Philippians 3:1-7 (Wednesday Evening Bible Study)

Philippians 3:1-7

• Philippians 3:1
• In addition, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write to you again about this is no trouble for me and is a safeguard for you.
  • Paul sets down two very important things
    • He sets down what we might call the indestructibility of Christian joy
      • He must have felt that he had been setting a high challenge before the Philippian church. For them there was the possibility of the same kind of persecution, and even the same kind of death that he was facing
      • From one point of view, it looked as if Christianity was a grim challenge. But in it and beyond it all there was joy
      • There is a certain indestructibility in Christian joy, and it is so because Christian joy is in the Lord. Its basis is that Christians live forever in the presence of Jesus Christ. They can lose everything, and they can lose everyone, but they can never lose Christ. Therefore even in circumstances where joy would seem to be impossible and there seems to be nothing but pain and discomfort, Christian joy remains, because not all the treats and terrors and discomforts of life can separate Christians from the love of God in Christ Jesus their Lord
      • It often happens that we can stand the great sorrows and the great trials of life but are quite unable to cope with what are almost minor inconveniences. But this Christian joy enables us to accept even these with a smile (flat tire in NM)
      • If Christians really walk with Christ, they walk with joy
    • Here also Paul sets down what we might call the necessity of repetition
      • He says that he proposes to write things to them that he has written before. This must mean that Paul had written other letters to the Philippians which have not survived, which is nothing to be surprised at
        • Paul was writing letters from AD 48-64, 16 years, but we only have thirteen of his letters. Unless there were long periods when he never put pen to paper, there must have been many more letters which are now lost
      • Like any good teacher, Paul was never afraid of repetition. It may well be that one of our faults is our desire for novelty. The great saving truths of Christianity do no change, and we cannot hear them too often
      • No teacher must find it a trouble to go over the great basic truths of the Christian faith again and again; for that is the way to ensure the safety of the hearers. We may enjoy the fancy things at meal times, but it is the basic foods on which we live
      • Preaching and teaching and studying the side issues may be attractive, and these have their place; but the fundamental truths can neither be spoken nor heard too often for the safety of our souls
• Philippians 3:2-3
• 2 Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evil workers, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh. 3 For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh—
  • Suddenly Paul’s tone changes to that of warning
    • Wherever he taught the Jews followed him and tried to undo his teaching. It was the teaching of Paul that we are saved by grace along, that salvation is the free gift of God, that we can never earn it but can only humble accept what God has offered to us; and that the offer of God is to all people of all nations and that no one is excluded
    • It was the teaching of these jews that if anyone wished to be saved that person must earn credit in the sight of God by countless deeds of the law, and that salvation belonged to the Jews and to no one else. Before God could have any use for them, people must be circumcised and become Jews
    • Here Paul turns on these Jewish teachers who were seeking to undo his work. He calls them three things, each of which is carefully chosen to throw their claims back upon themselves
      • “Watch out for the dogs”
        • For us the dog is a well-loved animal; but it was not so in the middle east in the time of Jesus. The dogs were scavenging strays roaming the streets, sometimes in packs, hunting through the garbage dumps and snapping and snarling at all they met
        • J.B. Lightfoot speaks of the dogs which prowl about eastern cities, without a home and without an owner, feeding on the trash and filth of the streets, fighting amongst themselves, and attacking the passer by
        • In the Bible, the dog always stands for the very lowest of the low
          • When Saul is seeking to take his life, David’s demand is
            • I Samuel 24:14 “14 Who has the king of Israel come after? What are you chasing after? A dead dog? A single flea?”
          • In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, part of the torture of Lazarus is that the street dogs annoy him by licking his wounds
          • In Deuteronomy, the law brings together the price of a dog and the hire of a prostitute, and declares that neither must be offered to God
          • In Revelation, the word dog stands for those who are so impure that they are banned from the holy city
          • That which is holy must never be given to dogs according to Matthew 7
        • It is the same in Greek thought; the dog stands for everything that is shamelessly unclean
        • It was by this name that the Jews called the Gentiles
          • There is a Rabbinic saying: “The nations of the world are like dogs”
        • So this is Paul’s answer to the Jewish teachers. He says to them, “In your proud self-righteousness, you call other people dogs; but it is you who are dogs, because you shamelessly pervert the gospel of Jesus Christ”. He takes the very name the Jewish teachers would have applied to the impure and to the Gentiles and flings it back at them. We must always take care that we are not ourselves guilty of the sins of which we accuse others
      • “Watch out for the evil workers”
        • The Jews would be quite sure that they were workers of righteousness. It was their view that to keep the law’s many rules and regulations was to work righteousness
        • But Paul was certain that the only kind of righteousness there is comes from casting oneself freely upon the grace of God
        • The effect of their teaching was to take men and women further away from God instead of bringing them nearer to Him. They thought they were working good, but in fact they were working evil
        • All teachers must be more anxious to listen to God than to pass on their own opinions, or they run the risk of being workers of evil, even when they think that they are workers of righteousness
      • “Watch out for those who mutilate the flesh”
        • There is a pun in Greek that is not transferable to English. There are two Greek verbs which are very like each other
          • Peritemnein means to circumcise
          • Katatemnein means to mutilate
            • Leviticus 21:5 describes forbidden self-mutilation, such as castration.
          • Paul says “You Jews think that you are circumcised; but really you’re only mutilated
          • What is the point? According to Jewish belief, circumcision was conferred upon Israel as a sign and a symbol that they were the people with whom God had entered into a special relationship. It began in Genesis 17:9-10; when God entered into His special covenant with Abraham, circumcision was laid down as its eternal sign
          • Now, circumcision is only a sign in the flesh, something done to the body. But if people are to be in a special relationship with God, something far more is needed than a mark on the body. What is required is a certain kind of mind, heart, and character
          • It is where at least some of the Jews made the mistake. They regard circumcision in itself as being enough to set them apart specially for God. Long before this, the great teachers and prophets had seen that circumcision of the flesh is by itself not nearly enough and that a spiritual circumcision was needed
            • Leviticus says that the uncircumcised hearts of Israel must be humbled to accept the punishment of God
            • Deuteronomy says that the heart must be circumcised
            • Jeremiah speaks of the uncircumcised ear, the ear that twill not hear the word of God
            • Exodus speaks of uncircumcised lips
          • So what Paul says is; “If you have nothing to show but circumcision of the flesh, you are not really circumcised—you are only mutilated. Real circumcision is devotion of heart, mind, and life to God”
          • Therefore, Paul says that it is the Christians who are the truly circumcised. They are circumcised not with the outward mark in the flesh but with that inner circumcision of which the great lawgivers, teachers, and prophets spoke
          • What then are the signs of that real circumcision? He gives three
            • We worship by the Spirit of God
              • Christian worship is not about ritual or the observation of the details of the law; it is about the heart. It is perfectly possible for people to go through an elaborate liturgy and yet have hearts that are far away from God. It is perfectly possible for them to observe all the outward observances of religion and yet have hatred, bitterness, and pride in their hearts
              • True Christians worship God, not with outward forms and observances, but with the true devotion and the real sincerity of their hearts. Their worship is love of God and service of other people
            • Boast in Christ Jesus
              • The only boast of Christians is not in what they have done for themselves but in what Christ has done for them. Their only pride is that they are people for whom Christ died
            • And do not put confidence in the flesh
              • The Jews placed their confidence in the physical marek of circumcision and in the performance of the duties of the law. Christians place their confidence only in the mercy of God and in the love of Jesus Christ
              • The Jews in essence trusted themselves; Christians in essence trust God
  • The real circumcisions is not a mark in the flesh; it is that true worship, true glory, and true confidence in the grace of God in Jesus Christ
• Philippians 3:4-7
• 4 although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; 6 regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. 7 But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.
  • Paul has just attacked the Jewish teachers and insisted that it is the Christians, not the Jews, who are the truly circumcised and covenant people. His opponents might have attempted to say; “But you’re a Christian and do not know what you are talking about; you do not know what it is to be a Jew.”
  • So Paul sets out his credentials, not in order to boast but to show that he had enjoyed every privilege which a Jew could enjoy and had risen to every attainment to which a Jew could rise. He knew what it was to be a Jew in the highest sense of the terms and had deliberately abandoned it all for the sake of Jesus Christ. Every phrase in his catalogue of Paul’s privileges has its special meaning
    • “Circumcised the eighth day”
      • It had been the commandment of God to Abraham: “Every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old”; and that commandment had been repeated as part of the permanent law of Israel
      • By this claim, Paul makes it clear that he is not an Ishmaelite—for the Ishmaelites were circumcised in their thirteenth year—or a convert who had come late into the Jewish faith and been circumcised as an adult. He stresses the fact that he had been born into the Jewish faith and had known its privileges and observed its ceremonies since his birth
    • “Of the nation of Israel”
      • When the Jews wanted to stress their special relationship to God in its most unique sense, it was the word Israelite that they used 
      • Israel was the name which had been specially given to Jacob by God after his wrestling with Him. iT was from Israel that they in the most special sense traced their heritage. The Ishmaelites could trace their descent from Abraham, because Ishmael was Abraham’s son by Hagar; the Edomites could trace their descent from Isaac, because Esau, the founder of the Edomites, was Isaac’s son; but it was the Israelites alone who could trace their descent from Jacob, whom God had called by the name Israel. By calling himself an Israelite, Paul stressed the absolute purity of his descent
    • “Of the tribe of Benjamin”
      • He was not only an Israelite; he belonged to the elite of Israel
      • The tribe of Benjamin had a special place in the aristocracy of Israel. Benjamin was the child of Rachel, the much-loved wife of Jacob, and of all the twelve patriarchs, he alone had been born in the promised land
      • It was from the tribe of Benjamin that the first king of Israel had come, and it was no doubt from that very king that Paul had been given his original name of Saul
      • When, under Rehoboam, the kingdom had been split up, ten of tribes went off with Jeroboam, and Benjamin was the only tribe which remained faithful with Judah
      • When they returned from exile, it was from the tribes of Benjamin and Judah the nucleus of the reborn nation was formed
      • The time of Benjamin had the place of honor in Israel’s battle line, so that it was Benjamin who led the way
      • The feast of Purim, which was observed eery year with such rejoicing, commemorated the deliverance of which the Book of Esther tells; and the central figure of the story was Mordecai, a Benjaminite
      • When Paul stated that he was of the tribe of Benjamin, it was a claim that he was not simply an Israelite but that he belonged to the highest aristocracy of Israel. It would be the equivalent in America that he traced his descent from the Pilgrim Fathers
    • So, Paul claims that from his birth he was a God-fearing, law-observing Jew, that his lineage was as pure as Jewish lineage could be, and that he belonged to the most aristocratic tribe of the Jews
    • So far, Paul has been stating the privileges which came to him by birth; now he goes on to state his achievements in the Jewish faith
    • “A Hebrew born of Hebrews”
      • This is not the same as saying that he was a true Israelite. The point is that the history of the Jews had scattered them all over the world. In every town, city, and country there were Jews. There were tens of thousands of them in Rome; and in Alexandria, there were more than one million. They stubbornly refused to be assimilated to the nations among whom they lived; they retained faithfully their own religion, customs, and laws. But it frequently happened that they forgot their own language
      • They became Greek-speaking of necessity because they lived and worked in a Greek environment. A Hebrew was a Jew who was not only of pure racial descent but who had also deliberately retained the Hebrew language. Such Jews would speak the language of the country in which they lived but also the Hebrew which was their ancestral language
      • Paul claims not only to be a pure-blooded Jews but also one who still spoke Hebrew. He had been born in the Gentile city of Tarsus, but he had come to Jerusalem to be educated at the feet of Gamaliel and was able to speak to the move in Jerusalem in their own language
    • “Regarding the law, a Pharisee
      • This is a claim Paul makes more than once. There were not very many Pharisees—never more than 6,000—but they were the spiritual athletes of Judaism. Their very name means the separated ones
      • They had separated themselves off from all common life and from all common tasks in order to make it the one aim of their lives to keep every smallest detail of the law
      • Paul claims that not only was he a Jew who had retained his ancestral religion, but also he had devoted his whole life to its most rigorous observance
      • No one knew better from personal experience what Jewish religion was at its highest and most demanding
    • “Regarding zeal, persecuting the church”
      • To a Jew, zeal was the greatest quality in the religious life. Phineas had saved the people from the wrath of God and given an everlasting priesthood because he was zealous for his God
      • The psalmist in Psalm 69:9 “because zeal for your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”
      • A burning zeal for God was the hallmark of Jewish religion. Paul had been so zealous a Jew that he had tried to wipe out the opponents of Judaism. That was a thing which he never forgot. He was never ashamed to confess his shame and to tell people that once he had hated the Christ whom he now loved, and had sought to obliterate the Church which he now served
      • It is Paul’s claim that he knew Judaism at its most intense and even fanatical heat
    • “Regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless”
      • The word means to blame for sins of omission. Paul claims that there was no demand of the law which he did not fulfill
  • So Paul states his achievements. He was so loyal a Jew that he had never lost the ability to speak Hebrew; he was not only a religious Jew, he was a member of their stricter and most disciplined sect; he had held in his heart a burning zeal for what he had thought was the cause of God; and he had a record in Judaism in which no one could find fault
  • All these things Paul might have claimed to set down on the credit side of the balance; but, when he met Christ, he wrote them off as nothing more than bad debts. The things that he had believed to the his glories were in fact quite useless
  • All human achievement had to be laid aside in order that he might accept the free grace of Christ. He had to strip himself of every human claim of honor in order that he might accept in complete humility the mercy of God in Jesus
  • So Paul proves to these Jews that eh has the right to speak. He is not condemning Judaism from the outside. He had experienced it at its highest point, and he knew that it was nothing compared with the joy which Christ had given. He  knew that the only way to peace was to abandon the way of human achievement and accept the way of grace