Passage

Philippians 2.13

Book: Philippians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

11. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 12. So then, my beloved, even 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;

13. for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.

Do all things without murmurings and questionings: 15. that ye may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are seen as lights in the world, (Philippians 2:11-15, ASV)

WEB

11. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 12. So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

13. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.

Do all things without murmurings and disputes, 15. that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without defect in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world, (Philippians 2:11-15, WEB)

KJV

11. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 12. 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.

13. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Do all things without murmurings and disputings: 15. That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; ^{harmless: or, sincere} ^{ye shine: or, shine ye} (Philippians 2:11-15, KJV)

YLT

11. and every tongue may confess that Jesus Christ [is] Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 12. So that, my beloved, as ye always obey, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, with fear and trembling your own salvation work out,

13. for God it is who is working in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

All things do without murmurings and reasonings, 15. that ye may become blameless and harmless, children of God, unblemished in the midst of a generation crooked and perverse, among whom ye do appear as luminaries in the world, (Philippians 2:11-15, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul the Apostle, writing with Timothy named as co-sender (Phil 1:1).
Audience: The church at Philippi, a Roman colony in Macedonia and the first congregation Paul planted in Europe (Acts 16:11-40). The letter names overseers and deacons at 1:1 and thanks the church for repeated financial support.
Location: Written from imprisonment. Paul refers to his bonds and to "Caesar's household" (Phil 1:13, 4:22); the traditional identification is Roman custody, with Ephesus and Caesarea proposed as alternatives.
Time period: c. AD 60-62 on the traditional Roman-imprisonment dating.

Theological reading

Theos gar estin ho energōn en hymin kai to thelein kai to energein hyper tēs eudokias.

The verse grounds the command before it, and the conjunction is doing the work. Gar, "for," makes this the reason for "work out your own salvation," not a qualification added afterward. The logic runs: exert yourselves, because God is the one at work in you. That is the opposite of the intuitive inference, which would be "God works, therefore relax."

Energeō used twice. God works to will and to work. Both the volition and the execution are attributed to divine agency, and naming the will specifically is the strongest part of the claim: it is not that God supplies power for what we have already decided, but that the deciding itself is within the scope of His working.

Yet the imperative in verse 12 stands. The passage does not resolve the tension by removing either side, and any reading that does has flattened it. Human working is real working; divine working is prior and pervasive. Aquinas's formulation, that God moves the will in accordance with its nature as a will rather than against it, is one classical way of holding both.

Hyper tēs eudokias, "for his good pleasure." Eudokia denotes benevolent intention rather than arbitrary preference, the same noun used at Ephesians 1:5 and 1:9 of the purpose behind election. The terminus of the divine working is God's own gracious purpose, which places sanctification inside the same plan as election.

Deployment. This is the standard text against the charge that grace makes effort pointless, and against the opposite charge that Christian ethics is self-improvement with religious vocabulary. The verse forecloses both in one sentence.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

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Quoted in

Concepts:

Accountability Under Grace, via Philippians 2.12-13
Biblical Goodness
Canons of Dort
Compatibilism, via Philippians 2.12-13
Concurrentism, via Philippians 2.12-13
External Sources of Thought
Monergism
Sanctification, via Philippians 2.12-13
Seeking God

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.