Philippians 3:1-11

[ Intro ]

Last time when we got in to Philippians we finished chapter 2, where we talked about men of great faith. The men focused on were Timothy and Epaphroditus. Paul discipled Timothy from a young age and Timothy ended up doing a lot of work with Paul in the ministry. Timothy also ended up writing part of the New Testament. Next was Epaphroditus, another person Paul loved dearly, especially for his commitment to doing God’s work. It is mentioned in the scriptures that he was very sick when he took the journey to see Paul and deliver gifts to him from the people in Philippi. And Paul commends him, writing “he risked his life for the work of Christ”.

Now as we dive in today, we are going to be going through chapter 3, verses 1-11. These scriptures are focused on the value of knowing Christ.

[ Prayer ]

Philippians 3:1–11 NLT

1 Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. I never get tired of telling you these things, and I do it to safeguard your faith. 2 Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved. 3 For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, 4 though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! 5 I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. 6 I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. 7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

I read from the New Living Translation, and here at the beginning we see the words “Whatever happens”. Your translation may read “Further”, or “Finally” and I think those fit a little better. The Greek word used here at the beginning actually means “to (toward) the rest”. So everything we read here in this first verse is in regards to the rest of the verses we’re reading.

We’ll dive further into the rest of these verses, but a really brief highlight would be that the verses are focused on the value of knowing Christ and it’s also a warning against those that try to take that value away.

So in light of this warning that he’s about to get into about guarding their faith, and based on how the rest of this letter is written, it makes sense that Paul starts out this section of the letter just by saying rejoice in the Lord. Remember the joy of the Lord is your strength.

And we know that what we find the next verses is not something those in Philippi haven’t heard from him before, because he says “I never get tired of telling you these things.” So this implies he’s told them these things before, but why does he repeat himself? He says I do it to safeguard your faith.

So let’s look closer at these warnings Paul points out and why doing so safeguards their faith.

So in verse 2, I’ll read it again, “Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved.”

If you’re called a dog in this day in age, it might be taken as a complement, but Paul is not complementing them here. Most people at this time actually hated dogs. Paul says these people are evil. And why are they evil? They are trying to convince Christians that in order to truly be saved, they have to be circumcised. These people in the New Testament are what you’d call a Judaizer. They were Jewish Christians who believed that you still had to follow the Mosaic Law in order to receive salvation. And since circumcision was a big part of the law, it’s what these Judaizers pushed. They did not believe salvation was through Christ alone. And this is a serious issue. Scripture make it very clear that works are not how we receive salvation. By putting faith in works, you’re not accepting what Christ did on the cross as enough. And that’s why Paul wanted to constantly remind them. It was even more important because he knew they’d come across these people. Because often times wherever Paul went to spread the gospel, these Judaizers would come in after he would leave and they’d try to add to the message by saying circumcision and the law are a requirement to be saved. These Judaizers had a lot of pride in themselves and what they’d done to follow the law.

In verse 3 depending on your translation, it might read ‘we are the circumcision’. Now this might sound like a weird statement, but really he’s just saying we are the ones who are truly circumcised. He’s referring to it in the spiritual sense, when you think about what circumcision represents. We are cutting off our old selves spiritually and are born again. And this is because as Paul writes “We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort”. If you put all your trust in Christ, and 0 on your own efforts, that’s true faith. And that true faith will result in a relationship with Christ that drives your character and will desire to follow God’s commandments.

Here’s more that Paul had to saw on following the law in the book of Romans:

Romans 2:25–29 NLT

25 The Jewish ceremony of circumcision has value only if you obey God’s law. But if you don’t obey God’s law, you are no better off than an uncircumcised Gentile. 26 And if the Gentiles obey God’s law, won’t God declare them to be his own people? 27 In fact, uncircumcised Gentiles who keep God’s law will condemn you Jews who are circumcised and possess God’s law but don’t obey it. 28 For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision. 29 No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.

These Judaizers had it all backwards. They followed the law for the approval of man. And all their pride in what they had done to follow the law is worthless in regards to salvation.

Sometimes people don’t want free stuff, they want to EARN it. Salvation is one of those things that you just cannot earn. Not even the tiniest portion. Now sometimes when a person claims a path of less resistance to gaining something, it might make you question them a little. Depending on how the small the resistance is and how great the reward is. In this case, we have Paul claiming something infinitely valuable, salvation, and yet it’s completely free, through faith alone. At first, someone who is a new convert, might think the Judaizers stance seems more logical that such a valuable gift would take some work and some earning. Why would God give it for free? They could think maybe Paul is wrong about this, maybe he was just a weak Jew and so he likes to avoid anything with the law. Or perhaps he struggles with sin a lot and doesn’t want to address it. People tried to spread rumors about Paul to hinder his ministry.

So let’s look at these three things,

1) why would God give away this free gift

2) Was Paul not a strong Jew

3) Does Paul avoid talking about the law and thereby also avoid talking about sin

The law was given to show us how to live righteously and how helpless we really are in achieving that. Every single person that has ever been born and ever will be born has and will break the commandments of God throughout there life. The law makes it very clear that we need a savior. And God sent us our savior, his Son Jesus Christ.

and on keeping the law, what does James have to say about the law:

James 2:10 NLT

10 For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.

So breaking one of God’s laws makes us guilty of them all.

And when Jesus was asked, what is the greatest commandment,

he said in Matthew 22:36

Matthew 22:37 NLT

37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’

There is not a single person that has or ever will be able to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, and mind. So if we have never been able to follow God’s greatest and most important command, you can be sure we are as guilty as they come when it comes to the law. We’re as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.

So when you look at the standard God has set, and how guilty we are of not hitting that standard, I think you can see why we cannot contribute at all to our salvation. It has to be a free gift from God. There’s no other way we could receive it. This is God’s love being poured out for us.

Jesus came and fulfilled the law. And it’s important to note, he did not abolish it. The law is good. As we mentioned, it does have a purpose. It drives us to understanding we need a savior. And Jesus, our savior, lived the perfect sinless life. That’s how he fulfilled the law. Then he died on the cross and was resurrected by God so that through faith, we could have His righteousness imputed onto us. Not because we earned it, but we received it by faith in Him alone. Then even though we should be seen as guilty of breaking the entire law, God sees us as perfect, not breaking any of it. We’re washed clean.

Now about Paul and all the things that people may had falsely claimed about him. When it comes to being a jew and following the law, Paul stands up for himself here by listing out his credibility. He essentially claims that he would be the Jew you’d look to as an example when it comes to being a true Jew and following the law.

In verse 4, he writes, “though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more!“

Then he lists out his credentials in verses 5 and 6.

We’ll summarize this list.

Not only was he circumcised, but it was done when he was a baby at eight days old, exactly as the Lord commanded the Israelites.

He was a pure-blooded citizen. He didn’t have a mix of Jewish and gentile family. His bloodline was Jewish through and through, part of the tribe of Benjamin. My translation then reads next in verse 5, “a real Hebrew if there ever was one”. Your translation might read “I was a Hebrew of Hebrews”. That might sound like an odd statement, “Hebrew of Hebrews”. Some Hebrews were Hebrew by blood but didn’t actually follow the lifestyle that a Hebrew should. So what he’s saying is I am Hebrew blood and lived out the Hebrew life as close as you can. He was as Hebrew as you could get, essentially.

He was a member of the pharisees. The law was what they knew through and through and it’s what they enforced strictly on others. And even compared to the other Pharisees, he would have been considered very zealous. He persecuted the church harshly. Wanting to kill anyone would believe in Jesus. Paul was one of the Pharisees that saw and approved of Stephen being stoned.

Paul was as prestigious and zealous as a Jew that you could be. He wanted to follow the Law of God perfectly. And he looks at all he had done, and acknowledging how valuable he once considered it, now says “they’re worthless because of what Christ has done.”

Verses 7-9 he’s glorifying the value of knowing Christ and how everything else is worthless. Comparing everything he did trying to follow the law, he now says it’s worthless, it’s garbage, he discarded all he had done so that he could gain Christ.

In verse 9 he says, “I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.”

Now point number 3 I wanted to address was does Paul not care about sin? After all, he’s making a lot of claims about works being worthless. We have to remember Paul is strictly speaking about salvation, not service or the sanctification process by the power of the Holy Spirit. He’s talking about receiving salvation. There’s multiple letters that Paul addresses sin in the church. Because there were followers that had started to think hey “Freedom in Christ, do whatever you want.” Paul makes it very clear that that is wrong, and he would confront these issues. The people in Philippi didn’t have major issues of confusion with sin that he needed to address at this point. So he was addressing the other big concern, which was the Judaizers coming in and trying to confuse the gospel they had been taught. He wanted to make sure that the gospel stayed clear to them. Safeguarding their faith.

Verses 10-11 is Paul emphasizing to what length he would go for the work of Christ. He was willing to do anything. And he walked the walk. From everything he went through, he never backed down and always kept his joy in the Lord.

This warning that Paul gave to those in Philippi, is a warning we all need to remember. Because we've all probably dealt with a form of a Judaizer. Today we’d call them a legalist. Someone who goes through the motions, trying to do exactly what the Bible says to give themselves a tap on the shoulder. Now it may be confusing to think, what’s the difference between someone who follows the Word of God rightfully and someone who does it as a legalist? It really comes down to the heart. Why are they doing it. Because they genuinely want to please God because they’ve been transformed by His power or are they doing it to look good. To appear holier than another and the biggest issue, believing that they are contributing to their salvation. And this is a challenge and temptation that I think all of us have to face to a certain degree. Even when we understand that salvation is through Christ alone, it can be tempting to start to think highly of yourself, become boastful. It’ll always be a temptation.

The answer is to put your focus on Christ and what He’s done and the infinite value we have by knowing Him. Always giving him the glory. Theirs always a thought and decision to be made, focus on self or focus on Christ. And God is always there to help us with this when we reach out and ask.