Philippians 3 - Introduction
Preparation to conclude interrupted by a digression on false teaching, Philippians 3:1-16. What examples are to be followed, and what to be avoided, Philippians 3:17-21.... [ Continue Reading ]
Preparation to conclude interrupted by a digression on false teaching, Philippians 3:1-16. What examples are to be followed, and what to be avoided, Philippians 3:17-21.... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:1. FINALLY, literally ‘as for the rest,' a phrase which St. Paul not unfrequently employs when he is on the point of summing up in some final precepts the teaching of the previous part of an Epistle. This be appears to have intended here, but his thoughts are turned aside, and it is no... [ Continue Reading ]
_Preparation to conclude, interrupted by a digression on false teaching,_ 3-16. St. Paul has now touched on all the topics on which he is about to write to the Philippians as their special concern, and prepares for a reiteration such as is found in his other Epistles. But moved, it may be, by the pr... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:2. BEWARE OF THE DOGS. The word signifies ‘Look out,' and would rather seem to imply that these teachers were not yet at Philippi, but might come, and so the apostle bids them ‘watch.' To the Eastern mind, nothing could express greater contempt than the name ‘dog,' and there can be lit... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:3. FOR WE ARE THE CIRCUMCISION. Since he is a Jew who is one inwardly, walking after that faith of Abraham which he had while he was yet uncircumcised, and which makes him the father of the uncircumcised, who have a faith like his. When the outward sign had no accompaniment of faith, t... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:4. THOUGH I MYSELF MIGHT HAVE CONFIDENCE EVEN IN THE FLESH. If those things on which the Judaizers lay such stress were of any account, I could glory as largely as any. He mentions this that he may bring out into stronger contrast the small value (or rather no-value) which he sets on o... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:5. CIRCUMCISED THE EIGHTH DAY, thus observing the outward ordinance at the very earliest moment that the law prescribes it. The parents of such a child must have been zealous for the law, and careful that their son should be made fully a partaker of the Abrahamic covenant, OF THE STO... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:6. AS TOUCHING ZEAL, PERSECUTING THE CHURCH. The preposition rendered ‘as touching' in the previous verse occurs here three times over in close connection, and this should be indicated by the translation. ‘Beyond measure,' he says, ‘I persecuted the church of God' (Galatians 1:13), and... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:7. HOWBEIT WHAT THINGS WERE GAIN TO ME. In the days of his persecuting zeal, he like the Judaizers had counted all these distinctive marks of the pure and exclusive Jew as so many advantages. And in the original this is expressed somewhat more fully, for the word is really ‘gains,' as... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:8. YEA VERILY, AND I COUNT ALL THINGS TO BE LOSS. Now he refers to the abiding state of his mind. He made the great sacrifice at first, and as it were cast overboard all which had seemed valuable in his Jewish life, and since that he is prepared to sacrifice himself and all besides for... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:9. AND BE FOUND IN HIM. Whenever God shall make the inquiry, in allusion, most likely, to the day of Judgment. But there may also be reference made to that passing away of old things on which he is now dwelling. Thus the thought would include that of 2 Corinthians 5:17: ‘If any man be... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:10. THAT I MAY KNOW HIM. The verb ‘know,' when used in the Old and New Testament of God and Christ, has a very full sense, and implies a full comprehension of the Divine nature and will, and also of the duties and obligations which men should yield to the Deity. All this the apostle wo... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:11. IF BY ANY MEANS I MAY ATTAIN UNTO THE RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD. This is not the language of despondency, but of humility. St. Paul hopes, because he relieves in Christ; but not seldom does his low estimate of himself lead him to speak in language like this, ‘lest I myself should... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:12. NOT THAT I HAVE ALREADY OBTAINED. He has been speaking of righteousness which is God's free gift to the faithful, as distinct from that righteousness which the Jew sought by the works of the law. But lest his readers should run into the error of supposing that the righteousness of... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:13. BRETHREN, I COUNT NOT MYSELF YET TO HAVE APPREHENDED. So anxious is the apostle to avoid any seeming of confidence, that he repeats in substance the statement of the previous verse. The need for labour in the spiritual race is not ended for him, nor must it be for others. And in th... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:14. I PRESS ON TOWARDS THE GOAL. This is a consequence of the forgetting of all that is behind. Nothing is suffered to draw off the gaze from that end which is to be reached, and which, like the winning-post in a race, is kept steadily in view. Of course, as the heavenward race is a sp... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:15. LET US THEREFORE, AS MANY AS BE PERFECT. The apostle uses the word ‘perfect,' as our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount: ‘Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,' carries its own explanation on its face. The Christian is to set before himself the highest idea... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:16. ONLY, WHEREUNTO WE HAVE ALREADY ATTAINED, BY THAT SAME _RULE _ LET US WALK. The final words of this verse, in the Authorised Version, ‘Let us mind the same thing' are not supported by the oldest MSS., add nothing to the sense, and appear to be a gloss which from the margin has made... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:17. BRETHREN, BE YE IMITATORS TOGETHER OF ME. ‘Fellow-imitators' would be the literal rendering of the noun in this clause, and it intimates that the apostle desires every one of the Philippians to join in this imitation; and not only so, but to vie with one another in their zeal in do... [ Continue Reading ]
_What Examples are_ _to be followed, and what to be avoided,_ 17-21. Having set before the Philippians the necessity for walking in the light which each has, St. Paul now points them to his own life, and the lives of those who are like him, for an example. They will see other lives, against which h... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:18. FOR MANY WALK OF WHOM I HAVE TOLD YOU OFTEN. These are the men who offend in an opposite way to the Judaizers. We hear much of them in the Epistles, how in their boastfulness of superior knowledge they held themselves at liberty to indulge their fleshly appetites. Their wicked char... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:19. WHOSE END IS DESTRUCTION. And as St. Peter says (ii 3), this destruction does not slumber, it will soon come. The heresies of destruction, which they bring in, will in the end bring swift destruction upon themselves. WHOSE GOD IS THE BELLY. The apostle has spoken of such men alre... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:20. FOR OUR CITIZENSHIP IS IN HEAVEN. So those whose hearts are on the earth are to be marked and avoided. We can have no communion with such men. We must pass amongst them, while we live here, as though they were alien unto us, and we merely pilgrims and strangers in their midst. They... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 3:21. WHO SHALL FASHION ANEW THE BODY OF OUR HUMILIATION. When He appears as our Saviour, He shall change our body in all those points specified by the apostle (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). Its corruption shall become incorruption; its dishonour, glory; its weakness, power, and from natural... [ Continue Reading ]