August Passage: Philippians 3:1-11
Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble for me and is safe for you.
Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.
If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of know Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I might gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith
—that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection of the dead. (ESV)
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Throughout each month, we will post short articles to give some depth of understanding regarding our text (see the archive links on the lower right of this page for review). Today we will discuss...
Look Out!
One of the things we like to do in our church family is to give information in repetitive ways. The Bible does the same thing and it does so for two important reasons.
First, when you see themes over and over and over in the Scriptures, you will begin to recognize them in your own life and in the culture around you, and that helps you connect the ancient truths of the Word with the messy reality of your daily life and you understand more fully with every passing year and with every passing page how relevant the Bible is to you.
The second reason, the reason we will talk about in this article is that the Bible uses repetition to catch our attention to particularly important information.
We see repetition in the Psalms where One repetitive truth is unpacked in-between verses about that truth (Study Psalm 136 or 150 for good examples).
In the book of Isaiah, we see the angels trying to catch our attention with a three-time announcement of the most important truth — The HOLY, HOLY, HOLY nature of the Lord God Almighty.
Our Lord Jesus often taught key truths with the introduction, “Truly, Truly I say to you…” If a person nearby hadn’t been paying attention before, Jesus announced with the double “truly” that it was time to focus in.
In the same way, Paul uses repetition to pull us into his next point, and this point - understood and believed - could be the difference of your eternal existence being in Heaven or Hell, with Jesus or without him.
“LOOK OUT!” Paul says it three times. Wake Up! LISTEN!
Look Out for What? For Whom?
“Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.”
Paul isn’t talking about three different groups, he’s describing one group who are evil-doing dogs, who mutilate the flesh. While this may not be a familiar group for you, in the time Paul was writing, he was likely warning the Philippians about a well known group called the Judaizers. We see evidence of this group in the book of Acts:
But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”
The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
(Acts 15:1-11 ESV)
The Judaizers were a group within the early church, many who came from the old group of Pharisees, who, though they had accepted that Jesus was truly the Messiah, they couldn’t help but hold onto some notion that salvation was a “Jesus + Works” equation. And, goodness knows, from the Pharisees track record, they loved rules so much that they were going to do their best to force the rules on other people, too.
So they would come into town just as Paul is starting to get some Gospel traction and they’d upset the new church saying, “Yes, Jesus is great. But, you also have to fall in line with all the ceremonial laws in the Hebrew Scriptures. Eat this way… Dress this way… And, also…You’ve got to be circumcised.”
That’s why Paul calls them “those who mutilate the flesh.” It wasn’t a problem with the physical act of circumcision. It was that they were teaching that salvation ONLY comes through faith AND that physical act. LOOK OUT!
Look Out when ever ANYONE comes in and says, you’ve got to believe in Jesus PLUS do _______, in order to be saved. They will make you into twice the son of Hell if you fall for that.
There is plenty of truth that once you ARE SAVED by FAITH ALONE, THEN you will do GOOD WORKS. That’s the growth in the Gospel that gives every Christian assurance that they are on the right track. But the moment you mix up the order of Good Works FOR salvation instead of the truth of Good Works BECAUSE OF Salvation, then you are on a collision course of rebellion against God.
That’s true, whether you are a Roman Catholic who thinks you MUST confess to a priest, be baptized and have last rights said over you to get to heaven. But, it’s also true if you are an evangelical who thinks you must give a certain amount of money to the church, or vote for a particular party, or read a particular translation of the Bible, or wear certain clothes, or do a certain number of good deeds each day, or avoid particular people, or follow any number of other man-made rules - in order to be a “real” Christian.
Paul says LOOK OUT, because we are all prone to fall for this line of thinking. Peter, who defended Paul against the Judaizers in Acts 15, had to be confronted by Paul later because Peter fell into the same trap of stone dead legalism and favoritism that he fought against before.
We are all prone to drift if we don’t stay on guard and protect ourselves and one another with the Powerful and life-giving Word of God.
Our indwelling sinful hearts always want to make a way for ourselves to be saved. Sometimes that is because we don’t believe God would save us, sometimes because we don’t believe God could save us and unfortunately, sometimes because we want to win the comparison contest between ourselves and others.
The cross makes it clear that God can and will save everyone who will put their trust in Christ alone for their salvation. The cross also makes it clear that there is no comparison contest. We are ALL equally sinful and in need of rescue.
So, we are the circumcision (the ones who have the circumcision of the heart - a WORK done by Jesus), who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”
So, when you think you still need to perform, or DO more in order to be loved by God, then LOOK OUT! Those dogs are still out there and they want to drag you down with them.
As someone has said, The Gospel is not about what we DO. The Gospel is about what Jesus has DONE.
As Jesus said, “It is finished.”
Find your rest in Him.
