Philippians: Work Out Your Salvation
Philippians 2:12-13, Matthew 25:14-30 - Our justification and sanctification can be compared to Newton’s Laws of Motion!
“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
Philippians 2:12-13 NASB1995
I decided to reuse the AI image that Steve made showing a serious prayer session by the saints at Philippi. Paul has just told them about the model of Christ from glory to humility to death, then to resurrection, exaltation and glory! Paul knows that the beloved members of that young church have always obeyed, not just in Paul’s presence, but more so in his absence.
Paul then says something that at first glance could be construed as contradictory to many of his previous statements about faith. He tells the believers to work out their salvation with fear and trembling! So does this mean that we have to work with great fear to be saved? NO! These sinners have been saved by declaring their belief in Jesus. Now they are working out their sanctification as they grow in faith. God is at work in them, both to give them a will aligned with His and to work for His good pleasure.
I’ve stated this in other devotionals - We are justified (saved) by repenting and believing in the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross for our sins and believing in His resurrection that conquers death. But it doesn’t stop there, unless that is a sincere repentance and statement of faith on a death bed. God, through the Holy Spirit, begins a work in us. We don’t rest on our laurels and go right back to our old sinful ways. Things begin to change and the power of God in us should be properly approached with fear and trembling, not a cavalier and prideful attitude.
Let’s do a word study! Work out comes from the Greek verb κατεργάζομαι or katergázomai (Strong’s G2716) with the following Biblical usages:
to perform, accomplish, achieve
to work out i.e. to do that from which something results
of things: bring about, result in
to fashion i.e. render one fit for a thing
We are rendering or fashioning ourselves, through the work He does in us as we grow in sanctification, fit for aligning with His will and working for His good pleasure.
Enduring Word explains this well:
Therefore… as you have always obeyed: We should not miss the connection between the obedience Jesus showed (Philippians 2:8) and the obedience Paul expected of Christians as followers of Jesus (Philippians 2:12).
Work out your own salvation: We know that Paul did not mean “work so as to earn your own salvation.” Such a statement would contradict the whole of Paul’s gospel. What Paul did mean is to call the Philippians to put forth real effort into their Christian lives. This is not to work their salvation in the sense of accomplishing it, but to work out their salvation – to see it evident in every area of their lives, to activate this salvation God freely gave them.
Therefore, “These words, as they stand in the New Testament, contain no exhortation to all men, but are directed to the people of God. They are not intended as an exhortation to the unconverted; they are, as we find them in the epistle, beyond all question addressed to those who are already saved through a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Charles Spurgeon)
Work out your own salvation: There is a sense in which our salvation is complete, in the sense that Jesus has done a complete work for us. Still there is also a sense in which our salvation is incomplete, in that it is not yet a complete work in us.
“The believer must finish, must carry to conclusion, must apply to its fullest consequences what is already given by God in principle… He must work out what God in His grace has worked in.” (Jac. J. Muller)
“Some professors appear to have imbibed the notion that the grace of God is a kind of opium with which men may drug themselves into slumber, and their passion for strong doses of sleepy doctrine grows with that which it feeds on. ‘God works in us,’ say they, ‘therefore there is nothing for us to do.’ Bad reasoning, false conclusion. God works, says the text; therefore we must work out because God works in.” (Charles Spurgeon)
“He exhorts as if he were an Arminian in addressing men. He prays as if he were a Calvinist in addressing God and feels no inconsistency in the two attitudes. Paul makes no attempt to reconcile divine sovereignty and human free agency, but boldly proclaims both.” (A.T. Robertson)
Your own salvation: This tells us to give attention to our own salvation. Sometimes we show great concern for the work of God in others, and not enough for His work in us. We should care about the souls of others, but this care must begin with our own soul.
With fear and trembling: Paul’s idea was not that we should live our Christian lives with a constant sense of fear and terror, but that we should live with a fear of failing to work out your own salvation.
We work out our salvation with fear and trembling; but it doesn’t have to be the fear of hell or damnation. It may instead be the righteous and awe-filled reverence of God every believer should have. It doesn’t have to be the trembling of a guilty sinner; it should instead be the joyful trembling of an encounter with the glory of God.
Now much more in my absence: In context, Paul asked for this Christian work ethic (not a works ethic) to be promoted all the more because of his absence.
I think I have examples from the world of science on how this works in the believer. Isaac Newton came up with three laws of motion to describe simple non-quantum behaviors of objects. Let’s look at the three laws (from Wikipedia):
A body remains at rest, or in motion at a constant speed in a straight line, unless it is acted upon by a force.
At any instant of time, the net force on a body is equal to the body's acceleration multiplied by its mass or, equivalently, the rate at which the body's momentum is changing with time.
If two bodies exert forces on each other, these forces have the same magnitude but opposite directions.
Yes, I know that Humans are not inanimate objects like pool balls, but hear me out (I liked math and physics, which is why I became an engineer):
Humans are naturally at rest and/or moving steadily towards perdition and final judgment in their sinful states. A force acting on them is their recognition of their sin and seeing the work of grace and forgiveness through Jesus on the cross.
When that divine force acts on a new believer, it becomes a force multiplier. Our momentum, towards Him and away from our sinful past, is an acceleration of our faith in working out our salvation. Acceleration is a rate of change of velocity (or speed) over time.
For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction: By working out our salvation and sanctification from Him, we are reflecting His will for us and working for His good pleasure and glory. Our actions are minuscule, to be sure, like a tiny marble hitting a giant beach ball, but God “gains” a reaction from each of His obedient believers, as they reflect back to Him in their growing sanctification. He works in us and through us and we grow to imitate Christ.
Yeah, I guess you’ll think I’m nuts, but God also created the physical laws of this Universe so I’m sticking with this one!
We have an active part in this transaction. We don’t just sit back and wait for the final results, but we recognize His will with fear (awe) and trembling and react to correct course. More from Enduring Word:
For it is God who works in you: Paul here gave the reason why Christians must work out their salvation with fear and trembling – because God is working in them.
We take comfort in it: God who works in you. “Grace all-sufficient dwells in you, believer. There is a living well within you springing up; use the bucket, then; keep on drawing; you will never exhaust it; there is a living source within.” (Charles Spurgeon)
God… works in you: The idea is that since God has done and is doing a work in the Christian, the Christian therefore has a greater responsibility to work diligently with fear and trembling regarding his own salvation and walk with the Lord. God’s work in us increases our responsibility; it doesn’t lessen it in any way.
Those that take God’s sovereignty and working and use them as an excuse for inaction and lethargy are like the wicked and lazy servant of Matthew 25:24-30.
Those that are really God’s servants use their understanding of His sovereignty and omnipotence as a motivation for greater, more dedicated service to Him.
Both to will and to do: God’s work in us extends to the transformation of our will, as well as changing our actions (to do). Yet in light of the original exhortation to work out your own salvation, this is not a passive transaction.
For His good pleasure: This is the motive behind God’s work in our life. He does so because it gives Him pleasure to do it.
Our responsibility (momentum) towards the Creator of the Universe increases as He works in us. The parable of the talents from Matthew 25 is referenced above in the commentary and it is an important one here for this devotional. Here it is, reproduced in its entirety:
““For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
“Now after a long time the master of those slaves *came and *settled accounts with them. The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ “Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ “And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’
“But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’ “For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 25:14-30 NASB1995
One more illustration of this principle, from Precept Austin:
There are some Christians whose lives are like a parked (or stalled) car—if God wants them to move down the road of life, He will have to push them Himself. Others live the Christian life by keeping their car washed and polished—looking good on the outside—but they fail to give proper attention to the engine that supplies the power. Still others live the Christian life by holding the steering wheel and patiently waiting for instructions on where and when to go. Their car has been gassed up by the presence of the Holy Spirit (Php 2:13) Who freely gives His power and counsel for the journey ahead: a lifetime of adventure in the Spirit!
Are you like that parked car? Are you stalled on the highway to holiness? Are you waiting for a push (a "Let go and let God" mindset)? Even worse, are you trying to push your car down the road of life in your own natural energy? Or is your life one that looks good on the outside but lacks the Spirit's power on the inside? Your most successful life journey will be to begin to sit prayerfully in the presence of His Word and to daily learn to use His Spirit's energizing supernatural power and counsel to work out your salvation. The only thing the Lord will not provide is the decision to sit behind the wheel, turn on the ignition and drive. This is a choice of the will that each one of us must make, but God even gives us that desire. But we still have the choice to act on His desire or to act on our won desire. The choice is yours.
Dig deep and come out with what God has put there!
My next devotional examines Philippians 2:14-18 - Do all things without grumbling and disputing, be lights to the world, rejoice!
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - Thank you for the inspiration from the world of science (that You created) as a way to illustrate how we can work out our salvation through and from You! Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
The Blue Letter Bible was accessed on 07/12/2025 to review the lexicon for work out.
Enduring Word commentary by David Guzik is used with written permission. Minor formatting changes have been made to improve readability (no content changes)
Precept Austin was accessed on 07/12/2025 to review commentary for Philippians 2:12-13.