Warning Against False Confidence in the Flesh
Study note
Paul abruptly shifts from warm encouragement to urgent warning against Judaizers, teachers who insisted that Gentile converts must be circumcised and follow the Jewish law to be fully saved. He uses sharp language ('dogs,' 'evil workers,' 'mutilators of the flesh') to expose the danger. To prove he is not speaking from ignorance, Paul lists his own impeccable Jewish credentials: circumcision on the eighth day, Benjaminite lineage, Pharisaic training, zealous persecution of the church, and blameless law-keeping. No one could outdo Paul in religious resume.
1 So in closing, my brothers and sisters, let your hearts overflow with joy because you belong to the Lord! Repeating these things does not bother me at all, and it keeps you safe. 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 Watch out for those dogs! Watch out for those people who do evil! Watch out for those who insist on cutting the body! Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
3 We are the ones who are truly set apart for God. We worship God through his Spirit. We find our joy in Jesus Christ. And we do not put our trust in human efforts. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
4 If anyone had reasons to put confidence in human efforts, I had more than most. 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:
5 I was circumcised on the eighth day after my birth. I am from the nation of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew through and through. When it came to the law, I was a Pharisee. Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
6 When it came to passion, I went after the church. When it came to following the law perfectly, no one could point a finger at me. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Knowing Christ as the Supreme Treasure
Study note
In one of the most personally revealing passages in his letters, Paul declares that everything he once considered gain, his heritage, achievements, and religious standing, he now counts as loss and even rubbish compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. The righteousness he now pursues comes not from law-keeping but through faith in Christ. His deepest desire is to know Christ intimately, to experience both the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death in hope of the final resurrection.
7 But everything I used to count as an advantage, I now consider worthless because of Christ. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
8 I consider everything worthless compared to the incredible value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything for him. I treat it all like garbage so that I can have Christ Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
9 and be found belonging to him. I no longer rely on a right standing that I built by following laws. Instead, I have the right standing that comes through trusting in Christ -- the one God gives to people who have faith. And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
10 All I want is to know Christ. I want to feel the power of his coming back from the dead. I want to share in his sufferings by becoming like him in his death. That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
11 so that one way or another, I will experience the resurrection from the dead. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Pressing Toward the Goal
Study note
Paul's honest admission that he has not yet arrived at perfection is refreshing and instructive. The Christian life is an ongoing race, not a completed achievement. His strategy is singular focus: forgetting what lies behind and straining toward what lies ahead. The 'prize of the heavenly calling' represents the full experience of Christ's presence and glory at the end of the race. Paul invites mature believers to adopt this same forward-leaning posture and trusts God to correct any who think differently.
12 I am not saying I have already achieved all this or that I am already perfect. But I keep pushing forward to grab hold of the prize that Christ Jesus already grabbed hold of me for. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not count myself to have laid hold of it; but one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
15 All of us who are mature should share this same outlook. And if you see things differently on some point, God will make it clear to you. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
16 In the meantime, let us keep living by the truth we have already learned. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
Citizens of Heaven Awaiting a Savior
Study note
Paul offers himself as a pattern to follow and contrasts it with those whose lives are oriented toward earthly appetites and glory, people he describes with tears as enemies of the cross. For believers, however, the defining reality is heavenly citizenship. Philippi was a Roman colony whose citizens held Roman citizenship with great pride, so Paul's imagery would have resonated powerfully: your true homeland is heaven, and from there you await a Savior who will transform your humble, mortal body to be like his glorious resurrection body.
17 Brothers and sisters, follow my example together. And watch the people who live the way we showed you. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.
18 There are many people walking a path that makes them enemies of Christ's cross. I have warned you about them before, and now I am warning you again with tears. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19 They are headed for destruction. Their appetite is their god. They brag about things they should be ashamed of. All they think about is this life on earth. Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
20 But our true home is in heaven. We are waiting eagerly for our Savior to come from there -- the Lord Jesus Christ. For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
21 He will take our weak, ordinary bodies and remake them to be like his glorious body. He has the power to bring everything in the universe under his control. Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.