So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence, for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort – for the sake of his good pleasure – is God. Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish though you live in a crooked and perverse society, in which you shine as lights in the world by holding on to the word of life so that on the day of Christ I will have a reason to boast that I did not run in vain nor labor in vain. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice together with all of you. And in the same way you also should be glad and rejoice together with me (Philippians 2:12-18).

We are to work out our own salvation, yet God is the one empowering us to do so for His good pleasure? How can that be? Which is it?

Philippi was a Roman colony in Macedonia (part of modern Greece); Paul first visited the area and preached Jesus around 51 (cf. Acts 16:11-40). Paul wrote to the Christians in Philippi most likely around 60-61 from Rome while living under house arrest there (cf. Philippians 1:1). Paul thanked the Philippian Christians for their joint participation in his ministry and prayed for them to abound in love and make good decisions to share in Jesus’ praise at His return (Philippians 1:1-11). He explained how his circumstances had worked to advance the Gospel; if he were to die, he would go and be with Christ, but he was confident he would continue to faithfully serve God, and the Philippian Christians, while in the body (Philippians 1:12-26). Paul set forth his main exhortation: the Philippian Christians should live as citizens of the Gospel, standing firm together in it, and to suffer well for God in Christ (Philippians 1:27-30). Paul had begun establishing and defending this exhortation by encouraging the Philippian Christians to be of the same mind and to seek the interests of one another and not just themselves, and encouraged them to maintain the mind of Christ, to suffer humiliation in order to be exalted on the final day (Philippians 2:1-11). Paul continued the probatio, the main body of the letter detailing how the Philippian Christians might live as citizens of and to stand firm within the Gospel, with specific applications for the Philippian Christians in Philippians 2:12-18.

Paul continued with a message of confidence in the Philippian Christians as continuing in their obedience to Jesus even more in his absence as in his presence; he then challenged them to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, remaining confident God was willing and working within them for His good pleasure and purposes (Philippians 2:12-13).

Philippians 2:12-13 has represented a hotbed of dispute over the past fifteen hundred years on account of the divergence of views regarding the relationship between divine grace and human freedom. Those who tend to prove more deterministic emphasize and highlight Philippians 2:13 and seek to sublimate Philippians 2:12 under it; those who resist a strongly deterministic viewpoint tend to emphasize and highlight Philippians 2:12 and make much less of Philippians 2:13. Many commentators will go out of their way in their attempts to cast aspersions on either “work out your own salvation” or “God working within you to will and to work,” and such says far more about the commentators than it does about Paul or Philippians 2:12-13.

The challenge does not come from Paul or what he wrote in Philippians 2:12-13; the challenge exists because of how partisans have developed their theology in reaction to one another over the past millennium and a half. Paul himself found no contradiction in what he wrote in Philippians 2:12-13, and neither should we.

Therefore, as opposed to trying to emphasize one aspect of Philippians 2:12-13 over the other, we do far better to understand how everything Paul said in these verses remains true together. The Philippian Christians had heard the Gospel, accepted it as the life-giving message it represented, and began following and serving Jesus as Lord. Paul commended them for their continued obedience to Jesus Christ as Lord. He encouraged them to keep obeying Jesus, and in so doing they were “working out” their salvation. It was the work God had given them to do.

At the same time, God was working within the Philippian Christians to will and to work for His good pleasure. God was not violating their free will; instead, they freely submitted to Him and His purposes made known through the witness of Paul, and, no doubt, by heeding the promptings of His Spirit within them. God was working within the Philippian Christians; the Philippian Christians were working out their salvation. Both of these things can be true at the same time; as they were for the Philippian Christians, so also should it prove true for us today.

The New English Translation (NET) well represents Greek meta phobou kai tromon as “with awe and reverence,” shifting away from the more “literal” American Standard Version’s (ASV) rendering “with fear and trembling,” in Philippians 2:12. While the Hebrews author did speak of God as a consuming fire, and therefore should be served with reverence and awe in Hebrews 12:28-29, the emphasis within the New Testament seems more akin to John’s testimony regarding the perfect love of God casting out fear, as in 1 John 4:7-28. However we may have learned of God or proven terrified at the prospect of the consequences of disobedience in former times, God in Christ through the Spirit calls all Christians to grow in maturity in His love (cf. Ephesians 3:14-21, 1 John 4:7-28). Terror at the prospect of the consequences of disobedience can take us only so far; we do better to cultivate a proper awe and reverence for God for all He has done for us in the creation and in Christ, constantly overwhelmed by the unfathomable depths of the love God has displayed toward all of us in Jesus. We therefore best understand Paul encouraging the Philippian Christians, and us by extension, not as encouraging us to be constantly terrified of what God may do to us if we prove disobedient, but to grow and appreciate His majesty and love for us, and to respond accordingly.

Paul then exhorted the Philippian Christians to do all things without grumbling or arguing (Philippians 2:14). If they did so, they would remain pure and blameless children of God in a crooked and perverse society, shining as lights by holding onto the word of life (Philippians 2:15-16a).

As in all aspects of Paul’s probatio in Philippians 2:1-4:1, it remains possible he already has in mind whatever was going on between Euodia and Syntyche (cf. Philippians 4:2). Nevertheless, as with so much of what we have already seen in the Philippian correspondence, it would seem Paul was encouraging the Philippian Christians to continue doing what they were already doing: they already have been living as children of God, pure and blameless despite the perversity around them, shining as lights by means of how they held fast to the word of life.

Therefore, we probably do better to understand Paul as providing encouragement for the Philippian Christians to remain faithful to Jesus in these matters, highlighting an ever-present challenge and concern. We also do well to understand the story of the exodus generation of the Israelites behind Paul’s wording in Philippians 2:14: do not be grumblers like they were in the wilderness, condemned by God to suffer the very fate they complained about (cf. Numbers 14:26-28).

The example of the generation in the wilderness provides needed context and perspective for our understanding. Grumbling, complaining, and constant argument of the kind we can read about in the Book of Numbers represent works of the flesh and not manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit; they tear down community and well and successfully represent the incursions of the Evil One and his purposes among the people of God. They do not include providing critique of ways in which the people of God may have fallen short of God’s purposes and/or have accommodated themselves to the world, nor would they include standing firm for the truth of God in Christ through the Spirit before those who would resist or undermine it. As in all such things, the motivations and purposes of what is being said and done go a long way in determining whether one is being more like a member of the wilderness generation or maintaining a faithful “prophetic” like stance.

Grumbling, complaining, and constant bickering and arguing are things we should expect to find and see in the world; they existed in first century Philippi, and they remain in twenty-first century America. Yet they represent the crooked, perverse ways of the world; if we would be pure and blameless children of God, we should resist such things, and instead build one another up in our most holy faith.

By speaking of the Philippian Christians as shining as lights, Paul evokes Jesus’ message about disciples in Matthew 5:14-16, and its conclusion naturally followed: their fellow Philippians would base their understanding of the light of God in Christ through the Spirit in the Gospel by how the Philippian Christians lived. The Philippian Christians already were thus bearing witness for Jesus in their community, and they did so well by holding onto the word of life. Is that word of life the Word of God made known in Scripture or the Word of God made flesh in Jesus? As always in the New Testament, the answer is yes, for the written Word is consonant and consistent with Jesus, the embodied Word of God. And it is the word of life, as also described by John in 1 John 1:1-2: in Jesus was the light and life of humanity, and in God in Christ through the Spirit we can find life and have it abundantly, and outside of God in Christ through the Spirit there is no real life (John 1:4, 10:10).

Paul concluded he would have reason to boast he did not run or labor in vain when the Lord Jesus would return if the Philippian Christians thus behaved as he had encouraged in Philippians 2:14-16a (and, arguably, throughout Philippians 2:1-16a; Philippians 2:16bc). Even if Paul were being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of the faith of the Philippian Christians, he was glad and rejoiced with all of them, and they also should be glad and rejoice with Paul (Philippians 2:17-18).

In this way Paul returned to his themes in Philippians 1:15-25: he remained under house arrest in Rome. While he maintained strong confidence in his imminent vindication and deliverance, he was not naïve in understanding the vagaries of Roman politics: he might well find himself soon executed for his witness for Jesus. While Paul always lived in light of Jesus’ imminent return, the prospect of his demise, even if remote, certainly focused Paul’s thinking all the more on the day of Jesus.

Drink offerings were generally wine or beer poured on top of animal and grain sacrifices before YHWH at the Tabernacle or Temple (e.g. Exodus 29:40-41, Leviticus 23:13, 28). There was something about the drink offering which struck Paul as well reflecting his own experience in serving and glorifying Jesus at the end, for he returned to the same theme in 2 Timothy 4:6. Perhaps the drink offering was the final step in making the offering; perhaps Paul saw something in the pouring out of the beverage which strongly resonated with his experience in serving the Lord Jesus and dying for Him. Whatever the reason behind it, the image has proven compelling and potent throughout the years, and many servants of the Lord Jesus have strongly identified with it.

While Paul could speak of how he was poured out, and would have every reason to imagine this pouring out as the end of his own sacrifices, he very consciously and deliberately brought the Philippian Christians into the metaphor: Paul imagined himself as the drink offering poured out on the sacrifice and service of their faith. Paul had exhorted the Roman Christians to consider themselves as living sacrifices in Romans 12:1; the Philippian Christians already were embodying this living, sacrificial faith, and Paul wanted them to imagine it as well honoring and glorifying God, with his own ministry and sacrifice providing the final or finishing touch. Throughout his letter to the Philippians Paul will emphasize their joint participation together in the faith and work of ministry in Christ, and he did not neglect this emphasis in his imagery. Paul did not make it all about himself, and neither should we; God is glorified by the servants of Jesus jointly participating in the faith, as living sacrifices individually and collectively for the Lord Jesus Christ.

All of this talk from Paul about standing before Jesus when He returned, and being poured out as a drink offering, could be easily seen as dark, depressing, and distressing. It certainly sounds like the reflections of a man who found himself in dire straits and without much time left in the world. But Paul did not want to leave the Philippian Christians, or us, in such distress: he was glad and rejoiced in the Philippian Christians, and he wanted them to be glad and rejoice in him (Philippians 2:17-18). We tend to look toward his similar exhortation in Philippians 4:4 to a similar end, and for understandable reasons. Yet, in many ways, Paul’s emphasis on joy and rejoicing at this moment in the context proves all the more compelling. Yes, he was in dire straits. Yes, he might die for Jesus. Even if he did not yet die for Jesus, he was in a disadvantaged and socio-culturally shameful position. There was very little in his fleshly situation which would make a person happy. But he rejoiced in their shared faith in Jesus and their hope of vindication in the resurrection. He did not want them to focus on his distress, although he also did not downplay or minimize the challenges he was experiencing. Instead, he wanted them to rejoice and be glad along with him because of how Jesus strengthened and sustained them all in what they were enduring, and they would be able to share in the resurrection in Him because of it all.

We are not Philippian Christians living in a Roman colony under the skeptical, watchful eye of Roman authorities. But we do well to share in the life and faith of God in Christ through the Spirit with Paul and the Philippian Christians, working out our salvation in awe and reverence, and confident God is willing and working through us according to His good pleasure. We should avoid grumbling and arguing, prevalent in the world, but live in the light and life of the Word of God in a crooked and perverse society. And may we live our lives as living sacrifices for God, pouring ourselves out for Jesus and one another by God’s strength through His Spirit, and be glad and rejoice in and with one another for all we share in the Lord Jesus Christ. May we share in the faith of God in Christ through the Spirit as made known through Paul so we might share in the resurrection of life as well!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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