Philippians 2:13

13. God… worketh in you One of the strongest reasons for our working.

Both to will… do Both the willing and working, and the one as truly as the other. The volition and execution of it in action are our own, the working in us, that we may resolve and act, is God’s. Our working does not, on the one hand, proceed from ourselves unassisted and uninfluenced by him; and on the other, his working is not of a nature that precludes the necessity of our working. God, then, does not create in us the volition, or necessitate the acting; for, then, they would be his and not ours, except mechanically and unrewardably, and the exhortation to work out, etc., would be as proper as if a bell were exhorted to ring when it is struck. Underlying the passage is the well-known truth that a gracious ability to repentance and holiness is given to all men through the atonement, and while this is inferable from what is said, it is not here affirmed. The Philippians were using this power and had entered upon the way of salvation. Over and above the power just named, and the added power through their new nature and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, they are receiving special influences inciting them to fresh resolution and action in pushing through the life they have begun. The statement is more than God works. Emphasize God, and the meaning is, it is God, and nobody less; your God and Father, who is quickening your thoughts, moving your hearts, stirring your consciences, and rousing your wills; and since he is so earnest, be you earnest also. Add to this the divine motive, of his good pleasure; on which see notes, Ephesians 1:9.