Philippians 2:12–13: Edit history

Context

In the immediately preceding section (2:5–11), Paul celebrates Christ's obedience unto death. Verse 12 opens with "Wherefore" and urges the believers to obey all the more, not only as when Paul was present but also now in his absence. Verses 14 and following exhort the community to do all things without murmurings and disputings. The fact that the second-person "you" ("ye," "your") is plural also bears on interpretation.

Interpretation

• Reformed (Presbyterian) reading: "Work out" is understood as an exhortation to sanctification, calling believers to display in their lives the salvation they have already received and to persevere to the end. Because the source of that power lies in verse 13, where God works in believers both to will and to do, human effort is explained as ultimately the fruit of grace.
• Wesleyan-Arminian reading: Methodists, Holiness churches, and others read the passage as teaching that God's grace comes first, yet human beings must respond to and cooperate with that grace. Wesley is known to have preached on this text to the effect that because God works, we can work and we must work.
• Roman Catholic reading: The passage is regarded as speaking of human cooperation with grace and is connected with the teaching that salvation grows and is brought to completion in grace.
• Communal reading: Some scholars take "salvation" to refer less to the salvation of the individual soul than to the wholeness and health of the church community, reading the passage as a call to move beyond division and work out the life of salvation together.

Debates and Issues

Many observe that verse 12, read in isolation, can be misunderstood as teaching salvation by works. Conversely, there is concern that emphasizing verse 13 alone obscures the believer's responsibility. For this reason the two verses are consistently cited together in discussions of predestination and free will and of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. The phrase "fear and trembling" is generally interpreted not as anxiety about losing salvation but as reverent awe before God.

Related Passages

• Ephesians 2:8–10
• 1 Corinthians 15:10
• 2 Peter 1:5–10
• Hebrews 13:21