With therefore Paul does not so much connect with the song about Christ, but with the whole passage of Philippians 1:27 – 2:11. He picks up the thread again in a new section in his letter.

Paul calls his readers my beloved. This points to the bond between Paul and the church. The task of Timothy (co-sender of the letter) has apparently been modest.

He praises the believers for always having been obedient. This was already expressed at the start of the church in Philippi (Acts 16:32–34). Then Paul was with them. Now he is not with them. But their obedience to God should not depend on Paul’s presence. Let them be the more obedient now that he is not with them.

Paul calls on them: to work out your own salvation. This seems like a strange call. We cannot work out our salvation, can we? After all, our salvation is God’s work. For example, as Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8, For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. Yet he uses the phrase work out. In Philippians 2:13 it becomes clear how this is possible.

The effort (working out) is accompanied by fear and trembling. This fear and trembling do not contradict texts such as Romans 8:15 and 1 John 4:18, which indicate that fear is not appropriate for believers. Fear and trembling is a regular expression used more often for believers (Ephesians 6:5), and sometimes also in attitudes toward fellow human beings (2 Corinthians 7:15, the Corinthians received Titus with fear and trembling, that is, awe). Here in Philippians 2 fear and trembling means deep awe of God.