Explain Like I'm 5: Philippians 2:12-13

Work Out Your Own Salvation

“So 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 own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to desire and to work for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12-13, NASB

I think that if you are a Type A personality or a narcissist, you scan Philippians 2:12-13 and you zero in on the phrase “work out your salvation”.

Now I don’t think anyone has ever accused me of being a Type A personality. I’m much more suited to playing Robin than Batman. But narcissist? Well…that shoe does fit.

I’m an only child. Very naturally introverted, introspective, and probably another dozen “intro” words implying within or inward qualities. I’m typically a polite narcissist, but when left to my own devices, I interact with world at the behest of my own personal trinity: me, myself, and I.

Fortunately for me, and mercifully for those around me, I’ve welcomed Jesus into the conversation. Not always listened to, but always heard.

And what do I hear?

Paul didn’t write Philippians 2:12-13 or the entire letter to Tim. He wrote it to the church in Philippi, and maybe, if I can get out of my own way, I can learn from Paul’s instruction to the Philippians.

So I bust out my trusty NASB Study Bible, and open up the half dozen commentaries on Philippians that I own.

The first thing I discover is that there is a lot more going on than just what is written in Philippians 2:12-13.

New Testament scholar Phillip W. Comfort notes that Philippians 1:27 thru 2:18 is a “long exordium” with parallel exhortations (1:27-2:5 and 2:12-18):

And what sits as the centerpiece to these two exhortations?

The Christ Poem (2:6-11):

“who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross. For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

I don’t have the bandwidth here to tackle the Christ Poem in this post so I’ll just quote the foremost Pauline scholar, N.T. Wright, in calling it a “remarkably full and rich statement of what was later seen as the classic doctrine of the incarnation of God in Jesus the Messiah”.

But as someone who has coached and taught people, I see the Christ Poem, bookended by parallel exhortations, as Paul’s rhetorical method of encouraging the church in Philippi:

Exhortation (1:27-2:5): Individual/Corporate obedience to God

Christ Poem (2:6-11): Jesus’ Incarnation as the example

Exhortation (2:12-18): Individual/Corporate obedience to God

Its as if Paul is encouraging, pointing to the example, then encouraging again. I can almost picture Rob Schneider dropping in from an Adam Sandler movie and hollering “you can do it!” to the church.

But as New Testament scholar Lynn Cohick points out, it would be a mistake to see the Christ Poem as an “example for believers to imitate”. Instead, Cohick writes:

“The key is to recognize the believers’ participation in Christ. Then Jesus is not set up as an ideal, whose perfection we strive to reach but of course never can. Nor is Jesus understood merely through a doctrinal lens divorced from our personal experience. But understanding that each believer is even now seated with Christ (Eph 2:6; Col 3:1), having been crucified with him and thus no longer living on one’s own (Gal 2:19–20), allows for this hymn to celebrate the nature of Christ and also connect personally and practically to our own experience.”

Later in the commentary, Cohick makes a very non-theological analogy that really struck me:

“God is not doing the good works for the Philippian believers, as a parent might do a child’s homework. Instead, God is making it possible for them to work by giving them access to the power to accomplish what he has asked. Parents give their child a good supper, a quiet place free of distractions, and encouraging comments about their previous good work. Thus well fortified and encouraged, and with the proper tools and environment, the student can do his or her homework .”

So in the spirit of Cohick’s analogy, let’s go back and look at Philippians 2:12-13.

Paul starts by commending the church in Philippi for their obedience. But its not merely an obedience to a dictate or an example; its plugging into the power source of Christ. As Cohick notes, the believers are “participating” in Christ.

With that in mind, Paul’s statement to “work out your own salvation” in Philippians 2:12-13 is no longer a theological minefield of salvation by faith or works. Instead, we can view it as an invitation to be an active participant, powered by Christ, in the inaugurated, but not yet fulfilled Kingdom of God.

As George Eldon Ladd wrote, “The early church found itself living in a tension between realization and expectation — between "already" and "not yet." The age of fulfillment has come; the day of consummation stands yet in the future.”

In similar spirit to Ladd, New Testament scholar David Garland writes, “The imperative “work out” (katergazomai, GK 2981) is not an appeal to achieve salvation, an idea conveyed in the Moffatt translation, ‘work at your salvation.’ To say that one is working at a problem implies that the outcome is in doubt. To say that one is working out a problem suggests that it is being resolved. The preposition kata intensifies the verb “to work” and means to carry the work through to its conclusion. The grace the Philippians have received from God, establishing their salvation, is still to be actualized and to become fruitful.”

Like the Kingdom, salvation is already and not yet.

As to the power behind the ongoing salvation work, if there is any doubt remaining, then Paul answers that question in the next verse: “for it is God who is at work in you”.

But what are we to make of “fear and trembling”?

New Testament scholar, G. Walter Hansen, writes, “In the OT this kind of language indicates awe in the presence of God (Exod 15:16; Isa 19:16) or fear of the Jewish people because of God's presence with them (Dent 2:25; 11:25). Paul uses the same phrase to depict his own attitude when he first preached the gospel in Corinth ‘in weakness and with great fear and trembling’ (1 Cor 2:3) and to describe the attitude of the Corinthian believers when they were obedient to Paul's instructions through Titus, ‘receiving him with fear and trembling’ (2 Cor 7:15). The same phrase is used in Ephesians to direct slaves to obey their masters with fear and trembling (Eph 6:5). The use of this phrase in these texts demonstrates that an attitude of fear and trembling is an attitude of humility and submission in God's presence or in the presence of other people.”

There is a richness to Philippians 2:12-13 that is revealed as you widen your exegetical aperture. To see it within the second exhortation, in parallel to the first, in relation to the Christ poem, and in context of the entirety of Philippians is to see a beautiful call to be obedient to God by being humbly actualized “in Christ”.

I do believe, though, that there is one last hurdle to clear that is of demonstrable value to the modern believer.

That is the question of audience.

As I mentioned earlier, I am a closet narcissist, and even though I’ve managed to find a wellspring of wisdom in Paul’s, and his scholarly commentators’, words, I haven’t pushed across the goal line just yet.

There is the risk of a Leon Lett moment (I’ve dated myself now); of coasting in by seeing the rich breadth of Philippians 2:12-13 as a theological tonic for my personal discipleship.

But by considering the corporate audience of Paul’s letter, it changes the dynamic of the message. Paul isn’t writing to an individual believer; he is writing to the church as a whole. There is certainly a component of personal participation, but he is talking to the entirety of the church as the conveyance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

There is no good news in a self-contained salvation. The Trinity is the original clue that we were meant to be in relationship; relationship with God and with each other. To repurpose a concept from theologian Michael Hardin, there is no Tim; there is only Tim in relation to God, family, friends, and every other human being on this spinning rock.

In that relational context, Christ in me, and me in the corporate community of believers, we witness to the world the Kingdom of God.

Or as G. Walter Hansen so succinctly writes, “The goal of God's work is the fulfillment of the good purpose of God. God fulfills his own good purpose by working in us to will and to work out our own salvation. When God's creative work is demonstrated by Christians living and working together in harmony and unity, his purpose is fulfilled.”

Amen.

References:

Cohick, Lynn H. (2013). Philippians (Story of God Commentary). Zondervan

Comfort, Phillip W. (2008). Philippians (Cornerstone Biblical Commentary). Tyndale

Garland, David E. (2006). Philippians (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary). Zondervan

Hansen, G. Walter (2009). The letter to the Philippians (Pillar New Testament Commentary). Eerdmans

Ladd, George Eldon (1993). A theology of the New Testament. Eerdmans

Wright, N.T. (2004). The Prison Letters (Paul For Everyone). Westminster John Knox Press