Gains and Loss
Notes
Transcript
Philippians 3:1-4
1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.
2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
3:1–3 Shifting his tone and message from chs. 1–2, Paul warns against false teachers in Philippi.
Overview of Philippians 3:1–21 LBG:P
3:1 See note on 1:12.
Paul probably is referring to the warning and teaching that follows, which he might have delivered to the Philippians in person or in an earlier letter. Repeating this teaching is for their own good.
3:2 All three warnings in this verse point to one group—most likely to people who taught that all Christians had to follow the Jewish law.
The role of the law was a divisive topic in the early church, especially when it came to non-Jewish believers. Acts 15 records a meeting of the apostles (often called the Jerusalem council) to determine whether non-Jewish Christians should be required to observe the Jewish law. One major issue was the rite of circumcision, held to be the defining marker of God’s people ever since the covenant with Abraham (Gen 17:9–14). Paul taught that non-Jewish believers did not need to observe the law or become circumcised, but others promoted the opposite view. According to Paul, these opponents had severely disfigured the gospel message by trying to supplement Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.
Judaizers DPL
Judaizers EBD
The Greek word used here was commonly used in a derogatory manner. See Job 30:1 and note; compare Pss 22:16 and note; 59:6 and note.
Dogs, Evil Doers, Mutilators LBG:P
Dogs DBI
It seems that Paul uses the Greek word katatomē here, which may be rendered “mutilation,” to say that non-Jews who undergo circumcision for conversion purposes are essentially mutilating themselves, because the work of Christ has rendered circumcision unnecessary for membership in God’s covenant people.
Dogs, Evil Doers, Mutilators LBG:P
Katatomē, “Mutilation” LBG:P
3:3 In Jewish tradition, circumcision was the sign of being in covenant with God (see note on Rom 2:25). Paul asserts that the sign of being God’s people—the true circumcision—is worshiping by the Spirit and boasting in the work of Christ.
Refers to trusting in Christ as the defining marker of God’s people.
Refers to relying on circumcision and the law to confirm one’s place in God’s people. Paul uses the Greek word sarx (usually translated “flesh”) with remarkable flexibility. In this passage, it refers to the mark of circumcision, signifying Jewish identity through observance of the law; it also might point to religious practices in general. Elsewhere, Paul associates sarx with human corruptibility (e.g., Rom 8:3–8), the human race (e.g., 1 Cor 1:29), and the human body (e.g., Gal 4:13).
Philippians knew the gospel clearly, and so their task was to work together in accord with their identity “in Christ Jesus
But false teachers threatened to undermine the church’s firm doctrinal foundation. So, in 3:1–21 Paul reinforced some key doctrines that are at the root of Christian faith and action.
As you read 3:1–11, try to deduce the kinds of errors Paul was refuting. Ask God to show you how a Christian might make similar errors today.
Dogs (3:2). One of two kinds of false teachers was trying to mislead the Philippian church. The “dogs” may have been Jewish Christians who wanted Gentile Christians to become full Jews and practice all the Jewish laws. In this case, the teachers were sincere, but sincerely wrong. Or, the “dogs” may have been pretending to uphold Jewish laws with an insincere motive—to avoid persecution from Jews, for example.
Circumcision (3:3). A ritual cutting away of the foreskin, signifying that a man is a Jew (see Genesis 17:1–14). The cutting represented an oath that invoked a curse on oneself: it invited God to cut off the man’s life and heirs if he broke his covenant with God. Circumcision also demonstrated that a life (the sex organ represented life) was being set apart for God.
Paul liked to quote Moses’ and Jeremiah’s teaching that true circumcision is “circumcision of the heart”—that is, obedience in faith (see Romans 2:28–29; compare Deuteronomy 10:16; Jeremiah 4:4).
Serve (3:3). “Worship” in KJV: a word normally used to describe priestly ritual, “the true rite” of the Lord.
Flesh (3:3). Either the material on which physical surgeries like circumcision were performed, or “self”—“man’s lower, unredeemed nature, not inherently bad but the target of sin’s attack and the occasion of his becoming a victim under sin’s dominion.” Paul often used the word “flesh” in this latter sense.
For Thought and Discussion: According to 3:1–11, why should a Christian rejoice? What errors can mislead a Christian so that he loses his joy?
2. In 3:3, Paul states four traits of a true Christian. Choose one of the following two, and explain what it means.
Verses 1–3
It seems the church of the Philippians, though a faithful and flourishing church, was disturbed by the judaizing teachers, who endeavoured to keep up the law of Moses, and mix the observances of it with the doctrine of Christ and his institutions. He begins the chapter with warnings against these seducers.
I. He exhorts them to rejoice in the Lord (v. 1), to rest satisfied in the interest they had in him and the benefit they hoped for by him. It is the character and temper of sincere Christians to rejoice in Christ Jesus. The more we take of the comfort of our religion the more closely we shall cleave to it: the more we rejoice in Christ the more willing we shall be to do and suffer for him, and the less danger we shalt be in of being drawn away from him. The joy of the Lord is our strength, Neh. 8:10.
II. He cautions them to take heed of those false teachers: To write the same thing to you to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe; that is, the same things which I have already preached to you; as if he had said, “What has been presented to your ears shall be presented to your eyes: what I have spoken formerly shall now be written; to show that I am still of the same mind.” To me indeed is not grievous. Observe, 1. Ministers must not think any thing grievous to themselves which they have reason to believe is safe and edifying to the people. 2. It is good for us often to hear the same truths, to revive the remembrance and strengthen the impression of things of importance. It is a wanton curiosity to desire always to hear some new thing. It is a needful caution he here gives: Beware of dogs, v. 2. The prophet calls the false prophets dumb dogs (Isa. 56:10), to which the apostle here seems to refer. Dogs, for their malice against the faithful professors of the gospel of Christ, barking at them and biting them. They cried up good works in opposition to the faith of Christ; but Paul calls them evil workers: they boasted themselves to be of the circumcision; but he calls them the concision: they rent and tore the church of Christ, and cut it to pieces; or contended for an abolished rite, a mere insignificant cutting of the flesh.
III. He describes true Christians, who are indeed the circumcision, the spiritual circumcision, the peculiar of people of God, who are in covenant with him, as the Old-Testament Israelites were: We are the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Here are three characters:—1. They worshipped in the spirit, in opposition to the carnal ordinances of the Old-Testament, which consist in meats, and drinks, and divers washings, etc. Christianity takes us off from these things, and teaches us to be inward with God in all the duties of religious worship. We must worship God in spirit, Jn. 4:24. The work of religion is to no purpose any further than the heart is employed in it. Whatsoever we do, we must do it heartily as unto the Lord; and we must worship God in the strength and grace of the Divine Spirit, which is so peculiar to the gospel state, which is the ministration of the spirit, 2 Co. 3:8. 2. They rejoice in Christ Jesus, and not in the peculiar privileges of the Jewish church, or what answers to them in the Christian church-mere outward enjoyments and performances. They rejoice in their relation to Christ and interest in him. God made it the duty of the Israelites to rejoice before him in the courts of his house; but now that the substance has come the shadows are done away, and we are to rejoice in Christ Jesus only. 3. They have no confidence in the flesh, in those carnal ordinances and outward performances. We must be taken off from trusting in our own bottom, that we may build only on Jesus Christ, the everlasting foundation. Our confidence, as well as our joy, is proper to him.
Verse 1
a. Which ye have often heard of me.
Verse 2
b. Which barke against the true doctrine to fil their bellies.
c. The false apostles gloried in their circūcision whereunto S. Paul here alludeth, calling them concision, wc is cutting of and tearing assundre of the Church
Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon
PHILIPPIANS 3
Verse 1. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.
As much as to say, “If this were the last sentence that I should write to you, I would say, ‘Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.’ It is your privilege, it is your duty, to rejoice in God;—not in your health, your wealth, your children, your prosperity, but in the Lord.” There is the unchanging and unbounded source of joy. It will do you no harm to rejoice in the Lord; the more you rejoice in him, the more spiritually-minded will you become. “Finally, my brethren.” That is, even to the end, not with you the bitter end; but even to the end of life, rejoice in the Lord. Make this the finis of everything, the end of every day, the end of every year, the end of life. “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.” Blessed is that religion in which it is a duty to be happy.
1. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.
Saying the same thing over and over again is safe, for your minds do not catch the truth at the first hearing, and your memories are slippery.
2. Beware of dogs,—
Men of a doggish, captious, selfish spirit. In Paul’s day, there were some who were called Cynics, that is to say, dogs: “Beware of dogs,”—
2. Beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
By which Paul meant those Jews who made a great point of circumcision; he calls them here “the cutters”, for they mangled and cut the Church of God in pieces: “Beware of the concision.”
3. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
These are three marks of the true Israel of God; have you all of them,—worshipping God in the spirit, rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and having no confidence in the flesh?
4. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh.
If anybody might, Paul might. If birth, if education, or if external religiousness could have saved anybody in the world, it would have saved Saul of Tarsus.
Paul tells the Philippians that the duty of all Christians is that they be joyful. A long-faced Christian is the worst advertisement for Christianity. The world doesn’t want a greater burden; it wants a light heart. How can a Christian be joyful in a world so full of sorrow? Paul tells us in Philippians 3:1, “Rejoice in the Lord!”
Chapter 3
3:1 As a safeguard, Paul reviewed the basics with these believers. The Bible is our safeguard both morally and theologically. When we read it individually and publicly in church, it alerts us to corrections we need to make in our thoughts, attitudes, and actions.
3:2, 3 These “dogs” and “mutilators” were very likely Judaizers—Jewish Christians who wrongly believed that it was essential for Gentiles to follow all the Old Testament Jewish laws, especially submission to the rite of circumcision, in order to receive salvation. Many Judaizers were motivated by spiritual pride. Because they had invested so much time and effort in keeping their laws, they couldn’t accept the fact that all their efforts couldn’t bring them a step closer to salvation.
Paul criticized the Judaizers because they looked at Christianity backward—thinking that what they did (circumcision—cutting or mutilating the flesh) made them believers rather than the free gift of grace given by Christ. What believers do is a result of faith, not a prerequisite to faith. This had been confirmed by the early church leaders at the Jerusalem council 11 years earlier (Acts 15). Who are the Judaizers of our day? They are those who say that people must add something else to simple faith. No person should add anything to Christ’s offer of salvation by grace through faith.
3:2, 3 It is easy to place more emphasis on human effort than on internal faith, but God values the attitude of our heart above all else. Don’t judge people’s spirituality by their fulfillment of duties or by their level of human activity. And don’t think that you will satisfy God by feverishly doing his work. God notices all you do for him and will reward you for it, but only if it comes as a loving response to his free gift of salvation.