No Confidence in the Flesh
3 Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[Or through the faithfulness of] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Following Paul’s Example
15 All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
17 Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
NOTES:
3:1 Finally…rejoice: the adverb often signals the close of a
letter; cf. Phil 4:8; 2 Cor 13:11. While the verb could also be translated
“good-bye” or “farewell,” although it is never so used in Greek epistolography,
the theme of joy has been frequent in the letter (Phil 1:18; 2:2, 18); note
also Phil 4:4 and the addition of “always” there as evidence for the meaning
“rejoice.” To write the same things may refer to what Paul has previously
taught in Philippi or to what he has just written or to what follows.
3:2–21 An abrupt change in content and tone, either because
Paul at this point responds to disturbing news he has just heard about a threat
to the faith of the Philippians in the form of false teachers, or because part
of another Pauline letter was inserted here; see Introduction. The chapter
describes these teachers in strong terms as dogs. The persons meant are
evidently different from the rival preachers of Phil 1:14–18 and the opponents
of Phil 1:28. Since Phil 3:2–4 emphasize Jewish terms like circumcision (Phil
3:2–3, 5), some relate them to the “Judaizers” of the Letter to the Galatians.
Other phrases make them appear more like the false teachers of 2 Cor 11:12–15,
the evil-workers. The latter part of the chapter depicts the many who are
enemies of Christ’s cross in terms that may sound more Gentile or even
“gnostic” than Jewish (Phil 3:18–19). Accordingly, some see two groups of false
teachers in Phil 3, others one group characterized by a claim of having
attained “perfect maturity” (Phil 3:12–15).
3:2–11 Paul sets forth the Christian claim, especially using
personal, autobiographical terms that are appropriate to the situation. He
presents his own experience in coming to know Christ Jesus in terms of
righteousness or justification (cf. Rom 1:16–17; 3:21–5:11; Gal 2:5–11),
contrasting the righteousness from God through faith and that of one’s own
based on the law as two exclusive ways of pleasing God.
3:2 Beware of the mutilation: literally, “incision,” an
ironic wordplay on “circumcision”; cf. Gal 5:12. There may be an association
with the self-inflicted mutilations of the prophets of Baal (1 Kgs 18:28) and
of devotees of Cybele who slashed themselves in a religious frenzy.
3:3 We are the circumcision: the true people of God, seed , and offspring of Abraham (Gal 3:7, 29; 6:15). Spirit of God: some manuscripts
read “worship God by the Spirit.”
3:5 Circumcised on the eighth day: as the law required (Gn
17:12; Lv 12:3).
3:7 Loss: his knowledge of Christ led Paul to reassess the
ways of truly pleasing and serving God. His reevaluation indicates the profound
and lasting effect of his experience of the meaning of Christ on the way to
Damascus some twenty years before (Gal 1:15–16; Acts 9:1–22).
3:12–16 To be taken possession of by Christ does not mean
that one has already arrived at perfect spiritual maturity. Paul and the
Philippians instead press on, trusting in God.
3:12 Attained perfect maturity: possibly an echo of the
concept in the mystery religions of being an initiate admitted to divine
secrets.
3:16 Some manuscripts add, probably to explain Paul’s
cryptic phrase, “thinking alike.”
3:17–21 Paul and those who live a life centered in Christ,
envisaging both his suffering and resurrection, provide a model that is the
opposite of opponents who reject Christ’s cross (cf. 1 Cor 1:23).
3:17 Being imitators of me: not arrogance, but humble
simplicity, since all his converts know that Paul is wholly dedicated to
imitating Christ (1 Cor 11:1; cf. also Phil 4:9; 1 Thes 1:6; 2 Thes 3:7, 9; 1
Cor 4:6).
3:20 Citizenship: Christians constitute a colony of heaven,
as Philippi was a colony of Rome (Acts 16:12). The hope Paul expresses
involves the final coming of Christ, not a status already attained, such as the
opponents claim.
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