This verse gives the reason for Paul’s injunction in the preceding verse. Here he is neither contradicting nor correcting himself. Rather, he is arguing that God’s initiative in working should serve as an incentive for the Philippian Christians to participate actively in the fulfillment of God’s own purpose. In other words, if they did not cooperate with God in bringing about the restoration of the spiritual welfare of their own community, they would be impeding his work. God’s inward working in man is a recurrent thought in Paul’s letters (1 Cor 12.6; 15.10; 2 Cor 3.5; 1 Thes 2.13). God is in an emphatic position in the Greek text. The force of the present participle “working” is continuous; thus Good News Translation renders it explicitly always at work. The word usually carries the idea of effective working (Rom 7.5; Gal 5.6). In you can mean “in your hearts” (Goodspeed), but it seems better in the present context to take in you in the corporate sense of “among you,” meaning the work of God in the life of the Christian community.

Again, it may be important to avoid an expression for work which suggests primarily physical activity. A more appropriate equivalent may be “because God is always in you trying hard to make you willing…,” or “… is always in you causing you to be willing….”

To make you willing and able to obey his own purpose is literally “both to will and to work in behalf of the good pleasure.” The Good News Translation rendering makes explicit that it is God who makes the Philippian Christians “to will” and “to work.” God is the primary agent, and the Philippians themselves are the secondary agents. Rather than rendering these two infinitive phrases as nouns (New English Bible “the will and the deed”; Jerusalem Bible “the will and the action”), it is better to translate them dynamically as Good News Translation does (Barclay expands them to mean “the will to desire and the power to achieve”). Willing here is certainly more than mere “wishing”; it involves a purposive determination. To make you willing may be rendered as “cause you to want to,” or even “cause you to be glad to.”

The noun translated purpose is the same as the one used in 1.15 to express good will. When it is used in reference to God, it usually means “gracious will” or “loving purpose.” It has been suggested that “to work in behalf of the good pleasure” should be taken to mean “to promote good will” among the members of the Christian community at Philippi. This is not necessarily incorrect, as the ultimate purpose of God is precisely this. Grammatically, however, the phrase is rather to be connected with the subject “God.” The focus is on God; it is his good pleasure, and so Good News Translation renders explicitly to obey his own purpose (Knox “to carry out his loving purpose”; Bruce “to act as He pleases”; Phillips “to achieve his purpose”; Barclay “to achieve what his purpose has planned for you”). In this context, God’s ultimate purpose is no doubt the restoration of the spiritual welfare of the divided community. Only by regaining spiritual health will the Philippians be able to fulfill their mission as a witnessing community in the world (v. 15). To obey his own purpose may be expressed as “to obey what God has determined you should do,” “to do what God has said you should do,” or “… wants you to do.”

Quoted with permission from Luo, I-Jin. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1977. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .