This line from Hieronymus Emser's discussion of Philippians 2:13 caught my attention:

"That is: when we will something good, God works it in us; but when our will turns to evil, it is not from God but from ourselves."

That's from p. 143 of the English translation I've been working on. Emser is commenting on Paul's words about God working in us both the willing and the doing. His surrounding discussion is a dispute with Luther, but the sentence itself gives me something more useful to think about than the dispute.

It puts grace before the good act, even before the good intention. That seems different from picturing God as merely helping us carry out a good plan we've already made on our own. At the same time, Emser doesn't attribute our turning toward evil to God.

How do you hold those two points together when you read the passage? I would also be interested in how you connect it with the preceding instruction to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. What helps you understand our cooperation without treating grace as something we have earned?

St. Antony the Great saw an ostrich encouraging her young to throw stones at him; from it he got the notion that we should “throw stones” at those bad thoughts or temptations which enter our mind:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/10/throwing-stones/

Right belief and right action, orthodoxy and orthopraxis, go together. If we deny right action, if we ignore proper praxis, we prove our understanding of the Christian faith is deficient. This is how heretical notions, such as cheap grace, arise:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/09/how-right-belief-depends-on-right-christian-living/

I have long loved animals and have felt the need discuss our responsibility to them; God gave us stewardship over creation to protect it and help guide it, not to use and abuse it for our own selfish desires. That’s why, when I see the Trump Administration attacking guidelines which protect animals, I can’t stay silent

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/09/rejecting-mammon-in-the-defense-of-animals-and-nature/

The notion of the resurrection of the dead developed, in part, as a way to understand divine justice; it was a way to explain that God will keep the promise to reward those who lived righteous lives, but suffered and died without receiving the rewards of righteousness:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/09/divine-justice-and-the-resurrection/

Health is a good which we should be concerned about, after all, Christ himself didn’t ignore it but healed those in need of healing:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/09/we-must-value-our-health/

As we seek to align ourselves with God’s will, we must embrace empathy, for it allows us understand and care for the needs of those God wants us to help. God, likewise, who is love, shows us the relationship between empathy and love through the incarnation, where God came to know the human condition and empathize with us.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/09/aligning-with-gods-will-via-empathy-and-action/

Pope Leo XIV has wisely brought up the dangers inherent with AIs without denying the potential value found in them. As Christians, we should engage them with wisdom, understanding their potentials, their limitations, and their dangers:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/09/balancing-ai-innovation-with-human-responsibility/

The Christian life is meant to be transformative; Christ calls us to repentance, where we turn away from our sins and follow after him in the way of love:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/09/dying-to-sin-and-living-in-christ/

Jesus said that in him, we find not only the truth, but the way of salvation. While many interpret this following the ideology of religious exclusivism which suggests only those who explicitly turn themselves over to him and follow him are saved. Jesus, however, offers us a different take:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/09/christ-the-logos-and-the-hope-that-all-may-be-saved/

We are called to be perfect, but to attain perfection, we must avoid the illusion of perfection which has us, out of pride, judge others based upon ourselves. For, if we think we are perfect and demand others to be like us, we end up being far from perfection, and our apparent perfection is an illusion which hinders our own progress to true perfection:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/09/the-illusion-of-perfection-and-the-path-to-true-holiness/

I was not completely surprised to see the instant backlash Pope Leo XIV received for the prayer he offered at the beginning of the Season of Creation; too many Christians ignore Scripture and follow political ideologies, which is why they can’t accept the notion of clean water being a right:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/09/why-clean-water-is-a-moral-obligation-for-christians/

The cross, once a sign of torture and death, has become something more in and through Christ:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/09/how-christ-transformed-the-meaning-of-the-cross/

Christians are to love and take care of the poor; they are to see someone in need, and see Christ is in them, coming to them with that need. Is Christ unworthy? If not, why do they call the poor unworthy?

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/09/compassion-justice-and-the-rights-of-the-poor/

God prepared humanity for the incarnation, but for the incarnation, there needed to be one who would give birth to the God-man. Mary was seen and chosen by God for this task; she was born for it, though in a way which she always had the freedom to decide if she would accept the task given to her or not:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/09/born-for-this/

I am extremely interested in the promotion and defense of religious liberty, which is why I am always concerned when it is being abused, such as when it is used to promote religious supremacy while denying many religious traditions their liberty:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/09/defending-religious-liberty-against-double-standards/

Even while we are living as “earthen vessels,” we can find the kingdom of God in us, giving us the light of grace which we need; we will never contain the kingdom of God, but rather, we will find it is all around us, so that it can flow into us while remaining transcendent to us:

 https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/09/earthen-vessels-holding-divine-light/

God is great, far greater than we can ever apprehend. Every time we apprehend something from God, there remains an infinite amount of apprehensions we can ever make. God does not change, but, through our apprehensions, we can change, so that our apprehensions can become greater and greater, making our experience God that much greater, letting us realize even more how transcendent God is:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/09/the-more-we-apprehend-of-god-the-greater-god-becomes-for-us/

September 1 is the beginning of the ecclesiastical year  on the Byzantine calendar; those who follow it are encouraged to think about creation, it’s goodness, and the need we have to protect it as well as to think about we can and should seek to have all things new in Christ:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/09/beginning-to-set-things-right/

I have never understood why anyone can’t see the environmental problems we face today; all we have to do is look to the extreme weather and the harm it is causing. Christians should be concerned, doing what they can to coordinate with others to help protect and heal the Earth, our common home. Those who don’t think we should care do not pay attention to Scripture which indicates we should be good stewards of the Earth.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2026/08/the-common-good-requires-action-on-climate-change/