Philippians 3:17-21
Notes
Transcript
Philippians 3:15–21 “Therefore let those of us who are “perfect” embrace this point of view. If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways. Nevertheless, let us live up to the standard that we have already attained. Be imitators of me, brothers and sisters, and watch carefully those who are living this way, just as you have us as an example. For many live, about whom I have often told you, and now, with tears, I tell you that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, they exult in their shame, and they think about earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven—and we also await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform these humble bodies of ours into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to himself.”
INTRODUCTION
Animal Farm: Written by Orwell in 1945 to describe the rise of the Soviet Union. The book describes animals on a Farm who overthrow their oppressive farmers and take control of the farm. The pigs find themselves being the ringleaders, but over time start to resemble the humans. Eventually, because they were chasing after the wrong thing, they became the thing they set out to fix. They became the problem.
Philippians 3
Philippians 3
Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! To write this again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.
Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, exult in Christ Jesus, and do not rely on human credentials —though mine, too, are significant. If someone thinks he has good reasons to put confidence in human credentials, I have more: I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I lived according to the law as a Pharisee. In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless. But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ. More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things—indeed, I regard them as dung!—that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness—a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness. My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already attained this—that is, I have not already been perfected—but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let those of us who are “perfect” embrace this point of view. If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways. Nevertheless, let us live up to the standard that we have already attained.
Be imitators of me, brothers and sisters, and watch carefully those who are living this way, just as you have us as an example. For many live, about whom I have often told you, and now, with tears, I tell you that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, they exult in their shame, and they think about earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven—and we also await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform these humble bodies of ours into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to himself.
There are two groups represented in this chapter, who both bookend the chapter
Verse 2, the “Mutilators, the Dogs” is describing the Judiazers, the circumcizers, who wanted the gentiles to adhere to the entire law of Moses
Verse 18 We’re introduced to another group who are “enemies of the Cross of Christ” who “exult in their shame, and God is the belly
God is the Belly: Eat drink and be merry, do whatever feels good
Exult in their shame: As opposed to Adam and eve who were “naked and ashamed” this group is “naked and proud of it”
The second group is the polar opposite of the first
The Judiazers, who were almost certainly Pharisees, wanted total adherence to the law. They would even make up even more strict laws to keep God’s law from being broken
Like a Speed limit set at 30, and people keep speeding, so you go out there with a radar gun and if anybody is going over 15 you spike their tires.
Paul is familiar with them, because he was one of them. According to the law “blameless”
Gnostics
In the first century, an offshoot of Christianity appeared, believed some strange things about the church and thebible and Jesus
Among these was the belief that there was no judgement from God whatsoever. All is forgiven means you are free now to do whatever you want, however you want, with whomever you want just so long as you believe in Jesus .
The Church is being tugged at by either of these extremes, and Paul is trying to keep the church intact
How did we get the Pharisees?
The people of Israel were punished by god in the Old testament because they weren’t obeying anything god said.
Worshipping other Gods
Child Sacrifice
Not keeping the law
The list goes on and on, they flat out were being extremely disobedient
God punished them and sent them into exile because of this
The Pharisees thought: If god punished us because we were disobedient all we need to do is be extremely obedient and god will rescue us
To the point where it got oppressive
to the point where the power of enforcing the law became the driving factor, rather than a desire to do what god asks.
Jesus comes along, they kill him,because you can’t have a guy like that upsetting our power structure
The followers of Jesus say that he rose from the dead, but of course the Pharisaic Jews don’t believe that
I don’t know whether or not these Judiazers actually believed Jesus rose from the dead. If they would have I think they would have had an entirely different outlook.
I think they saw what was happening in the synagogues, and all of these Gentiles were reading the torah, and hanging out with Jews and worshipping the God of Israel. They might have even thought
“wow, our obedience worked” now let’s enforce it on the gentiles too.
Paul rejects their claims, he says no, you’re not saved by your works, you’re saved through the faith of Christ, through your faith in christ
The Gnostics:
The pendulum starts to swing back the other way, and the Gnostics start to take hold
they’re libertine, and believe you can do whatever you want and as long
It’s the same thing we’re dealing with in the church today
Τελεοω
VERSE 15 explained
VERSE 17
Should we say this in the church today?
If we have the mindset that we are so mature and we’re so amazing, and yes you should imitate me, then no.
If our mindset is like Paul’s where we say “all my achievements, they’re garbage. I don’t care about them Imitate me in loving Jesus and wanting to know Jesus, then yes.
If our mindset is like Paul’s where he openly says “I’m not τελεοω” Don’t follow me because of what I do, follow me because of who I follow
It’s our duty as Christians to live such a life for Christ that other people can’t help but notice and want to imitate.
VERSE 18-19
These are people who’s answer to the legalism is to do whatever makes them feel good.
TALK ABOUT THIS
END WITH: Because here is the entire point of Paul’s message here in Chapter 3 that he so beautifully sums up in the next two verses:
Whatever it is that you put your faith and trust in, That is going to be the thing you chase after.
Whatever you chase after, that’s going to be the thing you try to imitate
whatever you imitate, whatever you chase, whatever you put your trust in
That is what you will become.
The Circumcizers put their trust in the flesh, in human credentials, they chased after things of the flesh, and that is what they became, they became mutilators
The second group chased after whatever made them feel good. Presumably they chased after gluttony, and sensations and sex and pleasure and made their god the belly.
Their end. Which by the way the word “end” here is the exact same word we talked about, teleoo
Their end is destruction.
But the underlying problem is not chasing after extreme obedience, and not chasing after desires and lust and all of that
Those are symptoms of a much deeper problem: What do you put your trust in?
But our citizenship is in heaven—and we also await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who will transform these humble bodies of ours into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to himself.
Are you subjected to Christ?