Paul's Spiritual Synergy -- #4 in Philippians Series (Bruce Epperly)
The word synergy has not played well in Reformed circles. God is seen as the active partner in our lives, and we are the passive ones. But is that Paul's understanding? Could it be that Paul understood us as having a role to play in "working out our own salvation"? Bruce Epperly's reading of Philippians suggests that Paul believed that the partnership/interdependence of God and humanity may have been stronger than some of us have been led to believe. I invite you to explore Philippians in this fourth installment of Bruce's series based on his new study guide.
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Philippians – 4 –
Paul’s Spiritual Synergy –
Philippians 2:12-13
Bruce G. Epperly
“Work out your salvation with
fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you to will
and to work for God’s good pleasure.” (NRSV)
“Strive for wholeness and beauty
in this life and the next with awe and excitement, for God is moving in and
through your life, giving you energy and imagination to seek God’s vision.” (my paraphrase)
Paul
has been typically interpreted as the apostle of reformed theology. Augustine, Luther, and Calvin celebrated the
Christian’s freedom from law and sin.
They believed that God’s grace is irresistible in spite of our sinfulness. If God wants to save us, we are saved
entirely apart from our works. We can be
free in relationship to humans, but are totally passive in relationship to
God. God does everything and we do
nothing in terms of what really matters – our salvation. Any efforts on our part are “works
righteousness,” and an affront to God.
Our creativity in things spiritual is a fall from grace.
While
Paul is certainly the apostle of grace, Philippians 2:12-13 suggests that
Paul’s theology may be closer to the much maligned “heretic” Pelagius than the “orthodox”
Augustine, Luther, and Calvin. Despite
his strong sense of God’s grace in human life, most especially his own
experience, Paul may have a forerunner of the Arminian and Wesleyan theological
perspectives as well as contemporary process theology.
Just
as theologians have neglected the universalism of Philippians 2:5-11, they have
also overlooked Paul’s synergy of grace and freedom, and call and
response. Paul clearly states that we
have a role in experiencing wholeness and salvation. Nothing could be clearer than Paul’s words,
“work out your salvation.” Following
God’s path is serious business. While
grace transforms lives, we cannot take it for granted, assuming that God will
do everything and we can just passively wait for God’s will to come about in
our lives and the world.
Paul
is equally clear that salvation and wholeness is not initially or primarily our
work. He proclaims that “God is at work
in you, enabling you to will and to work for God’s good pleasure.” God’s grace is prior, powerful, and
transformative. God calls and we
respond. Our responses do not limit
God’s grace but ratify and expand God’s graceful movements in our lives and the
world.
The
problem with most theological commentaries on Philippians 2:12-13 is that they
see God and us as separate entities, rather than interdependent realities. The divine-human interdependence is clear in
Philippians 2:13: “for it is God who is at work in you.” God is not an outside force but the deepest
reality of our lives, moving within us to inspire growth and the realization of
God’s shalom. Paul is clear that God’s presence is
interwoven with our own: “the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”
(Romans 8:25) I take this to mean that
God moves through the unconscious and conscious minds, and that we can never
fully distinguish between God’s creativity and our own. Grace is prior to our response, a wellspring
of possibilities and energies, but grace invites us to activity and
responsibility. Grace does not compete,
it inspires and energizes.
Paul
affirms a divine-human synergy in which our openness to God’s grace in the form
of forgiveness, acceptance, and possibility increase our freedom to choose to
follow God’s path in our own unique way.
God presents us with a vision of what we can do with our freedom, and
then inspires us to follow God’s vision as only we can do. Romans 12:2 captures the lively synergy of
call and response, vision and action, that is the heart of Christian freedom:
“Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and
acceptable and perfect.” God’s will is
ethical, spiritual, and inspirational, not coercive or domineering. Rather than creating the events of life,
God’s will is often at contrast with our values as well as the realities of
disease, trauma, and tsunami. “Thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10) is clearly not about divine
control or determinism, but something much more important, God’s vision of
shalom and wholeness and our calling to embrace God’s way in our world.
Grace
abounds, yes! But, in the spirit of
Philippians 2;5-11, grace does not dominate, destroy, or determine. Grace gives birth to partnerships with
humankind for the sake of healing the world.
When we stand on our feet, taking responsibility for our actions and
creating (albeit imperfectly) in positive ways, we are fulfilling rather than
challenging God’s sovereignty and vision for the world. We are partners in the synergy of grace.
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