Fear And Trembling
FEAR AND TREMBLING
PHILIPPIANS 2:12-13
Living the Christian life does not depend solely on us. We are in a unique partnership with God.
Paul has just reminded the church that the foundation for all that he has been saying to them about responsible relationships is the humility and obedience to God as shown by Jesus (2:6-8). He now resumes the urgent appeal of 2:1-5. He does so in the firm confidence that his readers are “in Christ Jesus” (2:5) and that they acknowledge the lordship of Christ (2:11). This is made amply clear in the term of address, “beloved.”
The apostle now shows the consequences of their being “in Christ Jesus.” They are to “work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete)” (Amplified Bible) their salvation with “fear and trembling.” Though Paul is absent from the flock (2:12; 1:27), God is present, achieving the fulfillment of his good pleasure (2:13; 1:6). The contrast in the passage, then, is not so much between Christians who work (2:12) and God who works (2:13), as between Paul who is absent (2:12) and God who is present (2:13).
By his word order, Paul indicates that the emphatic words in 2:12 are “fear and trembling.” On each occasion that Paul has brought these words together they are decisive (1 Corinthians 2:3; 2 Corinthians 7:15; Ephesians 6:5). From the parallel contexts it is clear that this expression refers to a basic humility in relationship to others. What Paul here demands of the church is the same humility he called for in 2:3, the same willingness to see something from another’s point of view. All who are in Christ Jesus stand in that vital relationship through grace. The humbling of one person in the presence of another is the work of God who plants within the believer the disposition to approach another person in humility (2:13). The one who approaches another within the congregation with fear and trembling acknowledges that he or she has submitted their own life to the power of God and that all vindication proceeds only from God (1:28).