Philippians 3:1-11
Philippians 3:1–11 (ESV):
“1 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[a] 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.”
Paul’s aim in this text, and consequently my aim in this message, is that we would trust and treasure Jesus Christ over and above literally everything.
There are just two imperatives given in these 11 verses. The first is “rejoice”.
1 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord.
Notice, this command is addressed to “brothers” or “brethren”. This means all Christians everywhere. It’s a direct command for anyone who follows Jesus.
Have you ever considered that rejoicing is not optional for the Christian?
In fact, the Bible is replete with commands to rejoice.
Psalm 33:1 Rejoice in the Lord always
Psalm 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
1 Thessalonians 5:16 Rejoice always.
We’re talking about the decision to be glad over all that God has done, and all that He is. It’s a joy that defies circumstances.
The reason we can be joyful in ALL circumstances is because we are focused on eternal glory instead of earthly gain.
That’s what kept Jesus Himself joyful in the face of the worst circumstances: Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross (Heb. 12:2)
So there’s the first imperative: rejoice.
But there was something that was threatening the Philippians’ joy. And that same threat exists for you and I today. There is something that has the power to rob you not just of joy in the present circumstances, but eternal joy in the presence of Christ.
And that threat is religious legalism.
Religious legalism threatens to undermine our eternal joy in Christ by dissuading us from trusting and treasuring Jesus above our own religious achievements.
It’s the erroneous idea that our right standing with God is somehow dependent on our religious performance instead of on God’s grace alone, received by faith alone, in Christ alone, according to scripture alone, to the glory of God alone.
THAT is the greatest enemy of your eternal joy… because to believe that is to believe a false gospel. And to believe a false gospel is to be separated from the One who is the True Source of joy.
True gospel… leads to trusting and treasuring Jesus… which leads to true joy.
False gospel… leads to trusting and treasuring our own achievements… which leads to Flimsy joy.
So… this idea that righteousness before God could be attained by religious ritual observance had crept into the Philippian church and was threatening to confuse and mislead people away from the truth. So, because of this threat, we are going to see Paul start acting like a protective parent.
Remember, the Philippians are like his children in the faith. He’s known them since they were infantile in their faith, and he’s watched them grow into spiritual adulthood. But now, they need protection from a great enemy. A false gospel. And Paul is there to intervene.
In many ways, he breaks character. The rest of the letter is so light and encouraging… but this section takes on a very different tone.
And before Paul really gets into it, he says something that I would like to echo to you today…
To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.
Today we are going to be going over some core truths that we’ve covered before. You’re going to hear me say things about the gospel that you’ve heard me say before. And it’s no burden for me to remind you; in fact, I can’t wait to remind you of these truths because they’re a safeguard for your souls.
Paul launches into his warning by way of the second big imperative. And it’s one that so many desperately need to hear today: “Look out”
And he says it three times in quick succession.
2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.
Without any context, we could imagine all sorts of applications for that statement, couldn’t we?
To me, it kinda sounds like something we might say today as a warning against those who perform gender altering surgeries or abortions or something.
Certainly, there are all kinds of evildoers in the world; all kinds of people to look out for…
But Paul is warning against a specific kind of evil, and a specific kind of evildoer. And it’s not who you’d imagine. That’s why it is so dangerous.
They say child predators are almost always people close to the family… the most unexpected people. That’s what allows the threat to go undetected, often before it’s too late.
It’s the same with threats within the Church. Those who threaten the Church on a spiritual level (on a doctrinal level, that is) are typically very unassuming––camouflage, even. The words they say sound almost plausible. Their demeanor is perhaps even caring and kind. But inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
Enough suspense… who are they? Paul is referring to a very specific movement that was going on in the churches back then.
These three descriptions (dogs, evildoers, those who mutilate the flesh) are not referring to three categories of people; they are referring to one category of people who had become known as the Judaizers.
The Judaizers were a group of Jewish Christians who were going around teaching that Gentile converts to Christianity needed to adopt and practice Jewish religious customs and rituals (especially circumcision) in order to be saved.
In other words, they were saying that faith in Jesus was not enough. You also have to keep the Mosaic Law––and not just the moral aspects of the Law, which are widely reiterated in the New Testament, but the ceremonial aspects too.
Now, to be clear, we know from our recent study through the Ten Commandments, that the Law is not bad. It’s good! It served its purpose in preserving the nation of Israel as the line that would produce Messiah… and it continues to help us understand God’s character and will, and it is a helpful guide to show us the sort of behavior that pleases God.
But, as it turns out, what the Law could never (and will never) do is help someone achieve salvation. Why? Because we can’t fully keep it. Nobody can.
For that reason, the main function of the Law was to demonstrate that we are law breakers in desperate need of a Savior. The main function of the law was to point us to our need for Jesus Christ.
Romans 3:20–24 sums it up like this: 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
So, when the idea begins circulating in the church that people have to essentially get to Jesus by their religious observance, Paul confronts this heresy, and exposes it for the legalistic false gospel that it is.
And it wasn’t just the Philippians who were under attack––Paul’s strongest rebuttal is to the Galatians who were being led astray by the same thing:
Galatians 1:6–9 (ESV): 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
That gives you an idea of how serious this threat was to the welfare of the Church.
And before we move on from verse 2 I should mention that the three strong terms Paul uses to describe these Judaizers are laced with irony.
“Dogs” was a term Jews would use to describe Gentiles who they saw as inferior. Paul spins the term and points it towards Judaizers, as if to say, “you think Gentile Christians are inferior? YOU are inferior… YOU are a dog… if you try to sell this false gospel of works…”
He calls them “evil workers” as if to say, “you think you are pointing out evil in the lives of those who refuse to observe your rituals… YOU are the evil one for imposing those rituals in the first place.”
He describes their imposition of circumcision on Gentiles as “mutilation of the flesh”, which is a word in the original language that sounds like the one for circumcision, but is a crass term for fleshly mutilation. It’s as if he’s saying, “you think you’re helping these guys by forcing them to observe this; NO, you’re simply mutilating their bodies. That’s it. There’s no spiritual value to what you are forcing them to do…”
And then he follows up with a statement in verse 3 that would have undoubtedly made some of them absolutely boil over…
3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—
What’s he saying?
You have to understand that he’s using the word circumcision here as a synonym for being God’s chosen people.
Under the Old Testament, circumcision was what marked you (the men at least) as belonging to God’s covenant community. To say you were “of the circumcision” was synonymous with saying you were Jewish. And to say you were Jewish was to say you were of the true people of God.
But now, Jesus has come and inaugurated a New Covenant, which includes people of every tribe, tongue and nation, and the way you enter into that community is radically different.
Whereas you became part of the Old Covenant community by birth, you become part of the New Covenant community by rebirth through faith in Christ.
John 1:12–13 (ESV): 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
In John 3, Jesus is having a conversation with Nicodemus, who was a high ranking Jewish religious leader. From Nicodemus’ vantage point, God’s special love was limited to the Israelites, and it was received by birth right and by obedience. Jesus flips it on it’s head and says, ‘no Nicodemus, it’s not about natural birth, it’s about spiritual birth, and it’s not about legalistic righteousness it’s about belief.
John 3:16 (ESV): 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
There’s no ethnic privilege here… all are welcome who believe.
That’s why Paul is careful to define the characteristics of God’s true people…
Who worship by the Spirit of God - God’s true people have the indwelling Holy Spirit guiding their hearts, not just external laws guiding their actions.
Who… glory in Christ Jesus - That is, Jesus is their only boast, their only hope of salvation.
Who… put no confidence in the flesh - That is, they don’t trust in their own works to save them. Only in Christ.
Now, at this point, Paul anticipates a rebuttal. He anticipates that his opponents who would hear this letter as it is read aloud to the Philippian church would think to themselves, “how dare you! Who gives you the right to talk to us like that. Here we are just trying to uphold Moses, uphold righteousness, and you come and call us derogatory names and then you hijack a term like circumcision and apply it broadly to people who aren’t even Jewish! What do you know about these things!”
Oh, make no mistake: Paul knew a thing or two about being a religious Jew. He knew a thing or two about working towards righteousness. That’s precisely what he was saved out of! That’s why he is so passionate about defending others from this very thing.
Listen to what he says…
4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.
Again, by ‘in the flesh’, he means ‘things done according to external works’.
If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:
He goes on to list his credentials from a Jewish religious perspective.
And something you’ll notice as we go down the list: the first four characteristics were given to him by birth, and the last three were earned by his religious effort. It’s as if he’s covering the full spectrum…
5 circumcised on the eighth day,
This was in accordance with the command given in Leviticus 12:3.
Again, notice, this is not something Paul chose or earned; it’s not like at eight days old he was like, Mom, Dad, fetch me the sharp stone…
This was a right of birth.
of the people of Israel,
His ethnicity. Again, an accident of birth, if you will.
of the tribe of Benjamin,
This was prestigious.
Benjamin was the tribe that produced Israel’s first king, Saul.
It was the tribe that stayed faithful along with Judah when the northern tribes split off
It was the tribe that contained Jerusalem within its borders.
To name a few things…
a Hebrew of Hebrews;
In Paul’s day, there were Hellenistic Jews who had basically assimilated into Greek culture, and left their Jewish customs behind. Paul says, “that wasn’t me. I was as Hebrew as you could get, since childhood.”
Now we get into the three that are by personal choice, not birth:
as to the law, a Pharisee;
The name Pharisee means “separated ones”.
Barclay calls them the “spiritual athletes” of Judaism.
They had literally made it their entire life ambition to keep every single aspect of the Law down to the smallest detail. Imagine that.
6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church;
You know the story of Paul’s conversion… he was headed down the road from Jerusalem towards Damascus where he was planning to persecute and imprison Christians, who were at that time considered a rogue sect of Judaism, when Jesus encountered him and everything changed.
And here’s the catch all:
as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
Makes me think of the Rich Young Ruler.
Come up to Jesus, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus says, “keep the commandments…”
He says, “DONE!”
That was Paul.
I mean, honestly, his opponents would have given their left arm for credentials like that.
But you remember, in the Rich Young Ruler story, Jesus looked at the young man and said, ok buddy, how bout this: leave everything behind and come follow me.
And the guy went away devastated, because he couldn’t let go. Jesus was not worth it to Him.
This is where Paul was different.
And this is where so many of us who may be tempted to trust in our own religiosity need to listen intently to what Paul is about to say…
7 But whatever gain I had,
Whatever achievements I had
Whatever prestige I had
Whatever religious good I had done
Whatever ethnic privilege I had
Whatever accolades I had…
I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Interestingly, the word for ‘gain’ there is in the plural, but the word for ‘loss’ is in the singular.
In other words, it’s as if Paul is saying, ‘all of the many gains I’ve accrued I consider one giant loss for the sake of Christ.
Gains and loss. This is accounting terminology. Paul is doing math here.
It’s as if Paul looked back on his whole life of worldly achievements and carefully considered what they were valued at. And then he looked at their sum in the one hand, and then looked at Christ in the other hand, and said with confidence, “compared to Christ, these other things are worthless”. And according to the context we must add: “worthless to save me”.
And then, while he’s at it, he broadens the category even more…
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
Literally, put everything of value on the scales against Christ, and Christ makes all other things look like a loss by comparison.
That’s the way Paul valued his relationship with Christ.
And I want to stress that word relationship.
Paul was not just enamored with what Christ could do for him.
So many Christians today are not really pursuing Christ; they are pursuing what Christ can do for them. They treat Christ like a divine vending machine, and just go to Him for whatever blessings He can dish out, and then go about their self-centered lives.
Paul had a very different obsession. He was absolutely consumed with knowing Christ.
Is knowing Christ at the very center of your life?
If not, you can change course today.
That is what God wants for you.
Hebrews 11:6 tells us that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
So do the math.
Tally up all of the accolades and blessings in your life.
Carefully consider all the best things the world has to offer.
And then consider the infinite value of knowing Jesus Christ.
Repent for treasuring other things above Him.
What do you hold in highest esteem? What would you keep if you had to let go of everything else? That is your treasure. Is it Jesus?
Repent of trusting in other things besides Him.
My guess is that nobody here is trusting in Jewish practices to save you. But you may be trusting in other things.
Maybe you trust in your wealth. For many people, wealth forms a false sense of security.
1 Timothy 6:17 (ESV): 17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
Maybe for some of us it’s our health. As long as we are healthy, we feel secure.
Maybe it’s even sneakier than that. Maybe you trust in your own faithfulness to live the Christian life… you may covertly be trusting in your ability to faithfully read God’s Word daily. Or your diligence to pray or share your faith. All great, necessary things. But NOT things that will save you.
We need to completely abandon any notion that our entrance into heaven will be based on our good works or our performance.
Instead we need to trust and treasure only Jesus.
Now, based on all that we’ve established, you are now equipped to understand and appreciate what Paul says next…
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
In Matthew 13, Jesus tells a parable about a man who gave up everything to have what he treasured most…
Matthew 13:44 (ESV): 44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
This guy wanted the treasure, so he was willing to abandon everything to have it.
Jesus’ point is, if you want to be part of my Kingdom, that’s how you have to think.
And that is exactly how Paul thought.
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
That about sums it up, doesn’t it?
To know Christ. To trust Him alone. To treasure Him alone.
When we stand before God on the last day, our achievements (religious or otherwise) will mean absolutely nothing. The only thing that will matter is whether we know Christ.
So count everything as rubbish compared to knowing Him.
Stop trusting in your own religiosity.
Trust only in Jesus and what He’s done for you.
Stop treasuring your achievements or your status; instead, treasure Christ.
He is the greatest treasure of all.