Philippians 3:3

we are the circumcision See the previous note. For the thought, cp. especially Galatians 3:7; Galatians 3:29; Galatians 6:16; Ephesians 2:19; Colossians 2:11.

which worship God in the spirit R.V., who worship by the Spirit of God. This is based on the better-supported reading of the Greek, and should be adopted. The word "worship" is thus used without an expressed object, as Luke 2:37; Acts 26:7; (in both which places, in A.V., the word "God" is in italics). The verb here (latreuein) originally imports any sort of service, domestic or otherwise; but usage gives it in the N.T. a fixed connexion with the service of worship, and occasionally (Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 9:9; Hebrews 10:2; Hebrews 13:10) a special reference to the worship of priestly ritual. Very probably this last usage is in view here. The Judaist claimed to be the champion of the true ritual of worship, as well as of the true initiation into covenant. The Apostle replies that the spiritual Christian is as such the ideal worshipper, the priest of the true rite.

"By the Spirit of God":cp. for the phrase in St Paul, Romans 8:9; Romans 8:14; 1 Corinthians 2:10-12; 1Co 2:14; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 1Co 7:40; 1 Corinthians 12:3; 2 Corinthians 3:3. The effect of the whole work of the Blessed Spirit in the regenerate Christian was to bring him into right relations of worship with God who "is Spirit" (John 4:24); to make him a "worshipper in (the) Spirit and in truth."

and rejoice in Christ Jesus R.V., and glory &c. Better so, for the Greek is not identical with that in Philippians 1:18; Philippians 2:17-18; Philippians 2:28; Philippians 3:1; Philippians 4:4; Philippians 4:10. It means a joy emphatically triumphant; such as would find its parody in a proud and eager boastfulness(as e.g. Romans 2:23; Romans 3:27; 1 Corinthians 4:7; 2 Corinthians 5:12 &c.; Galatians 6:13; James 4:16).

What national and ritual privilege was, in his own distorted estimate, to the Judaist, that the true Messiah, the Incarnate Son of God, Christ Jesus, was to the spiritual Christian at once pedestal and crown, righteousness and life and glory.

For the thought cp. Rom 5:11; 1 Corinthians 1:31 (observe previous context); Galatians 6:14.

have no confidence in the flesh Quite lit., "not in the flesh are confident"; with the implication that we areconfident, on another and a truer ground.

"The flesh":a most important word in the distinctive teaching of St Paul. A fair popular equivalent for it would be "self," as far as that word expresses that attitude or condition of our moral being which is not subject to God's law or reliant on His grace. The "flesh" is sometimes that state, or element, of man in which sin predominates; whatever in man is not ruled and possessed by the Holy Spirit; the unsanctified intellect, the unsanctified affections. The "flesh" is sometimes, again, as here, anything other than God taken by man as his trust and strength, e.g. religious observances regarded as occasion for self-confidence. In this latter case the word "flesh" is, as here, shifted, so to speak, by a natural transition of language, from the chooser to the thing chosen.

See further on this word Romans 8:4; Ephesians 2:3; and notes in this Series. See also Dickson, On St Paul's Use of the Terms Flesh and Spirit(the Bain Lecture, 1883).

This short verse gives us one of the deepest and most inclusive descriptions of the true Christian to be found in Scripture.