05 - Paul's Background By Pastor Jeff Wickwire Notes

Philippians—The Joyful Letter

Part 5

“Paul’s Background”

Last time we looked at three shining examples Paul holds up for our inspiration—Jesus Himself, Timothy, and Epaphroditus. All three modeled selfless, obedient lives that glorified the Father.

Now as we begin chapter three, Paul first exhorts us with his favorite topic—rejoicing!

3:1 “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.”

Let’s remember that Paul is writing from prison, hardly a place of joy! But that’s the idea. He is teaching us that the ability to rejoice has nothing to do with circumstances. The joy of the Lord is a choice we make by faith when circumstances are difficult. It is at first a decision, then a reality.

He tells them that though it is a repetitive exhortation, he never gets tired of saying it because it safeguards their faith. If they can learn to make the choice to rejoice, it will act as a protector in tough times!

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Then next he shifts to a warning about false teachers:

3:2 “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!”

We’ve all seen the familiar sign on someone’s fence that reads, “Beware of dog!” It lets us know that on the other side is a dangerous animal that will hurt us. This is how Paul saw false teachers. Beware of dogs!

Then he tells us what kind of dogs. “Evil workers. The mutilation.”

The word translated “evil” is from a Greek word meaning “depraved, bad.” The false teachers Paul is referring to is “the mutilation” and it’s pointing to those Jewish teachers that insisted Gentile converts must be also be circumcised in order to be saved.

Nothing made Paul more righteously angry than this false message that Old Testament ritual must be combined with New Testament faith in order to be saved. This is why he emphatically wrote:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works (circumcision or anything else), lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).

In fact, Paul goes on to write:

3:3 “For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,”

It isn’t the cutting of our bodies that makes us children of God; it is worshipping Him with our spirits. That is the only true “circumcision.”

In the New Testament we are circumcised, not in the cutting of the body with a knife, but in the death of Christ as the cutting edge of the Cross is brought to bear upon our hearts. The old, sinful “flesh” Paul so often talks about in his epistles is cut off—crucified with Christ on the Cross—so that our new life in Christ can produce true fruit for God!

This, says Paul, is the true circumcision. We put no confidence in the flesh, but in the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross!

Paul next takes a swing at these Judaizers who had mistaken religious ritual for the kind of righteousness only Jesus could give them. He says, “You want to talk about religious perfection? I’ve got all of you beat!”

3:4-6 “though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”

I was circumcised the eighth day as an official member of the Hebrew religious community into a nation chosen and set apart by God. Not only that, I am of the tribe of Benjamin, which gave Israel its first king, Saul. It was the Benjamites that stayed true to the throne of David when the kingdom divided into the northern and southern kingdoms.

He had also been a fundamentalist Jew, a Pharisee. And he had been a fanatical one, “persecuting the church.” He had “made havoc of the church” (Acts 8:3).

Such was Paul’s past. None of the Judaizers could argue with his record. He had been one of them in his dedication to the OT and Moses. If anyone could have gloried in his religion, it was Paul.

But then he sweeps all his past accomplishments away like so much rubbish:

3:7-8 “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”

In order to pursue Christ, Paul had lost everything—his home in Tarsus, his parents, all hope of a settled home life. He had given up his Jewish religion and his ambition to climb the ladder to the top so he could rule the Sanhedrin, which he certainly would have done.

He had given up his health to hardships, floggings, perils, and shipwrecks. He had given up the smile and favor of the Jerusalem church in order to minister to the Gentile world. He had given up his freedom, and now he had just given up Epaphroditus by sending him back to Philippi. And one day he would give up his life.

For Paul, walking with Jesus had been an endless string of exchanges—giving up all he’d known in exchange for knowing and obeying Jesus. And for him, all that he’d given up was rubbish in comparison to gaining Christ!

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The Apostle’s great passion and goal is found at the end of verse 8 and into verse 9:

3:8b-9 “...that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;”

Paul fully understood the difference between being “in Christ” or not. His desire was to “be found in Him.” Salvation is a matter of your position, of what spiritual state you’re in. The unsaved man is without Christ, without God, without hope (Eph. 2:12). The saved person is found “in Him.”

Some non-Christians argue that they are good, moral people without being a Christian. That God will let them into heaven based on their good life. They also argue that they know some professing Christians that don’t live as good a life as they do.

But it really comes down to what state you live in. Let’s say three different people live in the state of Colorado. One lives thousands of feet above sea level in a high mountain. The second person lives right at sea level. And the third person works thousands of feet below sea level in a mine. But all three people are still in the state of Colorado.

It’s the same idea with the state of unregeneracy, or of being lost in your sins. You might live high up on the mountains of morality as an exceptionally good and decent person. Or you might live a very ordinary life. Or you might live down in the dirt of a wicked and vile life. Either way, all three are still in the state of lostness! That’s the state you live in!

The only way out of lostness is to be born again by turning to Christ. Once you’re saved you live in another state—the state of salvation. In that state a person might live on a very high plane of spirituality. Or, they might be a very average Christian. Or still, they might be backslidden and living a very carnal life. But all three still live in the state of salvation. They are “in Christ.”

This is why Paul says, I want to be found “in Him.”

Paul knew that there is no righteousness in himself. No achievements that will make him right with God. “Not having my own righteousness...but that which is through faith in Christ!

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He goes on to reveal the three driving passions of his life:

3:10 “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,”

First, “that I may know Him.”

Notice, he doesn’t say “That I may reach huge crowds of people.” Or, “That I may become a famous apostle.” Or, “That I may write 2/3 of the NT.”

No, his deepest desire was “That I may know Jesus better and better!”

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His second passion was to know “the power of His resurrection.”

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead now resides in our mortal bodies by the Spirit of God. Paul wanted to ongoingly, daily experience that might resurrection power. It is the resurrection power of Jesus that raised us from the spiritual dead, and that daily empowers and enables us to live above the pull of sin to walk victoriously with Christ!

And thirdly, Paul says he wants to share in “the fellowship of His sufferings.”

He is not expressing some twisted desire to suffer. It is rather the willingness to suffer in Christ’s cause, and when doing so, identify with the Lord and the suffering He endured.

The Bible says that if, when we are called to suffer, we take it patiently, ‘looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith,’ then our sufferings are united with his sufferings—we suffer with Him.

“Being made conformable to His death”—Any way that Paul could do so, he longed to identify with the Christ he so passionately loved!

3:11 “if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

He’s not expressing doubt here about being one day raised from the dead. He’s saying, “Nothing, no barrier, obstacle, fleshly desires, demon or devil is going to keep me from the great resurrection. I’m all in. To live is Christ and to die is gain!