Click here for the Philippians 2:12-13 PODCAST
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. ~ Philippians 2:12-13
Mankind was created with two basic needs: to be loved and to love. Our desire for community emanates out of this truth. Everywhere I go, I discover that people are lonely and isolated. In our text, the Apostle Paul takes note of our God-given desire for community, and instructs us how we might go about living in community.
In v.12 of our text, the Apostle instructs us to obey God. To obey is to choose to live under the lordship of Christ. The verb, “work out your salvation” in v.12, means to produce, to bring about, or to effect. If obedience is a set of rules to follow rather than a Lord to love, we will follow a well-worn path that leads to spiritual deadness. No one loves us more than the Lord Jesus. If He tells us to do something, we should do it because He loves us and we recognize that He has our best interest at heart.
As you know, there is a difference between our justification and our sanctification. The book of Philippians is an epistle, a letter, which gives teaching regarding our sanctification, as all epistles do. Whereas Justification gets us into heaven and is based upon the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross, Sanctification gets heaven into us, now, and is used upon our willingness to be defined by God. When we are being defined by God, we are walking in obedience to His word and are being sanctified.
Paul defines this obedience and subsequent sanctification, by writing, “continue to work out your salvation.” Paul is writing to people who have believed in the Lord Jesus and are justified before God. He’s not appealing to them to somehow, either by works or faith, earn their salvation. He has already equated obedience with working out their salvation. This is what saved people do: we obey God; we work out our salvation. In so many words, Paul is saying: “God has saved you. Now live according to His definition of things.”
Paul goes on to implore His readers to obey “with fear and trembling” in v.12. Paul is absent in Paul's readers lives, but God is present. The proper response when one is in the presence of God is “fear and trembling,” which means a posture of awe, respect and reverence. This phrase is employed not to scare us into obedience, but to enable us to have the proper posture toward a God who is holy and perfect and who has our best interest at heart. The phrase “with fear and trembling” is not a threat, it is a gift.
Paul bases his appeal to obey on the love of God. This love is coming from one to whom every knee will bow. We are to work out our community life together with the knowledge that we are in the presence of a holy God who loves us and those with whom we are in community.
In v.13, the Apostle reminds us of the secret behind any success that we may experience in our walk with God. The secret is that "it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." We work outwardly because God is at work in our souls, inwardly. God takes great interest in the community He creates. It makes sense, then, that He would help His community do what He wants it to do which is what is best for us.
Paul says that God works among us “to will and to act.” God has put the desire for community in our hearts. And, He gives us the desire for obedience to His word. His will empowers our will. And, when we obey Him, we access His joy. We must be diligent to work with all of our strength, but we must not trust in our labor, we must trust in God's.
When we became followers of the Lord Jesus, God chose to reside in our being through His abiding Holy Spirit. That means God is at work in our souls, which is the arena of our sanctification. And, our souls are made up of our minds, our wills, and our emotions. It is through the change in our souls that we are able to access God's definition of things, that is, His wisdom, joy and His definition of all things. As we obey Him, we grow in His sanctification in our lives.
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