Comments on Philippians 3:1-11

  We will be continuing through the book of Philippians. We finished chapter 2 last time at the end of which Paul was commending Timothy and Epaphroditus to the Philippian assembly, sending them on ahead of his hoped for visit. Before that he was extolling Christ and encouraging believers to live like Him. Our text this morning is going to be chapter 3 verses 1 through 11 so let’s read it now:

"Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.

Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."

    Paul wasn’t actually wrapping up here, as we can see he kept writing for another chapter. Some of the commentaries I read indicated that he might have been meaning to, but the Spirit laid on his heart another matter. If you compare this verse to verse 4 of the next chapter where again he commands “rejoice in the Lord,” you can see that he was continuing this thought there. But before getting into this other matter, he does write about joy, and so I want to take a minute and think about joy ourselves. We know that life doesn’t always work out, and I don’t think Scripture anywhere commands that we be happy at all times, but we can find true joy in the Lord. When the world around us is dark we can look up to He who is Light. He does not change and so we can rest secure in Him. Paul even says here that he does not mind repeating this point.

    Then he goes on to some warnings. Paul writes that they ought to beware of dogs, evil workers and the false circumcision. I don’t think these are necessarily three distinct groups of people, but rather three ways to describe the same evil group. We have to remember that while most of us here have at least seen a pet dog if not owned several of them, the dogs of the day were filthy scavengers not known for their affection towards humans. It was not uncommon for Jewish people of the day to refer to Gentiles as dogs, and yet here Paul turns it around on the Judaizers. The evil workers here are also the false teachers. They were trying to add works as a prerequisite of salvation and yet Paul calls their works evil, knowing that nothing needs to be added to the finished work of Christ for us to be saved. 

    Additionally here Paul calls them “the concision” (KJV) or “the false circumcision” (NASB). This gives us the clue that they were the Judaizers Paul was writing against. The word here is κατατομή (katatome) and literally means a mutilation. He is, in essence, saying that while they have performed the mark of the Law on their bodies, since their hearts did not follow along, it was just a cutting off of skin rather than anything actually holy. While we don’t follow the Law as believers, there are still those that do the outward signs of being Christians without any true heart change. These ritualists might have a form of what one might call godliness, but they do not know Christ, and more importantly Christ says He does not know them. 

    To contrast this group of people with real believers, Paul calls us “the circumcision.” True believers worship in the Spirit of God. We are privileged to be shown the things of God by the Spirit of God Himself. We “glory in Christ Jesus.” That is to say we don’t look to men for our approval, we find it in Christ Himself. When God sees us in His Son we can glorify Christ in our lives. We “put no confidence in the flesh.” To quote Ironside here: “The flesh of the believer is no more to be trusted than the flesh of the vilest sinner. Regeneration is not a changing of flesh into spirit, nor is that sanctification in which we stand before God a gradual process of such a change within us … But even after years of godly living, the flesh itself is not one whit better than it was at the very beginning of our Christian life. Therefore, we dare not trust it, know that, however blessed the work of God is in our souls, ‘in [our] flesh … dwelleth no good thing.’” In other words, we are right to put no confidence in this thing that is evil and instead put our confidence in Christ.

    Paul then goes on to talk about his personal experience. He wasn’t just preaching from a pedestal about having confidence in the flesh. As far as a Jew was concerned he had done so much that would have made him be considered holy in man’s eyes. He could honestly say, “If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more.” He points out that that mark of the Law he’d mentioned earlier was applied to him as a baby (according to the Law). He was a born Jew, not merely a proselyte who converted later in life. He also mentions here that he was of the tribe of Benjamin. We should remember that Benjamin was the younger son of the favored wife Rachel, not Leah, and certainly not a bond-woman. Not only that but the tribe of Benjamin was faithful to David’s throne when Absalom rebelled. If human heritage was something that could get you into heaven, Paul was pointing out that his certainly would qualify him. 

    Additionally he mentions that he is a Pharisee “as to the Law.” Today we often use the word Pharisee to denote a hypocrite, and rightly so. However, in Paul’s day that word held a lot of weight among the Jewish community. They were the sect that was known for the strict keeping of the law. They were the most orthodox and followed not only the Old Testament but also the host of human traditions that had been added in. 

    Not only was he a Jew by birth, and a Pharisee by practice, he could also boast, if he was going to boast in the flesh at all, about persecuting a heretical sect of Judaism. He had assisted with the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7 and then we read in Acts 8:3 “But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.” In chapter 9 of Acts he even went so far as to ask for letters to the synagogues of Damascus so that he could continue his persecutions. But we know what happened on that road. 

    Getting back to Philippians he also could say that, “as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.” In Romans chapter 7 the one law he admitted to having broken was “Thou shalt not covet.” But that’s not a sin which necessarily has an outward component to it, and so from appearances, he was blameless according to the law. So Paul can say that he was outwardly blameless. If anyone could boast in the works of the flesh, Paul could.

    Yet, he writes in the very next verse: “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.” He looked at all of his accomplishments, all of his accolades, all of his heritage, and said that compared to Christ Jesus, they were nothing. I’m quoting Wiersbe here, “Like most religious people today, Paul had enough morality to keep him out of trouble, but not enough righteousness to get him into heaven. It was not bad things that kept Paul away from Jesus - it was good things. He had to lose his religion to find salvation.” When we think we can make it on our own, our pride becomes an idol itself. Paul had all kinds of worldly “wealth”, yet, when Christ found him on that road to Damascus, he realized how bankrupt he actually was. All the things he had just listed out brought glory to him personally, but did not glorify God and so he wanted them gone. 

    How many of us here today have worldly reasons to boast. Born in a country and a state that allow free exercise of our religion. Perhaps we were born into Christian families that encouraged us to find the faith. But remember that it is not that Paul was exchanging one religion for another. He doesn’t say, “for the sake of Christianity.” No, he says, “for the sake of Christ.” We have such a privilege that we can know the Savior personally. “Christ, and Christ alone meets the every need of the soul. “ (Ironside). 

    He writes next “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord …” It is important to remember how much time had passed for the apostle since the road to Damascus. From what we can tell approximately twenty years had passed, yet Paul could look back over his life since then and still say that Christ was better than what he had before. 

    Notice here as well that it’s not just “the sake of Christ,” which he had mentioned before but now is “in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Paul, again, looked at his life and realized that the most valuable thing he had, despite all of his worldly accolades, was the fact that he knew his Savior and Lord. 

    He mentions also that he has suffered the loss of all things for Him. He had been a rising star in the Jewish world. A student of Gamaliel, a Pharisee, he was probably well on his way to being able to join the Sanhedrin, the spiritual rulers of Israel at the time. But Christ found him, and he willingly gave it all up. Not only did he give it up, but he counted it as rubbish. I found while looking through my notes, that I had given a talk on this passage back in 2023 and found that I had looked up this word then as well. Kind of going back to his mention of dogs earlier he uses the word σκύβαλα (skubala) dog’s waste. That is what would come out of the north end of a southbound dog. This is so much stronger than just saying “Well, I give up this good thing for a greater thing.” He’s saying the knowledge of Christ is so much better than anything else that even his pedigree was dung in comparison. This should be an easy trade for us to make as well. Why would we hold onto the excrement when the gain is Christ? 

    So, just as a note, verses 8 through 11 are all one long sentence in the Greek and so they compose one thought. He counted his worldly honors as dung compared to knowing Christ. His goal was always heaven, I think, but now he realized he could not get there on his own. He had to be found in Christ Himself. The Pharisees prided themselves on their righteousness. They acted in such a way as to appear blameless according to the Law, despite their corrupt hearts. But still men could look at them and say “there goes a righteous man.” When shown the mirror of his heart, Paul recognized how evil it was. It was not possible for a man to keep the Law fully enough to please God. Jesus was the only one who could. And so Paul looked for the righteousness that comes from Him, and so should we. Paul admits here that even if he could stand before God with his former righteousness as a Pharisee, he knows that it wouldn’t be enough and praises God for imputing righteousness to him. 

    The true believer’s goals change as well. Paul was no longer looking to be honored by men, but he wanted to know God. We have such a privilege that we can come before the throne of God and know Him personally. Not only did Paul want to know Him, but he also knew the power of his resurrection. His entire life had been changed, and this man who, by his own admission, was “unskilled in speech (2 Cor. 11:6),” became one of the greatest preachers of Christ in the world. 

    He also wanted “the fellowship of His sufferings.” There are a lot of people calling themselves “Christian” that want no part of the suffering that Christ promised to His followers. Christ was known as a Man of Sorrows, and so for us to truly fellowship with Him and know Him we ought to know what suffering feels like. Even going so far as “being conformed to His death,” if need be. The goal now, for Paul here, and for all true believers is “the resurrection from the dead.” Even though Paul had felt the power of His resurrection, the end goal is still the future resurrection of the dead.

    Paul could have joy in his life, despite all the suffering and hardships he endured, because of Christ. Knowing Him, knowing that His righteousness had been put to his account, and knowing the hope of the future resurrection. Let us find our joy in Christ Jesus as well.