CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Philippians 2:12. Ye have always obeyed.—Obedience describes the attitude of the mind of these Philippians in presence of the commanding truths of the gospel: “Obedience” or “obedience of faith” is found several times in the epistle to the Romans; and in 2 Corinthians 7:15 stands in close connection with “fear and trembling,” as here. Fear and trembling.—Such an apprehensive desire to be right with God as is figured by bodily tremor.
Philippians 2:13. For it is God which worketh in you.—This sentence removes all merit from the most punctilious diligence, whilst it as effectually takes away the paralysing fear of failure to which “workers together with God” need never give place.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Philippians 2:12-13
Salvation—God’s Work and Man’s Care.
I. Salvation is a personal blessing.—“Your own salvation” (Philippians 2:12). If Christ died for all, then He-died for me and I may be saved. It matters little, if others are being saved unless I am saved myself. It is impossible to be genuinely interested in the salvation of others unless we are saved ourselves. Salvation deals with the individual; it gathers its trophies one by one. “I have read of some seas,” writes Bunyan, “so pure and clear that a man may see the bottom, though they be forty feet deep. I know this river is a deep river, but it is not said that we can see no bottom.” The comparison implies that a man with good eyes may see the bottom. So, then, we shall look down through these crystal streams and see what be at the bottom of all. The bottom of all is that we might be saved. “These things I say,” saith Christ, “that ye might be saved.” What a good, sound bottom is here! This salvation admits man to a wealth of blessings impossible to estimate. Salvation should therefore be sought by every man earnestly, believingly, promptly.
II. Salvation needs constant personal care.—“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12).
1. The Christian worker is surrounded with spiritual perils.—The apostle has referred to these perils in warning the Philippians against pride, selfishness, faction, and vain boasting (Philippians 2:3-4). To secure his salvation the believer must not only work, but work with circumspection, with vigilance, with fear and trembling. “God does not give the flower and the fruit of salvation, but the seed, the sunshine, and the rain. He does not give houses, nor yet beams and squared stones, but trees, rocks, and limestone, and says, ‘Now build thyself a house.’ Regard not God’s work within thee as an anchor to hold thy bark firmly to the shore, but as a sail which shall carry it to its port. Fear thy depression and faint-heartedness, but take courage at thy humility before God” (Lange).
2. Personal care the more necessary when deprived of the oversight of a loved teacher.—“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence” (Philippians 2:12). The Philippians had shown a spirit of ready obedience both to the apostle and to God, and they are urged to increased diligence. The apostle’s “absence did not make the obligation less imperative, but it demanded more earnestness and vigilance from them in the discharge of the duty. His voice and person were a guide and stimulant and excited them to assiduous labour, so that his presence among them wrought like a charm. And now that he was not with them, and they were left to themselves, they were so much the more to double their diligence and work out salvation with fear and trembling—with distrust of themselves, earnest solicitude in every duty, humble reliance on divine aid, with the abiding consciousness that after all they come far short of meeting obligation” (Eadie).
III. Salvation is a divine work.—
1. God is pleased to work in us to create a right disposition.—“It is God that worketh in you to will … of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). The desire for salvation and the disposition and will to seek it come from God. As the sun warms the earth and helps the flower to grow and bloom, so the Spirit of God warms the heart and calls forth the growth and blossom of Christian graces. God does not take out mental and moral apparati and put in a new set, like the works of a clock; but He encourages us to use the powers already within and breathes upon us the vitalising influence of His Spirit, so that we produce results in harmony with His will.
2. God is pleased to work in us to confer the moral ability to work.—“God worketh in you … to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). Some men have ability to do great things, but have not the disposition; others may have the disposition, but not the ability. In the work of our salvation God gives both the disposition and the power. Because God works in us we may work; because He works in us we must work out our own salvation. The means of salvation are within our reach; it is our part to use them. How does the miner get out of the pit? There is a string at the bottom; he pulls it; a bell at the top rings; a rope, worked by a steam-engine, is let down, and in this way he ascends to the top. A man gets down into the pit of trouble; he cannot get up himself; he must ring the bell of prayer; God will hear it and send down the rope that is to lift him out. Man can do nothing without God, and God will do nothing without the willing co-operation of man.
Lessons.—
1. Salvation is possible for every man.
2. Salvation may be secured by man yielding to the divine influences working within him.
3. If man is not saved, it is his own fault.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Philippians 2:12-13. Divine and Human Co-operation in Man’s Salvation.
I. The salvation to be wrought out.—Salvation simply means deliverance. It may be either temporal or spiritual, or both. The process of salvation is to be continuous.
II. In the work of our salvation divine and human co-operation is necessary.—Illustrated in the products of nature, in works of art and skill.
1. God works in us by the light of His truth.
2. By appealing to us with the influence of powerful motives.
3. Works in us by the influences of His Spirit.
III. Seek to ascertain to what extent we are indebted for our personal salvation to God working in us.—Our salvation from first to last is from God; that we are saved by grace, yet not so as to destroy our own effort. He produces in us the will and power. We are to exercise the will and power by repenting, believing, and living a life of holiness.
IV. Why we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.—Because of the possibility of our unfaithfulness. May be too sure of salvation, and too doubtful.—J. C. Symons.
The Active Exertion of Man in working out his Salvation harmonises with the Free Grace of God as being the Sole Author of it.—There are two facts connected with the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt—their preservation in the wilderness, and their settlement in the land of Canaan—to which I would solicit your attention.
I. That all was done for them by God, and is to be ascribed solely, from first to last, to His almighty power and grace.—
1. The means by which the establishment of the Israelites in the promised land was effected were evidently beyond the reach of human agency.
2. Even in those particular cases in which the active exertions of the Israelites were employed as the means of their deliverance or success the whole is ascribed to God.
(1) He gave them courage to fight against their enemies;
(2) He gave them success by sending, terror into the hearts of their enemies.
II. That although God thus did everything for them, He did it in such a way as to bring every power of their minds and bodies into exercise, and to render their own activity absolutely necessary to their preservation and success.—Illustrated in the passage of the Red Sea, and in the first battle of the Israelites with the Amalekites (Exodus 17:8).
Lessons.—
1. As the deliverance of the Israelites and their establishment in Canaan was wholly of God, so the salvation of every sinner is to be ascribed solely and entirely to His mercy and power.
2. As God required the Israelites to be active, watchful, diligent, ardent, and strenuous in their exertions to overcome difficulties and to defeat their enemies, so He requires His people to make their calling and election sure, to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.—Although God does all for us in the matter of our salvation, yet He places us in situations where we must exert ourselves or perish.—Anonymous.
The Co-operation of Human and Divine Agency in our Salvation
I. This co-operation of divine and human energies has place in all the most important facts and pursuits that make up the history of man.—
1. It is true of the commencement of our being.
2. Our growth and education are the result of the same joint agency.
3. This fundamental law reigns over all the works of man.
II. What does God accomplish and what does He demand of us in the joint working out of our salvation?—
1. God works in us by the light of His truth.
2. By the power of motives.
3. By the energy of His Spirit.
III. What is the intent and object of these divine operations?—
1. They are not designed to transform the character as, when after conversion, they are media of sanctification.
2. Human co-operation is the indispensable condition of progress.
3. Will and do. These describe the duty of the unconverted man.—S. Olin, D.D.
Man’s Work and God’s Work.
I. This salvation is begun when we believe in Christ, but it requires to be worked out.
II. The fact that God works in us renders our working possible.
III. The fact that God works in us should make us fear and tremble.—R. Abercrombie, M.A.