For it is God who works in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.
— Philippians 2:13

When we read this verse, we may assume Paul is telling us here that God works in us so we can do some work for Him; but, that is not his actual meaning. Rather, he is saying that God is working in us to bring us into conformity to the image of Christ (cf. Rom. 8:29-30). This is to “work out your own salvation,” as he speaks of in the previous verse.

We know this, first, because just before saying this, Paul gave us the pattern of Christ humbling Himself so we would follow in His steps; second, because in verse 12, he shares how we are to work out, not the salvation of others, but our own salvation; and finally, because in the New Testament, God’s “good pleasure” is focused, not on our work for Him, but on Christ Himself and the expression of Christ in God’s children (Matt. 3:17, 17:5, Gal. 1:15-16; see the previous Note in this series, “Peter, Paul, & Working Out Our Own Salvation” • 3).

If we are clear about this, that in this verse Paul is speaking of how God is working to bring us into conformity to the image of Christ, then it becomes easy to see that Peter, in a related passage in his letters, is actually speaking of the very same thing. But, while Paul here presents it mainly as a matter of truth, Peter deals with it from the standpoint of our practical experience.

Whereas Paul tells us that “God works in us,” Peter tells us how God works in us: by making us partakers of His own divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). And while Paul says God is working in us “for His good pleasure,” that is, to bring us into conformity to Christ, Peter shows us exactly what that looks like.

And just how does he do that?

“For this very reason,” he says, i.e., because we are partakers of the divine nature,

…applying all diligence, supply bountifully in your faith, virtue; and in virtue, knowledge; and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control, endurance; and in endurance, godliness; and in godliness, brotherly love; and in brotherly love, divine love; for if these things are in you and increasing, they will make you neither idle nor unfruitful unto the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
— 2 Peter 1:5-8

These are the characteristics of Christ manifested from within us, as the expression of the divine nature we have received in Christ. And to partake of that nature, and to allow it to develop within us so that we do express these characteristics of Christ, means that God is indeed doing “the willing and the working” within us “for His good pleasure,” that is, to gain the manifestation of Christ is His children today.

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—  27 December 2025 —