Philippians - Verse-by-Verse Biblical Exegesis

Paul gives the Philippians their "efficiency rating". (R.B. Thieme, Jr.) There is no question here of
sinners working for salvation. This is an exhortation to saints to make the salvation they have
effective in their daily life and action. (A.E. Knoch) God's power system also motivates its own
momentum, a self-energized system with human volition as the key. (R.B. Thieme, Jr.) By diligence
(in the Word) we receive daily more and more of "salvation" itself, by liberty from sin, victory over
it, peace and communion with God, and the earnests of heavenly felicity. (T. Scott) A higher
deliverance, a victorious endurance, is in view. He desires that his readers similarly will be
victorious in their trials as well. The believer who submits to the leading of the Spirit of God, who
perseveres to the goal, is a believer who who walks according to the Spirit or who sets his mind on
the things of the Spirit. He is in the company of the “metochoi,” a Partaker, and will be a co-heir
with Christ, inheriting the kingdom. (J. Dillow) The Christian life, growing in the likeness of Christ,
is a blend of rest and activity – not alternating from one to the other, but a blend in which, at one and
the same moment, the Christian is both resting confidently on what God is doing within and actively
pursuing the duty of being blameless. (J. Stott)
The breadth of the word “salvation” is to be carefully estimated. Sometimes it is used in Scripture as
equivalent to justification or pardon; sometimes as equivalent to sanctification; sometimes as
equivalent to the final deliverance at death or judgment. Thus it may be regarded as either past,
present, or future. It is in the second sense that the apostle uses the expression, for he has special
regard here to the development of the Christian life in believers. “Working out” implies that
Christian life is not a mystic and indolent quietism which moves neither hand nor foot, but a state of
conscious activity and struggle. There are theories of sanctification in our day which teach the
doctrine of the soul’s passivity, as if it lay in the arms of Jesus without effort or almost conscious
thought. Such an idea would need a recasting of the whole phraseology of Scripture to justify it.
Christian life is always represented in Scripture as a life of watching, of struggle, of combat ...
Consider the mystery of the double working here implied. The apostle does not attempt to explain
the blending of the two activities in one glorious work, so as to indicate where the one ends and the
other begins. In other words, he does not attempt to reconcile the doctrine of man’s freedom with the
doctrine of God’s sovereignty. (T. Croskery)
Since the decree establishes an interrelation between means and ends, and ends are decreed only as
the result of means, they encourage effort instead of discouraging it. Firm belief in the fact that,
according to the divine decrees, success will be the reward of toil, is an inducement to courageous
and persevering efforts. On the very basis of the decree, Scripture urges us to be diligent in using the
appointed means. (L. Berkhof) I know that you have free will to decide certain things, but you do not
have free will to decide all things. And you are most unable to decide the things that are important ...
You cannot choose God. Adam had free will, but he lost it. And all men since are without it until it is
received in them by the Holy Spirit. (J.M. Boice) In regeneration, they are positionally fixed;
whereas in sanctification, they may vary in their condition of life. Regeneration assures of heaven;
progressive sanctification brings a foretaste of heaven to the regenerated on earth. (W.E. Best) Your
own salvation is a possession to be explored and enjoyed ever more fully. It is a lifetime of
exploration, enjoyment, development and discovery. (J. Stott) God does not inspire men that they