Letters from Paul

A taste of the study room coming with Paul — pull open whatever you'd like to sit with.

The reading — Philippians 2:12-18

¹²So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. ¹³For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. ¹⁴Do all things without murmurings and disputes, ¹⁵that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without defect in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world, ¹⁶holding up the word of life; that I may have something to boast in the day of Christ, that I didn’t run in vain nor labor in vain. ¹⁷Yes, and if I am poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice with you all. ¹⁸In the same way, you also rejoice, and rejoice with me.

World English Bible

The words behind the words

When I wrote "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12), hear me rightly: I did not say work for it, as though you must earn what has been given. The word is like working a mine — bringing up into the daylight the treasure already buried in you by grace. And the very next breath tells you who does the digging: "it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). "Fear and trembling" is not the dread of a slave before a master who may strike, but the trembling awe of a creature who knows the living God is at work in him.

Where else you say this

I take up this same thread when I tell the Corinthians, "by the grace of God I am what I am… I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me" (1 Corinthians 15:10) — labor and grace, and grace beneath the labor. And to the Romans, that you are "children of light" who must "cast off the works of darkness" (Romans 13:12). And I press the same charge on the Ephesians, to "be blameless and innocent" as those already sealed (Ephesians 5:8-11).

The situation

I wrote from chains, as I write now, and the Philippians were my joy and my partners in the gospel from the first day. But there was grumbling among them, and rivalry — I had just pleaded with Euodia and Syntyche to be of one mind (Philippians 4:2). And they were afraid for me, and for themselves under pressure. So I set before them the mind of Christ, who emptied himself and obeyed unto death (Philippians 2:5-8), and asked them to shine "as lights in the world" in a crooked generation, so that my labor would not be run in vain. I told them plainly: even if I am poured out as an offering, I rejoice.

The hard question

Here is the honest difficulty: if God works in me both the willing and the doing, why must I work out anything at all — why fear and trembling, and not folded hands? But look again at the text: I did not write "therefore rest," I wrote "therefore… work" (Philippians 2:12), and I gave God's working as the reason to labor, not the excuse to stop — "for it is God who works in you" (Philippians 2:13). His work does not cancel yours; it is the ground of it. You strive precisely because the strength is his and not your own, and so the fear is real and the trembling is glad. Do not use grace to smother obedience; grace is the very thing that raises obedience to life.

This is a small window into what a study room with Paul will hold — word by word, letter by letter, and the maps and journeys behind them. Get notified when it opens →

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