our spiritual nature, as light and air and food to our body. Therefore, unless He act upon us it is impossible that we should act, nor can His action have any result unless we respond and cooperate. And He does not merely influence us from without, give us commands or present motives; He enters and His energy becomes ours, in virtue whereof we cart will or do. But we must lay hold of Him and assimilate His energy. God can no more become our spiritual light, life, and strength without receptive action than undigested bread can be the staff of life.

V. That which is true of the spiritual life in general is emphatically true of it as enfeebled and darkened by sin. Unless God come to our help the weakness and darkness cannot be overcome; but equally hopeless is our case unless we receive His help. If we are so far gone in moral corruption that no function of our spiritual being can come into action, anything that God does will no mere avail us than light and water a plant that has withered. God must interfere, and we must open our nature to His influences. He moves first, but there must be a corresponding movement on our side. What is this but what Paul says in the text.

VI. We are so constituted by God that we cannot be spiritually healthy without Him. This always was, is, and will be the case. Mans moral weakness and corruption are rooted in the refusal to let God work in him, in the resolve to be self-sufficient. Man without God is like an organism without nourishment. What a starving man is such is the spiritual man without God. Now suppose you went to relieve such a starving man, and he were to say, I cannot accept your food till I am stronger, you would exclaim, How can you expect to be strong without food? Can you feed on yourself? No less absurd is our behaviour in regard to salvation. God is waiting to do His part. You, also, in secret, want to do yours, but you cannot without Him. VII. Those who have begun to work out their salvation find that their only salvation is in God. It is not merely that He must help you now and then. Continuous trust and fellowship are the only safety. (Principal Simon.)

The Christian work–First part

I. The duty–Work. The estate of a Christian is a working not idle estate. Christianity is not verbal profession nor speculative (Joh 13:17).

1. Works of preparation are those that prepare men to believe, as hearing, reading, meditating.

2. From these a Christian ought to proceed to–

(1) Works of piety, faith, hope, prayer, and–

(2) works of charity.

3. The use of all this is to give us a right conceit of religion. Many are good talkers, and yet never come one step towards salvation.

II. The right manner of performing the duty.

1. Obediently. As ye have obeyed. Whatever we do it must be in obedience to God. Then

(1) We must know what Gods will is (Rom 12:2; Eph 5:10).

(2) This must be to all Gods laws. Partial obedience is no obedience (Psa 119:10).

2. Sincerely. Whether I am present or not. God sees you. The Pharisees obeyed to be seen of men (Mat 6:2; Mat 6:6). Joash was a good king as long as Jehoida lived; but a good Christian is ever good, in all places, occasions, companies.

3. Laboriously. Work out. No perfunctory thing can please God.

4. Constantly–not like morning dew, or Lots wife who turned back (Luk 1:75; Joh 17:4; 2Ti 4:7-8). To this end–

(1) We must come with a resolution not to be scared from the performance of duties, and therefore to be furnished with patience (Heb 10:36; Gal 6:9).

(2) We must consider the promises (Rev 3:21; Mat 10:22).

5. It must tend to salvation. We must go on in a constant course of goodness that we may come to the end of our faith. For salvation is begun here, and the state of grace here is called salvation, even as well as the state hereafter. All conclusions are to be reduced to their principles, and so all is to be reduced to salvation as the mare principle. Do we sanctify all things by prayer (Col 3:24).

III. The motives to this duty.

1. The example of Christ. Wherefore. Christ did all in obedience to God, etc.

2. The apostles love. Christians should take good courses, that they may comfort those that are good.

3. The possibility of it. You have gone so far; keep on.

4. The end. Salvation. Considering we are not yet perfect, we are encouraged to go on to perfection (Tit 2:11; Heb 11:26).

IV. The spirit in which it is to be done.

1. Fear is an affection planted by God in our natures, whereby we, foreseeing dangers which may hinder our being or well being, are afraid of them. This is a spiritual fear.

(1) A fear of reverence, which is a fear mixed with love, wherein we stand in awe of Gods greatness but love Him for His goodness.

(2) A fear of watchfulness.

(3) Of jealousy, lest we should offend God.

2. God loves not the careless Christian.

3. All things must be done in this fear, or we shall come short of our salvation.

Second part

I. The Christian hath a will and a power to do good.

II. This power we have not from ourselves but from God. Some things are done for us which were neither wrought by us nor in us, e.g., Christs death. Some things are wrought in us not by us, as our first work of conversion. Other things are wrought in us, and by us, such as all good works after conversion. The will is wrought in us by God as we be His temples, and the deed is wrought by us as instruments of Gods inward working.

III. This work of God in us is a powerful work. He gives to us to will that which He wills.

IV. This work is inward, not without. He uses exhortations, etc., but He puts power to these to prevail.

V. The perfection of this work (Heb 12:2; Php 1:6). (R. Sibbes, D. D.)

Practical religion

I. The practical element in religion.

II. The emotional element–With fear and trembling.

1. This is not slavish, but reverential fear.

2. We should have fear and trembling.

(1) Because of our accountability. Soon we may hear it said, Give an account of thy stewardship.

(2) Because of the danger of losing souls.

(3) Because of our fallibility, we may teach error, and thus be blind guides.

III. The supernatural element–It is God that worketh, etc. (A. J. Furman.)

The two-fold force in salvation

This sentence falls from Paul as easy and natural as his breath. It is a casual remark, true, but not combating any specific error; a simple exhortation to earnestness, with the assurance of Divine cooperation. But what Paul said in this casual way has been caught up by opposing schools, turned to a use he never dreamed of, crowded with a meaning he did not intend, made the rallying cry of theological champions, and a very body of divinity. Arminian and Calvinist have seized it, cut it in two, emphasized each his own word in it according to his philosophy, and thus equipped fought each other for two hundred years over a doctrine of faith and works. The text teaches–

I. That salvation is an achievement. What is here meant by salvation.

1. Negatively.

(1) Not anything done by Christ in the way of expiation.

(2) Not getting to heaven. A man does not enter heaven to find salvation, but because he has it.

(3) Not an immediate work wrought in some hour of deep feeling. What is then done is an important but small part of salvation.

2. Positively. It is a moral process in which time and effort are chief factors.

(1) If a man has any sinful habits, he must overcome them; or lacks and weaknesses, he must supply the deficiency.

(2) And then there is the great reality of character–a needed group of qualities that only comes about by elaboration.

II. This achievement is the result of sharp and definite strife.

1. Every man is bound by every consideration to undertake this work. He is here to do this very thing.

2. When he comes upon the stage he finds evil, and his work is to east it out and bring in good. No evil goes out of itself. No nation and no man ever grew into virtue or dropped evil as a tree drops dead leaves.

3. Look at the world and its history–tell me if a single gain has been made that did not turn on the overthrow of some positive evil with pain and effort.

4. Let every man ask himself, Am I saving myself? I am ignorant, etc. I find in myself hereditary evil. I have contracted evil habits. I am passing on from day to day without communion with God, doing nothing for humanity. Am I striving to escape from that broad road to destruction?

III. The two-fold process. Work it out, for God works it in.

1. No other influence can touch a man like Gods. When I give you my hand it is in part my strength that upholds you. When you cheer me I am leaning on your inspiration. But when God works in a man to will and to work, the union of wills is so close, that separate threads of influence cannot be detected. It often hurts a man to be helped by others; it never hurts him to be helped by God.

2. The importance of this two-fold process.

(1) Suppose God were left out and man saved himself, overcame his weakness and faults, and so trained his faculties as to become a wise and good man. What sort of a man would you have? assuredly a conceited one who will at last become a selfish one. A man cannot isolate himself in sharp individuality from God and live.

(2) Suppose that God saved a man without any effort of his own: that He shut up the path of evil, and by some Divine alchemy whitened the passive soul, the result would be worse than in the previous case.

3. Now suppose again the reunion of God and man in the work of salvation. When a man recognizes that God is at the bottom of all his work, he is led straight up to the exercise of every element of His character. Then he becomes reverent, and reverence is one half of character. Along with this comes humility–the soil of all the virtues. And as the man comes more and more to feel that God is in him he is swept into the current of Gods own thought and feelings, and so he loves as God loves; and all the patience, tenderness, truth, and majesty of God work in him, subduing him into their quality. (T. T. Manger.)

God works

I. Secretly–in you.

II. Mediately–by His Word.

III. Mightily–by His Spirit.

IV. Graciously–Of His good pleasure.

V. Effectually–to will and to do. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Salvation a work

The word , to apply oneself to, properly signifies to do, to work, to labour, and is taken in two ways in the Scripture; sometimes to express to polish, form, and fashion a rough and raw thing, as when a carpenter cuts and polishes wood, and a mason stones, which they desire to employ in their work; and in this sense we may say that God makes us when He creates us in His Son, stripping us of this vile and miserable form of sinners and slaves of Satan, in which we are born, and giving us another, holy and glorious, by which we become His children, precious and lively stones, and fit to enter into the building of His temple, from vile and dead stones, which we were by nature. The other, more common, signification of this word is, to accomplish, perfect, and finish a thing already commenced, to execute it and guide it to its end; as when the apostle says, in Rom 7:18, that to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not; and when he says besides, in Rom 4:1-25, it worketh wrath, because it completes in us the feeling of the wrath of God against sin, which without is weak and languid, the light of nature alone without the law only exciting and beginning it in us. (J. Daille)

Salvation worked in and out

A clock presents a beautiful emblem of Christianity. When in good order it is always going, and one wheel propels another and even so must true Christianity be in continual exercise, and every act of godliness make way for the next. As a clock, however, needs to be constantly inspected, and frequently set and cleaned, so God, in His faithfulness and long suffering, has continual work to do, amending, purifying, and regulating our Christianity. (T. H. Leary, D. C. L.)

The working out of salvation gradual

A mans salvation is to be wrought out as an artist works out a picture. It is a good thing for a man to make a charcoal sketch; but it will not do to stop at that. It is a good thing that refers to something better that is coming on. He may put in the dead colours, and so make an advance, but it is not an advance which fits the picture to be put up in a gallery for admiration. He may add particular features, and thus make a further advance; but suppose a man were painted perfectly up to his nose, and all the rest were left blank, what sort of a picture would he make? Suppose one of a mans eyes were accurately painted, and the other were all blurred, what would be the effect? Things are good according as they conform to an ideal in the line of progress or development. So whatever tends to educate a mans conscience, to unfold his reason, to enlarge his moral sensibilities, to fill him with the graces of the Spirit, is beneficial; a benefit in that direction may be called works–not condemned works, but works that are efficacious. (H. W. Beecher.)

The publicity of a worked-out salvation.

You are to work it out. It must be presented to the eye; it is not to be like the works of a watch that are elaborately finished and then concealed in a case. The words imply that there is something in the Christians heart has to be brought out, and that only work can develope it. A mechanic takes a bar of iron. He knows there is brightness in its nature, so he places it in his lathe, and by means of cutters, files, and other instruments the black or rusty bar is made so bright that it dazzles the eye with its shining surface. And there is that in the heart of every Christian which worked out would delight all that knew him. Let your light so shine, etc. (D. R. Jenkins.)

Mans work an evidence of his salvation

William Wickham being appointed by King Edward to build a stately church, wrote in the windows, This work made William Wickham. When charged by the king for assuming the honour of that work to himself as the author, whereas he was only the overseer, he answered that he meant not that he made the work, but that the work made him, having before been very poor, and then in great credit. Lord, when we read in thy Word that we must work out our own salvation, thy meaning is not that our salvation should be the effect of our work, but our work the evidence of our salvation. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The difficulty of working out our salvation

Like the man in the old heathen fable, condemned to roll a ball up a steep hill, no sooner do we gain a step, than sin tries by its own weight to roll down again and drag us with it. Like our countrymen at the heights of the Alma, the repentant Christian has to force his way upwards to the skies in the face of enemies already entrenched in strong position in his heart, and like them he can only ensure success by the exercise of a vigorous will, assisted in the spiritual warfare by Him who is mighty to save. (G. Huntington, M. A.)

Work out your own salvation

Cast a sponge into water, and, the fluid filling its empty cells, it swells out before our eyes; increases more and more. There is no effort here, and could be none; for though once a living animal, the sponge is now dead and dry. But it is not as sponges fill with water, nor, to use a Scripture figure often employed, and sometimes misapplied, as Gideons fleece was filled with daws, that Gods people are replenished with His grace. More is needed than simply to bring ourselves in contact with ordinances; to read the Bible; to repair on Sabbath to the Church; to sit down in communion seasons at the Lords table. The babe, for example, is laid in a mothers arms, and in contact with her breast; but is laid there only to die, unless, with slumbering instincts awakened, it fastened and suck by its own efforts the nourishment provided for it, independent of itself; and there, drawing life from a mothers bosom, it lies in her loving arms, the symbol of him who hangs by faith in Christ, and, fed on the sincere milk of the word, is nourished up into the likeness and image of God. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

The motive for this work

Just as the same electricity that flashes like an avenging sword from the cloud, and that lightens from one side of heaven to the other, also trembles in the dew drop, and flies along the wire, carrying news from one continent to another: so the Divine Power that binds all holy beings in chains of loyalty and love to the throne of the eternal, and that breaks the bond of our captivity, and raises us to a state of spiritual enlargement and fellowship, also enables us to discharge the smallest duties and the common daily responsibilities of the Christian life. Christ is all, and in all, in every duty, in every service. (James Owen.)

Salvation to be worked out with fear and trembling

The face of the helmsman in coming down the rapids of the St. Lawrence in the great vessel is a sight to see. He takes in, as it were, all the conditions of the case, in one inevitable glance–the bank; the bend; the shallowing or deepening bed; the amount of way on the vessel; the hurry of the waters; the calm spread of the deep river lying like a peaceful haven yonder in the distance! There he stands–fearful, yet firm–distrustful, yet confident–until the danger is past. With a similar feeling–not slavishly afraid–but intent, earnest, bending all the powers in concentrated effort towards the ultimate object–so work out your salvation. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

We must fear and tremble because of the preciousness of salvation, and because of the cooperation of omnipotence

Did you ever have committed to your care something exceedingly rare and precious; something of singular beauty or untold value? Did you ever come into the possession of something long and ardently desired, which you had thought to be too good, too sweet, too lovable ever to be really yours, your very own? Was not there an awe, almost a terror in the sense of that possession? Did you not say to yourself, Who am I that I should have this? What if I should let it drop? What if I should lose it? Did not the very joy make you afraid and your happiness make you tremble? There is another cause of fear and trembling! You are working with Omnipotence, it is an awful thing working with God! What a responsibility! What a position for a man, a poor sinner, to be in! What if my shortcomings and sins should deprive me at last of that friendship, and turn His very kindness into a curse! The thought may well make me fear and tremble! And how tremendous is the issue at stake! To have been once saved; to have stood on that high and blessed position; to have tasted that peace, and then to lose it all! Oh! what bitter self-reproach forever! What a wrong done to my own dear kind Saviour! What an aggravation to my time of misery! (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

God working in us

Sunlight is universal; it shines everywhere; but when you bring it to bear upon your plants in greenhouses you specialize it. The black Hamburg grape you cannot raise out of doors, although there is sunlight there. You build glass houses; you so arrange them that the suns rays fall upon the vines; you secure the conditions required for their growth, and the consequence is Chat you have fruit. You specialize the sunlight by the skill of the gardener. There are certain latitudes in which given results cannot be obtained by sunlight without specializing it. The Divine influence is diffused upon the good and the bad alike, just as sunlight is; but when men understand it and accept it by the force of their own will, putting themselves in the line of Gods nature, it becomes special to them, and works in them both to will and to do of Gods good pleasure. The Divine influence is to the human will what the atmosphere is to the eye and to the ear, and what that which is taken into the mouth is to the tongue. If it were not for the atmosphere and its vibrations the eye would perish; it would have nothing to do; for although it is an organ for seeing, it cannot see in and of itself. The ear is an organ for hearing, but the ear cannot hear of itself. It must have outside pulsations beating upon it. The tongue cannot taste unless it has something of which to taste. When a seed is planted in good soil it is given over to the sun; and when the sun undertakes to care for a plant it always keeps its eye on the blossom and the fruit which it is to unfold. It is not enough that it develops stem, branches, and flowers. The tendency of the sun is to bring everything up to its ultimate consummation. So the tendency of the Divine Spirit is to draw men up steadily through the whole range of their faculties till they blossom. (H. W. Beecher.)

Divine energy an incentive to human

Suppose that you were involved in temporal difficulties, that a benevolent friend came forward to pay your debts, and place you in a better position than you had ever occupied, would you argue, Well, I need not care how wasteful I become, or how heavy the demands which he may meet; he has enough and to spare. As his heart overflows with benevolence, I will leave him to settle all matters without my aid, and when everything has been done, I may be prevailed on to take advantage of his goodness; but, in the meantime, I will be as reckless as I may? The question instantly occurs, How it is either possible or right, consistent with benevolence, to assist such a character? Suppose that your house were on fire, and a well-appointed train of firemen, with their engines, were at hand, to assist in quenching the flames, would you retreat from a scene where perhaps your most important worldly interests were at stake, and where lives dearer to you than your own were in danger, and betake yourself to dissipation or amusement, saying there were persons paid for the work, and whose office and duty it was to attend to it, and that you would devolve all the trouble on them? You could not be so unnatural; you would do everything to rouse the sleeping inmates, to secure your most important papers; and whatever energy, daring, and skill and diligence could accomplish, you would do. Or suppose, again, that you were placed in a garrison which was beleaguered by fierce and formidable foes, that the attacks upon the fortifications were pushed most vigorously on all sides, and it required all your skill and labour night and day to defend yourselves; but in the meantime a numerous and well-appointed army had been sent by your sovereign to your relief, well able to raise the siege and effect your liberation; when you heard the news, would you remit your ardour and watchfulness? When you heard the sound of the trumpets, and the roar of the artillery as they marched to the conflict, and when you knew that the moment of your rescue was at hand, is there a man who would fold his arms, and refuse to mount the ramparts, to sally out and make a diversion on his own side of the camp? who would not dare and do everything to make the defeat of the enemy as complete as possible? If the men refused, the very women would cry shame upon them, take up the arms which the dastards had thrown away, and help to achieve the victory. But, my friends, you have auxiliaries far mightier and stronger than the best disciplined and most enthusiastic troops that ever general brought into the field of battle. You have the army of the Lord of hosts, and at its head the Captain of your salvation; you have all the resources of Omnipotence collected and concentrated for your deliverance. If ever impulse or energy was communicated to the human mind, it must be by such considerations as these; and with all these mercies, boundless and glorious, around you and before, is it not high time to shake off your slumber, to commence your work, and to ask with eagerness, What shall we do to be saved? What shall we do that we may do the works of God? (R. Redpath, M. A.)

Gods grace and mans free agency

You might as well expect the steam which gives its mighty energy to the engine to perform all the delicate workmanship of some textile manufacture without the directing brain and controlling hand, as to hope for grace to work apart from the cooperation of the human will; and again, you might as soon expect these mechanical results without the motive power, as that man should save himself without Gods grace. The body is supplied with an organization admirably adapted to our wants, but it is the mind which directs every action, and it is the principle of life which renders action possible. Deprive it of intelligence, and what one action would be rightly performed? And yet we feel that there is a mutual concurrence of mind and body when we do perform anything. (G. Huntington, M. A.)

Grace is Gods work

Before any daisy or violet, before any blossom is seen in the field, the sun lies with its bosom to the ground, crying to the flower, and saying, Why tarriest thou so long? and day after day the sun comes, and pours its maternal warmth upon the earth, and coaxes the plant to grow and bloom. And when days and weeks have passed the root obeys the call and sends out its germ, from which comes the flower. Had it not been for the suns warmth and light, the flower could never have come to itself. So the Eternal Spirit of God rests on the human soul, warming it, quickening it, calling it, and saying, O, my sent where art thou? And at last it is this Divine sympathy and brooding influence that brings men to God, and leads them to say, Am I not sinful? and to yearn for something higher and purer and holier. It was Gods work. He long ago was working in you, to will and to do of His own good pleasure. (H. W. Beecher.)

God is a silent worker

The grandest operations both in nature and in grace are the most silent and imperceptible. The shallow brook babbles in its passage, and is heard by every one; but the coming on of the seasons is silent and unseen. The storm rages and alarms; but its fury is soon exhausted, and its effects are partial and soon remedied; but the dew, though gentle and unheard, is immense in quantity, and the very life of large portions of the earth. And these are pictures of the operations of grace, in the Church and in the soul. (R. Cecil.)

Gods agency effective when mans is impotent

See Israel at the Red Sea. By the wilderness, and the mountains, and the sea, the people are shut in; and behind them is Pharaoh in close pursuit, with his great and well-equipped army. If we look simply at mans valour or wisdom, resistance and escape are equally and utterly hopeless. The cry of Israel to Moses is, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? But Moses said to them, Fear ye not: stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show you today. The Lord shaft fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. At this point, you observe, they are called to be simple spectators of the salvation of the Lord looking on with adoring wonder at the mighty work which only the Divine hand could accomplish–the opening of a pathway for them through the midst of the great waters. But afterwards, for the Stand still and see, comes a command to display energetic activity. The Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea. So with you and me, dear brethren. The expiation of guilt, the working out of our salvation meritoriously, could be achieved only by the God-man; and our part is to stand still, and behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. But now, when, by the Lords propitiatory sufferings and death, a way, broad and clear, has been opened for us through the midst of the waters of avenging judgment, His command, loud and explicit, to every one of us is that, by persistent, growing faith and holiness, we go forward. (R. Johnstone, LL. B.)

Man to work in his salvation

Though salvation remains wholly of grace, it may be described as worked out by ourselves. God does not reduce man into a machine; He rather puts a machine at mans disposal, and having imparted the strength to turn the wheel, requires of man that he labour, in order to the evolving the web from the loom. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Man permeable by God

Just as it is the distinction of a crystal, that it is transparent, able to let the light into and through its close flinty body, and be irradiated by it in the whole mass of its substance, without being at all more or less a crystal, so it is the grand distinction of humanity, that it is made permeable by the Divine nature, prepared in that manner to receive and entemple the Infinite Spirit, to be energized by Him, and filled with His glory in every faculty, feeling, and power. (H. Bushnell, D. D.)

Salvation possible, but not easy

Christ has made salvation possible for us, but He has not made it easy; He has brought it near to each of us, but we have still to be working it out. He has cast, as it were, the rope to shipwrecked souls, vainly buffeting with the breakers, and blinded with the spray. We could never have made our way without this help, bruised and battered, benumbed as we were. We could never have saved ourselves without His help, but now all may be well, through Him, only there still needs effort on our part as well as on His, if only to hold fast by the cord of life and watch against the perils that still lie in our way. That effort is needed as really as is His help. The door of life is still open, but it is still a strait gate, and we must strive to enter in. Eternal life may be laid hold of, but we must fight the good fight in order to lay hold on it. (W. C. Smith, D. D.)

Working out salvation

Much more in my absence prove to yourselves, prove to all who care to look at you, that you do not depend on me, that you do not hang upon man or angel; but that you hang on God, who brought the Gospel to you, although He brought it on my lips. It was He who brought it, and He has not gone; He worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Oh, ye Philippians, he says, you are at no loss, you are at no disadvantage; true I am not with you, though I fain would be; but God is with you, and He is now working in you. I sometimes think that this verse receives its fullest emphasis by taking it from Pauls mouth and putting it into Christs. We hear it as coming not from Paul the servant, but from Christ the great Master within the veil as He looks down on us. Oh, how it fits us! We are so apt to say–if He were here, then how our sanctification and our Christian work would get on. If He were here with us! And Christ says to us, to us His Philippians here in London, speaking down from the eternal glory, Wherefore, My beloved, 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 I am working in you both to will and to do of My good pleasure. Christians, we are walking not by sight, but by a spiritual vision of Him who has gone before us, and is drawing us surely and certainly into His own presence. Not as in My presence only, but now much more in My absence, let there be intensity, let there be individualism; let every man feel that this is his own affair; and while you receive all ministries and all gifts of that kind helpfully and thankfully, rise superior to them all; reach out and forth to Me Myself, your Saviour, your Sanctifier, your All in all. Your own salvation; what does that mean? That is a rare word in the Bible; the Bible is not fond of calling anything our own. I must realize that I have in my heart the salvation I am to work out. Let me enhance this thought in your mind, the thought that salvation is made over to us as our own, in a Book which from beginning to end strips us of all real ownership. This is mine, says a man here, or a man not here, this is my pile, I scraped it together; I rose early, I sat up late, and as he says it he jerks his money bags or turns over his bank book to the balance. And as we have seen in Glasgow some years ago, in the case of the City of Glasgow Bank, the bank breaks and he is a beggar–he is a beggar! This that he was calling his, even while he clutched it, it left him; for riches take unto themselves wings, and prove to us that that possessive word was foolish; it is disproved by bitter fact. If your wealth was really yours, why did you let it go? My property, says a man. See that? See that fine row of buildings? that is mine. These title deeds mine, securely mine, and the next morning he is poking among the black ashes with his stick; his property has gone up in a chariot of fire, and come down in a shower of soot! Oh, how sarcastically the chapter of accidents disputes with us this expression: My own. How did that happen, if it was really yours? My child, says a mother, my own, my firstborn, the latest thing in babies, did you ever see his like? My own, and she draws him to her bosom. I can imagine some mother saying, Now, preacher, you can surely allow the expression here–My own baby; No, I dare not; I must be true to Gods Word, and true to the facts of life. There is a Power that dares to come in between the babe and the bosom; and that is close work, is it not? Your own salvation. That thing, if I may so say, for which you had neither right nor claim nor title, handed over to you, and as it is handed over, this word along with it–Now that is yours. The gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord; The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life; He that believeth hath–open your arms, man!–everlasting life. Now, thou black, grim, doubting devil that dost forever whisper thy words in my ear, I will fight thee here. My own salvation–mine because it is a gift. Salvation is ours because it is a gift, and from One who will never withdraw it. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. Now let us get on to the command, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That is what I wanted to get at. You have to be active. Gods sovereignty and power evoke human responsibility and activity. You have it, therefore work it out. To use a common illustration: there is a load of bricks here, a load of timber and some slates. That is not a house. No; but there is the making of one, and you can make the house out of it. Now the Lord lays all down at our door; He puts it into our hearts; He comes with the plan and the specification and the material, and says, Now work them out. The Greek has at its root the idea of energy. Oh! what a pulsing word–energize your own salvation. Now there are just a number of people needing the word energize. The doctrines are lying on your souls like great unwrought lumps of dough that you have not worked out–I speak to housewives–and no man can feed on dough; it will kill him! Many of you are dyspeptics, feeding on Gospel doctrine that you have not kneaded and fired–and I dont know what–but you understand what I mean! Work out your own salvation. Get up now, put your feet below you, fling off your coat, turn up your sleeves, and go at this business like the work of a lifetime, and never stop it, this work of saving yourself, if I may be as contradictory as the Bible is. When the Lord comes to me in all the light of His saving grace, He shows me what to do. He brings all with Him that is needed; but I am not to be lazy; I am not to lie back and do nothing. Now you know what to do. You have a bad temper–work out your salvation. You are getting to be a fair pest in the house because of this temper. You are not to go and cuddle up this temper and say, I am a child of God, though I have a little infirmity. Be saved from your infirmity, oh sweet child of God! Another says, I do believe that I am saved, but I am inconsistent. Well, save yourself from this inconsistency–work out your own salvation. What would you think of the man who went about with his hands in his pockets whistling and joking, because he had a load of bricks and stones and timber lying all around there; and wanting shelter on a wintry day, he creeps under the bricks and says, This is my house: here will I dwell. Are not some of us doing so? Why, if you could see your spiritual house as the Lord sees it, you would get in an awful fright. Oh man, work out your own salvation! Now, blessed be God, His great gift will work out. There is a grand furthiness–if you dont know that word, so much the worse for you–in the grace which comes from Jesus Christ, which will expand and extend and yield as long as you make demands upon it. There are many gifts we get that have none of this furthiness in them. You have them in your house. The first day that gift came to you–some ornament, it is on the mantelpiece–when it came first it told on you, it told of your friends kindness, and for a little time there was much in it. But as time went on it did not expand, its gold became dim, and there came some day, some dull, dark day, that you were doleful and needed help, and you stood and looked at that gift, and it utterly failed to do you good. It came to an end. The next question is, How? Here is the modus operandi–With fear and trembling. With fear and trembling–what does it mean? I does not mean that we are to go through life with our knees forever smiting each other because in such an hour as we think not we will drop into the pit again. Many take that meaning out of it, and that paralyzes work. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. The cup of salvation is so full, it is so brimming, it is so sweet, that it would be too sweet to be wholesome; it would go to the head and make us reel and stagger, and become unwatchful and hilarious, and defeat its own purpose. But, wherever Christ gives the cup of salvation, He puts in an infusion of these tonic bitters, fear and trembling, so that Grace may not cloy and clog. These are the bitter herbs with which we eat our Passover. The more freely you take of Christ, the more careful you become in life and conduct. It is like the ballast to the ship. You have seen those yachts of ours, designed by Watson and built by Fyfe–things of beauty, and almost instinct with life. There it is; the sea is sparkling in the sun; there is a splendid, crisp breeze blowing. Watch that squall of wind as it strikes the yacht with its great mass and breadth of canvas that would do for the mainsail of a man-of-war. See what happens! You would expect the very breadth of the sheet is going to spoil all. That squall will strike the sail and the vessel will careen and go the bottom. Not at all: that squall strikes her, and most gracefully she yields to it and heels over on to her very beam end; but look at the cut-water. See how she is tearing through! For deep down there is the keel, and a great weight upon it; in these modern days tons of lead are run along the keel; or, as in America, there is a great centre board sent away down into the water, which gives tremendous leverage; and no matter how the yacht heels over, it holds her steady and prevents disaster. So with religion: spread your sails to the gales of Gospel grace; take Christ in all the fulness of the Fathers gift as He is, and the Gospel doctrines will not sink you; you will not grow giddy and light headed, but this fear and trembling will give you rest, weight, grip, ballast, solidity, and you will urge your course forward across these seas of time and sin with splendid speed. It is just like what you have when a man has been saved who was drowning, and all his kicking and struggling were only hastening it. And when this kicking and struggling were over, some one has reached from above and drawn him out, and there he stands on the solid land, saved. Ah! but it was a narrow shave. Rejoicing, but it is not a hilarious rejoicing, is it? He is not cracking his thumbs and jigging, but he is rejoicing with trembling. He is altogether saved, and he was so nearly altogether lost. With fear and trembling. Take another illustration. An eminent French surgeon used to say to his students when they were engaged in difficult and delicate operations, in which coolness and firmness were needed, Gentlemen, dont be in a hurry, for theres no time to lose. Time to make that incision once and well in the vital place, not time to dash at it with over confidence. Before you have recovered yourself a precious life will have been spilled. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling–no swagger, no bounce, no bravado, no cocksureness, yet every confidence that He who hath begun this good work will carry it on to the perfect day. All confidence in Thee, my God, and none in myself; that is the way in which I do the best work towards God, or my brother man. Only one life, no second chance for evermore; and into this one life, into this one day, we are to crowd, to pack the utmost of holy living in every direction that we possibly can, with fear and trembling. For it is God that worketh in you; but I just wish to recite it before I let you go. You work out, as one has said; for God works in. There is the mainspring, there is the unfailing Source, of all the believers energy for sanctification, and for personal effort in the Church of Christ to promote His cause. It is God who worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Then let me say at once, we can be holy, we shall be holy, for it is God who worketh in us. Poor drunkard, thou canst give up drink; lustful man, thou canst be clean; for it is God, it is God that worketh in you. Do not be a football of the world, of the flesh, and the devil, for it is God that worketh in you. Ah! it is true, it is all true; but what can I do? Now we come back to the Power: It is God; and what can He not do if you will only let Him? God is the Source. See how He puts it. It is God that worketh in you. How? Listen: both to will and to do. The first thing is to get the will right, and then the deed, dont you see, will follow. Is it not your complaint and mine, that the will is wrong, the will is twisted, the will has been led captive, by the devil? Well, there is an engine–that splendid creation of the engineering faculty of the nineteenth century! But did you ever see an engine which was allowed to drive itself? There is a splendid horse, but did you ever see a blood horse that was allowed to drive itself? Your engine needs a driver, and your horse needs a rider; and your converted man has a God in him, managing him in every direction. There is the engineer; he steps on the foot plate: with one hand he holds the reversing rod, that sends the engine backwards or forwards; with the other hand, he holds the throttle valve, the opening of which lets the steam into the cylinders. So with God: He holds the will and the doing. Thou art managed, splendidly managed. God will drive thee. God will see to thy supplies, and wilt keep up the Divine pressure. Thou shalt be filled unto all the fulness of God. (J. McNeill.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Php 2:12-18

Wherefore my beloved, as ye have always obeyed

I.

The work.

1. Work out your own salvation.

2. In conformity with apostolic teaching.

3. Under all circumstances.

II. The means.

1. Divine power.

2. Personally and solicitously applied.

3. In the spirit of contentment and peace.

III. The end.

1. That ye may be blameless, sons of God.

2. Shedding light on a dark world.

3. Multiplying the joy of the Church both here and hereafter. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The obedience of the Christian life

I. The obedience of the Christian life is the working out of salvation.

1. In relation to God. The absolute power of Gods will, which is the law to every creature and the accepted law to the Christian, is regarded as expressing itself within the heart of man.

(1) Worketh in you is used elsewhere of that internal energy of God which is the spring of all other energy (1Co 12:6; Eph 1:11). But here it is the spiritual volition alone that is meant, that special influence of God upon the will and act of man in the things which pertain to the Divine good pleasure.

(2) His good pleasure imparts to worketh in us a character of love and perfect freedom that must never be lost sight of in our consideration of Gods working on the human heart. His influences are not mechanical and unbending, working out a pre-determined law of election, but pre-spontaneous and springing from the heart. God can study and adapt Himself to His creatures freedom. In the profound mystery of our cooperation with Divine grace it is our own will and act while it is Gods. The obedience of the Christian to the law within Him is perfect freedom.

2. In regard to the service it performs.

(1) The object of this service is personal salvation. We are to imitate the obedience of Christ in the utmost possible care of our own souls, as if our salvation were the very service of our covenant with God. But lest this should be carried to a morbid excess the apostle adds the other lessons on self in this chapter and elsewhere.

(2) Does the apostle mean by the peculiar stress He lays on your own that whatever Gods inward working may mean, the accomplishment in result must be the working out on mans part of an actual salvation? Or does He refer to the Redeemers intervention, and indirectly bid them remember that His obedience has not rendered theirs superfluous? Or As ye obeyed in My presence when I could give you My aid, etc., so remember that neither My presence nor My absence was vital to your interests? We may mingle all these meanings. Every Christian must make His own souls salvation His personal care, and not so to rely upon Divine grace, atoning redemption, or human ministry as to neglect his own persevering sedulity.

3. In regard to its spirit. Fear and trembling is divested of the stern and depressing character it wears in the Old Testament. In the New it is always used in connection with obedience, and always to signify vehement eagerness to do well (2Co 7:1). There is here no idea of trembling apprehension of the future, nor anything but the humble alacrity that vibrates with eager desire to obey.

II. Salvation must be wrought out in the midst of an evil world. In fear and trembling before God, and without murmurings, etc., and before men. They are to yield obedience to three great laws.

1. The law of dignity.

(1) They are children of God;

(2) in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation;

(3) therefore they are to maintain their dignity.

2. The law of the preservation of purity. The force of the exhortation arises from the fact that as lights they are seen, and that in the midst of the perverse nation they are to let their influences be felt.

(1) As the children of God in their aspect towards the world are commanded to use their liberty of action so as to avoid sin in act, here they are commanded to abstain from receiving the principle of it again in their nature. This is the liberty of the children of God to keep themselves unspotted from the world.

(2) But the word harmless seems rather to mean become than be pure. There is a process of purification that implies the admixture of something of the worlds evil still remaining. Surely this is verified by the experience of every one of us. The provision, however, is ample for the entire cleansing of the soul.

3. The law of a pure exhibition of character for the worlds teaching and example. God has placed His people in the world to be to it what the luminaries are in nature. And of this the reason is: because ye hold in yourselves the Word which is the light of life. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)

Divine help

The method of grace is the method of nature likewise. There is a profusion of plastic elements and forces, but man must plough the soil, sow, reap, and prepare his food for the table; combine them, build the house, capital, palace, cathedral; fashion the ship, map the seas and stars, use the compass, and guide the rudder; discover the laws of matter, invent the engine, and girdle the earth with rail and wire. (A. H. Moment, D. D.)

Working out our own salvation

I. The spirit in which this great work is to be pursued.

1. What will come of any work we undertake largely depends on the spirit in which we undertake it. We may enter upon it half-heartedly, or as something merely secondary. But our salvation is to be the principal thing to us; and working it out is to be thorough.

2. Wise cautiousness. Fear and trembling. This is not nervous dread, nor timorous quaking, but a keen and ceaseless outlook considering foes and temptations; a self-distrust that sharpens vigilance; a recognition of danger and preparedness to meet it.

3. Cheerfulness–without murmurings. The work we do cheerfully brings its own blessing. Do not, then, do it in a grudging, complaining spirit; and this, not only in doing but in bearing.

4. Hopefulness without disputings, not with men but with God. Distrust of God will sap our sources of strength. Work out with unquestioning trust in Gods wisdom, goodness, and power.

5. Becomingness, in view of their relationship. They are the sons of God, they must live as Gods sons–holy, loving, etc. Their lineage should show itself in their spirit.

II. The incentives to this course of conduct.

1. Consistency. The work is begun and ought in consistency to be finished. Men plead consistency as an argument for a bad course, as Herod in the case of John the Baptist; much more should Christians for a good one.

2. Gods help. In working out our salvation we are not left to our own unaided powers. Because we have effectual help let us be thorough, etc., in this.

3. Responsibility–lights in the world. Be then as the lighthouse and the star.

4. Personal relations. They are the apostles spiritual children. (J. J. Goadby.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 12. As ye have always obeyed] Continue to act on the same principles and from the same motives; having the same disposition which was in Christ; labouring so as to promote his glory.

Work out your own salvation] Go on, walking by the same rule, and minding the same thing, till your salvation be completed: till, filled with love to God and man, ye walk unblamably in all his testimonies, having your fruit unto holiness, and your end everlasting life.

With fear and trembling] Considering the difficulty of the work, and the danger of miscarriage. If you do not watch, pray and continually depend on God, your enemies will surprise you, and your light and life will become extinct; and then consider what an awful account you must give to Him whose Spirit ye have grieved, and of whose glory ye have come short.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed: having confirmed the example of Christs admirable condescension and affection from the glorious issue of it, he doth here reassume his exhortation, with a friendly compellation, commending their former sincere endeavours to obey the gospel (so Phi 1:5, and Phi 2:15) in following Christ, Mat 11:28, and moving them to persevere in obedience and love to God and man.

Not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence; that it might be evident, whether the eye of their pastor were upon them or not, a prevailing love to Christ, and their own souls welfare, was prevalent with them; but especially, being he was now detained from them, and might be jealous of some defects in them, Jam 3:2; 1Jo 1:8, did engage them more than any thing to embrace his exhortation, which he enlargeth in other words.

Work out your own salvation: he moves them as saints, Phi 1:1, in whom God would perfect his work begun, Phi 2:6, having given them to believe and suffer, Phi 2:29, that they would seriously and earnestly busy themselves in those things, which on their parts are necessary to salvation, as Joh 6:27; Heb 6:9, and without which it cannot be had, as Phi 1:10; Mat 24:13; Col 3:10,12, &c.; 1Ti 1:18,19; 6:19; 2Ti 2:5; 4:7,8; 2Pe 3:17; yea, press on in the way to their own salvation, as he moved, 1Ti 4:16, not that they should not be solicitous about others, for that mutual care is implied, as elsewhere required, Heb 3:13; 10:24; but that every one should strenuously go on towards the mark with a special regard to himself, and the temptations he may meet with, knowing he must bear his own burden, Gal 6:1,5, and therefore should take heed lest he fall. The papists arguings hence that our actions are sufficient and meritorious causes of salvation, are altogether inconsequent. For the apostle doth not say our actions work out salvation, but:

Work out your own salvation, which is much different. It were absurd to say, because the Jews were enjoined to eat the passover with loins girt, that loins girt were eating of the passover. Indeed, what the papists urge is contrary to this doctrine of Paul, who doth elsewhere place blessedness in remission of sins, and shows eternal life is the gift of God, Rom 4:6,7; 6:23; and we are saved by grace, not of works, Rom 3:20,24,25; 4:16; Eph 2:8; Tit 3:5 and contrary to the main scope of the apostle, which is to beat down pride and conceit of deserving, and persuade to humility. He drives at this, that we should not be idle or lazy in the business of salvation, but work together with God, (yet as instruments, in whom there is no strength which is not derived from him), that we may evidence we do not receive his grace in vain, 2Co 6:1,2. But this co-operation doth not respect the acquiring or meriting of salvation, which is proper to Christ alone, and incommunicable to any others, Act 4:12, who cannot be said to be their own saviours: this co-operation, or working out, respects only the application, not the performing of the payment, which Christ hath abundantly perfected: but the embracing of the perfect payment, is not that which can be the cause and foundation of right for which it is deservedly conferred; but only the way and means by which we come to partake of salvation.

With fear and trembling; i.e. with a holy care to do all acceptably: he doth by these two words mean not any servile fear and slavish despondency, arising from doubting, Phi 4:4, but only a serious, filial fear, implying a deep humility and submissiveness of mind, with a reverential awe of the Divine Majesty, and a solicitude to avoid that evil which is offensive to him and separates from him. We find these words used to the like import, Psa 2:11; Dan 5:19; Dan 6:26; Rom 11:20 with 1Co 2:3; 2Co 7:5; Eph 6:5; connoting that, after the example of Christ, we should be humble, and though we distrust ourselves, yet we are to trust solely to God, (as an infant may be afraid, and yet cling fast to and depend upon, begging help of, the parent, going over a dangerous precipice), for the accomplishment of our salvation.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

12. WhereforeSeeing that wehave in Christ such a specimen of glory resulting from “obedience“(Php 2:8) and humiliation, seethat ye also be “obedient,” and so “yoursalvation” shall follow your obedience.

as ye have . . . obeyed“evenas ye have been obedient,” namely, to God, as Jesuswas “obedient” unto God (see on Php2:8).

not as, c.”not asif” it were a matter to be done “in my presence only,but now (as things are) much more (with more earnestness) in myabsence (because my help is withdrawn from you)” [ALFORD].

work outcarry out toits full perfection. “Salvation” is “worked in”(Phi 2:13 Eph 1:11)believers by the Spirit, who enables them through faith to bejustified once for all; but it needs, as a progressive work,to be “worked out” by obedience, through the help ofthe same Spirit, unto perfection (2Pe1:5-8). The sound Christian neither, like the formalist, rests inthe means, without looking to the end, and to the Holy Spirit whoalone can make the means effectual; nor, like the fanatic, hopes toattain the end without the means.

your ownThe emphasisis on this. Now that I am not present to further the work ofyour salvation, “work out your own salvation”yourselves the more carefully. Do not think this work cannot go onbecause I am absent; “for (Php2:13) it is God that worketh in you,” c. In this case adopta rule different from the former (Php2:4), but resting on the same principle of “lowliness ofmind” (Php 2:3), namely,”look each on his own things,” instead of”disputings” with others (Php2:14).

salvationwhich is in”Jesus” (Php 2:10),as His name (meaning God-Saviour) implies.

with fear and tremblingthevery feeling enjoined on “servants,” as to what ought toaccompany their “obedience” (Eph6:5). So here: See that, as “servants” to God, afterthe example of Christ, ye be so “with the fear and trembling”which becomes servants not slavish fear, but trembling anxiety notto fall short of the goal (1Co 9:26;1Co 9:27; Heb 4:1,”Let us fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into Hisrest, any should come short of it”), resulting from a senseof our human insufficiency, and from the consciousness that alldepends on the power of God, “who worketh both to will andto do” (Ro 11:20). “Paul,though joyous, writes seriously” [J. J. WOLF].

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Wherefore, my beloved,…. This is an inference from the instance and example of Christ; that since he, who was God over all, blessed for ever, made himself so low in human nature, in which he is now so highly exalted, having done the work and business he came about with such condescension, humility, and meekness; therefore it becomes those who profess to be his followers, to do all their affairs as men and Christians, with, and among one another, in all lowliness of mind. The apostle calls the saints here, “my beloved”, he having a strong affection for them, which he frequently expresses in this epistle; and he chooses to make use of such an endearing appellation, that it might be observed, that what he was about to say to them sprung from pure love to them, and a hearty desire for their welfare, and from no other end, and with no other view; and to encourage them to go on in a course of humble duty, he commends them for their former obedience,

as ye have always obeyed; not “me”, as the Arabic and Ethiopic versions supply; but either God, acting according to his revealed will, they had knowledge of; or Christ, by receiving him as prophet, priest, and King, by submitting to his righteousness, and the sceptre of his grace; or the Gospel, by embracing the truths of it, professing them, and abiding in them, and by subjecting to the ordinances of it, and doing all things whatsoever Christ has commanded: and this they did “always”; they were always abounding in the works of the Lord, doing his will; they abode by Christ, and continued steadfastly in his doctrines, and kept the ordinances as they were delivered to them, and walked in all the commandments of the Lord blameless.

Not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence; which clause may either be referred to the foregoing, which expresses their obedience; and so signifies that that was carefully and cheerfully performed, not only while the apostle was with them, but now when he was absent from them, and much more when absent than present:, which shows, that they were not eye servants, and menpleasers, but what they did they did sincerely and heartily, as to the Lord: or to the following exhortation, that they would attend to it; not only as they had done when he was among them, of which he was witness, but that they would much more do so now he was absent from them, namely,

work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; which is to be understood not in such a sense as though men could obtain and procure for themselves spiritual and eternal salvation by their own works and doings; for such a sense is contrary to the Scriptures, which deny any part of salvation, as election, justification, and calling, and the whole of it to be of works, but ascribe it to the free grace of God; and is also repugnant to the perfections of God, as his wisdom, grace, and righteousness; for where are the wisdom and love of God, in forming a scheme of salvation, and sending his Son to effect it, and after all it is left to men to work it out for themselves? and where is the justice of God in admitting of an imperfect righteousness in the room of a perfect one, which must be the case, if salvation is obtained by men’s works? for these are imperfect, even the best of them; and is another reason against this sense of the passage; and were they perfect, they could not be meritorious of salvation, for the requisites of merits are wanting in them. Moreover, was salvation to be obtained by the works of men, these consequences would follow; the death of Christ would be in vain, boasting would be encouraged in men, they would have whereof to glory, and their obligations to obedience taken from the love of God, and redemption by Christ, would be weakened and destroyed: add to all this, that the Scriptures assure us, that salvation is alone by Christ; and that it is already finished by him, and not to be wrought out now by him, or any other; and that such is the weakness and impotence of men, even of believers, to whom this exhortation is directed, that it is impossible for them ever to affect it; therefore, whatever sense these words have, we may be sure that this can never possibly be the sense of them. The words may be rendered, “work about your salvation”; employ yourselves in things which accompany salvation, and to be performed by all those that expect it, though not to be expected for the performance of them; such as hearing of the word, submission to Gospel ordinances, and a discharge of every branch of moral, spiritual, and evangelical obedience for which the apostle before commends them, and now exhorts them to continue in; to go on in a course of cheerful obedience to the close of their days, believing in Christ, obeying his Gospel, attending constantly to his word and ordinances, and discharging every duty in faith and fear, until at last they should receive the end of their faith, the salvation of their souls: agreeably the Syriac version renders the words, , “do the work”, or “business of your lives”; the work you are to do in your generation, which God has prescribed and directed you to, which the grace of God teaches, and the love of Christ constrains to. Do all that “with fear and trembling”; not with a slavish fear of hell and damnation, or lest they should fall away, or finally miscarry of heaven and happiness; since this would be a distrust of the power and faithfulness of God, and so criminal in them; nor is it reasonable to suppose, that the apostle would exhort to such a fear, when he himself was so confidently assured, that the good work begun in them would be performed; and besides, the exhortation would be very oddly formed, if this was the sense, “work out your salvation with fear” of damnation: but this fear and trembling spoken of, is such as is consistent with the highest acts of faith, trust, confidence, and joy, and is opposed to pride and vain glory; see Ps 2:11; and intends modesty and humility, which is what the apostle is pressing for throughout the whole context; and here urges to a cheerful and constant obedience to Christ, with all humility of soul, without dependence on it, or vain glorying in it, but ascribing it wholly to the grace of God, for the following reason.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Practical Religion.

A. D. 62.

      12 Wherefore, my beloved, 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.   13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

      I. He exhorts them to diligence and seriousness in the Christian course: Work out your own salvation. It is the salvation of our souls (1 Pet. i. 9), and our eternal salvation (Heb. v. 9), and contains deliverance from all the evils sin had brought upon us and exposed us to, and the possession of all good and whatsoever is necessary to our complete and final happiness. Observe, It concerns us above all things to secure the welfare of our souls: whatever becomes of other things, let us take care of our best interests. It is our own salvation, the salvation of our own souls. It is not for us to judge other people; we have enough to do to look to ourselves; and, though we must promote the common salvation ( Jude 3) as much as we can, yet we must upon no account neglect our own. We are required to work out our salvation, katergazesthe. The word signifies working thoroughly at a thing, and taking true pains. Observe, We must be diligent in the use of all the means which conduce to our salvation. We must not only work at our salvation, by doing something now and then about it; but we must work out our salvation, by doing all that is to be done, and persevering therein to the end. Salvation is the great thing we should mind, and set our hearts upon; and we cannot attain salvation without the utmost care and diligence. He adds, With fear and trembling, that is, with great care and circumspection: “Trembling for fear lest you miscarry and come short. Be careful to do every thing in religion in the best manner, and fear lest under all your advantages you should so much as seem to come short,” Heb. iv. 1. Fear is a great guard and preservative from evil.

      II. He urges this from the consideration of their readiness always to obey the gospel: “As you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, v. 12. You have been always willing to comply with every discovery of the will of God; and that in my absence as well as presence. You make it to appear that regard to Christ, and care of your souls, sway more with you than any mode of showing respect whatsoever.” They were not merely awed by the apostle’s presence, but did it even much more in his absence. “And because it is God who worketh in you, do you work out your salvation. Work, for he worketh.” It should encourage us to do our utmost, because our labour shall not be in vain. God is ready to concur with his grace, and assist our faithful endeavours. Observe, Though we must use our utmost endeavours in working out our salvation, yet still we must go forth, and go on, in a dependence upon the grace of God. His grace works in us in a way suitable to our natures, and in concurrence with our endeavours; and the operations of God’s grace in us are so far from excusing, that they are intended to quicken and engage our endeavours. “And work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for he worketh in you.” All our working depends upon his working in us. “Do not trifle with God by neglects and delays, lest you provoke him to withdraw his help, and all your endeavours prove in vain. Work with fear, for he works of his good pleasure.”–To will and to do: he gives the whole ability. It is the grace of God which inclines the will to that which is good: and then enables us to perform it, and to act according to our principles. Thou hast wrought all our works in us, Isa. xxvi. 12. Of his good pleasure. As there is no strength in us, so there is no merit in us. As we cannot act without God’s grace, so we cannot claim it, nor pretend to deserve it. God’s good will to us is the cause of his good work in us; and he is under no engagements to his creatures, but those of his gracious promise.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Not as in my presence only ( ). B and a few other MSS. omit . The negative goes with the imperative (work out), not with (obeyed) which would call for .

Much more ( ). They are not to render eye-service only when Paul is there, but much more when he is away.

Work out (). Perfective use of (down) in composition, work on to the finish. This exhortation assumes human free agency in the carrying on the work of one’s salvation.

With fear and trembling ( ). “Not slavish terror, but wholesome, serious caution” (Vincent). “A nervous and trembling anxiety to do right” (Lightfoot). Paul has no sympathy with a cold and dead orthodoxy or formalism that knows nothing of struggle and growth. He exhorts as if he were an Arminian in addressing men. He prays as if he were a Calvinist in addressing God and feels no inconsistency in the two attitudes. Paul makes no attempt to reconcile divine sovereignty and human free agency, but boldly proclaims both.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Not as in my presence only. Connect with work out, not with obeyed. Do not work out your salvation as though impelled to action by my presence merely.

Much more. Than if I were present; for in my absence even greater zeal and care are necessary.

Work out your own salvation [ ] . Carry out “to the goal” (Bengel). Complete. See on Rom 7:8. Your own salvation. There is a saving work which God only can do for you; but there is also a work which you must do for yourselves. The work of your salvation is not completed in God ‘s work in you. God ‘s work must be carried out by yourselves. “Whatever rest is provided by Christianity for the children of God, it is certainly never contemplated that it should supersede personal effort. And any rest which ministers to indifference is immoral and unreal – it makes parasites and not men. Just because God worketh in him, as the evidence and triumph of it, the true child of God works out his own salvation – works it out having really received it – not as a light thing, a superfluous labor, but with fear and trembling as a reasonable and indispensable service” (Drummond, “Natural Law in the Spiritual World,” p. 335). Human agency is included in God ‘s completed work. In the saving work of grace God imparts a new moral power to work. Compare Rom 6:8 – 13; 2Co 6:1. Believe as if you had no power. Work as if you had no God.

Fear and trembling. Compare 2Co 7:15; Eph 6:5. Not slavish terror, but wholesome, serious caution. “This fear is self – distrust; it is tenderness of conscience; it is vigilance against temptation; it is the fear which inspiration opposes to high – mindedness in the admonition ‘be not highminded but fear. ‘ It is taking heed lest we fall; it is a constant apprehension of the deceitfulness of the heart, and of the insidiousness and power of inward corruption. It is the caution and circumspection which timidly shrinks from whatever would offend and dishonor God and the Savior. And these the child of God will feel and exercise the more he rises above the enfeebling, disheartening, distressing influence of the fear which hath torment. Well might Solomon say of such fear, ‘happy is the man that feareth alway'” (Wardlaw “On Proverbs,” 28 14). Compare 1Pe 1:17.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Wherefore, my beloved” (hes* agapetoi mou) “So then my beloved, The mind of humility toward Christ should, yea, must lead to obedience in service for every honest soul.

2) “As ye have always obeyed” (kathos pantote hupekousote) “Just-as ye always gave heed or obeyed.” As Christ was highly exalted because of humble obedience to His Father, so His children will be exalted and rewarded for their obedience, Joh 6:28-29; Joh 13:17; Joh 15:14; Jas 1:22; Jas 1:25.

3) “Not as in my presence only” (me hos en te parousia mou monon) “Not only in my presence,” when I am visiting with you.

4) “But now much more in my absence” (alla nun poi lo malIon en te apousia mou) “But also even more in my absence,” While I am away you continue obeying the Master, Mat 5:15-16.

5) “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling 7 (meta phobou kai tromou ten heauton soterian katergazasthe) “With reverential fear and trembling, work out your now possessed salvation.” Heb 4:11; 2Pe 1:5; 2Pe 1:10. The salvation one possesses when he is saved is that of the soul, Eph 2:8-10; and the salvation that is worked out, outwardly expressed in obedient service to Christ for which one shall be rewarded, be granted positions of honor and service to Christ in the coming Millenial era, is revealed, 1Co 3:8; Mat 25:21.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

12 Therefore, etc. He concludes the whole of the preceding exhortation with a general statement — that they should humble themselves under the Lord’s hand, for that will very readily secure, that, laying aside all arrogance, they will be gentle and indulgent to each other. This is the only befitting way in which the mind of man may learn gentleness, when one who, while viewing himself apart, pleased himself in his hiding-places, comes to examine himself as compared with God.

As ye have always obeyed. He commends their previous obedience, that he may encourage them the more to persevere. As, however, it is the part of hypocrites to approve themselves before others, but so soon as they have withdrawn from public view, to indulge themselves more freely, as if every occasion of reverence and fear were removed, he admonishes them not to shew themselves obedient in his presence merely, but also, and even much more, in his absence. For if he were present, he could stimulate and urge them on by continued admonitions. Now, therefore, when their monitor is at a distance from them, (118) there is need that they should stir up themselves.

With fear and trembling. In this way he would have the Philippians testify and approve their obedience — by being submissive and humble. Now the source of humility is this — acknowledging how miserable we are, and devoid of all good. To this he calls them in this statement. For whence comes pride, but from the assurance which blind confidence produces, when we please ourselves, and are more puffed up with confidence in our own virtue, than prepared to rest upon the grace of God. In contrast with this vice is that fear to which he exhorts. Now, although exhortation comes before doctrine, in the connection of the passage, it is in reality after it, in point of arrangement, inasmuch as it is derived from it. I shall begin, accordingly, with doctrine.

(118) “ Maintenant donc qu’il est loin d’eux, et qu’il ne les pent plus admonester en presence;” — “Now, therefore, when he is at a distance from them, and can no longer admonish them when present.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

A PASTOR S APPEAL

Php 2:12-16

PAUL was a Pastor-Evangelist. With some of the Churches which he established he remained as long as three years; with others, a brief time. But he retained a pastoral oversight over them all, and his Letters to them are not so much the appeals of an evangelist as the counsels and appeals of a pastor. His was the Pastors heart! That is strongly evident in the text of this morning.

Permit a threefold suggestion in exposition of these words: The Obedient Life, The Unblemished Life, and The Brilliant Life.

THE OBEDIENT LIFE

As I understand the Apostle he makes, in verses 12 and 13, an appeal for obedience independent of human leadership; an obedience inspired by the Holy Spirit; an obedience directed by the Divine pleasure.

The Apostles appeal for an obedience independent of human leadership.

Wherefore, my beloved, 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 do of His good pleasure.

The presence of the great Apostle with the people of Philippi can better be imagined than described. It is a fact of human history that the majority of men are, in no small measure, what some giant has made them. Paul, in spite of his pigmy frame, was a Colossus in the Church, a commander indeed. Obedient conduct on the part of the army of the Lord was more easy and more certain when he appeared as a Captain in its midst. The Apostle was desirous, however, that obedience should be equally effective in his absence. His endeavor was to get them to look past him to their greater Captain and Leader, even Christ! It was his endeavor, to get them to realize that while he might be regarded by them as a leader in the Church he was not the leader of the Church. That office was reserved to the Son of God, who was at once their Saviour and the Head of the Church. Truly, we are not to lean to our own understanding, nor yet, upon the arm of another, who is as mortal as ourselves; but, rather, are we to look directly to Him, who, by a perfect obedience to the Fathers will, is at once our example and our sufficient strength.

Our obedience is to be inspired by His indwelling Spirit. Hence the injunction of the Apostle:

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God which Worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

There are many people who approach Christianity from the standpoint of duty; and who seem to feel that its regnant word is Do. No; Christianity is not a command, but rather, an inspiration! The man who does, that he may be redeemed, has missed the mark; but where the Spirit of God is within, one walks in the way. William George Jordan says: Duty is forced like a pump: love is spontaneous like a fountain; duty is prescribed and formal; it is part of the red tape of life. It is good enough as a beginning; it is poor as a finality.

Paul takes the same position. Read his thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, the greatest disquisition on love extant. He declares that a man may do his entire duty, and even exceed it. He may offer his body to be burned, and yet prove himself an unprofitable servant, if he lacks that compulsive spirit of love. The truth is that apart from that spirit we cannot please God. Our endeavors are as filthy rags. Every virtue possessed, every victory won, every thought of holiness are His alone. This same Apostle later wrote, of himself,

By the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

There is a difference about a labor inspired by the indwelling Spirit of God and one resulting from mere human strength. A man who can come into the atmosphere of the former always recognizes its superior altitude; there is another and better aroma about it all. It is said that there is a church in Alaska built by the Indians, that perpetually exhales a fragrance, as if the finest incense were being burned within its walls. The odor comes from the wood of the giant arbor vine, of which the church is built, and this aroma will last as long as the edifice stands. So those works, indicted by the Spirit of God, are in fragrant obedience, and the world without inhales the sweet breath and is brought to believe in the God whose Spirit indwells believers!

Then, according to the Apostle, this obedience is to be directed by the Divine pleasure.

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

The true child consults the fathers will; and the genuine Christian longs to know Gods pleasure. The great men of the earth, reckoned from a religious standpoint, have become such by obedience to the Divine will, rather than from any or all other circumstances combined. We have not forgotten the report made of Mr. Moody, that having heard one wonder what the Lord could do with a man who was absolutely surrendered to Him, responded, I will be that man.

A writer tells of being at a camp meeting and hearing a tall, spare man preach on the text, I was not disobedient unto the Heavenly vision.

It was a remarkable characterization of Paul the Apostle, with especial emphasis on the obedience which seemed to be the dominant trait in his life. The preacher was in a large sense an embodiment of his theme. Long years before he had heard a voice calling him to the dark regions of the world, and he went alone and single-handed, preaching the Gospel to the Kaffirs and other heathen peoples. It is said that he won over seven thousand persons to the Cross of Christ. One word seemed to sum up the teaching he wished to put into the hearts of his great congregation. He would rise to his full height, over six feet, and cry in a strange, shrill voice, Obedience! Obedience! Obedience! till it stormed the hearts of the hearers. Although that great man passed on some years since, that sharp voice rings again down through the years Obedience! Obedience! Obedience! It was the substance of the Gospel that old man preached; it is still the heart of any gospel that is worth preaching.

Oft these words of Bishop William Taylorfor it was hesounded into the ears, and at times when the message was most needed. And the spirit that made mighty, Moodythe evangelist, and William Taylorthe marvelous missionary, is the very same that has accounted for every mighty evangelist the centuries have known, and every missionary who has carried light into darkened lands; and for that matter, it is the spirit that can help the humblest to become valiant servants for the Most High.

But this Pastor-Evangelist passes from the Obedient Life to

THE UNBLEMISHED LIFE

It instantly occurs to one that there is the closest possible relation between the obedient life and the unblemished life. But there are some suggestions in the Apostles words here which too seldom occur to us.

The first is: The unblemished life is characterized by no needless controversy.

Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

That ye may he blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke.

The impression sometimes prevails that the problem of life is to keep ones self unspotted from the world. Perhaps a greater problem still is to keep ones self from spotting others. If we had to take our choice between the scandalized and the scandalizer, we would unhesitatingly accept the position of the former as against that of the latter! Defilement is not always from without! James, in his Epistle, says:

Behold, we put bits in the horses mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.

Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.

Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth.

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of heir (Jas 3:3-6).

That is a somewhat serious indictment! Truly, the unspotted man, and the unblemished man, is the man whose tongue is tempered by the indwelling Spirit of God; and his mouth, one which is no longer full of deadly poison, but is one from which there cometh forth blessing and not cursing.

It is said that Phillips Brooks was one day visiting in a family and picked up the little girl, of whom he was very fond, and she told him of some childish grievance and concluded her story with the words, It made me real cross. Cross, cross. the Bishop exclaimed, I shouldnt suppose you ever got cross. Wouldnt you be cross, replied the child, if anybody treated you so? I dont know whether I would or not, said the Bishop. Perhaps I would, if it would do me any good. Did it make you feel any better? No, the little one answered hesitatingly. Then, said the Bishop, I dont see any reason for being cross. Murmurings and disputings have not added a vast deal to the worlds progress, and still less to its happiness. The simple truth is that that mastery which seals the lips, even when there is pain and rage in the soul, is the mastery akin to that which Christ evinced all through life.

There are some people who think that if they are struck, they must cry out. Christ did not. It may not be an absolute necessity that we should so do. It is told to her eternal credit that Disraelis wife, going with him on that great day when he was to face his antagonist, Gladstone, in a debate that would determine the action of the English Parliament, and in no small measure Disraelis future standing, sat in the gallery, and with calm face beamed upon him from the moment he opened his lips until he had finished the last word; when the fact was, that as she alighted from the carriage, the bungling servant closed its door upon her finger and crushed it. Without a word, she whipped her handkerchief out and bound it about the finger and walked at the side of the great Beaconsfield into the House of Parliament, took her place in the gallery, never having reported the accident lest it might distract him from his speech. Charity suffereth long, and is kind. The blameless life is not a murmuring life, nor a life devoted to vain disputations.

The blameless life reveals a conduct indicative of the child of God. Hence the Apostles words:

Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke.

Here again, however, let no man make a mistake! Paul was not one of those soft souls, who yielded his ground for the sake of undesirable peace; and certainly he was not one of those garrulous souls who could talk eloquently, but could not walk in accord with his own counsel. We know from his Epistle to the Romans that he believed the life in Christ to be fittingly expressed by ones walk before God, hence the significance of baptism to him:

Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

A little later, in the same Epistle, he writes again:

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk riot after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Eloquence is a good thing; but the world has always been in need, and is now, of feet that are more eloquent than tongues: and of a walk more Godly than talk. I have read somewhere the Chinese legend which tells of the three great religious teachers of the celestial empire holding a sorrowful conference in their heavenly abode, looking with profound regret upon the degeneracy of their people, and mourning that their life work seemed so entirely a failure. At last they determined to return to earth in order to find some suitable missionary whom they could send forth as a reformer. They came in their wanderings to an old man sitting as a guardian to a fountain. He talked to them so wisely and so earnestly of the great concerns which they had at heart that they concluded unanimously that he was the very man for whom they were seeking. But when they proposed the mission to him he replied: Only the upper portion of my body is of flesh and blood; the lower portion is of stone. I can talk about virtue and good works, but I cannot rise from my seat to perform any righteous acts. That man sitting there by the fountain with clear head, but with stone legs, should be a warning to all Christians. Such people are to be found in life as well as legend. In the Scriptures that knowledge which is acceptable to God is ever linked with true service.

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him (Col 2:6).

This is love, that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, that, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it (2Jn 1:6).

This unblemished life is to be lived in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. There are many people who are making excuse for not becoming Christians, namely, they are so surrounded and associated that Christianity is not possible. Poor excuse! God never promised any child of His to put him down in easy circumstances. So long as Satan dwells in the world it must be the fate of every believer to dwell in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Monasticism is not Christianity; in truth, it is very doubtful if it is even morality.

We have a chapter in our volume The Evolution of the Kingdom, on the Signs of the Times. Some people, who have no sympathy with the Biblical subject, want to dilate upon the Spirit of the Times, and even ministers are sometimes telling their brethren that they must keep pace with it. The Scriptures instruct after another manner. The true Christian must for ever be out of harmony with the spirit of the times. As A. C. Dixon once said, Vox populi is often Vox diabolic. The man who walks with God must make up his mind even to submit to the jeers of the thoughtless crowd; be pained by its profanity, shocked by its sins, yet never be turned aside from the Christian course by its suggestions. That is indeed the unblemished life.

With his usual logic, the Apostle passes from the Obedient Life to the Unblemished Life, and from the Unblemished Life to

THE BRILLIANT LIFE

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

Holding forth the Word of Life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

The darkened world depends upon the Christian life for light. That is a fine tribute that was paid John the Baptist: ((He was a burning and a shining light. He will for ever then, stand out as an ensample to believers who should be reminded of their appointment as lights in the world; who would give literal obedience to the injunction spoken of God by Isaiahs lips, to the Israel of the Old Testament, and for that matter, to the Israel of the New:

Arise, shine; for thy Light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee,

For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.

And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising (Isa 60:1-3).

I clipped from my scrap-book a little poem which makes its own appeal to the individual, and ought to make an effective one:

Dont waste your time in longing,For bright impossible things.Dont sit supinely yearning,For the swiftness of angel wings.Dont spurn to be a rush-light,Because you are not a star.But brighten some bit of darkness,By shining just where you are.

There is need of the tiniest candle,As well as the garish sun;The humblest deed is ennobled,When it is worthily done;You may never be called to brighten The darkened regions afar;So, by day, your mission,By shining just where you are.

Just where you are my brother,Just where God bids you stand;Though down in the deepest shadow,Instead of the sunlit land;You may carry a brightness with you,That no gloom or darkness can mar;For the light of the Christ-like spirit Will be shining wherever you are.

Such a life can look to the Word alone for its light. Hence Pauls words: Holding forth the Word of Life. The longer I live the more profoundly am I impressed with that great fact. One morning, years since, in our ministers meeting, we had Dr. F , then of Andover, give a brief and brilliant address, the logic of which was as lame as the language was chaste. He told us the church of the present day was a discredited institution, and that its dying condition was in part due to its ancient theology; and he told us, eloquently enough, to adopt the modern view and march on.

Andover did that with a vengeance, and she perished in her folly of having departed from the faith which was once delivered. Finally she presented to the world the pitiful sight of an institution splendidly equipped with buildings, endowed with a million dollars, her every chair filled with a notable theologian, and her student halls and class rooms deserted. She debated awhile between a necessary burial and affiliation with Harvard University; and finally concluded that by the help of this notable school she might longer maintain her existence. And yet, the very man who saw the new theology sink that ship of learning, and knows its paralysis in the pulpit he occupies, is so slow to learn, that he still pleads with his brethren to depart from the faith once for all delivered and flounder with him and his fellows in a quagmire of unbelief.

Finally, Holding forth the Word of Life. In that fact, and in that alone, has any man occasion to rejoice; any pastor to conclude that he has not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

The longer one lives, the more widely one is permitted to observe, the more fully is he persuaded that the hope of the future is in the faith which was once delivered and the obligation of every church is one and the same, namely, that she hold forth the Word of Life and find in the souls of men the faith of the Gospel of the Son of God.

I stood and watched my ships go out,Each one by one unmooring free,And the time the quiet harbor filled With the flood tide from the sea.

The first that sailed, her name was Joy,She spread a smooth white ample sail,And eastward drove, with bending spars, Before the singing gale.

The next that sailed, her name was Hope, No cargo in her hold she bore,Thinking to find in western lands,Of merchandise a store.

The next that sailed, her name was Love, She showed a red flag at the mast,A flag as red as blood she showed,And toward the south sped fast.

The last that sailed, her name was Faith, Slowly she took her passage forth, Tacked, and lay to; at last she steered,A straight course for the north.

My gallant ships, they sailed away,Over the shimmering summer sea,I stood at watch for many a day,But only one came back to me.

For Joy was caught by Pirate Pain,Hope ran upon a hidden reef,And Love took fire and foundered fast In whelming seas of grief.

Faith came at last, storm-beat and torn, But recompensed me all my loss,For as a cargo safe she brought A crown linked to a cross.

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Php. 2:12. Ye have always obeyed.Obedience describes the attitude of the mind of these Philippians in presence of the commanding truths of the gospel: Obedience or obedience of faith is found several times in the epistle to the Romans; and in 2Co. 7:15 stands in close connection with fear and trembling, as here. Fear and trembling.Such an apprehensive desire to be right with God as is figured by bodily tremor.

Php. 2:13. For it is God which worketh in you.This sentence removes all merit from the most punctilious diligence, whilst it as effectually takes away the paralysing fear of failure to which workers together with God need never give place.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Php. 2:12-13

SalvationGods Work and Mans Care.

I. Salvation is a personal blessing.Your own salvation (Php. 2:12). If Christ died for all, then He-died for me and I may be saved. It matters little, if others are being saved unless I am saved myself. It is impossible to be genuinely interested in the salvation of others unless we are saved ourselves. Salvation deals with the individual; it gathers its trophies one by one. I have read of some seas, writes Bunyan, so pure and clear that a man may see the bottom, though they be forty feet deep. I know this river is a deep river, but it is not said that we can see no bottom. The comparison implies that a man with good eyes may see the bottom. So, then, we shall look down through these crystal streams and see what be at the bottom of all. The bottom of all is that we might be saved. These things I say, saith Christ, that ye might be saved. What a good, sound bottom is here! This salvation admits man to a wealth of blessings impossible to estimate. Salvation should therefore be sought by every man earnestly, believingly, promptly.

II. Salvation needs constant personal care.Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Php. 2:12).

1. The Christian worker is surrounded with spiritual perils.The apostle has referred to these perils in warning the Philippians against pride, selfishness, faction, and vain boasting (Php. 2:3-4). To secure his salvation the believer must not only work, but work with circumspection, with vigilance, with fear and trembling. God does not give the flower and the fruit of salvation, but the seed, the sunshine, and the rain. He does not give houses, nor yet beams and squared stones, but trees, rocks, and limestone, and says, Now build thyself a house. Regard not Gods work within thee as an anchor to hold thy bark firmly to the shore, but as a sail which shall carry it to its port. Fear thy depression and faint-heartedness, but take courage at thy humility before God (Lange).

2. Personal care the more necessary when deprived of the oversight of a loved teacher.Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence (Php. 2:12). The Philippians had shown a spirit of ready obedience both to the apostle and to God, and they are urged to increased diligence. The apostles absence did not make the obligation less imperative, but it demanded more earnestness and vigilance from them in the discharge of the duty. His voice and person were a guide and stimulant and excited them to assiduous labour, so that his presence among them wrought like a charm. And now that he was not with them, and they were left to themselves, they were so much the more to double their diligence and work out salvation with fear and tremblingwith distrust of themselves, earnest solicitude in every duty, humble reliance on divine aid, with the abiding consciousness that after all they come far short of meeting obligation (Eadie).

III. Salvation is a divine work.

1. God is pleased to work in us to create a right disposition.It is God that worketh in you to will of His good pleasure (Php. 2:13). The desire for salvation and the disposition and will to seek it come from God. As the sun warms the earth and helps the flower to grow and bloom, so the Spirit of God warms the heart and calls forth the growth and blossom of Christian graces. God does not take out mental and moral apparati and put in a new set, like the works of a clock; but He encourages us to use the powers already within and breathes upon us the vitalising influence of His Spirit, so that we produce results in harmony with His will.

2. God is pleased to work in us to confer the moral ability to work.God worketh in you to do of His good pleasure (Php. 2:13). Some men have ability to do great things, but have not the disposition; others may have the disposition, but not the ability. In the work of our salvation God gives both the disposition and the power. Because God works in us we may work; because He works in us we must work out our own salvation. The means of salvation are within our reach; it is our part to use them. How does the miner get out of the pit? There is a string at the bottom; he pulls it; a bell at the top rings; a rope, worked by a steam-engine, is let down, and in this way he ascends to the top. A man gets down into the pit of trouble; he cannot get up himself; he must ring the bell of prayer; God will hear it and send down the rope that is to lift him out. Man can do nothing without God, and God will do nothing without the willing co-operation of man.

Lessons.

1. Salvation is possible for every man.

2. Salvation may be secured by man yielding to the divine influences working within him.

3. If man is not saved, it is his own fault.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Php. 2:12-13. Divine and Human Co-operation in Mans Salvation.

I. The salvation to be wrought out.Salvation simply means deliverance. It may be either temporal or spiritual, or both. The process of salvation is to be continuous.

II. In the work of our salvation divine and human co-operation is necessary.Illustrated in the products of nature, in works of art and skill.

1. God works in us by the light of His truth.

2. By appealing to us with the influence of powerful motives.

3. Works in us by the influences of His Spirit.

III. Seek to ascertain to what extent we are indebted for our personal salvation to God working in us.Our salvation from first to last is from God; that we are saved by grace, yet not so as to destroy our own effort. He produces in us the will and power. We are to exercise the will and power by repenting, believing, and living a life of holiness.

IV. Why we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.Because of the possibility of our unfaithfulness. May be too sure of salvation, and too doubtful.J. C. Symons.

The Active Exertion of Man in working out his Salvation harmonises with the Free Grace of God as being the Sole Author of it.There are two facts connected with the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypttheir preservation in the wilderness, and their settlement in the land of Canaanto which I would solicit your attention.

I. That all was done for them by God, and is to be ascribed solely, from first to last, to His almighty power and grace.

1. The means by which the establishment of the Israelites in the promised land was effected were evidently beyond the reach of human agency.
2. Even in those particular cases in which the active exertions of the Israelites were employed as the means of their deliverance or success the whole is ascribed to God.
(1) He gave them courage to fight against their enemies;
(2) He gave them success by sending, terror into the hearts of their enemies.

II. That although God thus did everything for them, He did it in such a way as to bring every power of their minds and bodies into exercise, and to render their own activity absolutely necessary to their preservation and success.Illustrated in the passage of the Red Sea, and in the first battle of the Israelites with the Amalekites (Exo. 17:8).

Lessons.

1. As the deliverance of the Israelites and their establishment in Canaan was wholly of God, so the salvation of every sinner is to be ascribed solely and entirely to His mercy and power.

2. As God required the Israelites to be active, watchful, diligent, ardent, and strenuous in their exertions to overcome difficulties and to defeat their enemies, so He requires His people to make their calling and election sure, to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.Although God does all for us in the matter of our salvation, yet He places us in situations where we must exert ourselves or perish.Anonymous.

The Co-operation of Human and Divine Agency in our Salvation

I. This co-operation of divine and human energies has place in all the most important facts and pursuits that make up the history of man.

1. It is true of the commencement of our being.

2. Our growth and education are the result of the same joint agency.

3. This fundamental law reigns over all the works of man.

II. What does God accomplish and what does He demand of us in the joint working out of our salvation?

1. God works in us by the light of His truth.

2. By the power of motives.

3. By the energy of His Spirit.

III. What is the intent and object of these divine operations?

1. They are not designed to transform the character as, when after conversion, they are media of sanctification.

2. Human co-operation is the indispensable condition of progress.

3. Will and do. These describe the duty of the unconverted man.S. Olin, D.D.

Mans Work and Gods Work.

I. This salvation is begun when we believe in Christ, but it requires to be worked out.

II. The fact that God works in us renders our working possible.

III. The fact that God works in us should make us fear and tremble.R. Abercrombie, M.A.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

12. 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; 13. for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.

Translation and Paraphrase

12. So then, my beloved ones (seeing how God has exalted Christ, I exhort you now that) even as you have always obeyed, not (just) as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, (that you) work out to completion your own salvation, with fear and trembling.
13. For God is the one working in (the midst of) you (all), both (motivating you) to desire (that which is good) and (enabling you) to work for his good pleasure.

Notes

1.

This section (Php. 2:12-18) gives some commands for the worthy Christian life. These commands include commands to steadfast work (Php. 2:12-13), contentment (Php. 2:14), purity (Php. 2:15 a), evangelistic zeal (Php. 2:15 b Php. 2:16), and rejoicing (Php. 2:17-18).

2.

The so then at the beginning of Php. 2:12 indicates that the good acts called for in Php. 2:12-16 are motivated by the obedience and exaltation of Christ described in the preceding paragraph.

3.

Some Christians are faithful Christians only when the preacher is nearby. Paul expected the Philippians to be just as obedient in his absence as in his presence, and he indicates that they had done this previously.

4.

Work out (Gr. katergadzomai) means to work to completion. When we work out a contract, we work it till it is done. Likewise we must work out our salvation until the end.

5.

Php. 2:12 does not suggest that by work we earn our salvation, but that our salvation must be followed by steadfast work to the end. Eph. 2:8-9; Tit. 3:5. While our salvation is not gained by our works of righteousness, we must be zealous of good works and careful to maintain them. Tit. 3:5; Tit. 2:14. Failure to follow through with good works after we receive Christ is both evidence and cause of our not having salvation.

6.

Christians need to feel fear and trembling because of the danger of forsaking Christ and displeasing God is so near to all of us and so deadly. We are become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end. Heb. 3:14.

7.

Php. 2:13 teaches us that God motivates us (causes us to will) to do his good pleasure; and then also He enables us to do it (to work). This thought should bring great delight to the servant of God. Our dedicated desires and labors represent the very desires and labors of God expressed through us.

If you find yourself desiring to do something for the Lordto write a song, a poem, a book, a letter, a tract; to make a call; to do a helpful deed; to pray for a particular person or project; to give money for some specific needthen, brother, you should do it, and do it quickly. That desire within you may be Gods working within you, causing you to will. As God furnishes the willingness, so also will He furnish the ability to work.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(12) As ye have always obeyed.It is notable that this Epistle is the only one which contains no direct rebuke. The Philippian Church has the glory of having always obeyed, not (like the Galatian Church) as in his presence only, but now much more in his absence. This obedience was to the will of God as set forth by him. In referring to it, there is an allusion to the obedience of Christ (in Php. 2:8); hence their obedience includes also that willingness to suffer which He Himself has shown. (See Php. 1:29-30.) To this, perhaps, there is a further allusion in the fear and trembling spoken of below. (See 2Co. 7:15; Eph. 6:5.)

Work out your own salvation.To work out is (as in Eph. 6:13) to carry out to completion what is begun. This is the function of man, as fellow-worker with God, first in his own soul, and then among his brethren. God is the beginner and perfecter of every good work (see Php. 1:6); mans co-operation is secondary and intermediate.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

[5.

Exhortation and Commendation (Php. 2:12-30).

(1) EXHORTATION TO WORK OUT THEIR SALVATION through the in working of God, and so to be lights in the world, and the glory of the Apostle, even in the hour of martyrdom (Php. 2:12-18).

(2) ST. PAULS INTENTION TO SEND TIMOTHY, AND HOPE TO COME HIMSELF SHORTLY (Php. 2:19-24).

(3) PRESENT MISSION OF EPAPHRODITUS, now recovered from his late sickness, and strong commendation of his zeal (Php. 2:25-30).]

(12-18) By the word wherefore St. Paul connects this exhortation with the great passage above. For the main idea is here of the presence of God in them, working out glory through a condition of humiliation, on condition of their fellow-working with Him; so that they shall appear as the sons of God and as lights in the world. In all this there is clearly the imperfect but true likeness of the indwelling of Godhead in our Lords humanity, exalting it through the two-fold humiliation to the unspeakable glory.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

5. Exhortation applying Christ’s example, Php 2:12-16.

12. Wherefore, my beloved Reminding them of their habitual obedience to him, the apostle exhorts them, now that he is not present to help them, to great care in working out each one his own salvation until it is complete in heaven. The emphatic words are, with fear and trembling, the opposite of the secure, self-sufficient spirit rebuked in previous verses, and the murmurings and disputings below. Salvation begun is not salvation finished. The work must be carried on to the end, by our own diligent, careful labour, with unfaltering purpose and unremitting zeal. An exaltation to Christ’s right hand is given only to those possessing his unselfish spirit.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

As A Result Of Their Participation With Christ In His Death, Resurrection And Exaltation They Are To Put Every Effort Into Together ‘Working Out’ The Salvation That God Was Working Within Them So That, As A Consequence Of Their Resulting Oneness And Unblemished Lives, They Might Be True Lights In The World, Thereby Holding Forth The Word Of Life ( Php 2:12-18 ).

What follows here is the fulfilment of all that has been described in Php 1:27 to Php 2:11. Following the injunction to ‘live as citizens of Heaven’ (Php 1:27) Paul now seeks to constrain them, as a result of their participation in Christ’s self-emptying, death, resurrection and exaltation, to put every effort into ensuring that their salvation (which they have received as a gift from God) is being effective in their lives, knowing all the while that God is working within them to ensure that it will be so (for salvation is of the Lord). They are to put every effort into ensuring that what God is ‘working within them’ is ‘worked out’, that is, is allowed to spring up from within them and have an important impact on their lives day by day as they respond in faith.

Notice his emphasis on the fact that they are themselves to be a sacrifice and worship offering as a result of their believing response, further indicating that being sacrificed is an essential part of the passage, as we have already seen. He has in mind also what he has already said about the conflict that they are facing in the world which might even lead to martyrdom (Php 1:29-30).

We should note that they are to do this together. They are not to be one man bands, but to assist each other as they go forward with Him, although necessarily each is responsible for his own final response. It is therefore not necessary to ask, is this to be seen as for each individual or for the whole? The answer is that it is for both. For the whole is made up of individuals, each of whom is responsible for their own response, while also having responsibility for the whole. And it is as one together that they are to go forward with Him. His desire was that as a whole they would go forward as ‘children of God’ (Php 2:15), revealing what they are by being without blemish and free from the entanglements of the world (1Jn 2:15-16), thus being ‘lights in the world’, and holding forth the word of life (Php 2:15-16). For it was only if this were true that Paul would have something to glory in, in the Day of Jesus Christ (the Day when He comes to reveal all things, and call men to account e.g. Mat 7:22-23; Mat 10:26; Mat 25:31-46; Rom 14:10-12; 1Co 4:5; 2Co 5:10; Rev 20:11-15), in that it would prove that all his activity and efforts had not been in vain. And as long as this was true he was ready, yes, eager, to be poured out as a libation on the sacrifice of themselves that they were offering (see 1Co 12:1-2), as they offered themselves to God by faith for whatever He had in store for them, rejoicing with them in the privilege that they were both enjoying. Php 2:12 ‘So then, my beloved, even as you 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,’

The words ‘my beloved’ soften Paul’s injunction from being a harsh command to being a loving requirement. It is a reminder that people are far more likely to respond if they are convinced that we genuinely care, and only seek their good, as Paul did. But there is no softening of the requirements. Just as Jesus was obedient to the Father ‘even unto death’ (Php 2:8), so were they to be obedient in the working out of their salvation ‘with greatest care’ (fear and trembling lest they come short, compare 2Co 7:15). The injunction was even more important because Paul was now absent from them. While he was present with them he was able to oversee their obedience, but now that he was absent from them they were, humanly speaking, ‘on their own’. Thus it was all the more urgent that together they urged each other on, and so set their minds (Php 2:5) on their participation in the crucified and resurrected Christ that they ensured that ‘their salvation’, the salvation which was theirs from God through Him, was fully effective in them and through them.

Having once committed himself to the way ahead, Jesus had Himself ‘worked out’ His vindication through obedience, suffering, death and resurrection, and they were to do the same. He Who knew no sin but was ‘made sin’ (2Co 5:21) had fulfilled His work of salvation and had borne the sins of others in the way described above (no one who knew Paul’s teaching would fail to understand the import of the words). Now they were to lay their sins on Him, partaking in His sacrifice by faith (Php 2:17) and ensuring also that the resurrection life of Christ was lived out through them (Php 3:10; Rom 6:3-11; Gal 2:20). They were to ‘continue working out their salvation.’ And they were to do it with greatest care, remembering that they had to give account. It was not that they had to save themselves, but that they were to benefit by the salvation that God had given them in Christ, which was therefore now their own, by ensuring that it was allowed to ‘work out’ through them. Compare how women were to ‘be saved’, that is were to work out their salvation, by bringing up children while continuing in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety (2Ti 2:15).

‘With fear and trembling.’ That is fearful lest they fall short in any way and thus hinder the work that God is doing (compare Heb 12:15; Heb 12:25). It is a reminder that ‘it is a fearful thing to fall onto the hands of the living God’ (Heb 10:31). In the Greek Old Testament (LXX) ‘fear and trembling signifies awe and concern in the face of God’s activity (see Exo 15:16; Isa 19:16; Psa 2:11). The fact of our confidence and boldness in our approach towards God (Eph 3:12; Heb 10:19) must not take away from our recognition that we are dealing with a holy God. But the ‘fear and trembling’ is not so much on the individual’s behalf, although it is also that, as on behalf of the whole church, being as concerned for the things of others (Php 2:4) as they are for their own salvation in the light of what God is. They are to watch for each other with greatest care as in the presence of God, as those who must give account (Heb 13:17), for they are involved in the working out of God’s eternal purpose (Php 2:13). The salvation of God’s people (including themselves) is to be their all absorbing interest and their great concern (compare 2Co 7:15). In Eph 6:5 it is paralleled by ‘singleness of heart’.

‘But now much more in my absence.’ While he was hoping to be with them shortly (Php 2:24), he knew that it could not be guaranteed. He was not absolutely sure which way his trial would go (Php 1:20; Php 1:22). Thus they were not to allow his absence to prevent them from going forward ‘full steam ahead’ with Christ. (It would have been so easy to put the brakes on). He wants them to stand firm and go forward whatever the circumstances, for it is God’s work and not his.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Exhortation to Follow His Example After Paul gives the example of Christ sacrifice, he then exhorts the saints to humble themselves in a similar manner.

Php 2:13 “For it is God which worketh in you”- Comments – The same verb is used in 1Th 2:13 says, “God which effectively worketh also in you that believe.”

Php 2:13 Scripture References – Note:

Heb 13:21, “Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Php 2:12-13 Comments – Paul tells the Philippians in Php 2:12-13 to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling for God is at work in them. We know from Php 1:6 that God was working in their lives in order to complete the plan and purpose that He had for each one of them. Paul simply asks the Philippians to do their part by yielding to the process of sanctification in their lives. God will put His desires within the believer’s spirit, and He will him the physical, mental, and spiritual strength to endure.

Php 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”

Php 2:14  Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

Php 2:14 Comments – Murmurings and disputings are an outward sign of an inward rebellion against the Lord. Such rebellion against God’s commandments was considered a great sin against God with the children of Israel in the wilderness, punishable by death (1Co 10:10).

1Co 10:10, “Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.”

Php 2:15  That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

Php 2:16  Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

Php 2:16 “neither laboured in vain” Comments – One of the most painful agonies of life, besides the experiences of losing loved ones, divorce, etc., would be the loss of something that a person has given years of hard labor to achieve. The simple loss of computer files that cannot be recovered, the loss of property by thief, the loss something that a person has put their heart into. Paul is expressing here a determination to avoid the agony of losing the work that he had given his life to accomplish. He mentions this concern of loss to other churches also ( 1Co 15:10 ; 1Co 15:58, Gal 2:2; Gal 4:11, 1Th 3:5).

1Co 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain ; but I laboured more abundantly than they all : yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

1Co 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord .”

Gal 2:2, “And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain .”

Gal 4:11, “I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain .”

1Th 3:5, “For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain .”

Php 2:14-16 Comments Shining Forth the Gospel in a Corrupt Nation – I have lived in an underdeveloped nation as a missionary where corruption is widespread. It is easy to complain about the problems around me while living “in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.” Paul tells the Philippians to shine as lights by “holding forth the word of life” rather than murmuring and complaining. We are to speak God’s Word in faith so that others may see the light of the Gospel and be converted. Only then can a people contribute positively to a society and help bring it out of corruption.

Php 2:17  Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.

Php 2:17 “Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith” – Comments – Paul is sacrificing his life and giving of himself in order to bring the Philippians to a greater faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Php 2:17 Comments – In the natural Paul’s death looks like the Roman government is arresting and convicting a troublemaker, one whose death is necessary because of disturbing entire cities and regions of Asia Minor. However, from a divine perspective Paul is offering himself on the altar of ultimate sacrifice unto Jesus. It is a sacrifice that is well-pleasing unto God.

Php 2:18  For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Application of the Admonition to True Works of Sanctification. Php_2:12-18

v. 12. Wherefore, my beloved, 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.

v. 13. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

v. 14. Do all things without murmurings and disputings,

v. 15. that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world,

v. 16. holding forth the Word of Life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.

v. 17. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.

v. 18. For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me.

The apostle here draws a conclusion and makes a practical application: Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always been obedient, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, with fear and trembling work out your own salvation. In accordance with all these considerations that urge Christians to walk and have their conversation, lead their life, in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they should continue in their obedience as heretofore. Paul gives them the testimony of having been obedient both when he was present with them and when he was absent. And with the full knowledge of this, with a willingness to pursue the course marked out before them also in the future, he urges them to feel the responsibility of their salvation before God. The salvation, complete and ready for all, they should strive after, make it their business to obtain that. It is true, of course, that salvation is not earned by obedience, it is complete and perfect in Christ. But it may so easily be lost through disobedience, and therefore striving after it with fear and trembling, with the consciousness of inherent weakness and of the dreadful power of temptation, is essential in sanctification. There is here no contradiction of chap. 1:6, where Paul states that he was sure that God would continue the good work to the end. A Christian must be sure that God will give him firmness and confidence and faithfulness, keep him from falling from grace, and he must still be in fear, lest he lose his salvation by his own foolishness. If a Christian looks upon his own flesh, he may well tremble, because it is weak and a willing ally of all enemies; but if a Christian looks to God, he is sure that he will remain in the faith, that he will overcome all the dangers which threaten his faith, that he will finally be victorious over world, flesh, and Satan. This admonition in itself is a means and instrument in the hands of God to keep the Christian in the way of sanctification.

And yet, all depends upon the power of God: For God it is who is working in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure. God works, performs, all good things in His Christians; He urges them on to true obedience. A believer shows his faith by good works. This makes two things necessary, namely, the will to do, the good intention to live as it becometh the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is wrought through the Holy Ghost, and then the carrying out of this intention, the changing of will into performance, so that the doing will be properly and effectually performed. And all this on account of God’s good pleasure, to carry out His own, gracious will. God really wants to find pleasure in the good works of the believers. And He does find it because of the fact that they are of divine kind and nature, and their works flow out of the divine power in them. In order to be pleased with the works of Christians, He Himself works the good things in them. God gives and donates the will to do good; the regenerated will of man, in the power of God, wills and performs the good thing. The regenerated will of man is controlled, governed, and directed by the will of God. So the believers dare not lose God’s assistance in sanctification.

The apostle mentions one point in which their sanctification may find expression: Do everything without murmurings and hesitations. The Christians of Philippi, like the believers of all ages, should do the will of God in all things, do all that God expects of them, even when the flesh is not pleased with it, even when questionings and criticisms want to arise in their hearts. There should be no bickerings and questionings whether this or that is really necessary, whether it is necessary to be so strict in observing the Word of God, whether it really is the Christian’s duty to take part in all the enterprises of the Church. The ideal condition of mind is that which simply, sincerely does what is needed.

The result of such behavior is: That you may be irreprehensible and innocent, guiltless children of God in the midst of an iniquitous and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding up the Word of Life to a glorification for me upon the day of Christ, that I may not have run in vain or labored in vain. The goal of sanctification cannot be reached at one step, it must be reached by a gradual process. Christians must strive more and more to show and prove themselves irreprehensible, without reproof. In the midst of a world steeped in every form of sin and shame they must guard against all contamination, not only to be without reproach on the part of others, but actually innocent of wrong-doing, able to meet all criticism as unjust aspersion. Christians should avoid all offense and be guiltless in this world. There should be a plain and unmistakable distinction between the Christians and the children of this world. They should stand out from the unbelievers, as the light stands out from the surrounding darkness. The entire life of the believers will offer a splendid contrast to all works of darkness and will be a constant reproof to wrong-doers. But not only are the Christians to shine as lights in their good works, in obedience to the will of their heavenly Father and in all subsequent works of faith, but they are also to be the torch-bearers of the Word of Life. The Christians should present to the world, extend before the eyes of the children of this world, the Word of Salvation for their acceptance, that it may serve to enlighten them also unto eternal life. This they do through the works of the divine life in them. Their entire behavior before the world will be a sermon in words and deeds. Their entire life will show what the Word of God is able to accomplish. The mere existence of believers in this world is a missionary factor. And all this, in turn, redounds to the honor of the apostle on the great day of Jesus Christ, the Day of Judgment. He wanted to be able to point to the Christians of Philippi with pride, as a result of his missionary efforts in Christ Jesus. It would show that his efforts had been crowned with success, for the Philippians would present visible, tangible evidence. Note: The Christians of our day may well keep this word in mind in their relation to their pastors, that they may be a credit to the teaching which they have received, both here in time and on the great day of Jesus Christ.

To impress this last fact upon his readers, the apostle adds: But if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice with you all; in the same way also you rejoice, and rejoice with me. In and by his imprisonment Paul was being poured out like a drink-offering. But at the same time he was offering a sacrifice, a twofold sacrifice. The first sacrifice is that of the Christians’ faith. He had succeeded in working faith in their hearts and in strengthening this faith to the present state of growth in sanctification. That was a pleasing sacrifice in the sight of God. The consequence was that the Philippians were now living a sacrifice in service, a true ministry. The apostle assumes that he himself will be offered upon his sacrifice. He may suffer the death of a martyr because of his preaching the Gospel. He knows that he will soon be liberated from the present imprisonment, but that merely places his martyr’s death at a somewhat greater distance. The final disposition of his body is even now pretty sure: martyrdom looms up before him. But even should this take place very soon, it cannot hinder the fruits of his labor. He has cause for rejoicing at the faith and Christian life of the Philippians, he is happy in the thought of what has been accomplished. And in the same way his readers should rejoice in their faith, and rejoice with him, as it behooves good Christians, in the love of Christ.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Php 2:12-13. Wherefore, my beloved, If St. Paul’s discourse, here is read with attention, it will be found, that having dispatched his argument from the example of Christ, he comes now, to apply it to the purpose for which he brought it; namely, to press upon them that kind and friendly temper and behaviour towards one another, mentioned, Php 2:3-5. This is still more plain, if we observe that in Php 2:14 he continues his discourse upon this subject in the general. Mr. Peirce gives a very peculiar interpretation of the present passage, which we will just subjoin: “Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed me with the greatest humility and concern, not only when I have been present with you, but more especially since I left you, I am the more encouraged to urge upon you by this example of Christ, the duty that I have recommended to you, of looking to the concerns of others, as well as your own; and of promoting each other’s welfare. And you have good reason for this, because in so doing you comply with the motion of God himself, who works in you to be inclined and to act, out of good-will; and therefore, take care that you do all such good offices cheerfully, withoutmurmurings,”&c.Butthefollowing, as it is the more general, so does it seem by far the more just interpretation of this text: “Wherefore, my beloved, as God hath, in the person of his Son, thus gloriously rewarded that bright assemblage of virtues, for which he was so incomparably illustrious; and particularly that condescension, humility, and benevolence, which I have been so earnestly recommending to you; let it be considered by you as an engagement to tread in his steps, with diligence and resolution, so far as the feeble powers of human nature regenerated by grace may admit. And, as justice requires me to acknowledge that you have always been obedient to my instructions and exhortations, while Ihave had the pleasure of being with you, be solicitous that not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, (which, though it deprives you of some advantages, yet as it is owing to my bonds in your cause, ought to increase the tenderness of your concern for my comfort) you may work out your own salvation with great earnestness and assiduity; yea, considering its infinite importance, with holy fear and trembling. I say your own salvation; for that will be most effectually secured and promoted by the temper that I have now been recommending. Seize that happy opportunity of doing it which divine grace affords; for God is he who worketh in you, both to will and to perform, of his own good pleasure. You ought therefore to consider every good affection and purpose which arises in your heart, as suggested by his grace, which waits upon you to enable you to bring it into perfection.” The original of Php 2:13 is very emphatic; for it asserts on the one hand, that God is actually or continually operating in the souls of true believers; and on the other, that thus to work in the heart for such noble purposes, is the prerogative of God, and an effect worthy of his divine attributes and perfections. Bp. Sherlocke has given us a fine interpretation of this passage of scripture; which, he observes, consists of two parts; an exhortation, and an argument, by which that exhortation is enforced. The exhortation you have in these words, Work out your own salvation, &c. The argument to enforce it follows in the next words: For it is God which worketh, &c. an argument which may at first sight seem rather to lead to confidence only, and not at all to fear. For if God be for us, who can be against us? or what is there to fear, when we are thus supported? The disciples of the gospel had many enemies to encounter with. Now with respect to these, the argument may furnish us with great confidence. There is likewise a fear which respects our friends, and that is, a fear of losing theirfavour and assistance; and the more a man is dependant upon his friends, the greater is generally his fear of losing their protection. Of this kind of fear the Apostle speaks in the text, “Work out, &c. for it is a work that you are no ways sufficient for of yourselves; therefore have a care of offending him on whom you entirely depend.” That the Apostle means this kind of fear, may be seen by his own way of reasoning. In the beginning of this chapter, he presses humility upon the Philippians, from the example of Christ, and the great reward he obtained for his glorified humanity on that account; and, as if humility and fear were the same thing, he thus concludes, “Wherefore, my beloved, work out, &c.” If we believe God works in us, it will make us humble, because we can do nothing without him; it will likewise make us fear and tremble to disobey him, from whom our salvation cometh. That this fear is the fear of offending God, and losing his favour, is further evident from Php 2:14. Do all things without, &c. Now, what fear is it that makes men obey cheerfully? Not the fear of punishment; for who grumble more than slaves? But where the fear that possesses the heart is the fear of disobliging a kind friend or beloved master upon whom we depend, there fear gives wings to obedience. Php 2:15 supplies us with the like argument: the words are these; That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, &c. Now then, the fear which the Apostle speaks of is the fear of a son; the fear of offending the father whom he loves; it is a fear which renders obedience blameless, without rebuke; which no fear can do, but a fear of offending him we love, and him we depend on. The reason why we ought to fear, is because God worketh in us, &c. To will and to do good, are terms and conditions of our salvation; and therefore from whence we have the power to will and to do, from thence we have the means of salvation. Now salvation comprehends in it all the good that we are capable of enjoying, without which ourlife is death, and our hope misery: so that if we depend upon God to work in us both to will and to do, we depend upon him for all that is, or can be valuable to man.And farther, God worketh in us of his own good pleasure: we have no right or claim to his assistance except through Christ. All our danger is in losing the favour of God, and therefore for that must be all our fear. But farther, this fear arises from a sense of our own insufficiency; and since God does help our weakness, itis great reason that we should love and adore him: so that the fear which arises hence, is not in the least degree inconsistent with the perfect love of God. Thatit is of his good pleasure that he assists us, is a great evidence of his love to us, and a great argument of our love to him. So that to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, is, “with the utmost care and diligence to set ourselves to perform the will and commands of God, to be diligent to make our calling and election sure.” See the Inferences and Reflections.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Phi 2:12 . [123] To this great example of Jesus Paul now annexes another general admonition, which essentially corresponds with that given in Phi 1:27 , with which he began all this hortatory portion of the epistle (Phi 1:27 to Phi 2:18 ).

] itaque , draws an inference from the example of Christ (Phi 2:6-11 ), who by the path of self-renunciation attained to so glorious a recompense. Following this example, the readers are, just as they had always been obedient, etc., to work out their own salvation with the utmost solicitude. is not, indeed, correlative with . in Phi 2:8 (Theophylact, Calovius, Bengel, and others), as the latter was in what preceded only an accessory definition; but the is correlative with the exaltation of Christ described in Phi 2:9 , of which the future salvation of Christians is the analogue, and, in fact, the joint participation (Rom 8:17 ; Eph 2:6 ; Col 2:12 f., Phi 3:3 f.). Since, therefore, has its logical basis in what immediately precedes, it must not be looked upon as an inference from all the previous admonitions , Phi 1:26 ff., from which it draws the general result (de Wette). It certainly introduces the recapitulation of all the previous exhortations, and winds them up (on account of the new exhortation which follows, see on Phi 2:14 ) as in Phi 4:1 ; 1Th 4:18 ; Rom 7:12 ; 1Co 3:21 ; 1Co 4:5 ; 1Co 5:8 ; 1Co 11:33 ; 1Co 14:39 ; 1Co 15:58 , but in such a way that it joins on to what was last discussed . It is least of all admissible to make, with Hofmann, point backwards to . in Phi 2:2 , so that this prayer “ is repeated in a definitive manner ” by the exhortation introduced with . In that case the apostle, in order to be understood, must at least have inserted a resumptive after , and in the following exhortation must have again indicated, in some way or other, the element of the making joy .

] whom? is neither a question to be left unanswered (Matthies), nor one which does not require an answer (Hofmann). The context yields the supplement here, as well as in Rom 6:16 , Phm 1:21 , 1Pe 1:14 ; and the right supplement is the usual one, viz. mihi , or, more definitely, meo evangelio , as is plain, both from the words which follow , and also from the whole close personal relation, in which Paul brings home to the hearts of his readers his admonitions (from Phi 1:27 down till Phi 2:18 ) as their teacher and friend. On , comp. (Phi 1:5 ). We cannot infer from it a reference to earlier epistles which have been lost (Ewald).

] belongs not to (Luther, Wolf, Heumann, Heinrichs, and others), as is evident from and , but to , so that the comma before is, with Lachmann, to be deleted. Comp. Grotius.

had to be inserted, because Paul would not and could not give an admonition for a time when he would be present. Not perceiving this, B, min., vss., and Fathers have omitted it. If were not inserted, Paul would say: that they should not merely in his presence work out their salvation. But with he says: that they are not to work out their own salvation in such a way as if they were doing it in His presence [124] merely (neglecting it, therefore, in His absence); nay, much more now, during His absence from them, they are to work it out with fear and trembling . There is nothing to be supplied along with , which is the simple modal as , since is connected with the governing verb that follows in the antithesis ( . . . ) as its prefixed negative modal definition: not as in my presence only (not as limiting it to this only) work out your salvation . And the is the antithetic much more, on the contrary, nay . Erasmus, Estius, Hoelemann, Weiss, Hofmann, and others, incorrectly join with , and take in the sense of the degree: not merely so, as ye have done it, or would do it, in my absence; comp. de Wette, who assumes a blending of two comparisons, as does also J. B. Lightfoot. It is arbitrary not to make belong to . . , beside which it stands; comp. also Rom 4:16 (where forms one idea), Php 4:23 ; 1Th 1:5 . Still more arbitrary is it to hamper the flow of the whole, and to break it up in such a way as to insert the imperative after , and then to make . . . a sentence by itself (Hofmann). Moreover, in such a case the arrangement of the words in the alleged apodosis would be illogical; (or, more clearly, ) must have begun it, and must have stood immediately after .

] than if I were present; for now ( ), when they were deprived of the personal teaching, stimulus, guidance, and guardianship of the apostle, moral diligence and zealous solicitude were necessary for them in a far higher measure , in order to fulfil the great personal duty of working out their own salvation. That , therefore, cannot be equivalent to (Flatt, Matthies, and older expositors), is self-evident.

. ] that is, with such earnest solicitude, that ye shall have a lively fear of not doing enough in the matter. Comp. on 1Co 2:3 ; 2Co 7:15 ; Eph 6:5 . . , , Oecumenius. Awe before the presence of God (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius), before the future Judge (Weiss), the feeling of dependence on God (de Wette), a reverential devotion to God (Matthies, comp. van Hengel), and similar ideas, must be implied in the case, but do not constitute the sense of the expression, in which also, according to the context, we are not to seek a contrast to spiritual pride (Schinz, Rilliet, Hoelemann, Wiesinger), as Augustine, Calvin, Bengel, and others have done.

] bring about, peragite (Grotius), “ usque ad metam ” (Bengel), expressing, therefore, more than the simple verb (comp. Eph 6:13 ; Dem. 1121. 19; Plat. Legg . vii. p. 791 A; Eur. Heracl . 1046: ; and see on Rom 1:26 ). The summons itself is not at variance with the principle that salvation is God’s gift of grace, and is prepared for, predestined, and certain to believers; but it justly claims the exercise of the new moral power bestowed on the regenerate man, without the exertion of which he would fall away again from the state of grace to which he had attained in faith, and would not actually become partaker of the salvation appropriated to him by faith, so that the final reception of salvation is so far the result of his moral activity of faith in the . See especially Rom 6:8 ; Rom 6:12 ff., and 2Co 6:1 . Our passage stands in contrast, not to the certitudo salutis , but to the moral securitas , into which the converted person might relapse, if he do not stand fast (Phi 4:1 ; 1Co 10:12 ), and labour at his sanctification (1Th 4:3 ; 1Th 4:7 ; 2Co 7:1 ; 1Ti 2:15 ), etc. Comp. Wuttke, Sittenl . II. 266. The demand is expressed all the more earnestly , the more that the readers have conflict and suffering to endure (Phi 1:27-30 ).

[123] Linden, in the Stud. u. Krit. 1860, p. 750, attempted a new explanation of vv. 12 14. According to this, is to stand for , . to be indicative, . to belong to the protasis, ver. 13 to be treated as a parenthesis, and, finally, the apodosis to follow in . . . Against this view may be simply urged the fact, that (2Th 3:15 ; Phm 1:14 ; 2Co 9:5 ) cannot be equivalent to , and that there must have been used not even , but, on account of the negation of a purely actual relation, ; to say nothing of the involved construction, and of the so special tenor of the alleged apodosis after a preparation of so grand and general a nature by the alleged protasis.

[124] The word does not contain, any more than in Phi 1:26 , a reference to the Parousia of Christ, which Khler (“ye know what this word would properly tell us”) reads between the lines.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

God helps believers in their endeavors to imitate Christ

(Php 2:12-18.)

12Wherefore, my beloved, 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. 13For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of (or for) his good pleasure. 14Do all things without murmurings and disputings [doubtings]. 15That ye may be [become]6 blameless and harmless [pure] (the) sons [children] of God, without rebuke,7 in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation [generation], among whom ye shine [appear] as lights [luminaries]8 in the world, 16holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. 17Yea, and if [But, if also] I be offered upon [in] the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy [rejoice], and I rejoice with you all. 18For the same cause (also) do ye [also] joy [rejoice], and rejoice with me.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Php 2:12. Wherefore, , refers to what precedes, as in Php 4:1. See Winers Gram. p. 301. is correlative with , and corresponds to Php 2:9-11. The exhortation borrows its coloring indeed from Php 2:8-11, but, like the example of Christ adduced as an illustration, it reaches back to the entire course of thought (Php 2:1-11), and hence does not attach itself merely to Php 2:11 (Schenkel), to the last thing discussed (Php 2:6-11, Meyer) or to Php 1:27 ff. (De Wette).My beloved ( ) shows the Apostles joy and deep interest in them (Php 2:2).As ye have always obeyed ( ) singles out the act on the part of the Philippians, upon which he now builds his hope that his exhortation will not be in vain. Mihi ad salutem vos hortanti, ipsique deo (Bengel). The context requires this explanation.Not as in my presence only. belongs to the following imperative (); for if the negative belonged to , with which Luther wrongly connects it, would have been used. , according to its use in a participial clause, points out a possible idea of the Philippians, that such compliance with Pauls admonition must be necessary only in his presence. See Winers Gram. p. 617. Hence it is not a term of comparison (Hlemann).But now much more in my absence ( ) urges the stronger necessity for self-exertion, because they are left to themselves, without the assistance of the Apostle who is now far distant. Quia ego vobis non adesse possum, ipsi vos curateeo magis (Bengel).Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. refers (as in Eph 6:5) to that tender conscientiousness, that fear in the presence of the omnipresent God, which feels that no effort or solicitude can be too great. It does not refer to a servants relation (Bengel: servi esse debetis, examplo Christi, Php 2:8), nor to spiritual pride (Rilliet), nor to resignation to Gods will (Matthies). marks the salvation as that of the Philippians themselves ( not being here used for , Flatt, et al.), who in this case ought to regard the things of themselves ( ) as the glorious end of the . On see Winers Gram., p. 150 sq. : means to bring to pass (perficere usque ad metam, Bengel), for which energetic perseverance is requisite. The mode of this is indicated by , as also by the example of Christ (Php 2:8).

Php 2:13. For it is God who worketh in you ( ). The Apostle strengthens his exhortation here by reminding them that if they disregard it they will not merely suffer personal loss, ( ), but strive against another, the Highest, whose work and working they would disturb and bring to naught. It confirms the entire exhortation, though it designates only the specially as their aim and labor. Thus it is neither a ground of encouragement (Chrysostom, Meyer, et al.), nor an incentive to humility (Calvin, Schenkel, et al.); for it is not designed to confirm exclusively either or . Not with standing Gods activity, which is shown by to be constant, and by to be exerted in the hearts of individuals, every one should be careful both as to what he does or omits to do. Of God it is not said that He effectually works () to will and to do, since He does not indeed accomplish this result in all: but He is only said , because where it is effected, it is not without His assistance; which of course to be effective () requires obedience on their part (). Hlemann wrongly explains as intra ctum vestrum [and others among you.H.]. What God works is especially Both to will and to do, . The first is the self-determination, the second the personal exertion: both take place in the heart of the believer. The first originates, the second carries out in the life; both are conditions of the .Of or for his good pleasure is a nearer limitation of . Gods working has its ground within Himself (His ), and is not occasioned or controlled by anything out of Himself, and in man. The article defines the disposition as well known. Comp. Rom 15:8 : . See Winers Gram. p. 383. [The preposition does not represent the as the mere ratio of the action, or the mere norma according to which it is done, but as the interested cause of it; the commodum of the was that which the action was designed to subserve (Ellicott).H.]. On see Php 1:15; Eph 1:5. The meaning of cannot be , secundum, nor can the of the Philippians be meant (Erasmus, et al.)

Php 2:14. Do all things without murmurings and doubtings. is limited only by the context: all which is to be done in reference to salvation, for which God gives the willing and the working. [The verb () here comprehends in its full compass suffering as well as doing. The patience with which the Christian endures the trials to which God may call him illustrates his character not less decisively than the habit of active obedience.H.] marks only the act, the nature and mode of which are determined by the disposition of the doer ( ). The preposition denotes, like (1Pe 4:9) a separation, but the difference between them is, that the former represents the subject, the latter the object as distant. The Philippians ought to be distant, separated, from murmurings and doubtings; would indicate that these ought to be far from the Philippians (Eph 2:12); and see Tittmann Syn., 1, pp. 9397. The distinction between the two substantives is, that the first () belongs to the unwilling, weak, and still stubborn spirit, the second () to the doubtful spirit, which does not see its way clearly. The former proceeds from the will, the latter from the intellect. Schenkel refers the first to the defiant, the second to the timid heart. Bengel supposes the in Php 2:15 to refer back to , and to . We are not to understand by the latter term disputation, controversy (Wieseler, Erasmus, et al.), contrary to the usage of the New Testament. This word is not to be limited, as e.g. to God only (Meyer, et al.), to superiors (Estius, et al.), or fellow Christians (Calvin, Wieseler, et al.). [As is the moral, so is the intellectual rebellion against God (Lightfoot).H.]

Php 2:15. That ye may become blameless and pure. marks the end, the way, which is a becoming, a process of development. , unblamable, those (according to the Greek form) in whom there is nothing to blame (1Th 3:13), represents the moral integrity as manifesting itself outwardly; (from ), unmixed (Rom 16:19; Mat 10:16), presents the same according to its inner character (Meyer). The first is that from which we can judge of the second, for it is the condition of it; the inward answers to the outward.Children of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation [not nation as in the A. V.H.] sums up both predicates, such are they as Christians: but in Christ (Eph 1:5; Gal 4:5) they should become (without , Eph 1:4; Eph 5:27; Col 1:22, in quo non est, quod reprehendatur), or (from , 2Pe 3:14, qui reprehendi non potest), and this in spite of and in their actual circumstances. (here as a preposition, see Winers Gram., p. 471) . Comp. Act 2:40; 1Pe 2:18; Mat 17:17; Luk 9:41. is used de tatis alicujus hominibus. The first adjective describes the outward, dishonest, perverted demeanor; the second the inward, distorted character. Manifestly there is an allusion here to a passage in the important chapter which serves as a basis of prophecy (Deu 32:5): , .Among whom ye shine as luminaries in the world. [The active () means to shine (see Joh 1:5; 2Pe 1:19; Rev 1:16); but the middle means to appear, as in Mat 18:27; 1Pe 4:18 and Jam 4:14. The A. V. does not always observe the distinction.H.] belongs ad sensum to (Winers Gram., p. 141). The verb, , not , describes their becoming visible, being recognized as Gods children. Hence it is not lucetis (Bengel), still less is it the imperative (Pelagius, Erasmus, et al.). [Christians were not to be, but now actually were, as luminaries in a dark, heathen world (Ellicott).H.] The apostle calls to their mind what they are, in order that they may show themselves to be such. But introduces a new figure, to designate the immoral character of the world: Christians are the stars, illuminators, , in the world, which in itself is as dark as night. Hence is not to be joined with (De Wette), nor is to be supplied (Rilliet, et al.); neither is it equivalent to in the heavens (Rheinwald), nor is it dat. commodi, for the world (Storr). [This form () occurs elsewhere in the N. T. only in Rev 21:11, where it has the same sense.H.]

Php 2:16. Holding forth the word of life, presents the mode of the . receives illustration from the connection which exists between life and light (Joh 1:4 : ): life is light, Christ is the life (Joh 6:48; Joh 14:6) and the light (Joh 8:12; Joh 9:5; Joh 12:46), and indeed the source of them; His followers are also light, but it is a derived light (Mat 5:14); the essence of the gospel is light (Eph 5:8; Col 1:12), and the life is in the word, and as the thought breaks forth in the word, so also the light and the life. Accordingly is used and not merely . The Christian holds forth the word of life, living it, living out what is living within him. Hence (Theodoret) is incorrect, for we have not the dative (Act 3:5); and so also is holding fast (Luther).The aim and result is: That I may rejoice in [or, more literally, for a rejoicing to me against] the day of Christ ( ). Comp. Php 1:10; Php 1:26. The cause of his rejoicing then will be: That I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain ( ). The first expression, which recalls the contests of the stadium or race, denotes his zeal and the wide reach of his activity (not confined to one place); the second (derived from , toil) indicates the labor and effort which his ministry involves. The modifying follows: in vain, i.e. without fruit or result (2Co 6:1; Gal 2:2; 1Th 3:5), which thus occasions the repetition, and does not merely arise from his feeling of joy in the consciousness that such is the result (Meyer).

Php 2:17. But if also I be offered. introduces an antithesis which shows to be conditional. What this antithesis is, before shows. [My labors have been severe, unintermitted. But not content with this I am willing (if that is reserved for me) to suffer a martyrs death.H.] The meaning of is: I am poured out as a drink-offering, presented as a libation, as in 2Ti 4:6. Comp. Num 28:7; Num 15:4 sq. [The present tense represents the act as in progress. If I am being poured out, etc.H.] The libation-wine, set apart from its common use, serving as an expression of joy (Psa 104:15; Ecc 10:19), as an image of quickening grace (Pro 9:2; Isa 55:1), as a sweet savor (2Co 3:15; Rom 15:16), serves to represent the Apostle (separated from them by his ), as giving up his personal and official ego, his life and his desires, pouring out in a martyrs death his blood as a sweet savor. The Apostles death by the sword is here alluded to, the present marking it as impending (Php 1:20). connects this death by martyrdom with and , his sufferings with his labors; the latter have not been fruitless, and the former also shall not be so.Hence the following is added: Upon (in) the sacrifice and service of your faith. points to the circumstances of the ; this takes place in . Both are united under one article, and are hence conceived of as a unity. The second is the priestly service (Luk 1:23; Heb 8:6), hence the first is the act of offering, not victima (Wiesinger). The offering itself is designated by the genitive: , with respect to which the Apostle exercises his priestly functions, presenting it to God, while he himself is the accompanying drink-offering, since his blood is poured forth. As the former results in his glory, so now this results in his joy. [The Hebrews, in offering their sacrifices, poured out often a libation or drink-offering at the same time. See Exo 29:40; Num 28:7. The costume of the thought in this passage is evidently derived from that practice. The faith of the Philippians, according to the Apostles allusion, is viewed as a sacrifice which they have brought to the altar for the purpose of presenting it to God. The Apostle himself with reference to his agency in their salvation, officiates as the priest who offers this sacrifice for them. The act of presenting it is styled here a , i.e., as the word imports, a sacerdotal service, or ministry (see Luk 1:23; Heb 8:6). Paul declares now, in the ardor of his affection for the Philippians, that if it be necessary in order that he may discharge his priestly office more perfectly, or that the sacrifice of their faith may be more acceptable unto God, that his blood should be shed as a libation for them, he is willing to die in their behalf. He has in view the possibility of his martyrdom, and the effect which he hopes may result from that event, in strengthening their faith and preparing them for heaven.H.] Rilliets rendering of , I am sprinkled, is incorrect, for it is the present tense; has not the sense of to (Wiesinger), or super (Van Hengel), since is not victima. There is no antithesis here to Php 1:25 (De Wette), of which no reader would readily think, for what intervenes (Php 1:26 to Php 2:1 sq.) makes that connection at too remote places, or to Php 1:25, as if he had hoped to live to see the perfection of his readers, but now supposes the opposite (Meyer, Wiesinger, et al.), or as if he had thought at first that he should live to see the coming of the Lord (Van Hengel) which is not here in question. It should not be joined with the following (Bengel).I rejoice, and rejoice with you all, . Theophylact , Paul rejoices in the prospect of a martyrs death; but not for himself merely; he rejoices with the Church also, which will thus experience and acknowledge the blessing of martyrdom. Meyer, contrary to the usus loquendi of the New Testament (Luk 1:58; Luk 15:6; Luk 15:9; 1Co 12:26; 1Co 13:6, where it means in each case to rejoice with others) takes as congratulor together with the Vulg., Bengel, et al. [This is also Lightfoots interpretation.H.]

Php 2:18. For the same cause ( , governed by the verb) presents the cause of the joy to which in conclusion he earnestly exhorts them from his example. [Instead of being grieved that they should be such gainers at his expense, he would have them share his joy in being permitted to yield up his life with such gain to himself and such benefit to them.H.]Do ye also rejoice, and rejoice with me, . These are imperatives, not indicatives (Erasmus). The following explanations are wrong: gratulamini mihi, libato (Bengel); subauditur with (Beza); = (Rheinwald, Rilliet, Wiesinger, who cites Mat 27:44). Bengel: martyrii prstantia.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. A great blessing rests upon fellowship with Christians, whether they be mature or not (Php 2:12), for it tends to the development of Christian character and life; but not merely upon fellowship with those who are present to the senses: the spiritual man ought to make his influence reach to the absent also. The more he does this the better.

2. In connection with faith which comes from the preaching of the divine word (Rom 10:17 : , ), obedience is demanded (, Php 2:12 : ). This gives keenness to the tender conscience, which dreads to disregard or to seem to cast contempt upon God and His gifts ( ). Quamvis enim gratis in uno Christo per fidem apprehenso servemur, tamen per viam justiti ad salutem contendere nos oportet, cum filii dei ejus spiritu ducantur (Beza), hence they must follow, because in His strength they are able to do it. We belong to God through Christ, and we should, by obedience to Him and to His word, prove this relationship.

3. Our salvation is as much Gods work as our own. The beginning of a new life in the soul is entirely an act of God, which the Holy Spirit effects in our spirit, but not in our consciousness; yet in such a manner that we become conscious of it as an act of God. We do not create ourselves men; God creates us (Harless, Ethics, p. 229). He works in us constantly the willing and the doing. But we can resist Him, withdraw ourselves from Him. He does not work irresistibly, determinatively. But because He works thus in us, we may not remain idle, we must be fearful lest we lose this work of grace, fearful on account of our weakness, and the dangers in and around us, and must cherish and follow this willing and working effected by God.

4. [Neander:Paul always represents the salvation of man as something which can be accomplished only through the grace of God as the work of God in man. But he adds (Php 2:13) a more exact designation of the temper of heart with which Christians should work out their salvation, viz., with fear and trembling. This would not be appropriate if he were speaking of what lay merely in the hand of man, in which case all would depend upon his own strength. It is because Paul is conscious of the weakness and insufficiency of all human strength, because he presupposes that man can do nothing without God, and must constantly watch over himself, lest through his own fault he lose the aid of divine grace, without which all human efforts are in vain; it is for this reason that he designates this temper of mind as one of fear and trembling, as the feeling of personal accountability and helplessness, of insecurity and instability in ourselves, by which we may be ever admonished to continual watchfulness, and to ever-renewed waiting upon God as the fountain of all our strength. Hence, as the ground of such an admonition, he appeals to this consciousness that we can of ourselves do nothing, that it is God who alone bestows upon us the power to will and to perform what is needful to our salvation; that all, indeed, depends upon his sovereign will. This feeling of dependence, the ground-tone of the Christian life, is ever to be maintained. It is this which must combat the presumption of a vain human self-reliance, which, finding itself deceived in the result, so easily gives place to dejection and despair. (See Php 2:12-13.H.].

5. The goal is reached by a gradual process (Php 2:15 : ). Renovatio non est talis mutatio, qu uno momenta statim omnibus suis partibus perficiatur ac absolvatur, sed habet sua initia, suos progressus, quibus in magna infirmitate perficitur. (Gerhard, loc. xii. 9, 126). Fiunt in conversione inchoaliones similes conceptioni, non tamen solum concipi, sed et nasci opus est; nihil tamen horum fit sine gratuita del misericordia (Augustine).

6. may not be omitted, for in the renovatio just as full a view is given of the magna potentia Dei as of the magna infirmitas hominis. But must be absent, for the first springs from self-confidence, contentment with ones self, the second from mistrust towards God and His gifts as the source of power; the first excites a sullen will towards God, the second turns the confused spirit away from God, and ends in despair.

7. Every Christian has a mission in the world, to let his light shine round about him, and to be anxious that the darkness of the world, though it is around him, shall on this very account not be and remain in him.
8. The word of God must, as a word of life, manifest itself actively in the personal traits of the Christian, that there may be an eloquent sermon without word of mouth, in the still, noiseless walk and character.

9. As death is no loss to the Christian, still less is the martyrs death, which is rather a ground and cause of thankful joy for the Church and for the martyr himself.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The work of thy salvation is (1) Gods work wrought upon thee and in thee; (2) the work of the Church, within which it takes place; (3) thine own work, since thou consentest to it.God does not give thee the flower and the fruit of salvation, but the seed, the sunshine and the rain. He does not give houses, nor yet beams and squared stones, but trees, and rocks, and limestone, and says: Now build thyself a house. Regard not Gods work within thee as an anchor to hold thy bank firmly to the shore, but as a sail which shall carry it to its port.Fear thy depression and faint-heartedness, but take courage at thy humility before God. Consider Gods gifts, thy employment of them, the final reckoning before Him. Ever become more and more what thou really art, a light in the world.Even in sorrow and the deepest pain, overlook not the reasons for joy.

Starke:Behold the character of righteous children, scholars, and hearers, who in their parents and teachers really see God, and therefore are obedient, as well in their absence as in their presence, since they have the everywhere-present God before their eyes and in their hearts. Our Christianity does not lead one to hide himself in deserts and convents, and thus to remain blameless, but in the midst of the perverted, degenerate world to guard himself from sin. Such knighthood will God have from us.When the joy of the children of this world ceases, then the joy of the faithful first really begins; and the ability to rejoice in extreme sufferings, even in death itself, is a proof of the truth and excellence of the Christian religion.

Rieger:We ought never to forget the danger of being lost, to which we are exposed so long as we live in a body of sin and death, and amid the temptations of the world; and therefore we ought not to regard ourselves as beyond fear and trembling.God does not compel and overpower us by His working, like a block. Man can do nothing without God, and God will do nothing without man and his awakened will.As surely as God does nothing against His honor, so surely will He do nothing against our salvation.Doubting is opposed to faith, murmuring, to love. Even now at the departure of favored children of God, the grace which has been made known in them sweetens perceptibly all sorrow over their loss, and prevents any wish to bring them back again.

Gerlach:The believing Christian is awakened and moved by Gods power. It is mighty in him. But he ought also to give himself up to it without reservation, neither opposing Gods will by murmuring, a disposition directly contrary to it, nor concealing his disobedience behind doubts, subtleties, and questions.

Schleiermacher:We ought to fear and tremble for ourselves as soon as we perceive the thought of future blessedness becoming dim in our souls, or the longing for it becoming languid in our hearts.Every one who has such fear of that which may bring upon us adversity, every one who through this fear denies the Redeemer before men, should consider that it was the will of our dying Redeemer that His followers should take His cross upon them as their own. But we can take it upon us only in the faithful and unwearied service of truth and goodness, and of all that we recognize as the will of God.

Menken:The willing is of God and the ability to do is of God; but the using, the action, the life in conformity with such divinely awakened willing and divinely bestowed ability, is ours, is dependent upon us, upon our faithfulness.He who could think that God indeed works in him the willing but not the performing, or that to-day he gives the willing, but the performing not until after days and years, or even not until the future life, would in that error utter a falsehood concerning God, and would deny Him.No disposition of heart in which love and faith are wanting accords with the spirit of truth and holiness.So also no work is good and pleasing to God by which love and faith are injured.There is something lovely and benevolent about a man who performs every good deed as freely, as joyfully, as kindly, as if it had not been a duty at all, as if no law had enjoined it, no fear compelled it, as if, instead of proving difficult, it had cost no self-denial and no effort, as if it had sprung forth with delight and joy from his very nature, from the rich treasure of his goodness and his love. How ungracious and unlovely on the other hand is every word, and work, and endurance, in which we detect compulsion, secret reluctance, and vexation, an inward, restrained murmuring, that says to us plainly enough: all this would not be done, were it not compelled.The worth and the good conduct of the child of God should not be the pitiable product of favorable circumstances, not that miserable, godless virtue which is ever dependent on outward circumstances, and changes as often as they change.The Holy Scriptures contain not an empty, unpractical theory, not a rule for those who dwell in heaven, but instruction for us who live in the midst of the world, who are on the field of battle, and whose life, on account of our own inward character and relation to the world, can be nothing else but a struggle, and who can attain to freedom and peace only through manifold victories.It was in general characteristic of the Apostle to be moved, awakened, strengthened and exalted by nothing so quickly, so deeply, so powerfully, in the depths of his heart, as by a glance forward to the day of Christ (Php 2:16).

Heubner:With real Christians there should be no need of any Mentor, of any higher power whose presence alone could compel them to obedience; they should do the right, no matter whether any one sees or not. With many, doing right is but an eye-service, and with such the law itself is at bottom only one more bugbear.Christianity does not enjoin anxious scrupulousness and gloomy self-mortification, but it forbids bold assurance and defiant self-confidence. This thoughtit is possible for thee to lose thy salvationcan never be fearful enough to us. We should tremble at the ideait is possible for thee to be cast off from God.Man must strive as though he could do all, as though all depended on himself. Joy and love in obedience characterize the Christian as a child of God, as a son in distinction from a slave.Christians should stand in contrast with their age, should constitute the lite, and serve as models for others around them.The fickle sparkle at times; the truly pious burn evenly on.The service of sin consumes alsobut it destroys the best part of the man.

Passavant:Fear and trembling, before the face of the thrice Holy One; before an unholy world, which ensnares us on every side with the allurements of sin, so that we become partakers of its sins; before ourselves, before this heart which, consciously or unconsciously, joins so readily with Satan and the world in lust and malice, which conceals within itself so many a lust, so many a lie, and so many a power of evila manifold tinder of destruction.

Meyer:Only blessed! is the inscription over every pious Christians door, as it is over the pastors study, over font, altar, pulpit, grave. Strive that thou mayest be blessed.(1) Your salvation your care; (2) your salvation Gods work. The defiant heart has heard the admonition to penitence, work out!the timid heart the assurance, it is God!

Footnotes:

[6]Php 2:15. in B, et al. has better support than in A, et al.

[7]Ibid. , found in A B C et al., is better supported than , but as the more common form in the N. T. might more readily displace the latter, than the reverse.

[8][Ibid. The Greek for luminaries (), says Lightfoot, is used almost exclusively of the heavenly bodies. It occurs again in the N. T. only in Rev 21:11, where also it should be so rendered.H.].

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

DISCOURSE: 2147
GOD ASSISTS THE DILIGENT

Php 2:12-13. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

THERE is no person, however eminent his attainments in religion may be, who does not need to be exhorted and urged to press forward. The Philippians, in the judgment of the Apostle, had had the good work begun in them; yea, they had obeyed the word while he was with them, and had made a still greater proficiency since his departure from them: yet he animates them to further exertions, and enforces his exhortation with the strongest arguments. Thus should all Christian ministers put their people in remembrance of these things, notwithstanding they may already know them, or even be established in the truth. Let us then receive the Apostles words as addressed to ourselves in particular, while we consider,

I.

The exhortation

God commands us to work out our salvation
[We are not to imagine that salvation is either the reward of our merits, or the effect of our unassisted exertions; for if, as our Lord assures us, without him we can do nothing, it is evident that we are far enough from being able to keep the whole law of God; which yet we must do, if we are to receive heaven on the ground of our own righteousness. Nevertheless we have a work to do, a work of infinite importance, in performing which we are not mere machines, but voluntary agents: and on our performing of that work our salvation depends [Note: See Act 27:25; Act 27:31.]. We must consider our ways, repent of sin, believe the Gospel, and devote ourselves to God, not indeed as conceiving ourselves sufficient for these things, but in dependence on that aid, which God will afford to all who seek him in sincerity and truth.]

But we must engage in this work with fear and trembling
[The terms fear and trembling do not import a slavish dread and terror, but a holy vigilance and circumspection [Note: This is the meaning of it in every place where it occurs:see 1Co 2:3. 2Co 7:15 and Eph 6:5. That it cannot mean slavish fear is evident from Rom 8:15; Rom 7:6.]. And there is great need of this in working out our salvation. Let us only consider how many lusts we have to mortify, and how many duties to perform; how many temptations we have to withstand, and adversaries to overcome; how prone we are to err, and how many devices Satan uses in order to deceive us; how insufficient we are of ourselves for this great work, and how awful would be the consequences of miscarrying in it; and we shall readily acknowledge that our utmost caution is little enough. St. Paul felt the force of these considerations; and notwithstanding he knew himself to be a chosen vessel unto God, he kept his body under, and brought it into subjection, lest by any means, after having preached to others, he himself should be a cast-away [Note: 1Co 9:27.].]

That we may all be led to comply with this advice, let us consider,

II.

The argument with which it is enforced

To see the full force of this argument we must view it,

1.

As a call on our gratitude

[Having commended the Philippians for their obedience to God, he reminds them, whence it was that they were made to differ from others. They were by nature as destitute of any ability or inclination to serve God as any other people upon earth: but God, of his own good pleasure, and without respect to any thing in them, had given them both to will and to do what was acceptable in his sight. Now this sovereign act of grace laid them under a tenfold obligation to love and serve him: they must be vile indeed, if such love did not constrain them to obedience. Have any of us then been converted by the grace of God, and been made willing in the day of his power? Let us consider this mercy as the strongest of all motives for yielding up ourselves as living sacrifices, holy, and acceptable to him, as our reasonable service [Note: Rom 12:1.]. Are we a chosen generation, that had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy? Let us exert ourselves to the utmost to shew forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light [Note: 1Pe 2:9-10.].]

2.

As an antidote to our fears

[It is difficult to feel the importance of eternal things, and not give way to secret fears and misgivings, respecting the final success of our present exertions. And indeed, if we were required to work out our salvation by our own strength, we might well yield, not only to fear, but to utter despondency. But the argument urged by the Apostle removes our apprehensions by assuring us, that He, who has given us the will, will also give us the power, to obey him [Note: The text, with Isa 41:10.]. It is not to mock us that God has created in us a disposition to what is good: it is not to abandon us at last that he has hitherto given grace sufficient for us: his past favours are an earnest and pledge of others yet to come: he will continue to strengthen us in our inward man, and will perfect his own strength in our weakness [Note: Php 4:13. with 2Co 12:9.]. Let us then acknowledge the force of the argument in this view; and, assured that our strength shall be according to our day, let us be steadfast, immoveable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as we know that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord [Note: 1Co 15:58.].]

3.

As an incentive to vigilance

[Since it is God who gives us both to will and to do, and that entirely of his own good pleasure, we must of necessity be altogether dependent on him; if he keep us we shall stand: if he leave us, we shall fall. Now God is a jealous God; and will surely manifest his displeasure if we walk unwatch-fully before him. We may easily grieve his Spirit [Note: Eph 4:30.]; yea, if we continue in wilful habits of neglect, or in any allowed sin, we may quench his Spirit [Note: 1Th 5:19.]; for he has warned us that his Spirit shall not always strive with man [Note: Gen 6:3.]; and that, if we rebel and vex his Holy Spirit, he will turn and become our enemy [Note: Isa 63:10. Exo 23:21.]. The Israelites, who, notwithstanding they were brought out of Egypt, and fed with manna from heaven, perished in the wilderness, are set forth as examples to us [Note: 1Co 10:11.]. And to many under temporal or spiritual afflictions may that pungent question be addressed, Hast thou not procured this to thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord, when he led thee by the way [Note: Jer 2:17.]? Well may this consideration stir us up to watchfulness and circumspection, lest by intermitting our labours, and relaxing our exertions in the work of our salvation, we bring upon ourselves his heavy displeasure [Note: 2Ch 15:2.].]

From hence we may see,

1.

The beauty and harmony of Scripture doctrines

[Our entire dependence on divine grace, together with the absolute sovereignty of God in the distribution of his favours, are here clearly stated. Yet the necessity of our working out our own salvation is as strongly declared, as if every thing depended on our own efforts. Now these are often set in opposition to each other, as though they were contrary and inconsistent doctrines. But God sees no inconsistency in them; nor shall we, if we only once learn to receive the Scriptures with the simplicity of little children, instead of presuming to be wise above what is written. On the contrary, the two doctrines are perfectly harmonious; nor is there any stronger argument for exertions on our part, than the freeness and sufficiency of Gods grace. Let us not then set altar against altar, and doctrine against doctrine, but join in our experience those things which God has indissolubly united, and which are equally essential to our eternal welfare.]

2.

The folly of the excuses which men urge in justification of their own supineness

[One says, It is in vain for me to attempt working, unless God work in me both to will and to do what he commands. But will any man forbear to plough and sow his ground, because he cannot ensure a harvest? We are to work out our salvation to the utmost of our power, and to call upon God for all necessary assistance: it is in activity, and not in sloth, that we are to expect his aid; Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead; and Christ will give thee light; and if we will not put forth the little strength we have, we must reap to all eternity the bitter fruits of our own supineness.
Another says, I need not concern myself much about the present state of my soul; for if God has ordained me to life, I shall live; and if he has begun the good work in me, he will carry it on. But to what purpose has God enjoined fear and trembling, if we are at liberty to indulge such a presumptuous confidence, as this? It is true, that God will keep the feet of his saints; but it is by fear and trembling that he will keep them; his injunctions are, Be not high-minded, but fear [Note: Rom 11:20.]. And, Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall [Note: 1Co 10:12.].

Let not then the doctrines of grace be so perverted and abused: but let us exert ourselves, as if we could do all; and depend on God, as knowing that, without him, we can do nothing]

3.

The firmness of the believers hopes

[While the believer is maintaining continual watchfulness and care, he still enjoys peace in his soul, and oftentimes a full assurance of hope. But on what is his hope founded? Is it on his own resolution, zeal, and steadfastness? Nothing is further from his mind: he relies on the sovereignty, the power, and the faithfulness of his God. Gods grace is his own, and he disposes of it according to his own good pleasure; therefore the believer, while he feels himself the most unworthy of the human race, hopes that God will shew forth the exceeding riches of his grace in acts of kindness towards him. God is able to keep him from falling; and therefore the believer says, I know in whom I have believed, that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him [Note: 2Ti 1:12.]. And lastly, God has confirmed his promise with an oath; and therefore they who have fled for refuge to the Lord Jesus, have strong consolation; because it is impossible for God to lie; and he is faithful who hath promised [Note: Heb 6:17-18.]. Thus we see that the weakest Christian stands on a rock, which defies all the storms and tempests that ever can assail it. Let us then be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, and look to him to fulfil in us all the good pleasure of his will, and to preserve us blameless unto his heavenly kingdom.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

(12) Wherefore, my beloved, 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. (13) For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

I pause over these verses, to consider them by themselves, as they ought to be considered. For, notwithstanding they begin with a Wherefore, yet they do not seem to have any immediate connection, with what was said before, or what follows. And I pause over them the rather, because, perhaps few verses in the word of God, have been more insisted upon, by a certain persuasion of men, in bringing them forward to support their different opinions, by way of strengthening, as they would fain suppose, their favorite doctrines. Reader! it would be always well, if we were to come to the Scriptures with a teachable mind to learn and not with a view to teach, or to take portions of them here and there, to give a supposed strength to our own opinion, already formed. If, like children, and with the simplicity of little children, (for the highest taught child of God in this life is no more,) we were all to sit at the feet of Jesus for instruction; party spirit, would not then be carried to the extent, to which it sometimes most unhappily is.

In relation to this well-known passage, in which we are commanded to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; the words which immediately follow, (and which from the word for, seems very plainly to intimate, that they are to be joined to what went before,) gives the reason for this great attention: because, it is God which worketh in you, both to will, and to do, of his good pleasure. In humbly offering my judgment upon the passage, I shall rather do it by enquiry, than by decision; rather in proposing to the Reader, what appears to me to be the genuine sense of it, than in positively saying, what it is. I would, therefore, very meekly ask, whether it can be supposed, that the Holy Ghost, when commanding the Church to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, meant to intimate, that salvation was in any part procurable by man’s work, instead of Christ’s blood, and righteousness? Doth not God the Holy Ghost, in every part of his Scriptures, ascribe the whole of salvation to the Lord Jesus? Are we not told, again and again, that there is salvation in no other? Nay, is not every part, and portion of salvation, from beginning to end, in awakening, regenerating, redeeming, justifying, sanctifying grace; all expressly said, to be God’s gift, and not man’s deservings? And, is not Christ himself declared to be, both the Alpha, and Omega; the Author, and the Finisher, of our faith? When the Reader hath duly pondered these things, I would beg his attention to the further view of the subject.

Upon the supposition, that any part of salvation depended upon our working it out, while, by so much, the infinitely precious value of Christ’s blood and righteousness is thereby lessened, as not being the whole cause of acceptance before God, but depending at the same time, upon our working out our own salvation, to co-operate with it; it becomes a question of vast moment, to ascertain, in what way, and by what means, this working out is to be accomplished; since the word of God uniformly in every part, most decidedly declares, and every child of God, savingly called by grace, daily knows the same, that we are not sufficient of ourselves to think (much less to do,) anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. 2Co 3:5 . If the working out our own salvation, here spoken of, with fear and trembling, be meant to imply, an atom, by way of assisting in the cause, or of obtaining acceptance with God, would it not have been said: what work of this meritorious kind became necessary; and what things are essential, to the accomplishment of this purpose? If working, according to our general idea of working in labors after holiness, and the like, be here meant; would the Holy Ghost have left the subject in so undetermined a manner, without particularly specifying, what works those were, which in fear and trembling, we were to secure our own salvation by; and which, if this be supposed the sense of the expression to work, lessens, if not totally throws to the ground, the merits of Christ’s death; and raiseth up causes for our taking confidence before God for our good works, which all the other parts of Scripture unceasingly labor to destroy.

If it be asked, in what sense I accept this Scripture I humbly answer; I accept it simply as the whole passage stands altogether, one complete whole. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do, of his good pleasure. If it be God, which worketh in me to will; so that I cannot will a good thought, or intention, without the Lord willeth it in me, neither when the Lord hath worked in me that will; I cannot do that good purpose, without he that first moved it, gives energy to the performance of it, well doth it become me to be always alive and active in the important work, which this Almighty mover is, working in me, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. The work I am thus working out, is not the work of labor, or of merit, or of justification, or of recommendation to God, but simply an employment, in a constant attendance upon it, and that of such earnestness and anxiety, as men of the world, when engaged in an arduous concern, are fearful and trembling in, lest they should fail of success. Not a bondage fear, but an holy, child-like fear. Not a fear of the loss of divine love for the adoption of children prevents such apprehensions, and the faithful Covenant promises of God in Christ, render it impossible. But the fear of an holy weariness in the path of grace, as those who rejoice in full assurance of faith, but rejoice with trembling. Beholding the wreck of our fallen nature, in the instance of the floating carcases all around, we bless the God of our salvation, that he hath brought us by his grace safe on shore, while we tremble to look back and see the tremendous storm from whence we have escaped. If this be the meaning of the passage it is truly blessed, and in exact conformity to the whole tenor of Scripture. I find, through grace, the Lord working in me, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. He worketh in me, to show me my total helplessness in myself, and my complete all-sufficiency in Christ. Conscious of the infinite importance of salvation, I feel the Lord’s grace, prompting me to an unceasing desire after the Lord, so that I am working from life, not for life; from grace, not for grace. And thus I am going humbly and softly all my days, as one, who hath an object of such infinite moment before him, that while rejoicing in Christ, I am trembling in myself. These are my views of the scripture, and which I now leave with the Reader to his own judgment, under the Lord’s blessing.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

XXVI

PAUL’S LIBATION AND THE CHRISTIAN’S GROWTH IN GRACE

Phi 2:12-3:14 .

Salvation in us (Phi 2:12-18 ). This paragraph, like the foregoing one, is a part of the exhortation commencing: “Live your citizen life” (Phi 1:27 ). Take it all in all, it is the highest model of exhortation in all literature. An aged Baptist cannot read it without a sigh of regret over our pulpit decadance in the power of exhortation a power like an electric storm bringing into rapid play all the elemental forces of land and sky, a spiritual storm that buried doctrines as thunderbolts on the head while seismic upheavals shook the foundations under the feet. When we recall the rugged and doctrinal forcefulness of our less cultivated fathers, our own tame, mild, and polite exhortations are as the cooing of a fledgling dove compared with the roaring of a Numidian lion. Alas! The exhorter has left us! This mighty special gift of the Spirit (Rom 12:8 ) is no more coveted and honored among us.

It would pay us to swap off a lot of our weak preachers for a few old-time exhorting deacons. Teaching appeals to the head; exhortation to the heart. Teaching instructs; exhortation applies. Teaching illumines; exhortation awakens and stirs; it rings alarm bells, kindles beacon flames on the mountains, fires signal guns, blows trumpets, unfurls warflags and beats the bass drum. But exhortation is only harmless thunder without the lightning bolt of doctrine. We must not mistake “hollerin,” for exhortation, nor perspiration for inspiration. O that this generation could have heard J. W. D. Creath, Micajah Cole, Deacon Pruitt, and Judge A. S. Broadus exhort in great revival meetings, while strong men wept, enemies became reconciled, and love illumined and beautified rugged, homely faces! Then as Christian fire attained a white heat, the lost soul, pierced through and through by fiery arrows of conviction, cried out’ “God be merciful to me the sinner,” or, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And Heaven came down our souls to greet, And glory crowned the Mercy Seat.

It must be understood that this exhortation from first to last is addressed to Christians to citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem. It is not an exhortation to sinners to flee from the wrath to come not an appeal to the lost to accept by simple faith, without works, the salvation done for us in expiation and justification, but to Christians to work out the salvation of sanctification, God’s prevenient grace working in us, both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.

This letter, more than any other, sharply distinguishes between the external and the internal salvation. The external salvation is complete expiation of sin by the Son alone, eternal and irreversible justification by the Father alone, and the internal salvation is regeneration, sanctification, and glorification by the Holy Spirit alone. The Spirit gives life to the soul in regeneration; that life is developed and perfected in sanctification. Our working out salvation is in co-operating with the Spirit in developing and perfecting the life commenced in regeneration. As a means or merit towards justification our works are an offense toward God and a blasphemous attempt to usurp the office of our Lord Jesus Christ. See Rom 2:27-28 . Furthermore, as a means or merit toward regeneration, works on our part are an offense toward God, as Paul testifies later (Eph 2:4-10 ; Tit 3:4-5 ). Regeneration is a creation unto good works. The salvation that we are exhorted to work out is sanctification, and even in sanctification the prevenient grace of God works in us, both to will the work and to do it. All the exhortations in this letter are towards sanctification, a cultivating and developing of the Christian life.

There are several special points in the exhortation (Phi 2:12-18 ):

1. “Don’t depend on Paul he is absent you, yourselves, work out your own salvation. It is your salvation, not his.”

2. “Depend on God he is always present to enable you both to will and to perform.”

3. The manner of the obedience is “without murmurings and questionings,” an evident allusion to Israel’s misconduct in the wilderness, more elaborately treated in 1Co 10 .

4. The end of the working out: (1) As to themselves was blameless harmless without blemish. See Eph 5:27 ; 1Th 5:23 . (2) As to the world was that they might be seen as lights, holding forth the Word of Life. (3) As to Paul was that he might have whereof to glory in the day of Christ, proving that he had not run in vain nor labored in vain. (4) As to both Paul and themselves, in case he suffered martyrdom at that time was that he would be a libation poured out on the sacrifice and service of their faith, to their mutual joy.

On this reference to the drink offering, which was the liquid part, i.e., the wine, of the meal offering, observe:

1. It was not itself a bloody or an atoning sacrifice, but an act of worship following propitiation, expressive of dependence on the divine favor for all the blessings of temporal prosperity and of appreciation thereof.

2. A part of the offering was burned with incense, the incense representing their prayers to or worship of God, the burning representing God’s acceptance of their sacrifice, but the wine was poured on or around the altar. (See first recorded instance of the drink offering poured on the altar, Gen 35:14 .)

3. The Philippian contribution to God, in the person of his apostle, is the New Testament fulfilment of the old typical meal-offering a spiritual sacrifice of the new regime. See the thought elaborated at the close of the letter: “I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things that came from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God” (Phi 4:18-19 ) and a similar reference in 2Co 9:10-15 .

All this leads to the explanation of the apostle’s meaning when he says, “Yea, and if I am poured out upon the sacrifice and service of your faith,” which means that in case of his martyrdom at that time his blood would represent the outpoured wine, or drink-offering, completing their spiritual meal-offering. The sacrifice would then be a joint one, their part representing the meal, oil, and incense, and his part the libation of wine; hence the consequent mutual joy. I have been thus particular in this explanation to save you from adopting two errors of many commentators, to wit:

1. That Paul follows the idea of the heathen sacrifice rather than the idea of the ritual of Old Testament law.

2. That the thought of the passage is that Paul is acting as the priest in presenting the Philippian sacrifice, and while so acting is slain, pouring out his blood on their sacrifices, as Pilate mingled the blood of the Galileans with their sacrifices. Both of these are grave errors and utterly untenable. The New Testament spiritual sacrifices never fulfil heathen types, and particularly in the New Testament economy the kingdom officers are never the priests of the people. Every citizen of Christ’s kingdom is a priest unto God, and without a human “go-between” directly offers to God his own spiritual sacrifices through Jesus Christ himself, the only mediator between God and man.

It is one of the deadliest errors of the Papacy that Christians require a human priest to mediate their offerings. Neither apostle, pastor, evangelist, nor any of the saints, nor the Virgin Mary exercise such functions. It is blasphemy against Christ and subversive of the priesthood of each individual saint. The New Testament knocks out the middleman. We want not the shadow of a human priest to fall on our cradle, our absolution, our Bible, our marriages, our Christian offerings, our observance of the Lord’s Supper, our death, the sepulture of our bones, our disembodied souls.

There can be no more beautiful thought than Paul’s conception; his pouring out the wine of life was his libation. What he speaks of here as only a possibility, he later, at the end of his second imprisonment, speaks of as a certainty, yea, already taking place: ” I am already being poured out, and the time of my exodus is come” ( 2Ti 4:6 ). Ah! what a libation!

Here we recall the words of Tom Moore in Paradise and Peri: Oh I if there be one boon, one offering, That Heaven holds dear, ‘Tis the last libation that Liberty draws From the heart that bleeds and breaks in her cause.

But the drop of patriot blood did not open the gates of paradise to the exiled Peri. The libation of Christian martyrdom far outranks the libation of a dying patriot, but paradise must already be opened by holier and atoning blood before either can be acceptable to God as a Christian sacrifice.

Epaphroditus Timothy Paul. “I have sent Epaphroditus,” “I send Timothy forthwith,” “I trust in the Lord that I, myself, shall come shortly.” How deep his concern for these Philippians, and how tenderly sympathetic his heart toward them in all their anxieties, their sufferings and spiritual needs! How appreciative of the merits of his co-laborers, and how complete his testimony to their fidelity! No wonder the brightest and most gifted young preachers delighted to serve under his leadership!

We may count it a settled thing that no man can be a great leader of men who has no power to draw a following. And no man can long hold the following he draws whose selfishness does not allow him to recognize and appreciate the merits of his followers. He must testify to the value of their service, not in the insincere compliments of a politician, but in the spontaneous expressions of truth and love. It is Paul’s testimony that paints in fadeless word colors the portraits of Timothy and Epaphroditus, and confers immortality on them by hanging their portraits in the gallery of Christian heroes, ever seen as if living, and held in everlasting remembrance. So as stars in the constellation of Paul, they shine forever.

The third chapter of Phi 3 , rightly commencing with Phi 3:2 , is in every way remarkable. Its solemn, urgent caution is not called out by any condition already existing at Philippi, but an anticipated condition. There were few Jews at Philippi and few Jewish Christians. The apostle knew well, however, the persistence, both of Jewish hostility to the doctrine of the cross, and also the persistence of that element of Jewish converts that with tireless propagandism sought to make Christianity a mere sect of Judaism. He writes as if some disturbing incident at Rome or new message brought from abroad had interrupted his letter, indicating an imminent danger to the faith of the Philippians, and hence the abruptness of his change of topic: “Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision.”

It is quite probable that the fires were already kindled under the Jewish pot A.D. 62 that would make it boil over in revolution against Roman authority, and precipitate the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. As these fires grew hotter it would be necessary later to write the letter to the Hebrew Christians of Asia that would make a complete and final break between Judaism and Christianity, and that would turn all Jewish Asia against Paul as he so sadly notes in his last letter (2Ti 1:15 ).

In a time of intense fanatical patriotism the letter to the Hebrews, so clearly showing the abrogation of the Jewish polity and the complete supersession of the Old Covenant, would incense all Jews against the writer. Midway between Phi 3 and the letter to the Hebrews would appear Col 2:8-23 , showing progress toward the final break. Paul’s prescience discerned the signs of the times, and the desperate intolerance that would be awakened in the misled patriot party of Jews. On this account we have Paul’s admonition.

There is here, as elsewhere, a play on the words “dogs,” “workers,” and “concision.” The Pharisees counted Gentiles as dogs and stressed ritualistic observance and external works and fleshly circumcision as a means to salvation, indeed counted themselves as free, never in bondage, because of lineal descent from Abraham and of the circumcision. Paul retorts: “They are the real dogs; their works are evil and unavailing; their circumcision is a mere mutilation of the flesh.” Regeneration is the spiritual circumcision and the source of good works. The issue was vital and fundamental, as announced by our Lord to Nicodemus.

THE FLESH VS. THE SPIRIT

Paul illustrates by his own example. He was of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised the eighth day (therefore not a proselyte), a Hebrew of the Hebrews, of the sect of the Pharisees, touching the law blameless, zealous to persecution, so if any man might have confidence in the flesh, he more. But all these things he counted as refuse in comparison with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, through whom comes the true righteousness grasped by simple faith. So far the passage is in line with Galatians and Romans on justification by faith, apart from natural birth and works of the law. He then passes on like Rom 8 to sanctification, and like 1Co 15 to glorification.

Commencing with “That I may gain [or win] Christ” (last clause of Phi 3:8 to the end of Phi 3:14 ) is the remarkable part of the chapter which calls for special explanation. Adopting the logical rather than the consecutive order of the words we notice first:

THE HIGH CALLING, OR VOCATION

Paul’s calling (Act 9:3-6 ; Act 22:6-10 ; Act 26:12-19 ) was special and effectual. It was a high calling, not only as coming from on high, but because it was toward high things of both duty and glory. It was calling of God in Christ Jesus. Like a foot race, it had a goal where the judge awarded a prize. The race is not run until the goal is reached, nor won until the prize is awarded.

What, then, is the goal? It is the state of the resurrection from the dead, and includes both complete sanctification of the spirit and glorification of the body. Paul had not yet attained either one. What is the prize? It is that which is to be won: “That I may win, or gain, Christ, and be found in him at the great judgment day.” Here the “winning of Christ,” or the prize, is not merely Justification by faith, when one first believes, but getting to him where he now is, and being completely like him in both soul and body. It is that state in which the final judgment finds us. “Attaining unto the resurrection from the dead” means attaining to the state of the resurrection from the dead, and not merely the act of being raised. It is quite important that we know when the salvation of the soul is complete, and when sanctification of the soul is perfected. It is only the other side of death that the “spirits of the just made perfect” are seen. (Heb 12:22-24 .)

As long as life has a lesson to be learned, or a discipline to be endured, the race of the soul is not run, nor the goal reached. By one fact we positively know when the soul discipline is ended. It is precisely at that time when it is passing over the line where accountability to judgment ceases. And the final judgment takes cognizance of the deeds done in the body.

No soul, good or bad, is judged on account of what it does after the death of the body, but it is judged for all deeds up to that event.

Therefore the goal for the soul is the death of the body, and the goal for the body is its resurrection. If it be raised in dishonor, the prize is lost. If it be raised in honor, glorified like the body of our Lord, the prize is won.

You can thus understand Paul’s words: “Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect.” He had “not yet laid hold on all the things for which Christ laid hold of him.” When Christ apprehended Saul of Tarsus on the way to Damascus, he laid hold of him for more things than Paul had yet laid hold of. Paul wanted more than had yet been realized. He was indeed already justified and regenerated, and had already made much progress, but much was yet ahead. The race was not yet run over the whole course; the goal and the prize were yet to be reached and won. Later, indeed, when actually facing martyrdom be wrote: “I am already being poured out, and the time of my exodus is come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth [not sooner] there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only [to show that the goal is the same with all the runners] but to all them that have loved his appearing” (2Ti 4:6-8 ).

This is in line with what he wrote to the Thessalonians: “And the Lord of peace himself shall sanctify you wholly [not in part] ; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1Th 5:23 ).

Those who claim to be sinless now, to have already attained perfection of spirit, only advertise their guilty distance from God and put themselves into an attitude of direct conflict with the scriptures.

See 1Ki 8:36 ; 1Jn 1:8 . Making such a claim in this life shows that the one making it is in a dim light. Light makes manifest. Job, apart from God and confronted by man only, maintained his integrity, but when Jehovah came in the whirlwind Job said, Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that which I understood not, Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak; I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; But now mine eye seeth thee: Wherefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes. Job 42:3-6

Isaiah was the saintliest man of his generation, but in the year that King Uzziah died he saw the Lord of hosts in the supernal light of heaven, and heard the cherubim crying, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is Jehovah of hosts,” then he said, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts.”

If, then, Paul had not yet attained and counted not himself already perfect what does he do? (1) Forgetting the things behind, (2) stretching out to the things before, (3) be presses on toward the goal.

The meaning of these words needs to be brought out in a realistic way. We forget a defeat in the past when we do not stay whipped in mind, but courageously try another battle, like Robert Bruce, who failed twelve times and then won the thirteenth time, at Bannockburn. We forget past victories when we do not rest on our laurels but “count nothing done while anything remains to be done.” General Gates rested on the laurels of Saratoga and found defeat at Camden. He fled at the beginning of the battle, ran eighty miles to Charlottesville, and if he had not died he would be running yet.

Dr. Burleson used to tell of a man who related such a brilliant experience to the church when he joined it that it evoked unusual praise from pastor and church. So much was said about it that he, himself, began to glory in it. He carefully wrote it out and would read it to every visitor. He became so complacent over it that he stopped right there no progress a case of arrested development. In the lapse of time the mice got into the drawer where he kept his precious document and ate up his Christian experience! We need an experience that rats cannot eat up an experience not folded up and put in a drawer, but one that moves forward taking “the steps of the faith of Abraham.”

QUESTIONS

1. State the terminal points of this great exhortation, and its rank.

2. Show that exhortation is a distinct gift of the Spirit, and distinguish between exhortation and teaching.

3. Cite the names of some early Texas Baptist preachers or deacons who were great in exhortation, and the effect on both Christians and sinners.

4. What mistakes may be made as to exhortation, and what is the real lightning of exhortation?

5. To what class, saints or sinners, is this whole exhortation addressed, and to what particular duty does all the exhortation in this letter point?

6. Cite three special points in the exhortation, and the four ends in view.

7. Between what phases of salvation does this letter clearly distinguish?

8. What three important observations on Paul’s allusion to the drink offering in his possible libation?

9. What is the exact meaning of his being “poured out” on the sacrifice of their faith and service?

10. What two grave errors of interpretation by some commentators on this passage, and what the fearful consequences of the second?

11. Show that what is here spoken of as a possible libation is later spoken of as a certainty.

12. Cite the illustrative passage in Tom Moore’s, Paradise and the Peri, and what is a greater libation and why either cannot open the gates of paradise, giving two proofs from the revised text of Revelation, which tells of paradise regained.

13. In the references to Timothy and Epaphroditus, what great excellencies of heart does Paul exhibit, and how do these immortalize both of them?

14. Where should the third chapter commence, and what probably calls forth this abrupt change in the direction of the exhortation, and how probably this also called forth Col 2:8-23 and still later the letter to the Hebrews?

15. How may this letter to the Hebrews have occasioned the “turning away of all Asia” from Paul, referred to in 2Ti 1:15 ?

16. Show the play on words in “Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision.”

17. What is the antitype of circumcision, what the real issue here involved, and what its importance?

18. How does Paul illustrate the case?

19. Where in his illustrative example does the reference to justification by faith end, and where commences and ends the reference to sanctification of soul and glorification of body?

20. Explain the “high calling.”

21. What athletic game is used to illustrate?

22. What is the “goal” for the spirit, and how do you prove it?

23. What is the “goal” of the body?

24. Show that this does not make death a purifer.

25. If one makes claim of perfection of spirit now, what two things does it prove? and illustrate by two Old Testament examples.

26. Not having yet obtained, show what three things Paul does, and explain and illustrate the terms.

27. Relate Dr. Burieson’s illustration.

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

12 Wherefore, my beloved, 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.

Ver. 12. Work out your salvation ] . The reason that men still tremble, and are still troubled with this doubt, and that fear, is, because their salvation is not wrought out, something is left undone and their conscience tells them so.

With fear and trembling ] Opposed to carnal security. Those venturous bold spirits that dare live in any evil, so it stare not in their faces, and have not a heart fearful of the least evil, aspire not to immortality.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

12 16 .] After this glorious example, he exhorts them to earnestness after Christian perfection .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

12 . ] wherefore i.e. as a consequence on this pattern set you by Christ. The answers to Phi 2:8 , and to the exaltation of Christ. It is therefore better, with Meyer, to refer to that which has just preceded, than with De Wette, Wiesinger, al., to all the foregoing exhortations, ch. Phi 1:27 ff.

] i.e. to God , as Christ above: not as ordinarily, ‘to me ’ or ‘ my Gospel .’ This last De W. grounds on the presence and absence of the Apostle mentioned below: those clauses however do not belong to , but to . This is evident by and . In fact it would be hardly possible logically to connect them with . As it is, they connect admirably with , see below.

is by no means superfluous, but gives the sense not as if (it were a matter to be done) in my presence only, but now (as things are at present) much more (with more earnestness) in my absence (because spiritual help from me is withdrawn from you) carry out (bring to an accomplishment) your own (emphasis on , perhaps as directing attention to the example of Christ which has preceded, as HE obeyed and won HIS exaltation, so do you obey and carry out your own salvation) salvation (which is begun with justification by faith, but must be carried out, brought to an issue, by sanctification of the Spirit a life of holy obedience and advance to Christian perfection. For this reason, the E. V., ‘ work out your own salvation,’ is bad, because ambiguous, giving the idea that the salvation is a thing to be gotten, brought in and brought about, by ourselves) with fear and trembling (lest you should fail of its accomplishment at the last. The expression indicates a state of anxiety and self-distrust: see reff. . , . c. in Meyer. And the stress of the exhortation is on these words: considering the immense sacrifice which Christ made for you, and the lofty eminence to which God hath now raised Him, be ye more than ever earnest that you miss not your own share in such salvation. The thought before the Apostle’s mind is much the same as that in Heb 2:3 , ;):

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Phi 2:12-16 . THE CHRISTIAN LIFE TO BE LED IN A SPIRIT OF AWE AND WATCHFULNESS, AS IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD’S WORKING. On Phi 2:12-13 see two important discussions, Schaeder, Greifswalder Studien , pp. 231 260, and Khl, SK [2] . , 1898, pp. 557 580. Phi 2:12 . . With what does it link the following verses? Paul has returned to practical exhortation. So we should naturally expect him to take up the thread which he dropped at Phi 2:6 on turning to the example of Jesus Christ. At that point he had been urging them to be of one mind. But with what aim? Especially in order that they might present an unbroken front in their conflict for the faith. But that brings us back to Phi 1:27 ff. And that the connexion of our passage with the earlier paragraph is not arbitrary we may gather from the occurrence of the same idea in both, viz. , that of his own presence and absence. Cf. Phi 1:27 b with Phi 2:12 b . At the same time there is also a link between Phi 2:12-13 and the passage immediately preceding. He introduces his admonition with obedience ( ). But Christ’s lowliness consisted precisely in His (Phi 2:8 , ). Christ has been exalted as the result ( , Phi 2:9 ) of humble obedience. Corresponding to His exaltation will be their . . We believe that this means obedience to God. See on supr. . Cf. Gal 4:18 . . . . Cf. Eph 6:5 , , . In both passages the phrase expresses the solemn responsibility to God which is always felt by those conscious of the Divine Presence, whether they are occupied with common tasks or the concerns of their spiritual life. Nihil enim est quod magis ad modestiam et timorem erudire nos debeat quam dum audimus nos sola Dei gratia stare (Calvin). Gunkel ( Wirkungen 2 , etc., p. 70) well contrasts the fear with which the Jew looked upon the Divine Presence with the calm joy which the Christian feels in such an experience. . . Such a use of for is much more common in N.T. than in classical Greek. But cf. Demos., Olynth. , i., 2, . The emphasis is on . Each of them is responsible for his own salvation before God. They must not lean on the Apostle. His absence must make no difference. “For the race is run by one and one and never by two and two” (R. Kipling). . This is the end and aim of their faith. See 1Pe 1:9 , . . The best comment on the distinctive force of . is 2Co 7:10 , , where . refers to a process in its mediate workings, while . looks solely at the final result. So here almost = “make sure of your salvation,” “carry it into effect”. Cf. 2Pe 1:10 . As Khl ( op. cit. , p. 560 ff.) points out, the Apostle does not think here so much of the moral effort, their deliberate conduct as such (so Schaeder). This, as the presupposition of salvation, would be alien to the Pauline point of view. Lowliness and obedience (the ) are needful, that they may look away from themselves to Jesus Christ, who is the “author and finisher of their faith”.

[2] Studien und Kritiken .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Philippians

WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION

Php 2:12-13 .

‘What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder!’ Here are, joined together, in the compass of one practical exhortation, the truths which, put asunder, have been the war-cries and shibboleths of contending sects ever since. Faith in a finished salvation, and yet work ; God working all in me, and yet I able and bound to work likewise; God upholding and sustaining His child to the very end; ‘perfecting that which concerns him,’ making his salvation certain and sure, and yet the Christian working ‘with fear and trembling,’ lest he should be a castaway and come short of the grace of God;–who does not recognise in these phrases the mottoes that have been written on the opposing banners in many a fierce theological battle, waged with much harm to both sides, and ending in no clear victory for either? Yet here they are blended in the words of one who was no less profound a thinker than any that have come after, and who had the gift of a divine inspiration to boot.

Not less remarkable than the fusion here of apparent antagonisms, the harmonising of apparent opposites, is the intensely practical character of the purpose for which they are adduced at all. Paul has no idea of giving his disciples a lesson in abstract theology, or laying for them a foundation of a philosophy of free will and divine sovereignty; he is not merely communicating to these Philippians truths for their creed, but precepts for their deeds. The Bible knows nothing of an unpractical theology, but, on the other hand, the Bible knows still less of an untheological morality. It digs deep, bottoming the simplest right action upon right thinking, and going down to the mountain bases on which the very pillars of the universe rest, in order to lay there, firm and immovable, the courses of the temple of a holy life. Just as little as Scripture gives countenance to the error that makes religion theology rather than life, just so little does it give countenance to the far more contemptible and shallower error common in our day, which says , Religion is not theology, but life; and means , ‘Therefore, it does not matter what theology you have, you can work a good life out with any creed!’ The Bible never teaches unpractical speculations, and the Bible never gives precepts which do not rest on the profoundest truths. Would God, brethren, that we all had souls as wide as would take in the whole of the many-sided scriptural representation of the truths of the Gospel, and so avoid the narrowness of petty, partial views of God’s infinite counsel; and that we had as close, direct, and as free communication between head, and heart, and hand, as the Scripture has between precept and practice!

But in reference more especially to my text. Keeping in view these two points I have already suggested, namely,–that it is the reconciling of apparent opposites, and that it is intensely practical, I find in it these three thoughts;–First, a Christian has his whole salvation accomplished for him, and yet he is to work it out. Secondly, a Christian has everything done in him by God, and yet he is to work. Lastly, a Christian has his salvation certainly secured, and yet he is to fear and tremble.

I. In the first place, A Christian man has his whole salvation already accomplished for him in Christ, and yet he is to work it out.

There are two points absolutely necessary to be kept in view in order to a right understanding of the words before us, for the want of noticing which it has become the occasion of terrible mistakes. These are–the persons to whom it is addressed, and the force of the scriptural expression ‘salvation.’ As to the first, this exhortation has been misapplied by being addressed to those who have no claim to be Christians, and by having such teaching deduced from it as, You do your part, and God will do His; You work, and God will certainly help you; You co-operate in the great work of your salvation, and you will get grace and pardon through Jesus Christ. Now let us remember the very simple thing, but very important to the right understanding of these words, that none but Christian people have anything to do with them. To all others, to all who are not already resting on the finished salvation of Jesus Christ, this injunction is utterly inapplicable. It is addressed to the ‘beloved, who have always obeyed’; to the ‘saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi.’ The whole Epistle is addressed, and this injunction with the rest, to Christian men. That is the first thing to be remembered. If there be any of you, who have thought that these words of Paul’s to those who had believed on Christ contained a rule of action for you, though you have not rested your souls on Him, and exhorted you to try to win salvation by your own doings, let me remind you of what Christ said when the Jews came to Him in a similar spirit and asked Him, ‘What shall we do that we may work the works of God?’ His answer to them was, and His answer to you, my brother, is, ‘ This is the work of God, that ye should believe in Him whom He hath sent.’ That is the first lesson: Not work , but faith ; unless there be faith, no work. Unless you are a Christian, the passage has nothing to do with you.

But now, if this injunction be addressed to those who are looking for their salvation only to the perfect work of Christ, how can they be exhorted to work it out themselves? Is not the oft-recurring burden of Paul’s teaching ‘not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but by His mercy He saved us’? How does this text harmonise with these constantly repeated assertions that Christ has done all for us, and that we have nothing to do, and can do nothing? To answer this question, we have to remember that that scriptural expression, ‘salvation,’ is used with considerable width and complexity of signification. It sometimes means the whole of the process, from the beginning to the end, by which we are delivered from sin in all its aspects, and are set safe and stable at the right hand of God. It sometimes means one or other of three different parts of that process–either deliverance from the guilt, punishment, condemnation of sin; or secondly, the gradual process of deliverance from its power in our own hearts; or thirdly, the completion of that process by the final and perfect deliverance from sin and sorrow, from death and the body, from earth and all its weariness and troubles, which is achieved when we are landed on the other side of the river. Salvation, in one aspect, is a thing past to the Christian; in another, it is a thing present ; in a third, it is a thing future . But all these three are one; all are elements of the one deliverance–the one mighty and perfect act which includes them all.

These three all come equally from Christ Himself. These three all depend equally on His work and His power. These three are all given to a Christian man in the first act of faith. But the attitude in which he stands in reference to that accomplished salvation which means deliverance from sin as a penalty and a curse, and that in which he stands to the continuing and progressive salvation which means deliverance from the power of evil in his own heart, are somewhat different. In regard to the one, he has only to take the finished blessing. He has to exercise faith and faith alone. He has nothing to do, nothing to add, in order to fit himself for it, but simply to receive the gift of God, and to believe on Him whom He hath sent. But then, though that reception involves what shall come after it, and though every one who has and holds the first thing, the pardon of his transgression, has and holds thereby and therein his growing sanctifying and his final glory, yet the salvation which means our being delivered from the evil that is in our hearts, and having our souls made like unto Christ, is one which–free gift though it be–is not ours on the sole condition of an initial act of faith, but is ours on the condition of continuous faithful reception and daily effort, not in our own strength, but in God’s strength, to become like Him, and to make our own that which God has given us, and which Christ is continually bestowing upon us.

The two things, then, are not inconsistent–an accomplished salvation, a full, free, perfect redemption, with which a man has nothing to do at all, but to take it;–and, on the other hand, the injunction to them who have received this divine gift: ‘Work out your own salvation.’ Work, as well as believe, and in the daily practice of faithful obedience, in the daily subjugation of your own spirits to His divine power, in the daily crucifixion of your flesh with its affections and lusts, in the daily straining after loftier heights of godliness and purer atmospheres of devotion and love–make more thoroughly your own that which you possess. Work into the substance of your souls that which you have . Apprehend that for which you are apprehended of Christ. ‘Give all diligence to make your calling and election sure’; and remember that not a past act of faith, but a present and continuous life of loving, faithful work in Christ, which is His and yet yours, is the ‘holding fast the beginning of your confidence firm unto the end.’

II. In the second place, God works all in us, and yet we have to work.

There can be no mistake about the good faith and firm emphasis–as of a man who knows his own mind, and knows that his word is true–with which the Apostle holds up here the two sides of what I venture to call the one truth; ‘Work out your own salvation–for God works in you.’ Command implies power. Command and power involve duty. The freedom of the Christian’s action, the responsibility of the believer for his Christian growth in grace, the committal to the Christian man’s own hands of the means of sanctifying, lie in that injunction, ‘Work out your own salvation.’ Is there any faltering, any paring down or cautious guarding of the words, in order that they may not seem to clash with the other side of the truth? No: Paul does not say, ‘Work it out; yet it is God that worketh in you’; not ‘Work it out although it is God that worketh in you’; not ‘Work it out, but then it must always be remembered and taken as a caution that it is God that worketh in you!’ He blends the two things together in an altogether different connection, and sees–strangely to some people, no contradiction, nor limitation, nor puzzle, but a ground of encouragement to cheerful obedience. Do you work, ‘ for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.’ And does the Apostle limit the divine operation? Notice how his words seem picked out on purpose to express most emphatically its all-pervading energy. Look how his words seem picked out on purpose to express with the utmost possible emphasis that all which a good man is, and does, is its fruit. It is God that worketh in you. That expresses more than bringing outward means to bear upon heart and will. It speaks of an inward, real, and efficacious operation of the Indwelling Spirit of all energy on the spirit in which He dwells. ‘Worketh in you to will ‘; this expresses more than the presentation of motives from without, it points to a direct action on the will, by which impulses are originated within. God puts in you the first faint motions of a better will. ‘Worketh in you, doing as well as willing’; this points to all practical obedience, to all external acts as flowing from His grace in us, no less than all inward good thoughts and holy desires.

It is not that God gives men the power, and then leaves them to make the use of it. It is not that the desire and purpose come forth from Him, and that then we are left to ourselves to be faithful or unfaithful stewards in carrying it out. The whole process, from the first sowing of the seed until its last blossoming and fruiting, in the shape of an accomplished act, of which God shall bless the springing–it is all God’s together! There is a thorough-going, absolute attribution of every power, every action, all the thoughts words, and deeds of a Christian soul, to God. No words could be selected which would more thoroughly cut away the ground from every half-and-half system which attempts to deal them out in two portions, part God’s and part mine. With all emphasis Paul attributes all to God.

And none the less strongly does he teach, by the implication contained in his earnest injunction, that human responsibility, that human control over the human will, and that reality of human agency which are often thought to be annihilated by these broad views of God as originating all good in the soul and life. The Apostle thought that this doctrine did not absorb all our individuality in one great divine Cause which made men mere tools and puppets. He did not believe that the inference from it was, ‘Therefore do you sit still, and feel yourselves the cyphers that you are.’ His practical conclusion is the very opposite. It is–God does all, therefore do you work. His belief in the power of God’s grace was the foundation of the most intense conviction of the reality and indispensableness of his own power, and was the motive which stimulated him to vigorous action. Work, for God works in you.

Each of these truths rests firmly on its own appropriate evidence. My own consciousness tells me that I am free, that I have power, that I am therefore responsible and exposed to punishment for neglect of duty. I know what I mean when I speak of the will of God, because I myself am conscious of a will. The power of God is an object of intelligent thought to me, because I myself am conscious of power. And on the other hand, that belief in a God which is one of the deep and universal beliefs of men contains in it, when it comes to be thought about, the belief in Him as the source of all power, as the great cause of all. If I believe in a God at all, I must believe that He whom I so call, worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. These two convictions are both given to us in the primitive beliefs which belong to us all. The one rests on consciousness, and underlies all our moral judgments. The other rests on an original belief, which belongs to man as such. These two mighty pillars on which all morality and all religion repose have their foundations down deep in our nature, and tower up beyond our sight. They seem to stand opposite to each other, but it is only as the strong piers of some tall arch are opposed. Beneath they repose on one foundation, above they join together in the completing keystone and bear the whole steady structure.

Wise and good men have toiled to harmonise them, in vain. The task transcends the limits of human faculties, as exercised here, at all events. Perhaps the time may come when we shall be lifted high enough to see the binding arch, but here on earth we can only behold the shafts on either side. The history of controversy on the matter surely proves abundantly what a hopeless task they undertake who attempt to reconcile these truths. The attempt has usually consisted in speaking the one loudly and the other in a whisper, and then the opposite side has thundered what had been whispered, and has whispered very softly what had been shouted very loudly. One party lays hold of the one pole of the ark, and the other lays hold of that on the other side. The fancied reconciliation consists in paring down one half of the full-orbed truth to nothing, or in admitting it in words while every principle of the reconciler’s system demands its denial. Each antagonist is strong in his assertions, and weak in his denials, victorious when he establishes his half of the whole, easily defeated when he tries to overthrow his opponent’s.

This apparent incompatibility is no reason for rejecting truths each commended to our acceptance on its own proper grounds. It may be a reason for not attempting to dogmatise about them. It may be a warning to us that we are on ground where our limited understandings have no firm footing, but it is no ground for suspecting the evidence which certifies the truths. The Bible admits and enforces them both. It never tones down the emphasis of its statement of the one for fear of clashing against the other, but points to us the true path for thought, in a firm grasp of both, in the abandonment of all attempts to reconcile them, and for practical conduct, in the peaceful trust in God who hath wrought all our works in us, and in strenuous working out of our own salvation. Let us, as we look back on that battlefield where much wiser men than we have fought in vain, doing little but raising up ‘a little dust that is lightly laid again,’ and building trophies that are soon struck down, learn the lesson it teaches, and be contented to say, The short cord of my plummet does not quite go down to the bottom of the bottomless, and I do not profess either to understand God or to understand man, both of which I should want to do before I understood the mystery of their conjoint action. Enough for me to believe that,

‘If any force we have, it is to ill, And all the power is God’s, to do and eke to will.’

Enough for me to know that I have solemn duties laid upon me, a life’s task to be done, my deliverance from mine own evil to work out, and that I shall only accomplish that work when I can say with the Apostle, ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’

God is all, but thou canst work! My brother, take this belief, that God worketh all in you, for the ground of your confidence, and feel that unless He do all, you can do nothing. Take this conviction, that thou canst work, for the spur and stimulus of thy life, and think, These desires in my soul come from a far deeper source than the little cistern of my own individual life. They are God’s gift. Let me cherish them with the awful carefulness which their origin requires, lest I should seem to have received the grace of God in vain. These two streams of truth are like the rain-shower that falls upon the watershed of a country. The one half flows down the one side of the everlasting hills, and the other down the other. Falling into rivers that water different continents, they at length find the sea, separated by the distance of half the globe. But the sea into which they fall is one, in every creek and channel. And so, the truth into which these two apparent opposites converge, is ‘the depth of the wisdom and the knowledge of God,’ whose ways are past finding out–the Author of all goodness, who, if we have any holy thought, has given it us; if we have any true desire, has implanted it; has given us the strength to do the right and to live in His fear; and who yet, doing all the willing and the doing, says to us, ‘Because I do everything, therefore let not thy will be paralysed, or thy hand palsied; but because I do everything, therefore will thou according to My will, and do thou according to My commandments!’

III. Lastly: The Christian has his salvation secured, and yet he is to fear and tremble.

‘Fear and trembling.’ ‘But,’ you may say, ‘perfect love casts out fear.’ So it does. The fear which has torment it casts out. But there is another fear in which there is no torment, brethren; a fear and trembling which is but another shape of confidence and calm hope! Scripture does tell us that the believing man’s salvation is certain. Scripture tells us it is certain since he believes. And your faith can be worth nothing unless it have, bedded deep in it, that trembling distrust of your own power which is the pre-requisite and the companion of all thankful and faithful reception of God’s infinite mercy. Your horizon ought to be full of fear, if your gaze be limited to yourself; but oh! above our earthly horizon with its fogs, God’s infinite blue stretches untroubled by the mist and cloud which are earth-born. I, as working, have need to tremble and to fear, but I, as wrought upon, have a right to confidence and hope, a hope that is full of immortality, and an assurance which is the pledge of its own fulfilment. The worker is nothing, the Worker in him is all. Fear and trembling, when the thoughts turn to mine own sins and weaknesses, hope and confidence when they turn to the happier vision of God! ‘Not I’–there is the tremulous self-distrust; ‘the grace of God in me’–there is the calm assurance of victory. Forasmuch, then, as God worketh all things, be you diligent, faithful, prayerful, confident. Forasmuch as Christ has perfected the work for you, do you ‘go on unto perfection.’ Let all fear and trembling be yours, as a man; let all confidence and calm trust be yours as a child of God. Turn your confidence and your fears alike into prayer. ‘Perfect, O Lord, that which concerneth me; forsake not the work of Thine own hands!’–and the prayer will evoke the merciful answer, ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee God is faithful, who hath called you unto the Gospel of His Son; and will keep you unto His everlasting kingdom of glory.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Php 2:12-13

12So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Php 2:12-13 This is one sentence in Greek.

Php 2:12 “So then” This is obviously connected to the previous discussion of the humility and obedience of Christ. In light of Christ’s ultimate example in Php 2:6-11, these believers were implored to live (1) humbly and caringly, Php 2:1-5, and (2) like Christ, Php 2:14-18.

“my beloved” Paul loved this church in a special way (cf. Php 4:15-16). Paul uses this phrase often to describe those converted under his ministry (cf. Rom 12:19; Rom 16:8-9; Rom 16:12; 1Co 4:14; 1Co 4:17; 1Co 10:14; 1Co 15:58; 2Co 7:1; 2Co 12:19; Eph 6:21; Php 4:1 [twice]; Col 4:7; Col 4:9; Col 4:14; 1Ti 6:2; 2Ti 1:2; Phm 1:1-2; Phm 1:16).

NASB, NKJV”as you have always obeyed”

NRSV, TEV”as you have always obeyed me”

NJB”you have always been obedient”

The text does not state who they obeyed. It could have been (1) Father/Son/Spirit; (2) the Christian faith; or (3) Paul. The obedience of Christ, mentioned in Php 2:8, was given as an example for the Philippians to follow (cf. Luk 6:46). This phrase may refer to the church’s obedience to Paul’s teaching (cf. Php 2:12 b). Christianity is a process which involves repentance, faith, obedience, service, and perseverance!

“not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence” Christianity is what we are, not what we do! Believers must not perform acts to be seen (cf. Php 1:27; Eph 6:6; Col 3:22).

“work out your salvation” This verb is a mathematical term used of a problem brought to its conclusion. Its form is present middle (deponent) imperative plural.

Php 2:12-13 have been the focus of much theological discussion relating to the sovereignty of God, which is emphasized in Php 2:13 (cf. Php 1:6), and the free will of human persons which is called on in Php 2:12. The term “salvation” in Php 2:12

1. refers to a believer’s spiritual relationship with Christ. Paul has just mentioned becoming a Christian in Php 2:9-10. This is another example of the tension between sovereignty and free-will, both initial and ongoing (cf. Php 2:16)

2. does not refer to eternal spiritual salvation, but either to

a. OT “physical deliverance”

b. “wholeness,” as it does in Php 1:19

This aspect of salvation as “wholeness” can also be seen in Act 4:10; Act 14:9; Act 27:34. The initiating grace of God and the required faith response of a repentant human are clearly seen in Eph 2:8-9. Obviously, believers do not work for their salvation, but after they are saved, they cooperate with the Spirit to live in Christlike maturity (cf. Php 2:14-17; Eph 2:10; Eph 5:18). Salvation is all of God and totally free but it requires an active, costly, repentant, continuing faith response (cf. Mat 13:44-46).

The context militates against an individualistic interpretation because the “your” in Php 2:12, “you” in Php 2:13, and all the verbs are plural, which refers to the entire Philippian church, not to an individual’s spiritual salvation. If it did refer to spiritual salvation it is corporate (cf. Php 1:28) and progressive (cf. 1Co 1:18; 1Co 15:2; 2Co 2:15). The thrust of the passage may have been to encourage them to trust in God’s presence and purpose for the church at Philippi (cf. Gal 3:4; 1Co 15:2).

“with fear and trembling” This was an OT idiom of respect and awe towards God (cf. Psa 2:11; Psa 119:120). It is used several times in Paul’s writings (cf. 1Co 2:3; 2Co 7:15; Eph 6:5). Believers need to remember the transcendent Holiness of God!

Php 2:13 “for it is God who is at work in you” “God” is placed first in the sentence for emphasis. The term “work” is a present active participle which refers to “continuous effective work” (cf. Gal 5:6). This is a different compound term from Php 2:12 but the same root. The phrase “in you” is plural and may mean “among you,” which focuses on God’s activity in the life of the Church (cf. Col 1:27).

NASB”both to will and to work for His good pleasure”

NKJV”both to will and to do His good pleasure”

NRSV”both to will and to work for his good pleasure

TEV”to make you willing and able to obey his own purpose”

NJB”for his own generous purpose, gives you the intention and the powers to act”

Believers’ attitudes and actions are produced by the Spirit. The present active participle of Php 2:13 a is repeated as a present active infinitive in Php 2:13 b. This is the paradox of a sovereign God and a covenant-making God. Salvation is a free gift and a cost-everything commitment! Paul is a good example of God’s undeserved grace (cf. 1Co 15:10). In this context (cf. Gal 3:4; 1Co 15:2) God’s will is for a united, loving, witnessing, effective church.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

beloved. App-135.

presence. Greek. paroesia. This and Php 1:26 (coming) are the only one. of parousia in the epistles written from Paul’s prison at Rome. See Mat 24:3.

absence. Greek. apousia. Only here.

with. App-104.

fear and trembling. See 1Co 2:3.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

12-16.] After this glorious example, he exhorts them to earnestness after Christian perfection.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Php 2:12. , therefore) He sets Christ before us as an example, and infers, that we should maintain the salvation which Christ has procured for us.-, ye have obeyed) me, exhorting you to salvation, and have obeyed God Himself; comp. obedient, Php 2:8.- , with fear and trembling) You ought to be servants, according to the example of Christ; Php 2:8 : moreover fear and trembling become a servant; Eph 6:5, i.e. humility; comp. Rom 11:20. Joh. Jac. Wolfius has observed, in his MS. exegesis of the Ep. to the Phil., Paul, though filled with joy, still writes seriously.-, your own) In this department, indeed, look each of you at his own things; comp. Php 2:4, your own, he says; because I cannot be present with you, be you therefore the more careful of yourselves.-, salvation) that which is in Jesus.-, work out) even to the end.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Php 2:12

Php 2:12

So then, my beloved, even as ye have always obeyed,-[This is the secret of all the joy in this epistle. In the church there, his words as spoken in Christs name had aroused them to a diligent effort to put them into practice. He had no cause for grief of any kind over them.]

not as in my presence only,-[Of their early zeal he had been a witness, he now pleads that he may not learn that his presence among them was necessary to sustain their zeal, but that they will prove it to have been of a true nature, a zeal for Christ by their steadfastness while he was away from them.]

but now much more in my absence,-He exhorts them to be more faithful and earnest in their obedience, because they are now deprived of his presence and help and there is need of greater diligence on their part. This certainly was a wonderful church which so lived as to enable Paul to say: Even as ye have always obeyed, from the first day until now. (Php 1:5).

work out your own salvation-To work out ones salvation is to comply with the conditions on which God has promised to save. To so live in accordance with Gods word that he will be fitted to be saved. The thing for man to do is to fit himself for salvation, then God will save him. He can be fitted for salvation only by complying with the law God has given to discipline and fit him.

with fear and trembling;-To work out salvation with fear and trembling is to fear God with such reverence and awe that they seek to do his will and tremble lest they should fail to understand that they may do it. Jehovah says: To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my word. (Isa 66:2). [These words occur only three times more in Pauls epistles, and always in reference to obedience. (1Co 2:3; 2Co 7:15; Eph 6:5). The fear is not exactly the fear of God, but of the greatness of the task and of the possibility of failure. We are to exhibit the utmost solicitude lest we fail to heed the instruction: Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall (1Co 10:12), and Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest haply we drift away from them. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? (Heb 2:1-3).]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Lights in the World

Php 2:12-18

The sublime visions of the Apostle of the glory of the divine Redeemer are always linked with practical exhortation. Do nothing through pride and vainglory. Look on the things of others. Count others better than yourself. Work out what God is working in. Your heart is Gods workshop! His Spirit is there, striving against selfishness, pride, impurity, and vanity, but you must consolidate each holy impulse in speech and act. Be careful of every such movement in your soul; it will become clearer and more definite as you yield to it, and it will be corroborated by outward circumstances, which God will open before you. But exercise fear and trembling, just as the young pupil of a great master will be nervously careful not to lose one thought or suggestion which he may impart.

In this manner you will become as a lighthouse on a rockbound coast, shining with blameless and beneficent beauty among your companions. Light is silent, but it reveals. Light is gentle, but it is mighty in its effects. Light departs when the sun is down, but it may be maintained by various luminaries until dawn again breaks. As we shine, we shall be consumed, but the sacrifice will not be in vain.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

salvation

(See Scofield “Rom 1:16”).

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

Work Out Your Own Salvation

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.Php 2:12-13.

From the beginning the treatment of St. Paul by the Philippian Church was worthy of all praise. They received him as the ambassador of Christ, and listened to him as the oracle of God. Their care of him had abounded, and in all his trials he enjoyed their full sympathy. He presumes on that cordial relationship in addressing them on the subject of Church unity. Old memories stir up old emotions, and he would, through the old love, repossess their hearts. They had not only obeyed the truth as the foundation of their religious life, but they had obeyed the Apostle in matters of Church government. This indeed was to be expected while the Apostle was with them, for his presence would carry weight; but the Philippian Christians had obeyed even more fully in his absence. This afforded the greater proof of their love for him. The letter which he was now writing would supply his place, and contain the many counsels which he personally might administer.

It is not well to be always under the influence of a commanding personality. The weaker will may come to be dominated by the stronger, and the cultivation of our own judgment and character may be neglected. Against this danger the Apostle utters a warning. He exhorts the Christians at Philippi to self-reliance. Do not, he says, depend upon me. Work out your own salvationnot as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. In depending upon yourselves you are depending upon God, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do.

I have sometimes seen melancholy instances of religious partnerships dissolved. When certain associations have been broken up, and the man who, without knowing it, was living on, and kept alive by, the high-seasoned food of meetings, conferences, etc., has, like Philip, been called away from animating, bustling scenes, to go unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desertI have seen such a one languish as if that God whom he thought he loved, and that Saviour for whom he thought he had given up all, were confined to the little society, and located in the spot from which he had been severed; so that the heathen well might say, Where is now thy God? It is to save them from this snare that the Apostle presses the Philippians to work out, each man for himself, his own salvation; to cultivate, each man for himself, a religion which connects him, individually and apart from all others, with his God.1 [Note: H. Woodward, Sermons, 450.]

The truth is that men are apt to look (1) in edifices of wood and stone, (2) in great and ancient institutions, for that perfection which, if it can be found at all on earth, is to be sought in the lives of individuals. The true temple of God is the heart of man, and there the image of Christ may be renewed again and again, and effaced again and again. Neither is there any limit to the perfection which is attainable by any one of us, for Christ says: Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. But there is a limit to the perfection of outward institutions. These seem to be at their best when the goodness or genius of some one or two men has inspired them. All institutions flourish when they are ordered by men who have great aims, who understand their true character; and know how to derive a strength from them, and to impart a strength of their own to them. They are not mere abstractions, but communities of living beings; and a common spirit or soul animates them. And sometimes they fall into corruption and decay; their schools and churches are unroofed, their very stones are carted away, and there is nothing to indicate the place where they once stood.2 [Note: B. Jowett, Miscellaneous Sermons, 285.]

I

The Great Achievement of Life

Your own salvation.

1. One of Pauls fundamental doctrines is this, that salvation is a free gift, due to the grace of God. In this Epistle he is addressing, not unbelievers, but saints, and the salvation he speaks of is something they already possess. Salvation is of God as respects supreme agency, while our part in it is merely instrumental and subordinate. The satisfaction Christ has afforded to the law of God in the room of the ungodly is the whole ground of our acceptance with Him. We are pardoned and blessed only for His substitutionary and perfect righteousness, and this one consideration interdicts all boasting: for if we have paid none of the price how can we have any of the merit? But we find from this passage that the intervention of Godhead in the work of our salvation does not terminate with the coming or the dying of Christ. God, the Holy Spirit, still works in us, enabling us to believe the Gospel, and purifying our hearts by faith. He does not, however, work apart from us; far less, by physical force, does He control and compel. He is a free Spirit Himself, and He preserves to us a moral freedom, not superseding our faculties but qualifying them for rational exercise, showing us the truth and reforming us by its influence. But in all this we are occupied. He works in us, or, as the words may import, by us; and as long as our own powers are denied Him for implements of agency He is not working savingly in us at all.

It is an interesting fact that in all the versions of the New Testament, which were composed in different dialects of the language spoken by our Lord, the word salvation is almost always rendered by a word which signifies life, and the verb to save by the verb to impart life, or to restore to life and health. Only a few times is a verb used which means to rescue or deliver. This seems to justify us in the belief that in the mind of our Lord, and also of the Apostle Paul, the thought of a new and higher life was present in many of the instances where the Greek word salvation is employed; and we are justified in assigning to the word salvation, more frequently, perhaps, than has been our wont, the idea of participation in the life and character of God.1 [Note: J. T. Marshall.]

Here is a slave who is set to work out his own freedom. He may have encouragements. His master may even give him assistance. But his freedom is to be the reward of his own exertions. He will pay for it by his own toil. He will work it out in the sense of securing it as the wages of years of labour. If this were the sense in which we are to work out our salvation, it would be obvious that we have a hard task upon, our hands, and that if ever we gain freedom we shall have good reason to compliment ourselves.

But let us suppose the ease of a slave emancipated by his master, given his full liberty at once; and then directed, both for the sake of gratitude to his liberator and for the sake of his own self-development, to prove himself worthy of freedom. He, too, is now to work out his liberty: not, however, in the sense of procuring it, but in the sense of bringing out that which is in it, of using it well, of applying himself so as to enjoy his new privileges. He is to prove himself really free by manifesting self-control; by securing employment and culture; by making his own the blessings and the prerogatives of freedom. Legally free, he is to work out a freemans life, that he may manifest to others and himself enjoy both the rights and the duties which pertain to his new condition.

This latter case illustrates the sense in which we are to work out our salvation. We may have it at once by faith in Christ Jesus. No one teaches this more plainly than Paul. Jesus secured our needed emancipation. We are free from condemnation. We have passed from death unto life. We are no more the possession of Satan, but the accepted children of God. We are reconciled to God by the death of His Son, and our first need is to realize, in all its wonderful meaning, the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. Having this possession, we are to work it out to its consummation. Having it legally, we are to work it out practically. Having it in the germ, we are to work out in our lives all its tendencies and consequences.1 [Note: G. T. Purves, Faith and Life, 142.]

2. Salvation, though due to God, is a process that we must work out.The Bible teaches immediate justification for Christs sake. But it is important to add that the Bible insists with equal force that the salvation which is made legally ours we are to work out; the liberty which has been declared to be ours we are to exercise both as to its privileges and its duties; the acquittal which we have received we are to make a real and personal deliverance from the actual bondage of sin. It is only on the supposition that the formal will thus become the real that it is permitted. It is only on the supposition and certainty of our becoming like Christ that we are allowed to know that in Christ we are saved.

Our first and most important religious act is the signing of a declaration of dependence. We need to recognize our relation to God, to see that He is the source of all good, and that without Him we can do nothing. But we are not to be mystics, folding our hands and leaving everything to God. He has made us reasoning and voluntary beings, and when He works in us, He only puts us in more complete possession of our powers of intellect and will. Our declaration of dependence needs to be followed by a declaration of independence. We must see to it that we become co-workers with God and not mere puppets moved by the Divine fingers. The true Christian is more of a man than he ever was before, and while God works in him, he is also to work out his own salvation.1 [Note: A. H. Strong, Miscellanies, ii. 129.]

A little seed, says a German fable, began suddenly to give signs of life, and it shot up through the hard crust of the earth, and it spread forth its roots, rejoicing in the pleasant sunshine, crying aloud in its joy, Am I not a tree? But a voice came floating by which said, The wind shall rock thee, and great storms tear thy very roots, and the winters frost shall bite thee, and many winters and summers pass over thee as the years roll along, ere thou canst call thyself a tree. It is a fable not without application. It is not enough that we feel called to a higher and a better life, and that we perhaps suddenly burst the bonds that hold us to the past, and rejoice in the inherent and everlasting love of God. There must be patient growth and development of characterworking out our own salvation.2 [Note: J. Cameron Lees.]

Let no man think that sudden in a minute

All is accomplished and the work is done;

Though with thine earliest dawn thou shouldst begin it

Scarce were it ended in thy setting sun.

Oh the regret, the struggle and the failing!

Oh the days desolate and useless years!

Vows in the night, so fierce and unavailing!

Stings of my shame and passion of my tears!3 [Note: F. W. H. Myers, Saint Paul.]

3. Salvation is a personal matter.It is our own salvation. No one can work it out for us. Each one is to work out his salvation for himself. Each one stands in an individual relation to Christ. Each one has individually believed and individually lives. And so, individually, we are to weave into the fabric of our own lives, as that grows with the years, the pattern which God has given us; we are each to work it out, as the skilled workman may work out in wood or metal the idea which lies already fully formed within his mind. We are not to work for life, but, as it were, from life, as being those who already have it and who are resolved, by Divine grace, to experience all that life implies. Just as God Himself works out in the history of creation His primeval thought, that thought which before the first creative word was uttered already embraced in itself every moment of history, and every atom of existence, so are we in the sphere of Christ Jesus, in whom potentially we have all things, to work Christ out with fear and trembling into the actual being, thought and character of our souls.

Salvation must be personal for the all-important reason that sin is personal. We have each chosen our own way. And God loves men in their individual capacity. This individuality must never be lost sight of, and our own private and personal interest in the events of Calvary must be ever present to our minds. Grand as is the doctrine of a universal atonement, yet to the man who has never proved his interest therein the contemplation can afford no real peace, no abiding joy. It is only as he cuts himself out of the mass, and realizes his own personal and specific relations to God in Christ, that he can share in the consciousness of His definite presence and delivering power.

We can never dismiss from memory the sadness with which we once listened to the confession of a certain foreign professor: I used to be concerned about religion, he said in substance, but religion is a great subject. I was very busy; there was little time to settle it for myself. A Protestant, my attention was called to the Roman Catholic religion. It suited my case. And instead of dabbling in religion for myself, I put myself in its hands. Once a year, he concluded, I go to Mass. These were the words of one whose work will live in the history of his country, one, too, who knew all about parasitism. Yet, though he thought it not, this is parasitism in its worst and most degrading form.1 [Note: Henry Drummond, Natural Law in the Spiritual World.]

Nothing is of value unless it is individualized. For example, light is universal. It bathes the whole round world in living splendour; but each individual optic nerve must take up its own set of vibrations, and convey them to the interpreting consciousness, or we shall have no sense of form, or colour, or perspective or proportion. The world is full of harmonious sounds, the singing of birds, the multitudinous laughter of the waves, and the sighing of the summer wind through the fragrant pines; but unless each individual auditory nerve gathers up these waves of sound and carries them into the appreciating brain, the orchestra of Nature might as well be silent as the grave. The same is true of air. It is universal. It wraps the whole world round with miles of thickness. There is enough for millions more than tread the earth to-day; but unless each individual pair of lungs operates upon it, and puts in its claim for supplies, it might as well be in a vacuum. Here, for example, we rescue a drowning man. He is laid upon the bank. We know how to render first-aid, and we proceed to induce artificial respiration. What is wrong? a bystander asks. We say, The man cannot breathe. Is there not enough air? he asks. Yes, we reply, plenty of air. Miles of air, air pressing with the weight of nearly fifteen pounds upon every square inch of him; but unless he can be made to draw upon it, his life will be a vanishing spark. So with salvation. It is as free as air. It folds us round like the atmosphere. It has a positive pressure. It whispers, it woos and waits, it feels round the door of the heart, and listens, and longs for entrance; but unless it be personally admitted, all its universality will count for nought.1 [Note: H. Howard, The Summits of the Soul, 180.]

It is a great moment in any mans history when he first of all grasps his own real and separate selfhood. To some men this comes suddenly with a great revealing flash that pales the brow and arrests the pulse, and smites the soul with speechless awe. To other men it comes gradually, like the dawning of the day. Tennyson has beautifully described the latter process

The baby new to earth and sky,

What time his tender palm is prest

Against the circle of the breast,

Has never thought that this is I.

But as he grows he gathers much,

And learns the use of I, and me,

And finds I am not what I see,

And other than the things I touch.

So rounds he to a separate mind

From whence clear memory may begin,

As thro the frame that binds him in

His isolation grows defined.

II

The Spirit that Befits the High Enterprise

Fear and trembling.

1. This fear does not mean mistrust or doubt, which would keep the mind in a continual apprehension of falling short of salvation, but a distrust of ourselves from a consciousness of our own weakness, and of the obstacles in the way, which produces an anxious solicitude to use all the means necessary to salvation. And trembling here denotes self-abasement in the Divine presence, a holy reverence of God, originating in the conviction of our absolute dependence upon Him for that grace which worketh salvation. The one is a warning against carnal confidence, which, if indulged, would lead to the disuse of the means of salvation; and the other an admonition against vain presumption, which would lead to dependence upon self-endeavour for salvation. What is here recommended is assurance without spiritual security, and labour without spiritual pride; and this meets the case both of those who undervalue and of those who overvalue human agency in the work of salvation.

Did you ever have committed to your care something exceedingly rare and precious; something of singular beauty or untold value? Did you ever come into the possession of something long and ardently desired, which you had thought to be too good, too sweet, too lovable ever to be really yours, your very own? Was there not an awe, almost a terror, in the sense of that possession? Did you not say to yourself, Who am I that I should have this? What if I should let it drop? What if I should lose it? Did not the very joy make you afraid and your happiness make you tremble?1 [Note: J. Vaughan.]

An eminent French surgeon used to say to his students when they were engaged in difficult and delicate operations, in which coolness and firmness were needed, Gentlemen, dont be in a hurry, for theres no time to lose. Time to make that incision once and well in the vital place, not time to dash at it with over-confidence.2 [Note: J. McNeill, Regent Square Pulpit, i. 125.]

As a young man Dr. A. A. Hodge was Professor Joseph Henrys assistant in making his experiments. He says: I can well remember the wonderful care with which he arranged all his principal experiments. Then often, when the testing moment came, that holy as well as great philosopher would raise his hand in adoring reverence and call upon me to uncover my head and worship in silence. Because, he said, God is here: I am about to ask God a question. Surely that was the right spirit of scientific inquirynone the less exact for being religiousand it went upon the idea that God is working out in nature His own thought and plan. So, I say, truth is to be embodiedworked into the material of our lives: and the Christian, being once enlightened, is to work out his salvation with fear and trembling.1 [Note: G. T. Purves, Faith and Life, 147.]

2. This fear is a rational and salutary emotion. Here is a crowded concert-hall. In the midst of the performance, a messenger whispers to the conductor. He taps with his baton. In an instant the instruments are hushed, and the leader announces in a clear voice that a fire has just broken out in the building, and that, while there is no immediate danger it is advisable for the audience quietly but at once to withdraw. Here is every care taken to prevent panic, but at the same time every effort to inspire rational fear. It is unworthy of a man under such circumstances to be overcome with terror, but no one of all that audience feels that it is beneath him to fear. No man compromises his dignity or shows that he is a coward when he is moved by fear to save his life.

Bishop Latimer once preached a sermon before King Henry viii., which greatly offended his royal auditor by its plainness. The king ordered him to preach again the next Sabbath, and to make public apology for his offence. The bishop ascended the pulpit and read his text, and thus began his sermon: Hugh Latimer, dost thou know before whom thou art this day to speak? To the high and mighty Monarch, the Kings most excellent Majesty, who can take away thy life if thou offendest; therefore, take heed that thou speakest not a word that may displease. But then, consider well, Hugh! Dost thou not know from whom thou comestupon whose message thou art sent? Even by the great and mighty God, who is all-present and beholdeth all thy ways, and who is able to cast thy soul into hell! Therefore take care that thou deliverest thy message faithfully. And so beginning, he preached over again, but with increased energy, the self-same sermon he had preached the week before. The fear of God delivered him from the fear of Man 1:1 [Note: A. H. Strong, Miscellanies, ii. 185.]

3. This fear means distrust of self with a desire to please God. There are two master principles of action which simultaneously claim our obedienceGods will and self-will. Between these two there is everlasting antagonism; eternal irreconcilableness. One of these must be renounced, agreeably to the Scripture maxim, Ye cannot serve two masters, and the other must be chosen as the ruling principle of the life. In the case of those who are being sanctified this choice has been made, for they have learned that the wisdom of self-will worketh death; and they have elected to follow the counsel of the will of God as the only way of working out their own salvation. Now, this consecration to the will of God is practical holiness. Precisely in the same ratio that the conduct is coincident with the Divine will is the work of personal sanctification promoted. If we could come to have no will of our own, to lose our will in Gods, we would have reached the highest moral perfection possible to a creature. And we must ever have our eye upon this as our loftiest aim and endeavour.

Not the slavish fear which brings the spirit into bondage, but rather that modest, humble, sensitive spirit which yields to God as the quivering grass of the meadow yields to every breeze that sweeps over its waving wealth of stems; so the soul, in deep contrition before God, trembles lest it should be found doing its own will instead of the will of Him who has come to dwell in it. It is a holy fear lest we should mistake our will for His.

That I no more from Thee may part,

No more Thy goodness grieve;

The filial awe, the fleshy heart,

The tender conscience give.2 [Note: E. W. Moore, The Promised Rest, 191.]

III

The Twofold Agency Engaged in the Work

God worketh in you.

1. This virtually is what St. Paul says here: Work out your own salvation, for now the great impossibility has become possible; God is working in you; this is no hopeless task to which I am calling you, no fruitless beating of the air, no idle effort of the leopard to change his spots or the Ethiopian to wash himself white. The Lord is working in you, and He is mighty to save. Whatever impulse you feel, whatever goodwill to this work, look upon it as a token of His presence and of His readiness to help you in it; that is God working in you both to will it and to do it, for He has no feeling but one of goodwill to you.

I cannot for a moment believe that Paul called the Philippians to work because it was first of all necessary that God should work in them. But the import, the beauty, the comfort and the encouragement of this word will appear at a glance when you see that what the Apostle really says is, Work out your own salvation, for God is working in you both to will it, and to do it in His good will to you. That is the only meaning which the original can really bear. And when it is thus read the argument at once becomes clear, and the perplexity gives place to a feeling of relief and good hope. That God must needs work in us is, of course, taken for granted; but we are encouraged by the assurance that that is exactly what He is already doing.1 [Note: Walter C. Smith.]

Religion has been defined by an eminent scholar as the recognition of the Infinite and Eternal with a view to the regulation of life; and Jesus, the Divine Author of the only true and perfect form of religion, teaches us to recognize the Infinite and Eternal as a power which is equally active in the measureless abyss of the starry heavens and in the mysterious depths of the human soul. God is present and active everywhere. In Him all things subsist; in Him we live, move, and have our being; men and things are alike a revelation of His glory.2 [Note: D. E. Irons, A Faithful Ministry, 192.]

God cannot have intended any other end for man than the perfection fitted for a self-conscious being. But such perfection is realized in God Himself, and anything less than God must be condemned as imperfect in comparison with that ultimate standard. Consequently, to become even as God is must be the final destiny of man, and the goal towards which both the individual and the race are tending. Thus, Paracelsus declares that

in completed man begins anew

A tendency to God.

Rabbi Ben Ezra speaks of man as a God though in the germ; while the Pope, looking forward to his final state, sees him

Creative and self-sacrificing too,

And thus eventually God-like (ay

I have said ye are Gods; shall it be said for nought?).

In Fifine the doctrine that the spirit shall return unto God that gave it, the finite being merged once more in the infinite spirit to which it is akin and from which it sprang, is put forward in more philosophical language:

The individual soul works through the shows of sense,

(Which, ever proving false, still promise to be true)

Up to an outer soul as individual too;

And, through the fleeting, lives to die into the fixed,

And reach at length God, man, or both together mixed.

The narrow limits of the individual self will at last be left behind, and the process of our life will culminate in the identification of thought, feeling, volition, action, of our very soul and being, with the thought and life of Him, of whom all other life is only the partial and imperfect manifestation.1 [Note: A. C. Pigou, Browning as a Religious Teacher, 64.]

2. Two powers are at work, and the error lies in separating them. The two parts of the text, if taken separately, may lead to error. Work. God works. The truth lies in the synthesis of the two: Work, for God works. The fact that God works in us ought to be the incentive to our own activity. All life is supported by reciprocationaction and reaction. There must be activity in that which lives before the environment can act upon it.

The great religions of the East, Hinduism and Buddhism, lay all the stress upon the human will. The key-note of those systems is, Work out your own salvation. The power that saves you is of yourself; the chains that bind you are of your own forging; the virtue that delivers you is of your own merit. There is no need to disparage this teaching for the sake of exalting our Christian religion. It is the noblest element in Eastern faith, and it is a truth too much neglected by ourselves. Will power is not so strong in human nature that we can afford to discourage its cultivation. There is something stern and grand in the conception of those who, instead of leaning upon others, or repining at their lot, frankly take all the condemnation to themselves, and strive manfully to retrieve their past and work out their own salvation. It is one side of religious truth, but it is not the whole truth, and it is not the gospel truth. It omits the good news of a Fathers love, of the Saviours Cross, and of the Holy Spirit that helpeth our infirmities. It is silent about those truths which are the most inspiring cause of human effort, and which have done more than all else to enkindle the heart, and strengthen the will towards right.

These two streams of truth are like the rain-shower that falls upon the water-shed of a country. The one half flows down the one side of the everlasting hills, and the other down the other. Falling into rivers that water different continents, they at length find the sea, separated by the distance of half the globe. But the sea into which they fall is one, in every creek and channel. And so, the truth into which these two apparent opposites converge, is the depth of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, whose ways are past finding outthe Author of all goodness, who, if we have any holy thought, has given it us; if we have any true desire, has implanted it; has given us the strength to do the right and to live in His fear; and who yet, doing all the willing and the doing, says to us, Because I do everything, therefore let not thy will be paralysed, or thy hand palsied; but because I do everything, therefore will thou according to My will, and do thou according to My commandments!1 [Note: A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester, i. 219.]

This is the profound teaching in St. Augustines doctrine of grace, which he pressed so strongly as to seem at times almost to destroy the reality of free will. Man could not seek God unless God already possessed him. He possesses us that we may desire to possess Him. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as mere natural goodness. Whether it is recognized or not, all earnest thought and effort is God working in us.2 [Note: H. Lefroy Yorke, The Law of the Spirit, 166.]

3. When we co-operate with God the antagonism vanishes. God and man are so near together, so belong to one another, that not a man by himself, but a man and God, is the true unit of being and power. The human will in such sympathetic submission to the Divine will that the Divine will may flow into it and fill it, and yet never destroy its individuality; my thoughts filled with the thought of One who, I know, is different from me while He is unspeakably close to me;are not these the consciousnesses of which all souls that have been truly religious have been aware?

There are two parts in every great worka working in and a working out. The working in is always the Divine part. It is very easy to work out an idea when once you have got it; but the mystery is the getting of it. What is the mystery of the beehive? It is not the making of the hive; it is the conceiving of it. If you can tell me how the idea was worked in, I will tell you how the plan was worked out. The thing which wakes my wonder is the instinctthe process within the bee; I call it Gods work. So it is with my soul. I, too, am helping to build a hivea great home of humanity, named the Kingdom of God. I know not how it is done; I know not even what part of the building I am aiding to construct; I only know that an impulse of life moves me. That impulse is God working within me. Whither it tends I cannot see. The making of the hive eludes me. I am travelling through the nightcarrying I know not what, to places I know not where. Only, the impulse says go, and I do go; I work out what God works in. I cannot fathom His designs; He has inspired me to the work by designs less than His own. He sends me to chase a butterfly when He means me to win a kingdom. No matter, I work what I will not; I compass what I conceive not; I perform what I plan not. I do what is not in my dream by the very effort to fulfil it. I seek, like Abraham, a foreign country, and I find myself in the land of Canaan.1 [Note: G. Matheson, Searchings in the Silence, 213.]

Rose leaves, placed within a vase, can influence the atmosphere of a room, creating an odour which is pleasing to the sense. Can the spirit of man, placed within its vase of clay, create a moral atmosphere which it will be healthful or injurious for others to breathe? Your mind has immediately given an affirmative answer. We cannot be in the presence of any man of great and holy force of character and not perceive his influence. How often one has heard a weaker man speak of a stronger man, and say, As long as he is with me, I feel I can do everything I ought to do! If you examine the expression you will find that it is a popular proof of the truth I am now enforcing, that one strong, dominant spirit can pervade a weaker one, and give to the weaker one a sense of confident and conquering might.

Now, let us lift up the argument to its highest application. If human spirit can work upon human spirit, and reinforce it by the impartation of its own strength, is it inconceivable that the great Creative Spirit can work upon created spirit, and impart to it its own unspeakable strength? Do you detect anything in the assumption which is belittling or degrading to an august conception of God? The raindrop, hanging at the tip of a rose-leaf, depends by the same power as the largest star. And I am fain to believe, and rejoice in believing, that the ineffable spiritual energy which is implied in what we call the holiness of God, and which empowers seraph and archangel with endurance to bear the burning bliss of the Eternal Presence, will also communicate itself to the weakest among the sons of men, and so hold him in his appointed place as to make it impossible for him ever to be moved.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett, From Strength to Strength, 20.]

O power to do! O baffled will!

O prayer and action! ye are one.2 [Note: J. G. Whittier.]

4. God works in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

(1) What is this good pleasure of God towards man? Not that man should exist as a being endowed with reason, conscience, affection, and will, in merely elementary form, still less in the depraved and corrupted forms with which we are only too familiar. It is that human beings, endowed from the beginning with the germs of Power Divine, human beings now existing as weak, wayward, sinning, shame-stained children, should, through the manifold discipline of life, be educated, built up into all the power, wisdom, and moral beauty of a perfect manhood; that through sore trial, and deep suffering, and awful sacrifice, every heavenly faculty should be daily led forth into larger force and nobler firmness, every taint of moral weakness and impurity be gradually purged away, every virtue, every grace of the Christian character be quickened and ripened into fullest beauty in every human soul; that all the sons of men should become truly, fully, sons of Godeach carrying on in his varied activity the very work of God, the Author of all life and beauty and joy; and each, in all his richly endowed humanity, standing forth before all worlds the image and the glory of the Eternal.

The assurance that the righteous Creator can never cease to desire and urge the righteousness of His creature is the eternal hope for man, and the secure rest for the soul that apprehends it. For if this be His purpose for one, it must be His purpose for all. I believe that it is His purpose for all, and that He will persevere in it until it is accomplished in all.1 [Note: Thomas Erskine of Linlathen.]

All things a prophecy contain

Of something higher still;

A close relation all sustain,

A place and purpose fill.

Our life on earth is incomplete;

For larger life we plead;

Who made the heart, aspiring, beat

Will answer to its need.

Beyond the bound of time and space

A fairer world we see;

Within the soul of man we trace

The sign and prophecy.

We trust the Lord in faith serene,

A ladder He hath given;

The lower rounds on earth are seen,

The higher reach to Heaven.2 [Note: Thomas Brevior.]

(2) By God working in us to will and to do, we are to understand that He makes us willing, and gives us power, who were formerly unwilling and unable, to surrender ourselves to the work of our own salvation. Nor is there involved in this any violation of the true liberty of the human will. The will is incapable of coercion. There can be no forcing of volition. The very freest act of the human soul is that by which it gives itself under Gods grace to Himself. When God works in the soul to will there is no violence done to the rational nature. On the contrary, there is the fullest unison with the freedom and responsibility of the moral being. And so is it also when God works in us to do. Our doing is not compulsory action. It is not a course of conduct to which we are forcibly driven, but one to which we are freely drawn. We are not like slaves, compelled by the lash to do what we have a repugnance to do. We are like freemen, influenced by grace to do what we have the inclination and resolve to do. Thus the carrying out of our salvation is willing action. But the will and the action, though by us as agents, are not from us in their motive cause. The will is wrought in us by God, and the action is wrought by us, as the instruments of the inworking agency of God.

Feelings are given not merely to be enjoyed, but as motives of action. Professor James advises that we should not even listen to a concert without compelling ourselves to perform also some kind and considerate act for the sake of preserving the balance between feeling and will power. The law of life is: This do, and thou shalt live. Feelings may ebb and flow, but right doing is always possible

We cannot kindle when we will

The fire which in the heart resides,

The spirit bloweth and is still,

In mystery our soul abides;

But tasks, in hours of insight willd,

May be through hours of gloom fulfilld.

Work Out Your Own Salvation

Literature

Haslam (W.), The Threefold Gift of God, 189.

Horton (R. F.), Lyndhurst Road Pulpit, 199.

Howard (H.), The Summits of the Soul, 171.

Jeffrey (R. T.), The Salvation of the Gospel, 256.

Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year; Sundays after Trinity, ixii, 313.

King (D.), Memoir and Sermons, 291.

Lewis (F. W.), The Unseen Life, 74.

Maclaren (A.), Sermons Preached in Manchester, 1st Ser., 208.

McNeill (J.), Regent Square Pulpit, i. 113.

Maurice (F. D.), The Prayer Book and the Lords Prayer, 207.

Momerie (A. W.), The Origin of Evil, 172.

Moore (E. W.), The Promised Rest, 187.

Munger (T. T.), The Appeal to Life, 169.

Murray (W. H.), The Fruits of the Spirit, 168.

Purves (G. T.) Faith and Life, 141.

Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xiv. (1868), No. 820.

Strong (A. H.), Miscellanies, ii. 129.

Talbot (E. S.), Some Aspects of Christian Faith, 1.

Thorn (J. H.), Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ, 89.

Yorke (H. L.), The Law of the Spirit, 157.

Christian World Pulpit, x. 410 (Beecher); xlvi. 116 (Smith); xlvii. 27 (Cameron Lees), 221 (Stalker); lxxvii. 168 (Marshall).

Church of England Pulpit, xlv. 257 (Venn); lx. 42 (Hitchcock); lxi. 132 (Hitchcock).

Expositor, 2nd Ser., vii. 145 (Murphy).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

my beloved: Phi 4:1, 1Co 4:14, 1Pe 2:11

as ye: Phi 1:5, Phi 1:27, Phi 1:29

work: Phi 3:13, Phi 3:14, Pro 10:16, Pro 13:4, Mat 11:12, Mat 11:29, Luk 13:23, Luk 13:24, Joh 6:27-29, Rom 2:7, 1Co 9:24-27, 1Co 15:58, Gal 6:7-9, 1Th 1:3, Heb 4:11, Heb 6:10, Heb 6:11, Heb 12:1, 2Pe 1:5-10, 2Pe 3:18

own: Phi 2:19, Rom 13:11-14, 1Co 9:20-23, 2Ti 2:10

with: Ezr 10:3, Psa 2:11, Psa 119:120, Isa 66:2, Isa 66:5, Act 9:6, Act 16:29, 1Co 2:3, 2Co 7:15, Eph 6:5, Heb 4:1, Heb 12:28, Heb 12:29

Reciprocal: Lev 20:7 – General Jos 24:31 – served Jdg 2:7 – the people 1Sa 14:45 – he hath 2Sa 5:24 – thou shalt bestir 1Ch 14:15 – then thou 1Ch 22:16 – Arise Neh 7:5 – put into mine Psa 57:2 – that Psa 63:8 – thy Psa 80:18 – quicken Psa 99:1 – people Son 1:4 – Draw Eze 36:27 – cause Eze 37:24 – they shall Joe 2:1 – let Hag 1:14 – and they Mat 26:35 – Though Mar 14:38 – The spirit Luk 8:47 – she came Act 5:11 – General Act 7:23 – it came Rom 3:12 – there is none Rom 11:20 – but 1Co 4:8 – without 2Co 2:9 – whether 2Co 7:11 – fear Gal 4:18 – I am Eph 6:6 – eyeservice 2Th 3:4 – that 2Th 3:14 – obey Heb 13:17 – Obey Jam 1:16 – my 1Pe 1:17 – in fear

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

RELIGION AND HEALTH

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God Which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Php 2:12-13

You may divide the world roughly into three classes, (a) There are those who are looking for physical, moral, and social salvation solely to human effort, (b) There is the man who grows impatient when he hears about the laws of nature at all. (c) There are those who see nothing inconsistent in combining both ideas. Just as in their spiritual lives they work their hardest by moral effort, by bringing their will-power to bear upon their tempers, so in their social efforts, while they investigate, and learn, and study, they look to God, Whose lesson-book they feel that they are slowly spelling out, with faltering accents, letter by letter; they work out their own salvation, and that of others, with trembling hope, just because it is God that worketh in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Let me take four pressing problems which illustrate my point.

I. We set about discovering the causes of infant mortality.If the report on physical deterioration is right in its figures, the mortality of infants, which was 154 per 1,000 forty years ago, remains at the same figure to-day. But a number of diseases which attacked children have been greatly diminished, and there ought, therefore, to be among boys in the town districts twenty-eight lives per 1,000 more saved, and twenty-three per 1,000 among girls. The annual waste of child life appears still to be in this country about 140, 000 a year. Now, I feel absolutely certain that in attacking this gigantic evil, when we have discussed and remedied every physical cause, we shall find that more than half, probably three-quarters, of it is due to moral causes; that many deaths are due to the avarice or carelessness of those who take money from property without keeping it in sanitary condition, from the drunken habits of those who overlay their children, from the immorality of men and women who have broken the laws of God, and that, therefore, the social reformer will need the moral help of all religious people of every denomination, who can strengthen and reinforce character. But, further than that, we shall discover, as we go on, that all that any of us can do is to come back and bring others back to the primval laws of God, without Whom nothing is strong, nothing is holythe primaeval laws which are the foundations of the worlds health, as they are the secret of its happiness. Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. In other words, our only hope is to bring back the world under the rule of God.

II. Take the housing question.We are all agreed as to the advisability of garden cities. Some have been established; others might be and ought to be. What are we waiting for? For the rich really to care how the poor live, to care enough to run the very moderate risk of investing their money in what might, at first, bring an interest not so great as in other enterprises, but which would have an immediate interest in human lives and human happiness which no gold could buy. And who is to give this love of others, this true Christian charity, but God alone? And who is to bring home the love of God but those who minister to the rich in holy things, and have their confidence, and speak to their souls? And it is here where the Church of the West can help so truly the Church of the East in spreading the kingdom of God, which should at least comprise for every living child of God the common liberty of earth and air.

III. Or when we glance at the physical effects of certain breaches of the moral law, so terribly familiar to those who have spent years in the rescue and preventive work of our great cities, do we not all know that not all the sanitary laws in the world can by themselves alter character, that as a matter of fact the character of Jesus Christ and the ideal He set the worldas the historian Lecky saidhas done more to regenerate mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the plans of statesmen, and that if all the world would obey the royal law Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, it would do more to abolish certain forms of disease than all the Public Health Congresses that will ever be held?

IV. And so with the drink question.We are told, not by so-called temperance fanatics, but by cool-headed magistrates, that nine-tenths of the crime of the country is due to drink. We all know the physical effects of drunkenness, and the effects which it leaves, not only upon children, but upon childrens children. But how are you going to cure it? You can always do something by legislation, and no one has urged legislation on certain points more than the various Christian bodies in the country; but when it comes to the real cure, nothing but the grace of God can change a mans inner nature, nothing but the love of Christ can give the Divine patience to bear with a drunken man or woman until they are reformed, nothing but the power of the Holy Spirit can really plant in any heart the virtue of self-control.

We come round, then, to the point from which we startedWork out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God Which worketh in us both to will and to do. Study on, investigate on, scrutinise every opening, follow up every clue. God trains our intelligence and our character by making us find His gifts for ourselves. The gifts are there waiting for our work, ready to our hand. We are fellow-workers with God all the time, and our work is only permanent and effective because behind all the human workers in the world It is God that worketh both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Bishop A. F. Winnington-Ingram.

Illustration

If it is not inconsistent for a great scientific man to be religious, still less is it inconsistent for the most devout man in the world to be enthusiastically scientific. I believe that it is still a popular idea that the clergy and other religious men are opposed to science, and live in the midst of such transcendental ideas that drainage and insanitary dwellings and infant mortality are beyond their ken. All I can say is that (and any one who knows the real life of the slums would tell you the same) the man who, side by side with the doctor and the sanitary inspector, is fighting the slum-owner, rescuing the children, and denouncing insanitary areas is the slum parson.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

CO-OPERATION WITH GOD

So far from there being any contradiction in this text in its relation to others which show salvation to be a free gift, there is complete harmony.

I. The work we have to do.Work out, says the Apostle, your own salvation. If we were to give the command its full force we should be content to use two words: confession and completeness.

(a) Confession. I like to lay a little emphasis upon our translation here, work out. I am not prepared to say that the primary idea in the original language is that of making work conspicuous, but yet the thought is fairly deducible from it, and there is no more important injunction to any Christian than that which bids him let his light shine before men. It is our duty, not only to be Christians, but to let it be known that we are such. We are to work out our salvation. Lay stress upon the little word out. It is well enough to have our religion beneath the surface, but God wants it known and read of all men.

(b) The further thought undoubtedly, however, in the passage is completeness. Salvation is a mighty word. Observe the Apostle does not say, Work for your salvation; he says, Work out your salvation. The two things are quite distinct. It is as if God said to us, You have an estate now, develop its resources.

II. The spirit in which it should be done.

(a) In sinceritythe same at all times and in all places.

(b) Submissivelyavoid the assertion of self-will.

(c) Sensitivelywith fear and trembling.

(d) Strenuouslywork out.

III. The encouragements to do the work.

(a) The Divine pattern.

(b) The Divine power.

(c) The Divine pleasure.

Rev. E. W. Moore.

Illustration

Very great is the blessing of work done for Jesus Christ in sincerity and simplicity and love. Every Christian ought to have some work of which he says, I do this for Christs sake. It is a glorious opportunity that we can and may work for God. Very blessed is it to seek lost souls and bring them near for the Saviours blessing, and to spare no pains to lay the sick brother at the feet of the heavenly Physician. For Christs Gospel insists on good works, but only as a thank-offering, only as the outcome and evidence of faith. And lo! He cometh, and His reward is with Him to render (i.e. to pay it offeven to the uttermost farthing) to each man according as his work is (Rev 22:12). And I am sure, if you first receive Christ yourself, and then

Do all the good you can,

In all the ways you can,

At all the times you can,

To all the people you can,

With all the love you can,

you will be working out your own salvation.

(THIRD OUTLINE)

WHAT SHALL I DO?

The important question for each one of us is, How shall I work out my own salvation? What shall I do? Begin by asking God to make it quite plain what your work iswhat your work is that He has given you to do.

I. A work in your own heart.To obey inwardly; to cherish and cultivate those good feelings which are now in you; to discipline your thoughts; to rule your temper; to keep your own heart in good order; to form right habits of daily life; to struggle against your besetting sin; to maintain a Christian spirit in all your daily intercourse; to carry out at once every good emotion and desire which God has put into your heart.

II. A work in the secret chamber.Every one knows that it is very definite and difficult work to fulfil faithfully the duties of private prayer and self-examination and meditation; to maintain the habit regularly and to do it spiritually; to get rid of wandering thoughts; not to slide into reverie; to make his own room a little sanctuary which he never leaves without carrying from it a better mind, a holier frame, a higher aim, and a blessing.

III. A work in your own sphere in which it has pleased God to place you.In the family and home circle, try to act lovingly; try to be faithful and useful; to be ready to sympathise with the joys and sorrows of every one; with the little troubles and the great troubles. Live to be a true friend; a wise counsellor; a ready helper; to live for the Christ you profess; everywhere to speak the truth candidly; to sit in the lowest seat, and yet to take the lead without showing it, or without yourself knowing that you do take the lead.

IV. A work outside.No Christian should be without some work which is done definitely for Christ. It may be for the body; it may be for the mind; it may be for the soul. It should be a work, not an amusement; not playwork, but earnest, self-denying, and religious, done with a distinct object, in Christ, for Christ.

In so doing you are working out your own salvationthe salvation you have received.

Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustration

When a man receives Christ, and with Christ and in Christ a new life, he enters on a new work. He has been saved to serve: Let My people gothere is liberty; that they may serve Methere is service. God has joined together salvation and service, and no man may put them asunder. It is the very law of life, as God has made it, that everything that has life in it must be working. It cannot stop. If your heart stops it is death. Therefore living souls must work.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

(Php 2:12.) , . The particle introduces an inferential lesson. 1Co 3:21; 1Co 4:5; 1Co 10:12; 1Th 4:18, etc. Followed thus by the imperative, this particle which is so often followed by the infinitive, has the sense of itaque–. Tittmann, Php 2:6; Winer, 41, 5, 1; Klotz, Devarius, ii. p. 776. It does not reach back in its sweep to all the preceding statements. We cannot, with Wiesinger, give this as its ground-Christ has attained to His glory only by the path of self-denial,-Wherefore. We take in the whole picture from the 6th to the 11th verse-wherefore, or since such were Christ’s spirit and career, such His self-denial and reward, since such an example is set before you, you are bound by your very profession to work out. If He has set it, shall you hesitate to follow it? Will it not endear itself to your imitation as you look upon it- ? The heart of the apostle warms towards them, his soul is bound up in them, and he calls them my beloved, adding a prefatory note-

, , -. The apostle appeals to their uniform obedience rendered in one sense to himself, but primarily to God, having the same object as applied to Christ in Php 2:8. There should be a comma after , for the next words belong to the concluding clauses, as the use of – seems to indicate. The construction of the verse is peculiar from its very compactness. Two comparisons are inwoven-my presence, my absence-or not in my presence only, but much more in my absence; and as ye have always obeyed, so now carry out your salvation. The fervid heart of the apostle was not fettered by the minutiae of formal rhetoric; parallel thoughts are intertwined, and ideas that should follow in succession are blended in the familiar haste of epistolary composition. , in contrast with , is not a future presence, as Wiesinger renders it. 2Co 10:10. It is, indeed, applied especially to a future advent of Christ, a presence not now, but afterwards, to be enjoyed. The apostle uses in this epistle the words , Php 1:26. The adverb does not simply denote comparison, but it indicates a supposed or imagined quality which the apostle, indeed, warns against, and will not believe to exist. Rom 9:32; 2Co 2:17; Gal 3:16. The claim of the injunction did not cease with his presence. His absence did not make the obligation less imperative, but it demanded more earnestness and vigilance from them in the discharge of the duty. His voice and person were a guide and stimulant, his addresses and conversations reproved their languor, and excited them to assiduous labour, so that His presence among them wrought like a charm. And now that he was not with them, and they were left to themselves, they were so much the more to double their diligence, and work out salvation. This was to be done -with fear and trembling.- See under Eph 6:5, where the phrase has been explained. 1Co 2:3; 2Co 7:15; Psa 2:11. The phrase means something more than Jerome’s non cum negligentia. It restricts the feeling described too much to one aspect of it, to suppose it to be awe before an omnipresent God, as do the Greek expositors; or a sense of dependence on God, as does De Wette; or the apprehension that the work is not performed sufficiently, as do Meyer and Wiesinger. In fact, the phrase describes that state of mind which ought ever to characterize believers-distrust of themselves-earnest solicitude in every duty-humble reliance on divine aid, with the abiding consciousness that after all they do come far short of meeting obligation. There does not seem to be any reference, as some suppose, to the spirit of Christ’s , but there may be a warning against that pride and vainglory already reprobated by the apostle. In this spirit they are enjoined-

-carry out your own salvation. The compound verb here expresses the idea of carrying out, or making perfect. Fritzsche on Rom 2:9; also Raphelius, vol. ii. p. 495. This sounder philology opposes the explanation of Chrysostom- , , , . The verb describes not the spirit in which the work is done, but the aim and issue-carry through; while the idea of the Greek Father is only inferential. In the translation-work out one another’s salvation-which is that of Pierce, Michaelis, Storr, Flatt, and Matthies, we should at once concur, but for a reason to be immediately stated. The reciprocal meaning given to may be found in Eph 4:32; Col 3:16; 1Pe 4:8; 1Pe 4:10. The context, as van Hengel admits, is in favour of the latter translation which we have given. De Wette contends that the reference in the verse is quite general-an idea which the inferential particle does not sanction; and he carries the reference back to Php 1:27, without any warrant whatever. Rheinwald, Rilliet, and others, uphold the idea that the verse is an inference from the preceding exhibition of Christ’s example. We think that this cannot be doubted, so close and inseparable is the connection. But what is that example intended to illustrate? Might we not say the injunction-Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. If the career of our Lord be introduced to show us what mind was in Him, surely the lesson deduced will be in unison. If he bid them have the mind of Christ, and then go on to show what it is, surely his inference must be that they should, in their own sphere, exhibit the same mind. Now the great truth which the exhibition of Christ’s example illustrates is self-denying generosity-the very charge He has already given them, and the inference is expected to be in harmony with the starting lesson. The command- -will therefore be synonymous in spirit with the previous one in Php 2:4-5. In this way the would connect homogeneous ideas. If the words be rendered, work out your own salvation, we do not see how it can with the same force be derived as a lesson. The connection brought out by Alford is-considering the immense sacrifice which Christ has made for you, and the lofty eminence to which God has now raised Him, be ye more than ever earnest, that you miss not your own share in such salvation. But there is no hint of this connection in the preceding verses: for, in referring to Christ, the apostle does not speak of Him as a Saviour, nor yet of the salvation which He has secured. He does not say He died for sin, or died for us. His reference is to the spirit of His death, and not to its character and results. It is true that His exaltation proved His mission divine, and His mediation effectual. But the apostle does not allude to this, nor does he in this paragraph in any way connect the glory of Jesus with a completed redemption. If he had said-He has died and risen again to save you, the connection could easily be-therefore salvation is perfect, and you are summoned either to receive it, or more fully to realize it. But it is simply of the fact that Christ denied Himself to benefit others that the apostle writes, and the Philippians are to do service to others, and thus evince that the same mind is truly in them which was also in Christ Jesus. Nay more, the connection usually brought out seems also to have this peculiarity, that it seems to make the apostle begin the paragraph with one injunction, and end it by enforcing its opposite. He commences formally-Look not every man on his own things; and he ends by saying virtually-Look every man on his own things-work out your own salvation. Is he to be understood as either modifying or withdrawing his first injunction, an injunction commended by the example of Christ Jesus.

The only difficulty in the way of this view is philological. The pronoun is used in Php 2:4 th, to signify one’s own things; and in Php 2:21 st it is used with the same meaning, and how should the same word in the intervening Php 2:12 th be used with precisely an opposite signification? We feel the difficulty to be insuperable, while the leading of the context is so decided. And perhaps this may be the idea- carry forward your own salvation with fear and trembling, for with such a work in progress, and such emotions within you, you will possess the mind of Christ; for he who thus carries out his own salvation will sympathize with the toils and labours of others, and look not alone at his own things. Their own salvation being secured and carried out, they would not be so selfish as to be wholly occupied with it, so unlike Him who made Himself of no reputation, as to creep up to heaven in selfish solitude. For the law of the kingdom is, that he who stoops the lowest shall rise the highest- Christ the first, and each after Him in order. This loving and lowly spirit God rejoices in-it is the heart of His Son, and the genius of His gospel. How this duty is to be discharged, the apostle does not say, but he adverts to its spirit -in fear and trembling.

Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians

Php 2:12. In chapter 1:27 Paul exhorts the brethren to be faithful whether he is present with them or not, and in this one he acknowledges Just such faithfulness on their part. Brethren cannot do more than obey, hence the words much more only means an expression of degree. It is more commendable for them to be obedient in his absence, for that is proof that their work is not “eyeservice” (service performed only under the eye of the master), which is condemned in Eph 6:6. Work out comes from one Greek word which Thayer defines, “to do that from which something results.” They were to do the work under Christ that would result in their own salvation; no person could do it for them. Fear and trembling. The first word means reverence and the last means anxiety. Christians should have reverence for God and be anxious to obey His law.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Php 2:12. So, then, my beloved. The particle in the original is not equivalent to on which account, or wherefore, but merely the lighter conjunction by which an imperative or hortatory clause is attached to what has preceded.

as ye have always obeyed. This is the secret of all the joy in the Philippian Epistle. In the church there, his words, as spoken in Christs name, had ever been diligently followed. He had no cause for grief of any kind over them.

not as in my presence only. Do not only labour as you did when I was with you in the work of salvation. Their earlier zeal he had been witness of; he now begs that he may not find that his presence among them was necessary to sustain that zeal, but that they will prove it to have been of a true nature, a zeal for Christ, by their efforts while he is away from them, as in the nature of things he must constantly be.

but now much more in my absence. This would be the surest evidence, if the earnestness increased instead of abating when the apostle was absent.

work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. The apostle has in his thought for a moment the influence which perhaps his own presence or absence may exert on the congregation at Philippi. He would have them learn to be independent of him, and so he says, Work out your own salvation, and adds, because he knows the many dangers and temptations which will beset them, with fear and trembling, that he may impress on them the need for watchfulness and constant anxiety in this work. And he employs a verb expressive of complete and perfect accomplishment, that they may feel at now great results they are to aim. But in a moment, lest there should be any misapprehension of his meaning, and the Philippians should place trust in themselves, he adds a corrective.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Observe here, 1. The commendation given by St. Paul of his beloved Philippians, for their cheerful obedience to the precepts of the gospel: they always obeyed, that is, ever since their first conversion to christianity, not only while the apostle was upon the spot with them, but since the providence of God necessitated his absence from them; not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence.

But how came it to pass that their obedience was greater, when they wanted the apostle for their instructor?

Ans. In the absence of one teacher they had another, and him a better that the inspired apostle, even the inspiring Spirit of God, who in the apostle’s absence was more immediately present with them by his inward motions, to excite and enable them both to will and to do what is well pleasing to him.

O! how good is God at the supplying the wants, and making up the losses of his people! If persecution drives his church’s ministers into dungeons, and they cannot hear a voice behind them, they shall have the presence of his Holy Spirit, and hear a voice within them, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it.

Observe, 2. A special duty which St. Paul exhorts the Philippians to be found in the practice of, namely, to work out their salvation with fear and trembling; implying, that it should be every christian’s great work to be daily working out his own salvation, that is, diligently making use of all means and faithfulness, practising all duties in order thereunto.

Note here, 1. The excellency of the object proposed; and that is, salvation: there is salvation held forth and tendered by God to lost sinners, in the gospel.

Note, 2. The difficulty of salvation, supposed and implied in the word work; which signifies an exerting our utmost endeavours, in order to the attaining of it. The work of salvation is no lazy man’s business, but a work of labour and difficulty, though the difficulties may be overcome by an industrious diligence.

Note, 3. The necessity of perseverance, in order to our attaining of salvation: Work out your salvation, that is, perfect and consummate the work which you have happily begun.

Note, 4. The manner how we should work out our own salvation: namely, with fear and trembling; intimating, that an holy fear of God, and an humble fear of ourselves, will be of singular use and advantage to us in the working out of our salvation.

Observe, 3. The argument or motive to excite unto this labour and diligence in and about the work of salvation; and this is very encouraging, because God works with us, and in us, Php 2:13. For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do.

That God works with us, is great encouragement to work; but we must remember God works arbitrarily, and not necessarily; he worketh but of his own good pleasure, as a free agent, who can cease when he pleases. Therefore work with fear and trembling.

Learn from the whole, 1. That we can do nothing without God.

2. That he will do nothing without his assistance, he will do nothing without the concurrence of our endeavours: he worketh in us both to will and to do, and we must work with him, in order to the working out of our salvation.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

ARGUMENT 6

GOD WORKS WITHIN, AND WE WITHOUT

12,13. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his own good pleasure. God is the omnipotent agent in salvation, while we are instrumental.

We are not agents, but tools. The reason why people get tired in the Lords work, is because they are not dead. A dead man never gets tired. Your old hoe never gets tired, and says, Let me rest. Hence, we are but tools in the hands of Omnipotence, who is working in us, both to will and to do; i.e., he gives us the will, and bestows the needed power to do everything he requires at our hands. The hands of my watch revolve night and day without fatigue, and never wear out, because the internal machinery does all the work, and moves the hands in their constant peregrinations. So God is in me running the machinery, while my members simply move as they are moved. Hence, we have nothing to do in the plan of salvation, but ring out an eternal yes to the Holy Ghost, and govern ourselves accordingly. Jesus came to save, and does save all who let him. It is only by resisting the Spirit that people make their bed in hell.

14. Full salvation forever sweeps away all murmur and doubt.

15. In order that you may be blameless and unmixed. The Greek for harmless is akeraioi, from alpha, not, and keranumi; to mix. Hence, it means an unmixed experience. The sinner has nothing but depravity in his heart unmixed with grace.

The wholly sanctified have nothing but grace unmixed with sin; while the unsanctified Christians have a mixed experience of good and evil; not in the sense of a chemical combination, but like the wheat in the stack, mixed up with cheat, chaff, and straw, and needing a steam thresher to separate and prepare it for the mill. You get your crop of wheat in regeneration, but can make little use of it till sanctification eliminates the cheat, cockle, chaff, and trash; then you can take it to the Lords mill, get it ground, and have a banquet.

16. Unto my boasting in the day of Christ. Paul constantly keeps before the people the coming of the Lord, with one hand holding up entire sanctification, and with the other the Lords return to the earth.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Php 2:12-18. Work and Sacrifice.In view of this wonderful example Paul exhorts his readers to be even more diligent in his absence than they had been when he was present with them. If this is all done without any complaining or quarrellingsuch as Greek factiousness might producethey would shine as lights in the dark pagan world. Then, even if Paul were martyred, his death would be an offering to God added to the sacrifice and service their faith was producing.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 12

With fear and trembling; with earnest solicitude.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

2:12 {4} Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, {m} work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

(4) The conclusion: we must go on to salvation with humility and submission by the way of our vocation.

(m) He is said to make an end of his salvation who runs in the race of righteousness.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The responsibility of the believer 2:12-16

"The detailed attention just given to the Christ-hymn must not obscure the fact that Php 2:12-18 are part of a larger parenetic section-1:27-2:18. Exhortation is resumed again through the frequent use of the imperative mood, or through the use of participles with the force of the imperative." [Note: Hawthorne, p. 97.]

"God’s ’therefore’ (Php 2:9) is matched by the Christian’s therefore (Php 2:12), [footnote 1: The Greek words are different (Php 2:9, dio, ’therefore, wherefore’; Php 2:12, hoste, ’so then’), but the effect is the same.] and that, in a nutshell, is what this passage is about. Just as God assessed and then reacted to the worth of his Son’s life of obedience (Php 2:9-11), so the Christian must ponder the example of Christ and determine upon a worthy response (Php 2:12-18)." [Note: Motyer, p. 125.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The Philippian Christians had been obedient to the Lord and to His servant Paul in the past (cf. Php 1:27). Even though Paul was no longer with them and might be unable to return to them, he wanted them to continue to obey. The Greek word translated "obey" (hypakouein) contains the ideas of hearing, especially the divine word as proclaimed (cf. 2Th 1:8), and submitting to what is heard. [Note: Hawthorne, p. 98.] It was even more important that they purpose to obey with Paul absent since his presence among them provided a measure of external motivation for them.

Specifically they were to work out their salvation. Note that Paul did not say "work for your salvation." We obtain salvation by receiving it as a gift (Eph 2:8), but having received it freely we have a responsibility to cultivate it. The apostle had in mind the present aspect of our salvation, sanctification, in which we are laborers together with God (1Co 3:9; cf. Tit 3:8). [Note: See Joseph C. Dillow, The Reign of the Servant Kings, pp. 114-16; Robert N. Wilkin, "Working Out Your Salvation," Grace Evangelical Society News 8:3 (May-June 1993):2-3; and Fee, Paul’s Letter . . ., p. 235.] In justification and glorification, God does all the work (Eph 2:9; Jud 1:24). We work out our salvation by keeping in step with the Holy Spirit who leads us in the will of God (Gal 5:16). In the context the particular aspect of sanctification in view involves achieving unity through humility.

"Paul is not here concerned with the eternal welfare of the soul of the individual. The individual believer is not now being called ’to self-activity, to the active pursuit of the will of God . . . to a personal application of salvation’ (Müller). Rather the context suggests that this command is to be understood in a corporate sense. The entire church, which had grown spiritually ill (Php 2:3-4), is charged now with taking whatever steps are necessary to restore itself to health and wholeness." [Note: Hawthorne, p. 98. Müller refers to J. J. Müller, The Epistles of Paul to the Philippians and to Philemon. Cf. Martin, p. 111.]

"Perhaps it is best to see both the outworking of personal salvation and the corporate salvation or deliverance of the whole assembly from whatever held them back from experiencing God’s best." [Note: Lightner, "Philippians," p. 655.]

As we work out our own sanctification, we must remember certain things. We serve a holy God, we have a strong and wise adversary, and we are weak and dependent on God for all that we need. Such awareness will produce the attitude of fear and trembling that Paul advocated. This attitude is not inconsistent with joy and confidence in the Lord.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 8

WORKING AND SHINING.

Php 2:12-18 (R.V.)

AFTER his great appeal to the mind of Christ, the Apostle can pursue his practical object; and he can do so with a certain tranquillity, confident that the forces he has just set in motion will not fail to do their work. But yet that same appeal itself has tended to broaden and deepen the conception of what should be aimed at. He had deprecated the arrogant and the selfish mind, as these are opposed to lovingkindness and regard for others. But now, in presence of the great vision of the Incarnation and obedience of Christ, the deeper note of lowliness must be struck in fit accord with that of love; not only lowliness in the way of doing ready honour to others, but deep and adoring lowliness towards God, such as is due both from creatures and from sinners. For if Christs love fulfilled itself in such a perfect humility, how deeply does it become us to bear towards God in Christ a mind of penitence arid gratitude, of loving awe and wonder, such as shall at the same time for ever exclude from our bearing towards others both pride and self-seeking. In this way the one practical object suggested by the circumstances at Philippi-namely, loving unity-now allies itself naturally with ideas of complete and harmonious Christian life; and various views of that life begin to open. But each aspect of it still proves to be connected with the gracious and gentle mind of Christ, in the lowly form of that mind which is appropriate for a sinner who is also a believer.

So then they are to apply themselves to the “calling wherewith they are called,” in a spirit of “fear and trembling.” The phrase is a common one with the Apostle. {1Co 2:3; 2Co 7:15; Eph 5:6} He uses it where he would express a state of mind in which willing reverence is joined with a certain sensitive anxiety to escape dangerous mistakes and to perform duty well. And it is fitly called for here, for

1. If lowliness so became the Divine Saviour, who was full of grace, wisdom, and power, then what shall be the mind of those who in great guilt and need have found part in the salvation, and who are going forward to its fulness? What shall be the mind of those who, in this experience, are looking up to Christ-looking up to lowliness? Surely not the spirit of strife and vainglory (Php 2:3), but of fear and trembling-the mind that

2. dreads to be presumptuous and arrogant, because it finds the danger to be still near.

3. The salvation has to be wrought out. It must come to pass in your case in the line of your own endeavor. Having its power and fulness in Christ, and bestowed by Him on you, yet this deliverance from distance, estrangement, darkness, unholiness, is given to believers to be wrought out; it comes as a right to be realised, and as a power to be exercised, and as a goal to be attained. Think of this, -you have in hand your own salvation-great, Divine, and wonderful-to be wrought out. Can you go about it without fear and trembling? Consider what you are-consider what you believe-consider what you seek-and what a spirit of lowly and contrite eagerness will pervade your life! This holds so much the more, because the salvation itself stands so much in likeness to Christ-that is to say, in a loving lowliness. Let a man think how much is in him that tends, contrariwise, to self-assertion and self-seeking, and he will have reason enough to fear and tremble as he lays fresh hold on the promises, and sets his face to the working out of this his own salvation.

4. This very working out, from whom does it come? Are you the explanation and last source of it? What does it mean? Wherever it takes place, it means that, in a very special sense, Gods mighty presence and power are put forth in us to will and to do. Shall not this thought quell our petulance? Where is room now for anything but fear and trembling-a deep anxiety to be lowly, obedient, compliant?

Whether, therefore, we look to the history of the Saviour, or to the work to which our own life is devoted, or to the power that animates that work and on which it depends-in all alike we find ourselves committed to the lowly mind; and in all alike we find ourselves beset with a wealth of free beneficence, which lays obligation on us to be self-forgetting and loving. We are come into a wonderful world of compassionate love. That is the platform on which we stand-the light we see by-the music that fills our ears-the fragrance that rises on every side. If we are to live here, there is only one way for it-there is only one kind of life that can live in this region. And, being as we are, alas! so strangely coarse and hard-even if this gospel gladdens us, there may well thrill through our gladness a very honest and a very contrite “fear and trembling.”

Now all this is by the Apostle persuasively urged upon his Philippian children (Php 2:12): “As ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence.” For, indeed, it proves easy comparatively for our human indolence to yield to the spell of some great and forcible personality when he is present. It is even pleasant to allow ourselves to be borne on by the tide of his enthusiastic goodness. But when the Apostle was at Philippi, it might come easier to many of them to feel the force and scope of their calling in Christ. And yet now that he was gone, now was the time for them to prove for themselves, and evince to others, the durable worth of the great discovery they had made, and the thoroughness of the decision which had transformed their lives. Now, also, was the time to show Paul himself, that their “obedience” was of the deep and genuine quality which alone could give content to him.

Such in general seems to be the scope of these two verses. But one or two of the points deserve to be considered a little before we go on.

Mark how emphatically the Apostle affirms the great truth, that every good thing accompanying salvation which comes to pass in Christians is of the mighty power and grace of God. Therefore Christianity must stand so much in asking and in thanking. It is God that worketh in you. He does it, and no other than He; it is His prerogative. He worketh to will and to do. The inclination of the heart and the purpose of the will are of Him; and the striving to bring forth into act and deed what has been so conceived-that also is of Him. He quickens those who were dead in trespasses and sins; He gives the renewing of the Holy Ghost; He makes His children perfect, working in them that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ. All this He does in the exercise of His proper power, in the “exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe”-“according to the working of His mighty power, which wrought in Christ when He was raised from the dead.” Apparently we are to take it that in the children of God there is the new heart, or new nature, in respect of which they are new creatures; and also the indwelling of God by His Spirit; and also the actual working of the same Spirit in all fruits. of righteousness which they bring forth to the glory and praise of God. And these three are so. connected that regard should be had to all of them when we contemplate each.

He worketh to will and to do. From Him all godly desires and purposes proceed-from Him, every passage in our lives in which the “salvation that is in Christ Jesus” is by us received, put to proof, wrought out into the transactions of our lives. It must be so, if we will only think of it. For this “salvation” involves. an actual, and in principle a complete agreement with God, affirmed and embodied in each right thought, and word, and deed. Whence could this flow but from Himself?

In their statements and explanations about this Christians have differed. The difference has been mainly on the point, how to make it clear that men are not dealt with as inert nor as irresponsible; that they must not hold themselves excused from working on the ground that God works all. For all agree that men are called to the most serious earnestness of purpose and the most alert activity of action; but the theorising of this activity occasions debate. It is from the motive of trying to make more room for these indispensable elements on the human side, that modes of statement have been suggested which limit or explain away the Apostles statement here. The motive is commendable, but the method is not commonly successful. All efforts to divide the ground between God and man go astray. In the inward process of salvation, and especially in this “willing and doing,” God does all, and also man does all. But God takes precedence. For it is He that quickeneth the dead, and calleth things that are not as though they were. Here we may say, as the Apostle does. in another case, “This is a great mystery.” Let us recognise it as a mystery bound up with any hope we ourselves have of proving to be children of God. And under the sense of it, with fear and trembling let us work, for it is God that worketh in us to will and to do.

He worketh in us to will. When I trace back any of my actions to the fountain where it takes its rise as mine, I find that fountain in my will. The materials which I take up into my act, the impressions which gather together to create a situation for me, may all have their separate, history going back in the order of cause and effect to the beginning of the world; but that which makes it mine, is that I will, I choose, and thereupon I do it. Therefore also it is that I must answer for it, because it is mine. I willed it, and in. willing it I created something which pertains to me and to no other; something began which is. mine, and the responsibility for it cleaves only to me. But in the return to God through Christ, and in the working out of that salvation, there are acts of mine, most truly mine; and yet in these another Will, the Will of Him who saves, is most intimately concerned. He worketh in us to will. It is not an enslaving, but an emancipating energy. It brings about free action, yet such as fulfils a most gracious Divine purpose. So these “willings” embody a consent, a union of heart and mind and will, His and mine, the thought of which is enough to bow me to the ground with “fear and trembling.” This is He who gathereth the dispersed of Israel into one.

On the other hand, the salvation is to be wrought out by us. To have faith in the Son of God in exercise and prevalence; to have heart and life formed to childlike love of God, and to the fulfilment of His will; to carry this out against the flesh and the world and the devil, -all this is a great career of endeavour and attainment. It is much to make the discoveries implied in it, finding out at each stage the meaning of it, and how it should take shape. It is much to have the heart brought to beat true to it, to love it, consent to it, be set upon it. It is much to embody it in faithful and successful practice in the rough school of life, with its actual collision and conflict. Now the nature and working of Gods grace at each stage are of this kind, that it operates in three ways at least. It operates as a call, an effectual call, setting a man on to arise and go. It operates also in a way of instruction, setting us to learn lessons, teaching us how to live, as it is said in Tit 2:11-12. And it operates as a power, as help in time of need. He that sits still at the call-he that will not be considerate to learn the lesson-he that will not cast himself on the strength perfected in weakness, that he may fulfil and do the Fathers will-he is a man who despises and denies the grace of God.

Now what has been said of the believers relation to the saving God prepares the way for referring to his office towards the world. Here the moral and practical theme which is in the Apostles mind all through proves again to be in place: the lowly and loving mind will best discharge that office towards the world, which the arrogant and distempered mind would hinder. “Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be blameless and harmless.”

A murmuring and disputatious temper-murmuring at what displeases us, and multiplying debate about it-is simply one form of the spirit which Paul deprecates all through this context. It is the sign of the disposition to value unduly ones own ease, ones own will, ones own opinion, ones own party, and to lie at the catch for opportunities to bring that feeling into evidence. Now observe the harm which the Apostle anticipates. It is your office to serve God by making a right impression on the world. How shall that come to pass? Chiefly, or at least primarily, the Apostle seems to say, by the absence of evil. At least, that is the most general and the safest notion of it with which to begin. Some, no doubt, make impressions by their eloquence, or by their wisdom, or by their enterprising and successful benevolence-though all these have dangers and drawbacks attending them, in so far as the very energy of action provides a shelter for unperceived self-will. Still, let them have their place and their praise. But here is the line that might suit all. A man whose life stands clear of the worlds deformities, under the influence of a light and a love from which the world is estranged, gradually makes an impression.

Now murmuring and disputing are precisely adapted to hinder this impression. And sometimes they hinder it in the case of people of high excellence-people who have much sound and strong principle, who have large benevolence, who are capable of making remarkable sacrifices to duty when they see it. Yet this vice, perhaps a surface vice, of murmuring and disputing, is so suggestive of a mans self being uppermost, it so unpleasantly forces itself in as the interpretation o the man, that his real goodness is little accounted of. At all events, the peculiar purity of the Christian character-its blamelessness and harmlessness, its innocence-does not in this case come to light. People say: “Ah, he is one of the mixed ones, like ourselves. Christian devoutness suits some people; they are sincere enough in it, very likely; but it leaves them, after all, pretty much as it found them.”

I say no more about murmuring and disputing as these reveal themselves in our relations to others. But the same spirit, and attended in its operations with the same evil effects, may manifest itself in other ways besides that of unkindness to men. As frequently, perhaps, it may show itself in our behaviour towards God; and in that case it interferes at least as seriously with the shining of our light in the world.

Just as in the camp of Israel of old on many memorable occasions there arose a murmuring of the people against God, when His ways crossed their will, or seemed dark to their wisdom; just as, on such occasions, there broke out among the people the expression of doubt, dislike, and disputation, and they criticised those Divine dealings which should have been received with trust and lowliness, so is it also, many a time, in the little world within us. There are such and such duties to be discharged and such and such trials to be encountered-or else a general course of duty is to be pursued under certain discouragements and perplexities. And, you submit, you do these things. But you do. them with murmuring and disputing in your heart. Why should it be thus? “How is it fit,” you say, “that such perplexities or such burdens should be appointed? Is it not reasonable, all things considered, that I should have more indulgence and greater facilities; or, at least, that I should be excused from this conflict and this burden-bearing for the present?” Meanwhile our conscience is satisfied because we have not rebelled in practice; and it takes no strict account of the fretfulness which marred our act, or the grumbling which well-nigh withheld us from compliance. You are called, perhaps, to speak to some erring friend, or you have to go on a message of mercy to some one in affliction. Indolently you postpone it; and your heart begins to stretch out its arms and to cling to the careless temper it has begun to indulge. At last conscience stirs, conscience is up, and you have to do something. But what you do is done grudgingly, with a heart that is murmuring and disputing. Again, you are called to deny yourself some worldly pleasure; in Christian consistency you have to hold back from some form of dissipation; or you have to take up a position of singularity and separation from other people. Reluctantly you comply; only “murmuring and disputing.” Now this inward temper may never come to any mans knowledge, but shall we suppose it does not tell on the character and the influence of the life? Can you, in that temper, play your part with the childlike, the cheerful, the dignified bearing, with the resemblance to Christ in your action, which God calls for? You cannot. The duty as to the husk and shell of it may be done; but there can be little radiation of Christs likeness in the doing of it.

Notice the Apostles conception of the function which believers are to discharge in the world. They are set in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. These words were applied to the children of Israel of old on account of the stubborn insubordination with which they dealt with God; and they were applicable, for the same reason, to the Gentiles, among whom the gospel had come, but who had not bowed to it. Judged by the high and true standard, these Gentiles were crooked and perverse in their ways with one another, and still more so in their ways with God. Among them the Christians were to show what Christianity was, and what it could do. In the Christians was to appear, embodied, the testimony proposed to the crooked and perverse nation, a testimony against its perverseness, and yet revealing a remedy for it. In the persons of men, themselves originally crooked and perverse, this was to become plain and legible. Now, how? Why, by their being blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke.

It has been remarked already that the special way in which we are to manifest to the world the light of Christianity is here represented as the way of blamelessness. That man aright represents the mind of Christ to the world, who in the world keeps himself unspotted from the world, -in whom men recognise a character that traces up to a purer source elsewhere. As years pass, as cross-lights fall upon the life, even in its most common and private workings, if it still proves that the man is cleansed by the faith he holds, if the unruly working of interest and passion and will, give way in him to motives of a higher strain, men will be impressed. They will own that here is something rare and high, and that some uncommon cause is at the bottom of it. For the world knows well that even the better sort of men have their weaker side, often plainly enough revealed by the trials of time. Therefore steadfast purity makes, at last, a deep impression.

Innocence indeed is not the whole duty of a Christian; active virtue is required as well. The harmlessness called for is not a mere negative quality-it is supposed to be exhibited in an active life which strives to put on Christ Jesus. But the Apostle seems to lay stress especially on a certain quiet consistency, on a lowly and loving regard to the whole standard, which gives evenness and worthiness to the life. If you will do a Christians office to the “perverse nation,” you have to seek that they may have nothing against you except concerning the law of your God; you have to seek that your reproach may be exclusively the reproach of Christ, so that if at any time the malice of men seeks to misconstrue your actions, and lays to your charge things which you know not, your well-doing may silence them; and having no evil thing to say of you, they may be-ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

Strong appeals are made in our day to members of the Christian Church to engage actively in all kinds of Christian work. They are summoned to go forth aggressively upon the worlds misery and sin. This has become a characteristic note of our time. Such appeals were needed. It is a shame that so many Christians have absolved themselves from the obligation to place at their Lords service the aptitudes and the energies with which He has endowed them. Yet in this wholesale administration diversities are apt to be overlooked. Christians may be undervalued who do not possess qualities fitting them for the special activities; or, attempting these without much aptitude, and finding little success, they may be unduly cast down. It is important to lay stress on this. There are some, perhaps we should say many, who must come to the conclusion, if they judge aright, that their gifts and opportunities indicate for them, as their sphere, a somewhat narrow round of duties, mostly of that ordinary type which the common experience of human life supplies. But if they bring into these a Christian heart; if they use the opportunities they have; if they are watchful to please their Lord in the life of the family, the workshop, the market; if the purifying influence of the faith by which they live comes to light in the steady excellence of their character and course, -then they need have no sense of exclusion from the work of Christ and of His Church. They, too, do missionary work. Blameless, harmless, unrebuked, they are seen as lights in the world. They contribute, in the manner that is most essential of all. to the Churchs office in the world. And their place of honour and reward shall be far above that of many a Christian busybody, who is too much occupied abroad to keep the light clear and bright at home.

Blameless, then, harmless, unaspersed, must the children of God, His redeemed children, be. So will the light of Christian character come clearly out, and Christians will be “luminaries, holding forth the word of life.”

The word of life is the message of salvation as it sets forth to us Christ, and goodness and blessedness by Him. Substantially it is that teaching which we have in the Scriptures; although, when Paul wrote, the New Testament was not yet a treasure of the Churches, and the “word of life” only echoed to and fro from teacher to taught, and from one disciple to another. Still, the teaching rested on the Old Testament Scriptures understood in the light of the testimony of Jesus; and it was controlled and guided by men speaking and writing in the Spirit. What it was therefore was very well known, and the influence of it as the seed of life eternal was felt. It was for Christians to hold by it, and to hold it out, – the expression used in ver. 16 (Php 2:16), may have either meaning; and virtually both senses are here. In order to give light there must be life. And Christian life depends on having in us the word, quick and powerful, which is to dwell in us richly in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. This must be the secret of blameless Christian lives; and so those who have this character will give light, as holding forth the word of life. The mans visible character itself does this. For while the word and message of life is to be owned, professed, in fit times proclaimed, yet the embodiment of it in the man is the mare point here, the character being formed and the practice determined by the “word” believed. So also we are said to live by the faith of the Son of God. The life of faith on Him is the life of having and holding forth His word.

Here, as everywhere, our Lord goes first. The Apostle John, speaking in his Gospel of the Eternal Word, tells us that in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. It was not merely a doctrine of light; the life was the light. As He lived, in His whole being, in His acting and suffering, in His coming and staying and departing, in His Person and in His discharge of every office, He manifested the Father. Still we find it so; as we contemplate Him, as His words lead us to Himself, we behold the glory, the radiance of grace and truth.

Now His people are made like Him.. They too, through the word of life, become partakers of true life. This life does not dwell in them as it does in their Lord, for He is its original seat and source; hence they are not the light of the world in the same sense in which He is so. Still they are luminaries, they are stars in the world. By manifesting the genuine influence of the word of life which dwells in them, they do make manifest in the world what truth and purity and salvation are. This is their calling; and, in a measure, it is their attainment.

The view of the matter given here may be compared with that of 2Co 3:4. Christ, the Fathers Word, may also be regarded as the Fathers living Epistle. Then those who behold Him, and drink in the significance of this message, are also themselves, in their turn, Epistles of Christ, known and read of all men.

So to shine is the calling of all believers, not of some only; each, according to his opportunities, may and ought to fulfil it. God designs to be glorified, and to have His salvation justified, in this form. Christ has said in the plainest terms, “Ye are the light of the world.” But to be so implies separateness from the world, in root and in fruits; and that is for many a hard saying. “Ye are a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.”

In the sixteenth and following verses comes in again Pauls own share in the progress and victory of the Christian life in his friends. “It would be exceeding well,” he seems to say, “for you; how well, you may partly gather from learning how well it would be for me.” He would have cause to “rejoice in the day of Christ” that he had “not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.” What might be said on this has been anticipated in the remarks made on Php 1:20 fol. But here the Apostle is thinking of something more than the toil and labour expended in the work. More than these was to fall to his lot. His life of toil was to close in a death of martyrdom. And whether the Apostle was or was not enabled to foresee this certainly, doubtless he looked forward to it as altogether probable. So he says: “But if I be offered (or poured out as a drink-offering) in the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all; and do ye also likewise joy and rejoice with me.”

To see the force of this expression we must remember that it was an ancient custom to seal and complete a sacrifice by the pouring out of a libation on the altar or at the foot of it. This might be intended as the crowning testimony of the abundant freewill with which the service had been rendered and the sacrifice had been offered. To some such rite the Apostle alludes when he speaks of himself-that is to say, of his own life – as poured forth at the sacrifice and service of their faith. And it is not hard to understand the idea which dictates this mode of speech.

We read in Rom 12:1-21 an exhortation to the saints to yield themselves a living sacrifice, which sacrifice is their reasonable service. They were to do so in the way of not being conformed to the world, but transformed by the renewing of their minds. So here the course of conduct which the Apostle had been exhorting the Philippians to pursue was an act of worship or service, and in particular it was a sacrifice, the sacrifice of their faith, the sacrifice in which their faith was expressed. Each believer in offering this sacrifice acts as a priest, being a member of the holy priesthood which offers to God spiritual sacrifices. {1Pe 2:5} Such a man is not, indeed, a priest to make atonement, but he is a priest to present offerings through Christ his Head. The Philippians, then, in so far as they were, or were to be, yielding themselves in this manner to God, were priests who offered to God a spiritual sacrifice.

Here let us notice, as we pass, that no religion is worth the name that has not its sacrifice through which the worshipper expresses his devotion. And in Christian religion the sacrifice is the consecration of the man and of his life to Gods service in Christ. Let us all see to it what sacrifices we offer.

This doctrine, then, of the priesthood and the sacrifice was verified in the case of the Philippians; and, by the same rule, it held true also in the case of Paul himself. He, as little as they, was priest to make atonement. But certainly when we see Paul so cordially yielding himself to the service of God in the gospel, and discharging his work with such willing labour and pains, we see in him one of Christs priests offering himself to God a living sacrifice. Now is this all? or is something more to be said of Paul? More is to be said; and although the point now in view is not prominent in this passage, it is present as the underlying thought. For the whole sacrifice of holy life rendered by the Philippians, and by his other converts, was, in a sense, the offering of Paul also; not theirs only, but his too. God gave him a standing in the matter, which he, at least, was not to overlook. Gods grace, indeed, had wrought the work, and Paul was but an instrument; yet so an instrument that he had a living and abiding interest in the result. He was not an instrument mechanically interposed, but one whose faith and love had. wrought to bring the result to pass. To him it had been given to labour and pray, to watch and guide, to spend and to be spent. And when the Apostle saw the lives of many true followers of Christ unfold as the result of his ministry, he could think that God owned his place too in bringing all this tribute to the temple. “God grants me a standing in the service of this offering. The Philippians bring it, each for himself, and it is theirs; but I also bring it, and it is my offering too. God takes it at their hand, but also at my hand, as something which with all my heart I have laboured for and won, and brought to His footstool. I also have my place to present to Christ the sacrifice and service of faith of all these men who are living fruits of my ministry. I have been minister of Christ to these Gentiles, ministering the gospel of the grace of God, that the offering up of these Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ.” {Rom 15:16-17}

There remains but one step to be made, to reach the seventeenth verse (Rom 15:17). Consider the Apostles heart glowing with the thought that God counted the holy fruits of those believing lives to be sacrifice and service of his, as well as theirs, and accepted it not only from their hands, but from Pauls too. Consider the gladness with which he felt that after all his toil and pains he had this great offering to bring, as his thank-offering to his Lord. And then imagine him hearing a voice which says: “Now then, seal your service, crown your offering; be yourself the final element of sacrifice; pour out your life. You have laboured and toiled, spent years and strength, very willingly, and most fruitfully; that is over now; one thing remains; die for the worthy name of Him who died for you.” It is this he is contemplating: “If I be poured out at the sacrifice and service of your faith; if I am called to go on and complete the sacrifice and service; if one thing more alone is left for Paul the aged and the prisoner, and that one thing be to lay down the life whose labours are ending; if the life itself is to run out in one final testimony that my whole heart, that all I am and have are Christs,”-shall not I rejoice? will not you rejoice with me? That will be the final identification of my life with your sacrifice and service. It will be the expression of Gods accepting the completed gift. It will be the libation that crowns the service. I am not to be used, and then set aside as having no more interest in the results. On the contrary, your Christianity and mine, in the wonderful relation they have to one another, are to pass to God together as one offering. If, after running and labouring, all issues of my life be finally poured out in martyrdom, that, as it were, identifies me finally and inseparably with the sacrifice and service which have filled your lives, and also my life. It becomes one complete offering.

It may give cause for thought to ministers of the gospel that the Apostle should so vitally and vividly connect himself with the results of his work. It was no languid, no perfunctory ministry that led up to this high mood. His hearts blood had been in it; the strength and passion of his love to Christ had been poured out and spent on his work and his converts. Therefore he could feel that in some gracious and blessed way the fruits that came were still his-given to him to bring to the altar of the Lord. How well shall it be with the Churches when the ministry of their pastors burns with a flame like this! What an image of the pastoral care is here expressed!

But may not all Christian hearts be stirred to see the devotedness and the love which filled this mans soul? The constraining power of the love of Christ so wrought in him that he triumphed and rejoiced both in bringing and in becoming an offering, -breaking out, as it were, into sacrifice and service, and pouring out his life an offering to the Father and the Son. All hearts may be stirred; for all, perhaps, can imagine such a mood. But how many of us have it as a principle and a passion entering into our own lives?

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary

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