Philippians 2:13 BSB

Philippians 2:13

For it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose.

BSB

Parallel translations (2) ▾

ASV

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

KJV

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

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Commentary

3 voices

Origen of Alexandria

ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.19 (253)

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.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

Albert Barnes

1798–1870

Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

For it is God that worketh in you - This is given as a reason for making an effort to be saved, or for working out our salvation. It is often thought to be the very reverse, and people often feel that if God works “in us to will and to do,” there can be no need of our making an effort, and that there would be no use in it.

Charles Spurgeon

1834–1892

The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 820: “Working Out What is Worked In” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) (1868)

I HAVE frequently heard these words addressed to an indiscriminate audience and it has always struck me that they have thereby been twisted from their right meaning. These words, as they stand in the New Testament, contain no exhortation to all men, but are directed to the people of God. They are not intended as an exhortation to the unconverted. They are, as we find them in the Epistle, beyond all question addressed to those who are already saved through a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Voices on this verse

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Original language & word study

16 tagged words

Original	Transliteration	Meaning	Word study
θεὸς	theos	God	G2316 →
γάρ	gar	for	G1063 →
ἐστιν	estin	is	G1510 →
ὁ	ho	the [One]	G3588 →
ἐνεργῶν	energōn	working	G1754 →
ἐν	en	in	G1722 →
ὑμῖν	humin	you	G4771 →
καὶ	kai	both	G2532 →
τὸ	to	<the>	G3588 →
θέλειν	thelein	to will	G2309 →
καὶ	kai	and	G2532 →
τὸ	to	<the>	G3588 →
ἐνεργεῖν	energein	to work	G1754 →
ὑπὲρ	huper	according to	G5228 →
τῆς	tēs	<the>	G3588 →
εὐδοκίας.	eudokias	[His] good pleasure.	G2107 →

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

G5228huperaccording to155×

The walk

The walk8

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
1 Corinthians 15:10
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of…
leads to
- Philippians 4:13
  I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
  Reached by 3 independent paths from here.
- 2 Corinthians 3:5
  Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim that anything comes from us, but our competence comes from God.
Through
2 Timothy 1:9
He has saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but by His own purpose and by the grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time began.
leads to
- Ephesians 2:8–9
  For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God,
- Titus 3:4–5
  But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,
- Ephesians 1:3–4
  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.
- Romans 11:5–6
  In the same way, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.
Through
2 Corinthians 3:5
Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim that anything comes from us, but our competence comes from God.
leads to
- 2 Corinthians 12:9
  But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of…
- 1 Corinthians 15:10
  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of…

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01Commentary

The record, by era

Voices on this verse

02Original language & word study

03The walk

Where the connections lead

04Related verses

05Featured studies on this passage

06About Philippians

The record, by era

Where the connections lead

Commentary

Original language & word study

The walk

Related verses

Featured studies on this passage

About Philippians