WEEK 5 ● Day 1
READ PHILIPPIANS 3:1-3
Since he was eight or nine, our son Laith has wanted to come into “big church” with us rather than going to Sunday school like his siblings. He’s a fan of learning and says he absorbs more from our pastor’s sermon than from class with the other kids. But during the summer, he’s pretty eager for church to be over. You see, in the summer, our church does Sunday night church, and we celebrate community after each service with food, games, and new and old friends. Every service, I watch Laith perk up when our pastor uses words like finally, a signal that the sermon is wrapping up. Finally means he’s almost allowed to beeline outside to eat and play.
If Laith had been part of the Philippian church, listening to this letter being read, I think he would have been frustrated at Paul’s use of finally here. We’re in chapter 3 . . . out of four. Paul says finally (Philippians 3:1) and then simply continues!
But there’s another strange shift in the beginning of this chapter. After speaking warmly to the church, urging unity and affirming humility and celebrating his friends, Paul suddenly switches his tone. In Philippians 3:2—talking in harsh terms about dogs, evildoers, and those who mutilate the flesh—he sounds a bit disgruntled, right? Where did this come from?
Some commentators believe that while writing this part of the letter, Paul received news of people creating drama and confusion within the church at Philippi. But this is where it’s important for us to look at the broader context in Scripture, because I’m not quite sure that explanation holds up.
1. Paul has been writing about Timothy and Epaphroditus, but what was he talking about before that?
Philippians 2 is all about Christ’s example of humility and being a light in the world. Paul explains that joy isn’t an individual pursuit but rather something that should be shared in unity with the body of Christ, and then he pauses to use Timothy and Epaphroditus as examples of what this joy in community looks like. Now, here in Philippians 3, he’s resuming his joy theme.
That brings us back to this word finally. In English, this is the word we’d use to wrap things up—we’d think that Paul was about to end the letter, roll it up, seal it with wax, and send it off with Epaphroditus. Yet he’s got much more to say! So maybe finally doesn’t mean what we think it means. Let’s look at the Greek for Finally my brothers (loipos ego adelphos; λοιπός ἐγώ ἀδελφός).
Many of our Bibles translate loipos (λοιπός, pronounced loi-pas) as finally, but if we look at the Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, we see loipos (λοιπός) defined in ways that make much more sense for our context: “henceforth,” “besides, moreover.”[1]
2. Use one of these words to fill in the beginning of verse 1:
______________________ my brothers,
rejoice in the Lord.
This word loipos acts as a bridge between what Paul has been teaching (about joy and living as a light) and what he is about to teach (rejoicing in the Lord). This link is important, because Paul is about to make that swerve we talked about: into the greatest threat against true joy in Christ.
3. What does he call these threats to joy?
Do you know what these descriptions signify? Opponents of the gospel. But what exactly does he mean by each of these phrases?
When Paul talks about looking out for dogs, he doesn’t mean being afraid of our cuddly pet friends and loving companions. At the time, in Paul’s culture, dogs represented everything that was repugnant and depraved. Many Jews called Gentiles “dogs,” and Paul would have done the same in his pharisaical years. But that’s not what he’s doing now. (Remember, he has Gentile brothers who are partners in the gospel!)
4. Whom is Paul referring to?
When I look at the notes in my ESV Study Bible, I find the answer: “With biting irony, Paul says that the Judaizers, not the Gentiles, deserve that label.”[2] Paul doesn’t stop there—he also calls Judaizers, those who focus on human good works through the law, “evildoers” and “those who mutilate the flesh.”
What Paul means here by mutilate the flesh is circumcision. Christianity was originally seen as a sect of Judaism, and for Jews in the early church (and Jews observing the early church), the big question was, “Are these Gentiles in this offshoot of Judaism going to live according to the law?” Paul says, “Absolutely not.” In the Jewish faith, circumcision was a sign of dedication to God, so the idea of people following God and not being circumcised would have infuriated and horrified especially pious Jews.[3]
5. Why do you think Paul is against Gentile Christ followers having to live according to Jewish law?
The Jewish faith had become focused on trying to follow all the rules in order to be right with God. But Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection showed that Jesus was the only way people could be right with God. Any other way—anything that we add on top of following Jesus—is not the gospel.
In fact, this was why Paul wrote his letter to the Galatian church. After Paul planted the church and helped this community of new believers grow, it became saturated with distorted practices in a remarkably short time. The people had abandoned the true gospel and instead started following a group of false teachers—the Judaizers. The Judaizers both bad-mouthed Paul and told the Gentile believers that they must be circumcised in order to truly be followers of Jesus. The Judaizers in Galatia claimed to follow Jesus, but they didn’t understand that Jesus came for all people. Non-Jews didn’t need to become Jewish to follow Him.
We see it again in Philippians: Paul gets super riled up when anyone spreads a false gospel. He understands that when we’re swept up in misinformation and mistruth, we cannot possibly have a right relationship with Christ—nor can we have unity within believers.
6. What false gospels (“being a Christian means following Jesus plus . . .”) do you see in our world today?
I really want you to think hard on this one. If you don’t know how to answer it, stop to pray and ponder awhile. People have been adding things to the Good News of Jesus since the time of the early church, and it’s no different today. Paul shows us here that it’s vital we pay attention to what’s false and remember what’s true.
7. What will you do to stop false gospel? How can you elevate the essential truth of the Good News in your everyday life?
Part of living for what really matters is understanding the truth of the gospel and being willing to call out mistruth within culture—or even within the Christian community. The gospel transforms lives, but adding to the gospel creates barriers to really knowing and following Jesus. Are we willing to be like Paul and stand up for the true gospel in the face of opposition?
Thank God for the gift of wisdom and discernment, and ask Him to continue developing it in you so you can keep your steps in line with Him and point others—in love—toward the right way too.
Amen.