Philippians Chapter 3
The letter to the Philippians was to remind them of the great joy we have in the Lord as believers. When a believer has abiding joy, it shows evidence that they truly trust that God is in control of every aspect of their life.
“It is a duty for us to cultivate this joy. We must steadfastly arrest any tendency to murmur and complain; to find fault with God’s dealings; or to seek to elicit sympathy. We must as much resist the temptation to depression and melancholy as we would to any form of sin.” [Meyer]
Paul also teaches the believers to look out for the ones who would steal your joy. These are the false teachers, the legalists and the evil doers. He calls these joy-stealers, dogs. Dogs is the derogatory name the Jews called the Gentiles. In this instance Paul is giving it back to the legalistic Jews who tried to deceive the Philippian believers. Workers of evil is anyone who tries to teach that salvation must be obtained through good works. Because of the legalistic meaning behind insisting that Gentiles must become Jewish to be Christians, Paul called the act of demanding circumcision - mutilation.
These legalistic Jews thought that they were the only ones that were fully righteous, but Paul corrects that teaching by stating that the only righteousness that one can obtain is through Jesus Christ, not anything of the flesh.
Let's Reflect
1. Paul calls those who are true believers of God’s grace, the circumcision. These believers worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and they put no confidence in what?
2. Verse 4 begins a statement that is as if Paul is saying, “if anyone has reason to brag about their religious devotedness and religious credentials, it would be me.” Was Paul himself circumcised?
3. He was from the tribe of Benjamin. This was the tribe that produced Israel’s first king. And it was the tribe that had the city of Jerusalem within its region. Paul was of what nationality? He wasn’t a Jew that embraced the Greek culture.
4. When it came to the law Paul (formerly known as Saul) was a Pharisee. “This tells us that among an elite people (the Jews), Paul was of an elite sect (the Pharisees), who were noted for their scrupulous devotion to the law of God.” [Guzik] “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.” [Barclay] How serious was Saul about keeping the heresies of other teachings out of the Jewish temple?
5. Saul had achieved a level of righteousness as a Pharisee. Who determined that these men were righteous if it was not of God’s standard of holiness?
6. Paul gave it all up. He gave up all the skill and religious knowledge and devotion to legalistic rituals. Why?
7. According to verse 9 where does our righteousness come from?
8. Paul’s true joy in life was to become more like Christ, to identify with Jesus. In what areas did Paul want to identify with Jesus?
9. Paul readily admits that he is not perfect, but he keeps pressing ______________ to what lies ahead.
10. What does lie ahead for the believer?
11. It may sound arrogant that Paul would tell believers to follow him, it seems that Paul should tell the believers to follow Christ. If we highlight the word imitator, we see that Paul calls us to follow Jesus and we can do so by imitating Paul. In other words, do what Paul does, because he is that sure of his faith and his walk with Christ that he knows it will be safe for believers to imitate him. The scary thing is some will imitate those who teach questionable doctrine, and the result is a falling away from the faith. What is the punishment for those who intentionally lead people away from the truth of the gospel? See verse 19.
12. What truthful statement in verse 20 brings you joy?
