God’s Work in Us and Our Work for Him

Simon Attwood

God’s work in us 

Paul met with disappointment, and even doubt and perplexity when he opened his post from Corinth and Galatia (1 Cor. 1:11; Gal. 4:20). In contrast to the assemblies in these places the Philippians were not beset by moral or doctrinal evil, and he readily tells them that he thanks God whenever he recalls their partnership with the gospel (he personifies it) ‘from the first day’ he preached it to them ‘until now’ when he sends them this epistle (Phil. 1:3, 5–6). This gives him good reason to pray for them with joy, ‘having confidence of this very thing, that he who has begun in you a good work will complete it unto Jesus Christ’s day’ (v. 6). This reminds us of Ephesians 2:10: ‘we are his workmanship,[1]having been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has before prepared that we should walk in them’. Everything we are and do for the glory of God can be traced back to the effective operation of His love in our lives. And He will bring this to perfect fruition for the millennial day when Jesus Christ is exalted in this world where He was rejected, delivered up and crucified in spite of His perfect life of light and love, and we will be with Him as His companions for His glory (2 Thess. 1:10).

Working for Him

Although Paul writes so positively about the Philippians, he knows their love for one another lacks the strength of affection they have for him, and he gently but firmly addresses this defect in their otherwise healthy spiritual condition. He prays that their love may ‘abound yet more and more in full knowledge and all intelligence, that ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent, in order that ye may be pure and without offence for Christ’s day’ (1:9–10).[2] But he is in a strait himself. On the one hand his imprisonment could end in death at any time, which would be ‘gain’ for him because ‘being with Christ … is very much better’ (vs. 21, 23). On the other, to go on living would be ‘worth the while’ or literally ‘the fruit of labour’ (v. 22) since it would be profitable to continue working for the Philippians’ ‘progress and joy in faith’ (v. 25). This unselfish dedication to their spiritual welfare gives force to his exhortation: ‘Only conduct yourselves worthily of the glad tidings of the Christ, in order that whether coming and seeing you, or absent’ (for if he went on living it might still be as a prisoner), ‘I may hear of what concerns you, that ye stand firm in one spirit, with one soul, labouring together in the same conflict with the faith of the glad tidings’ (v. 27). Do we see life as an opportunity we must use to work for the Lord in serving His people? 

Paul wants the Philippians to hold the ground of the gospel with the one guiding principle of pleasing God and the settled disposition to remain united. He explains what this means in practice: positive cooperation and singleness of purpose in support of the truth of the gospel no matter what the opposition. This had been lacking in the case of some brethren in Rome (1:15–18) but he expects better in Philippi. The expression ‘labouring together’ means contending in unison like a sports team (see the use of the root word for ‘labouring’ in 2 Tim. 2:5). It implies intensive effort with, not against, each other. God is looking for team players not mavericks, and it is when we serve the Lord together that we see our different strengths in action and realise that each one brings qualities to the work that none of us has in toto him or herself. We need one another and we complement one another as he writes later: ‘regarding not each his own qualities, but each those of others also’ (Phil. 2:4). It seems the problem at Philippi was not personal animosity or petty rivalry but differences about practice that should never divide God’s people. If we are not watchful our convictions about such matters will drive out the love that we should have for one another and with it the desire to go on together in the Lord. We should be willing to consider each other’s exercises and even learn from them. How else can we hope to discern the Lord’s mind together? This is an important element of ‘using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace’ (Eph. 4:3), necessary in the 1st and 21st century AD.

The example of the perfect workman

There is a lovely sequence of references to ‘work’ in chapter 2. Of Christ, Paul writes that He ‘emptied himself, taking a bondman’s form’. There is no question that this lowly mind should be in us — debtors to God’s grace as we are — but it ‘was also in Christ Jesus’ who ‘subsisting in the form of God … emptied himself’ and ‘humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross’ (vs. 5–8). God has demonstrated how much He delights in His devotion as a bondman — willingly relinquishing His rights and yielding Himself in labour for the glory of God and the blessing of man — by highly exalting Him and conferring on Him the highest reputation, ‘that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow … and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to God the Father’s glory’ (vs. 9–11). Should we not show our appreciation of it by serving in the same selfless way? This is what Paul exhorts the Philippians to do: ‘So that, my beloved, even as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much rather in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both the willing and the working according to his good pleasure’ (vs. 12–13). The expression ‘work out’ means to bring something into display like a gardener who cultivates a patch of ground so that plants can grow, and in time bud, blossom and bloom. He has nothing to do with the life principle the creator has invested in them, but he feeds, waters and weeds the soil to facilitate the display of that life. The miracle that occurs within the seed or bulb illustrates the phrase: ‘it is God who works in you’, but the gardener’s work is the horticultural complement of the athlete’s commitment and training (1:27). Note though that it is not only a matter of facilitation but energy — God works in us to produce the will to obey Him but also the power to carry it out. In this way He enables us to be bondmen who can follow the example of our Lord as Paul and Timothy did (1:1). 

The witness we give when we work together in this way

As the Philippians lived like this it would be a wonderful testimony, not only to Paul’s preaching the first time he came to Philippi but also his ongoing ministry on subsequent visits and in this epistle. He says so in chapter 2:15–16: ‘that ye may be harmless and simple, irreproachable children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation; among whom ye appear as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, so as to be a boast for me in Christ’s day, that I have not run in vain nor laboured in vain.’ Here the word ‘laboured’ has the sense of troublesome toil, which serving the Lord can involve in a contrary world where weakness and failure are features of life even among Christians (see 2 Cor. 11:23–29). Think of what Paul endured in Philippi on that first visit but also of the sadness he must have felt when he heard of the breach between his erstwhile co-workers Euodia and Syntyche. But there are always reasons to be joyful. For instance, he can write of Timothy: ‘ye know the proof of him, that, as a child a father, he has served with me in the work of the glad tidings’ (Phil. 2:22). Who would have thought that the fiery full-blooded Pharisee Saul would have had anything to do with a sensitive half-Jewish Timothy? Chalk and cheese! But grace has brought about in both men a ‘mindedness’ that enables them to labour together — ‘served with me in the work’ refers to bondman service — even for the benefit of the predominantly Gentile assembly in Philippi. The two of them have the mind of Christ to work for the glory of God and the blessing of His people (John 4:34). 

So does Epaphroditus. He may not have been particularly gifted in the ministry of the Word, but the apostle is proud to describe him as ‘my brother and fellow-workman’ (Phil. 2:25). It was for ‘the sake of the work’ — the service of the gospel — that ‘he drew near even to death, venturing his life that he might fill up what lacked in your ministration toward me’ (v. 30). His role may have been a supporting one but Paul has no qualms about calling him his ‘fellow-workman’, a term he uses 12 times in his epistles of brothers and sisters who served with him (fellow) in the Lord’s work (workman). Oh, that we had a mind to work together in unison like this! What a difference it would make to our testimony to the Lord!

The wrong kind of work

‘See to dogs, see to evil workmen, see to the concision’ (3:2). The Philippians — like the Galatians and Colossians — were targets for Judaisers who were busy trying to beguile believers into adopting a religion of works. But as Paul said to Peter in Antioch, ‘I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness is by law, then Christ has died for nothing’ (Gal. 2:21). Even the best of the flesh is not good enough for God. The apostle was longsuffering towards Jewish converts who found it difficult to abandon ordinances they had followed previously but there is no question of the Philippians — a mainly Gentile company as we have noted — being brought under a yoke that God had never applied to them. The commandments of Christianity are commandments of love, and our obedience to them is the obedience of love: ‘If ye love me, keep my commandments’ (John 14:15). Physical circumcision might appeal to the flesh as a display of devotion, but the apostle says, ‘we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh’ (Phil. 3:3; see also Col. 2:11–15).

Restoring working relationships when things go wrong

‘Yea, I ask thee also, true yokefellow, assist them, who have contended along with me in the glad tidings, with Clement also, and my other fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life’ (Phil. 4:3). When Euodia and Syntyche ‘contended along with’ Paul (the same Greek verb translated ‘labouring together’ in 1:27) it seems they got on fine, but when he was no longer with them (compare 2:12) they started to contend against each other. Some brothers and sisters do exercise a unifying effect on their brethren but really, having the same Lord, we should be ‘of the same mind in the Lord’ (4:2), and if we were more conscious of His abiding presence — ‘The Lord is near’ (v. 5) — rifts like the one between these two sisters would not occur. It was a blot on the testimony and a potential catalyst for further and wider disunity, so Paul exhorts them both in equal measure because both are responsible for letting it develop. Each needs to judge her wrong thoughts, words, actions, etc. — and without waiting for the other to do so. But sometimes things go so far that we need help to do this. Being in Rome, Paul cannot complete what he has begun by exhorting them in this epistle, so he calls on his ‘true yokefellow’ in Philippi to share the burden with him and fill the blessed role of peacemaker there (Matt. 5:9). Evidently, this unnamed person was someone for whom he felt a special affinity in the Lord’s service and could trust to act solely for the glory of God and the blessing of His people.[3] But he makes his appeal known, not of course for interference or gossip — the matter is to be handled spiritually (Gal. 6:1) and with discretion and care — but so brethren can be exercised and pray. His reference to Clement, meaning ‘mild’ or ‘merciful’, and to other fellow-labourers (the same word as in 2:25), should touch the consciences of the sisters. Once they had expended their energies in the advancement of the gospel in light of the fact that their ‘names are in the book of life’. Why waste them on contention now?

May we learn from this lovely epistle to spend our efforts on building up. The power we need for this resides in our Lord Jesus in heaven (Phil. 3:10; 4:13), who will dispense it to us as we walk in dependence on Him. In this way fruit will abound to our account (4:17).
 

[1] ‘Workmanship’ refers to God’s once-for-all new creation work in believers, which has produced the capacity in them to live according to His mind and will. Philippians 1:6 is about His ongoing ‘work’ in their lives in order that they realise this capacity in practice to its full potential.

[2] Like ‘Jesus Christ’s day’ (v. 6) Christ’s day refers to the His appearing and millennial reign, but from the viewpoint of the ‘glory and praise’ He will bring to God (v. 11).

[3] No doubt the saints in Philippi knew who this person was without needing to be told but Paul may have omitted his name as an indication they all needed to share in the exercise.

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From: Truth and Testimony, 2021