What does ‘work out’ your salvation mean? (Phil 2:12-13)

The purpose of this paper is to understand the meaning of the word κατεργάζομαι as it is used by Paul in Philippians 2:12 and in contrast to ὁ ἐνεργῶν andἐνεργεῖν in verse 13. The text of Philippians 2:12-13 is as follows:

12Ὥστε, ἀγαπητοί μου, καθὼς πάντοτε ὑπηκούσατε, μὴ ὡς ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ μου μόνον ἀλλὰ νῦν πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἐν τῇ ἀπουσίᾳ μου, μετὰ φόβου καὶ τρόμου τὴν ἑαυτῶν σωτηρίαν κατεργάζεσθε· 13θεὸς γάρ ἐστιν ὁ ἐνεργῶν ἐν ὑμῖν καὶ τὸ θέλειν καὶ τὸ ἐνεργεῖν ὑπὲρ τῆς εὐδοκίας.

12So then, my beloved, just as you have obeyed everything not only in my coming only but also now much more in my absence, with fear and trembling work out your own salvation, for God is the one working in you also to will and to work in/energise [you] for his good purpose.

Lightfoot defines κατεργάζομαι as ‘work out’ and cites Xenophon Memorobilia 4.2.7, where Socrates is speaking.

However, against Lightfoot, κατεργάζομαι seems in the above extract to mean ‘achieve’ or ‘attain’, not ‘work out’ in the sense of take what is inside and produce it, or outwork the consequences of something.

BAG cites Plato, Gorgias, 473D in support of ‘work out’ which reads ὁ κατειργασμένος τὴν τυραννίδα ἀδίκως, || ‘the one unjustly acquiring sovereignty’. This usage does not seem to mean ‘work out’, despite being cited by BAG for that meaning. Nor does it carry here the sense of either produce or demonstrate, but ‘achieve’, ‘acquire’. It is translated by Lamb as ‘he who has unjustly compassed the despotic power,’[1] and by Benjamin Jowett (1871) as ‘he who unjustly acquires a tyranny’. [2]

Thayer defines κατεργάζομαι in Philippians 2:12 as ‘b. to work out (Lat. efficere), ie, to do that from which something results’. I’m not sure that ‘work out’ is the best English translation for these meanings. It seems to mean produce or effect.

Of the other uses, in Romans 4:15, the law works wrath. It produces wrath. In Romans 5:3, trouble produces or works out perseverance, and in Romans 7:8, ‘sin worked out or produced in me all lust’. In 2 Corinthians 7:10, ‘the sorrow of the world produces or works out death’, and in Romans 7:13, sin produces death. In 2 Corinthians 4:17, ‘troubles achieve for us glory’, in 7:11, it means produces or achieves for you’, and in 9:11, ‘which is achieving for you thanksgiving to God’. In 1 Peter 4:3, it means ‘to work out, produce the will of the gentiles’. In Romans 1:27, it means men with men working out or producing shamelessness, and in Romans 2:9 it means ‘every man working out or producing the bad’. In 2 Corinthians 5:5, it means God is the one fashioning us, and Ephesians 6:13, ‘after you have produced or achieved everything’, and in Romans 15:18, ‘what Christ has produced, achieved or worked out’ through me’.

The two instances in the NT that carries a demonstrative nuance are 2 Corinthians 12:12 and Romans 15:18-19.

2 Corinthians 12:12

τὰ μὲν σημεῖα τοῦ ἀποστόλου κατειργάσθη ἐν ὑμῖν ἐν πάσῃ ὑπομονῇ, σημείοις τε καὶ τέρασιν καὶ δυνάμεσιν.

The signs of an apostle were worked out/produced/performed among you in all patience, both signs and wonders and powers.

The form κατειργάσθη here is an aorist transitive deponent verb in the passive, probably the divine passive (Harris, 2 Corinthians: NIGTC, 874; Martin, 2 Corinthians: WBC, 435). It thus can be rendered ‘performed’ (Furnish, 2 Corinthians: AB, 552; C K Barrett. 2 Corinthians: Harper, 318, 320). Perform not only has the nuance of ‘do’, but includes the idea of doing the thing in public view. Thus, we see a play or musical ‘performed’. Thus, it would seem that κατεργάζομαι in denoting ‘produce’ can also connote ‘demonstrate’. The NIV2011 renders it ‘persevered in demonstrating’. Just as in English, the word ‘produce’ can also connote ‘demonstrate’ (eg, I produce a document in court, can you produce any evidence?); so too, it would appear, can κατεργάζομαι in NT Greek.

Romans 15:18-19

The public nature of the performance is also implicit in Romans 15:18-19.

18οὐ γὰρ τολμήσω τι λαλεῖν ὧν οὐ κατειργάσατο Χριστὸς δι’ ἐμοῦ εἰς ὑπακοὴν ἐθνῶν, λόγῳ καὶ ἔργῳ, 19ἐν δυνάμει σημείων καὶ τεράτων, ἐν δυνάμει πνεύματος [θεοῦ]· ὥστε με ἀπὸ Ἰερουσαλὴμ καὶ κύκλῳ μέχρι τοῦ Ἰλλυρικοῦ πεπληρωκέναι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ Χριστοῦ,

18For I will not dare to speak [of] anything which Christ did not work out/produce through me for the obedience of [the] nations, by word and work, 19in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit of God, so that that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the gospel of Christ.

Here the context clearly suggests that Paul will speak of that which Christ has produced through him, whether word or work. It clearly has the nuance of demonstrate.

Conclusion

While the word κατεργάζομαι most often means 'attain' and 'labour to achieve' or 'produce' and in that sense 'work' or 'work out', occasionally it means 'work out' or 'outwork' with the nuance of 'demonstrate' or 'show' (2 Corinthians 12:12, Romans 15:18-19). The English word ‘produce’ has the same range, eg, ‘please produce your licence’, ‘I now produce the document’, meaning ‘I am showing it and/or giving it to an authority.’

In Philippians 2:12, the English translation 'work out' or, even better, 'outwork' is appropriate because of the contrast with God's 'work in us' in verse 13, and the context fits the demonstrative nuance suggested in the two examples above.

[1] Plato, Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 3 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1967.

[2] http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gorgias.