Philippians 2:12-13 - Explained

"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

This phrase — work out your own salvation with fear and trembling — is very commonly quoted by people that try to add works to salvation. There are three basic false views I have heard in regards to this phrase.

View number one is that you have to do good works in order to obtain or receive salvation. Work out your own salvation — you have got to work for it to be saved. View number two is that you have to do good works to keep your salvation. So this person is already saved, but you have got to work it out with fear and trembling — fear and trembling of going to hell or losing that salvation. And false view number three is that good works are automatic as a result of salvation — basing that on verse 13 where it says "for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

Now all three of these false views are disproven by many verses throughout the Bible. The Bible is very clear — works have nothing to do with salvation. Works are not evidence of your salvation and they are not automatic.

Actually, the proof that works are not automatic is the very fact that he is commanding them to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. If works were automatic after being saved, then the Bible would not have to over and over again command us — hey, work out your own salvation. If it was already going to happen anyway, it would be completely redundant. There would be no point in even bringing it up because it would be automatic. But it is not automatic that we are going to do good works.

There are a lot of verses that speak about this, but one famous passage is Ephesians 2:8–9, which makes it very clear that works have nothing to do with salvation. But of course some would say — if you really are saved, you are going to have the good works. And they might point to the very next verse, Ephesians 2:10: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Notice it does not say we automatically will walk in them. It says we should walk in them. Of course, as a saved person, God has a plan for your life. He has good works set up and he wants us to walk in those things. That is why he is always commanding believers in the Bible to live a good life, obey the commandments, and do something with their life. But it is not automatic.

So in Philippians 2:12–13, when he says work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, he is commanding them to work it out. And the fear and trembling is not fear and trembling of going to hell. Rather, we understand that God will judge his people in this life, and we should have a fear of being disobedient to God.

Pastor Matthew Stucky