You see, there would be no security in that kind of righteousness at all. Philippians 3:4b-14. It was so with the apostle. John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. WebMatthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Philippians 3:9-14. The lad had found a joy which not even the scaffold could take away. . Perhaps he meant he wanted to experience suffering for Christs sake and was even willing to die for Him to arrive at his resurrection in a manner that would enable him to face His master unashamed. doctrine as this to the Philippians. 3:17-21 Brothers, unite in imitating me, and keep your gaze on those who live, as you have seen us as an example. This is salvation in truth. True experience is still the great theme which the apostle has in hand here as well as in his own personal history. Brethren, be followers together of me ( Philippians 3:17 ). While the exact nature of that reward is unclear here, it can generally be understood as a sort of abundance of life. Paul claims not only to be a pure-blooded Jew but one who still spoke Hebrew. The moment you look at what He is made, then it is to the glory of Him who thus exalted Him. See 1 Thessalonians 4:6-18.". When Paul stated that he was of the tribe of Benjamin, it was a claim that he was not simply an Israelite but that he belonged to the highest aristocracy of Israel. Reasonings on such matters are in general miserably wrong. As Paul saw it, the Christian is the athlete of Christ. He must have a certain kind of mind and heart and character. How can they say . But the weakest of saints (how much more this greatest of the apostles!) Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. They are enemies to the cross of Christ, not to Christ Himself, but to that aspect of suffering with Him,". In front of people they can act very holy and sanctified and excited and exhilarated in the things of the Lord, but when they get away from the stage, they can have filthy mouths; they can tell dirty jokes, they are living a two-faced life. (ii) Here also Paul sets down what we might call the necessity of repetition. With us the dog is a well-loved animal, but it was not so in the East in the time of Jesus. There is a certain indestructibility in Christian joy; and it is so, because Christian joy is in the Lord. He pressed towards the mark. They are circumcised, not with the outward mark in the flesh, but with that inner circumcision of which the great law-givers and teachers and prophets spoke. Paul finishes with the Christian hope. Accordingly, this being not so directly the subject of the epistle though a Very important part of it, it comes in parenthetically in a large measure, not now in any wise as a question of truth or development of the mystery of Christ, as we saw in Ephesians 3:1-21, but, nevertheless, as a parenthesis; for he resumes afterwards the internal side again, as we shall see inPhilippians 4:1-23; Philippians 4:1-23. But this is not the character of Christian joy. Then he uses two vivid pictures. "According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed." His intent is to bring to mind the resurrection, not of "all who are in the grave," but more specifically, the resurrection of the saved (1 Thessalonians 4:16). (iii) It means to be so united with Christ that day by day we come more to share in his death, so that finally we share in his Resurrection. Thus then he writes, telling them, "I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel." In Philippians 3:1-21 it is not the display of intrinsic affection in Christ, or the gracious dispositions of Christ in the saints. Let all of you who have graduated in the school of Christ have the same attitude of mind to life. The reason is, in my judgment, perfectly beautiful. Therefore, do what you like with it; since it is evil anyhow it makes no difference what you do with it. But, Lady Bountiful, seeing her interest in it, said to the clerk, wrap it up and have it sent to the car.When she got back to the dorm, she went into her room and she carefully unwrapped this dress, put it on; it fit perfectly. It is his own personal experience; and this is the reason why we have "I" so often here. It describes him with eyes for nothing but the goal. Far from him was the vanity of being the man first to preach Christ in the great metropolis. The Resurrection of Christ is the guarantee that this life is worth living and that the physical body is sacred; it is the guarantee that death is not the end of life and that there is a world beyond; it is the guarantee that nothing in life or in death can separate us from him. (i) He sets down what we might call the indestructibility of Christian joy. "You know, it is what I used to be, what I used to do. Television would cause you to think that that is all retired baseball and football players do is just hang around the bars drinking lite beer, talking about the past. That isn't a real representative of You. Now here we have what is present; so that the passage presents some difficulty to souls because of intermingling the present with the future. He is forgetting the things which are behind. Jesus wasn't resurrected until he first went to the cross. admits that the external testimony is quite in its favour, though it is hard to see what he means by the internal evidence being in this case denied; for he suggests himself that may have been a correction proceeding from those who thought that the sense which the context requires, "the resurrection from the dead," could not be extracted from . What looks and sounds better than the saints of God? If, then, they really loved him, "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if there be any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies," he would venture to seek another proof of it. So, by the trial and error method, the redoing a lot of the seams and all, and the hem wasn't really straight, but it was a good effort. But our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly await the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, for he will refashion the body which we have in this state of our humiliation and make it like his own glorious body, by the working of that power of his whereby he is able to subject all things to himself. His own place toward them was but to serve them in love. In Philippians 3:1-21 it is not the display of intrinsic affection in Christ, or the gracious dispositions of Christ in the saints. Not the passive side of the Christian as being in the world, but the active comes before us. Paul claims that not only was he a Jew who had retained his ancestral religion, but he had also devoted his whole life to its most rigorous observance. Such did, such was, Christ. and here I am in my little pompous righteous throne, judging everybody else who isn't living by my standards. Please see our Privacy Policy for cookie usage details. The only safeguard of the saints, of those that love the truth and Himself, is simple subjection to the word of God to the whole truth He has revealed in scripture. Select a Passage. And so looking back to the past, oftentimes, we look at our failures and we are discouraged from trying to go on. But his spirit was as bright as ever, his joy perfectly fresh, deep, and flowing. There is real power, there is strength from God that works in the saint; but the feelings of Christ, the mind of Christ morally, is better than all energy. #1 I press on. Is this the life that is practically exercised? If you read any Greek, you can pick up on the play on words. This is what the Lord intended for me, to be with Him in His kingdom, to share with Him His glory. Philippi was a Roman colony. The story of the beginning of that sign is in Genesis 17:9-10. All of our resources exist to guide you toward everlasting joy in Jesus Christ. Yet these shall bow, no less than those in heaven, or on earth. They are stagnating now. *There is no reasonable doubt that the received text is wrong, followed by the Authorised Version ("of," instead of "from" the dead). This the apostle had his eye upon; this he would attain. It was such an one, truly the servant of Jesus Christ, and so much the more their servant because His, even their servant for Jesus' sake it was such an one that wrote from Rome to the tried saints at Philippi. The great saving truths of Christianity do not change; and we cannot hear them too often. WebThe true people of God, whom Paul calls the true circumcision, are not those who have carried out a ceremony to put a mark in their bodies, but those who have received new life from Christ through an inward spiritual change (3:1-3). On my account, God writes righteous.Now, the problem of being righteous by my efforts, by my works, I may be doing right, I may have lived all of my life up to this point by the rules, having never violated, sailing along in good shape, and there is written across my name, righteous. Nothing but the righteousness that was of God as its source satisfied him. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Brothers, I do not count myself to have obtained; but this one thing I do--forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching out for the things which are in front, I press on towards the goal, in order that I may win the prize which God's upward calling in Christ Jesus is offering to me. Now, Paul recognized something that is very important for all of us to recognize who have been apprehended by Jesus Christ. The words that Paul used seem to indicate that he was thinking of a resurrection from among those who were dead. They had him in their heart, as he says, "Inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers with me of grace," or "of my grace." What the apostle's actings were under this conviction. He esteemed men better than himself. A holy fear of coming short is an excellent means of perseverance. Thus the difference between reconciliation and subjection is manifest. When it is used of Christians, it often means baptized persons who are full members of the Church, as opposed to those who are still under instruction. He persecuted the church. There were in the Church at Philippi men whose conduct was an open scandal and who, by their lives, showed themselves to be the enemies of the Cross of Christ. . " c. The Lord Jesus Christ: The title Lord was also applied to the Roman Caesar. I just can't rise above it. Yet they were the witnesses of Christ whom God had put forth at the close; for it was manifestly of Him. In by far the most of them it does not signify what we might call abstract perfection but a kind of functional perfection, adequacy for some given purpose. And they were a sort of a hated animal. ", He loves, we see, to couple with the relationship to himself what was related to them. So what Paul says is, "If you have nothing to show but circumcision of the flesh, you are not really circumcised--you are only mutilated. He has written His word not to perplex, but to enlighten. He did not forget, but meant what he said. Therefore, they said, it was a man's duty to plumb the depths of sin just as much as to scale the heights of virtue. It is not merely exalting His work, or His cross; it is not so much His blood, as Christ Himself. These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience. The Christian places his confidence only in the mercy of God and in the love of Jesus Christ. At this point Paul repeats warnings that he gave the Philippian church some time earlier concerning Judaisers. As far as he was concerned, therefore, why could he choose? All here below was plunged under the sentence of death through Adam's sin; and God's word could but seal it till redemption. This epistle is therefore eminently instructive to those who could not have an apostle with them. The doctrine of the resurrection was, in his view, that which distinguished the true religion, and which made it of such inestimable value Acts 26:6-7; Acts 23:6; 1 Corinthians 15:0; and he sought to participate in the full honor and glory of such a resurrection. Jesus had to empty Himself to become a servant. This will be, no doubt, at the end of the journey: the faithful win Christ where He is. There are two chief stages of His humiliation flowing out of His perfect love. They nevertheless seem to have been disheartened, even distanced, from their faith by Pauls imprisonment. Select a Passage. Not our keeping hold of Christ, but his keeping hold of us, is our safety. To know Christ means for him certain things. It was not a decision made in a moment of impulse, but one by which I still stand fast.". It is not sentiment, but a genuine feeling, thus "looking not each at his own things, but each also at the things of others." Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we look for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is important to note the verb which he uses for to know. In Revelation the word dog stands for those who are so impure that they are debarred from the Holy City ( Revelation 22:15). So Paul says that in the Christian life we must forget every past achievement and remember only the goal which lies ahead. It is true that Paul frequently plotted Christs story around the motifs of death and resurrection, a scheme he most likely inherited from Let me press this, because alas! In God there is ample supply. Not seldom do they begin to question whether it can be possible that such a one is really of value to the church of God. The Apostle John says, "Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure" (1 John 3:3). a. It is not the dread of losing the Saviour of their souls, but because they felt for His name; "for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Codd. For Paul the Resurrection was not simply a past event in history, however amazing. Their happy and bright state in Christ did not dim their fellowship with the gospel. It is by faith in his blood,Romans 3:25. There is no epistle that so abounds in joy. And did feel rather sorry for her. It is part of the verb ginoskein ( G1097) , which almost always indicates personal knowledge. Paul said. WebBible Commentaries; Philippians 3:1-11; Philippians 3:1-11. If then, matter is essentially evil, the body is essentially evil and will remain evil whatever you do with it. WebPhilippians 3:11-14 King James Version 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Verses 1-21. He too in love still keeps up the servant-character, and gives them as it were the Christ-character. I can do all things through him who strengtheneth me." For this corruption must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality and then will be brought to pass the saying, Oh, death where is thy sting? Observe, A Christian's calling is a high calling: it is from heaven, as its original; and it is to heaven in its tendency. 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. But it is working through it, but it is agonizing. It is not legal experience, for which you must turn to the chapter spoken of inRomans 7:1-25; Romans 7:1-25, the only bit of a saint's experience under law, as far as I know, that the New Testament affords (certainly in the epistles). There is the present joy of Christ; but this does not content the soul. There was the very reverse in Paul's case. He desired to win Christ; and an unspeakable gainer he would reckon himself if he had but an interest in Christ and his righteousness, and if Christ became his Lord and his Saviour: That I may win him; as the runner wins the prize, as the sailor makes the port he is bound for. I speak of Christian love, of course. It had always been so, as the apostle gives us to learn. Unless there were long periods when he never put pen to paper there must have been many more letters which are now lost. "The prize" is "the crown of Paul had discovered that a right relationship with God is based not on Law but on faith in Jesus Christ. So these Gnostics taught that gluttony and adultery and homosexuality and drunkenness were of no importance because they affect only the body which is of no importance. The way to that fellowship is through righteousness, through the kind of life and spirit and attitude to himself which God desires. Observe, [2.] "Beware of the concision.". What is there that you can rightly plead but Christ's own name? The critical reading he owns has force and propriety; but he does "not see why . So here at the beginning he simply takes the place of servant with Timothy, owning all the saints as well as the officials in their place: "To all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons." Paul had certain people that seemed to follow him wherever he went, trying to pervert that which he taught of the grace of God, especially the Jewish legalizers who sought to bring the people back to a legal relationship with God, putting them under the law. This was now among the last outpourings of the apostle's heart, as he himself had almost arrived at the end of his active labours, if indeed it was not absolutely their end. And he said, "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus." And the righteousness is accounted to me by my faith in Him. 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