ACC ~ Philippians 2 v12 - 13

OVERVIEW:

Paul appeals to Christ’s pattern of service (THEODORET) as the pattern of the Philippians’ service, which is being tested by his absence. It is through fear and trembling (CHRYSOSTOM) that he points to the mystery and inspires their zeal (MARIUS VICTORINUS). He emphasizes God’s activity in them to assuage their fear (CHRYSOSTOM) and forestall pride. We remain the doers of our own actions (AUGUSTINE), but willing itself is a gift of God (ORIGEN). Only the bad will is truly ours (AUGUSTINE), while God assists continually the good will in willing further good (CHRYSOSTOM).

2:12a | As You Have Always Obeyed

PRAISE JOINED WITH EXHORTATION. CHRYSOSTOM: Our admonitions are best accompanied by praises. Only in this way are they welcomed. So we call those we are exhorting to that level of zeal of which they are capable of exhibiting. For they become welcome when we call those whom we are exhorting to compete with themselves. This is what Paul does here, and note how wisely. “So, my beloved,” he says. He does not say simply “you obey.” Rather he first praises them and says “just as you have always obeyed,” as if to say, “I am urging you to imitate not others but yourselves.” OMILY ON PHILIPPIANS 9.2.12-16.

AS YOU HAVE ALWAYS OBEYED. THEODORET: “Looking at this example,” he says, “you have conceived a greater zeal for your own salvation, notwithstanding my absence. For this reveals the excellence of your goal, that it is not to please your teacher but out of eagerness for good things that you undertake this admirable labor.” EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 2.12.

2:12b | In Paul’s Presence or His Absence

OBEDIENCE IN HIS ABSENCE. CHRYSOSTOM: “At that time you seemed to be doing everything for the sake of honoring and respecting me, but now no longer. If then it proves that you now continue, it is proved then also that you did it not for my sake but for God’s.” HOMILY ON PHILIPPIANS 9.2.12-16.

2:12c | Working Out Salvation

DISTINGUISHING FEAR AND TREMBLING. MARIUS VICTORINUS: The fear is to be referred to the soul, the trembling to the body. But it is a great mystery, which we should lay to heart when we hear it, that by taking thought and showing concern for others we work out our own salvation all the more and furthermore that it is in our power to work out salvation for ourselves. EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 2.12-13.

AMID REVERENCE FOR GOD. CHRYSOSTOM: What do you want? Tell us. Not “that you should hear me” but that “with fear and trembling you should work out your own salvation.” For without fear no one can accomplish anything noble or remarkable. … If the goods of life cannot be attained without fear, how much more true is this of spiritual ones? For tell me, whoever learned letters without fear? Who became skilled in a craft without fear? But if the devil does not best us there but only lethargy oppresses us, we needed all that fear merely to overcome our natural lethargy. Here, where the war is so great and impediments so many, how can we be saved without fear? HOMILY ON PHILIPPIANS 9.2.12-16.

2:13a | God Is at Work in You

GOD WORKS IN YOU. CHRYSOSTOM: And when he says “with fear and trembling” see how he assuages the pain of it. For what does he say? “It is God who works in you.” “Do not be afraid,” he says, “because I said ‘with fear and trembling.’ I did not say it to make you give up, thinking virtue impossible of attainment, but so that you may carry on, so that you may not collapse.” HOMILY ON PHILIPPIANS 9.2.12-16.

FREE WILL NOT UNDERMINED. AUGUSTINE: We should not suppose, because he said, “For it is God that works in you both the willing and the doing,” that he has taken away free will. For if that were so he would not have said above “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” For when he bids them work, it is agreed that they have free will. But they are to work with fear and trembling so that they will not, by attributing the good working to themselves, be elated by the good works as though they were their own. ON GRACE AND FREE WILL 21.

2:13b | To Will and to Work

HOW OUR WILLING AND WORKING IS FROM GOD. ORIGEN: Some say, “If willing is from God and working is from God, then whether we will evil or do evil, that is from God, and in that case we have not free will.” … To this one must reply that the apostle’s words do not mean that willing evil is from God or that willing good is from God, and likewise with our working well or ill. Rather it is willing in general and performance in general. For just as our being animals and our being human are things we have from God, so is willing in general as, so to speak, is motion in general. ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.19.

GOD AUGMENTS OUR WILLING AS WE WILL. CHRYSOSTOM: If you have the will, then he works the willing. Do not be afraid or weary. He gives us both zeal and performance. For when we will, he will henceforth augment our willing. HOMILY ON PHILIPPIANS 9.2.12-16.

WITHOUT GRACE THERE IS NO GOOD WILL. AUGUSTINE: It is not that the will or the deed is not ours, but without his aid we neither will nor do anything good. ON THE GRACE OF CHRIST 26.

GOD STRENGTHENS OUR WILL TO DO GOOD. AUGUSTINE: It is certain that when we do a deed the deed is ours; but he is the one who makes us do the deed by giving us strength fully sufficient to carry out our will. ON GRACE AND FREE WILL 32.

GRACE ASSISTS IN WILLING. AUGUSTINE: It is not in God’s power that anyone should be forced against his will to do evil or good but that he should go to the bad, according to his own deserts, when God abandons him. For a person is not good if he does not will it, but the grace of God assists him even in willing. It is not without cause that it is written, “God is the one who works in you to will and do, of his own good will.” N TWO LETTERS OF PELAGIUS 1.36.

THE BLAMELESS LIFE PHILIPPIANS 2:14-18

OVERVIEW: The prohibition of grumbling is a compliment, implying that they are capable of great virtue if they avoid this seminal vice (CHRYSOSTOM). We cannot yet be perfect (JEROME), but amid all insults we can shine as stars (CHRYSOSTOM) for the benefit of others (CHROMATIUS OF AQUILEIA). Our present duty is good conduct based on Scripture as read through Christ (CHRYSOSTOM, MARIUS VICTORINUS). Paul dwells upon the magnitude and benign effect of Christ’s death (THEODORET), teaching them to love (MARIUS VICTORINUS) and to rejoice in the sacrifices of the faithful (MARIUS VICTORINUS, CHRYSOSTOM).

2:14 | Without Grumbling or Questioning Do All Things

WITHOUT GRUMBLING. CHRYSOSTOM: Do you see how he teaches them not to grumble, saying that murmuring belongs to slaves who know nothing and have no sense? For what son murmurs, tell me, when toiling in his father’s affairs, seeing that he toils also in his own? OMILY ON PHILIPPIANS 9.2.12-16.

THE GRUMBLER IS UNGRATEFUL. CHRYSOSTOM: When one does something voluntarily and not under compulsion, why grumble? It is better to do no work than to do it with grumbling, for the very thing that we do is destroyed. Or do you not see that in our own homes we often say, “Better that this be not done than done with grumbling”? And many times we choose to be deprived of a service rather than put up with grumbling. For grumbling is terrible, yes, a terrible thing; it is akin to blasphemy. … The grumbler is ungrateful to God, and one who is ungrateful to God is a blasphemer. HOMILY ON PHILIPPIANS 9.2.12-16.

2:15a | Children of God Without Blemish

WHETHER PRESENT OR FUTURE. JEROME: He says not “you are” but “so that you may be,” deferring it to the future and not asserting it as a present fact, to show that here there is toil and struggle and there the rewards of toil and virtue. DIALOGUE AGAINST THE PELAGIANS 3.13.

2:15b | Shining as Lights in the World

YOU SHINE AS LIGHTS IN THE WORLD. CHRYSOSTOM: Do you do something good but grumble? Why? Is there any constraint upon you? “I know,” he says, “that many of your neighbors influence you to complain,” for this is what he hints at when he says “in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation.” But the way to excite wonder is to suffer no such thing even under provocation. For the stars too shine in darkness yet suffer no diminution of their own beauty, but instead they shine all the brighter. HOMILY ON PHILIPPIANS 9.2.12-16.

DISPELLING THE DARKNESS. CHROMATIUS OF AQUILEIA: With the very light of truth we are to illumine those who are caught in the shadows of error, dispelling the night of ignorance. … If we do not do this, it will be apparent that our infidelity has, as it were, concealed and overshadowed the benefits of this needful light, to our own perdition as well as that of others. TRACTATE 19.3.2-3.

2:16 | Holding Fast the Word of Life

HOLD FAST THE WORD OF LIFE. MARIUS VICTORINUS: “I have glory through you because you possess the word of life”—that is, because you know Christ, who is the Word of life, “because what was made in Christ was life.” Therefore Christ is the Word of life. From this we perceive how great is the profit and glory of those who correct the souls of others. EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 2.16.

THE WORD OF LIFE. CHRYSOSTOM: It means those who hold that they are going to live and are among the saved. See what immediate prizes he sets before them: “The stars,” he says, “possess the principle of light and you the principle of life.” What is this “word of life”? It means having the seed of life, that is, the beginnings of life, possessing life itself. HOMILY ON PHILIPPIANS 9.2.12-16.

2:17 | Poured as a Libation

WHY AND TO WHOM DOES HE SAY THIS? THEODORET: When he says you, he means all the faithful. … And he says this to work on their souls and to teach them that his martyrdom is so great that it has the character of a libation and a sacrifice. EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 2.17.

2:18 | Rejoicing with Paul

READINESS TO DIE IN EQUAL CONCERN FOR ONE ANOTHER. MARIUS VICTORINUS: He means, “Being prepared to die for you, so long as I can serve you and strengthen your faith, I rejoice and am glad for all of you. So therefore you rejoice and be glad with me, so that we may show equal concern for one another and rejoice in each other in turn.” EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 2.17-18.

REJOICE IN THE DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS. CHRYSOSTOM: The death of the righteous, therefore, deserves not tears but joy. If they rejoice, one should rejoice with them. “But we long for their company,” you say. … If you were going to remain here, you speak reasonably; but in a little while you are going to recover the departed one. What sort of company is it that you desire? … “I suffer nothing terrible,” he says, “but rather rejoice because I am departing to be with Christ. And do you not rejoice? Rejoice with me.” HOMILY ON PHILIPPIANS 9.2.17.