Philippians 3

"Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord" (3:1). Paul calls them brothers, but he means all the believers, women and men. He doesn't mind repeating himself, he says. It keeps them safe.

Then comes a sudden, sharp warning. "Watch out for those dogs, those workers of evil, those mutilators of the flesh!" (3:2).

Most readers think Paul means certain teachers. They said that believers who were not Jewish had to be circumcised to belong to God's people. Circumcision was the sign God gave to Abraham's family, made on the body of each baby boy (Genesis 17:10-12).

Paul uses harsh words. Calling someone a dog was an insult. "Mutilators" is a harsh play on the word circumcision. Paul was Jewish himself. He is not arguing against Jewish people. He is arguing against trusting anything besides Christ to make you right with God.

"For it is we who are the circumcision" (3:3), Paul says. Paul is Jewish, and he includes himself in this "we" together with the believers who are not Jewish. "We" means everyone who worships by God's Spirit and boasts in Christ Jesus. They put no confidence in "the flesh" (3:3). Here, the flesh means what a person can show or do on their own.

If anyone could trust in those things, Paul says, it would be him. Then he lists them. He was circumcised on the eighth day, born an Israelite, from the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews. As for God's law, he was a Pharisee. He was so zealous that he attacked the church. By the law's standard, he did everything right.

A Pharisee was part of a Jewish group devoted to carefully keeping God's law.

"But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ" (3:7).

More than that, Paul counts everything as loss next to "the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (3:8). He has lost all things for Christ. He calls them rubbish.

Why? He wants to be found in Christ. He doesn't want a righteousness of his own, from keeping the law. He wants "the righteousness from God on the basis of faith" (3:9). Righteousness means being right with God. God gives it through Jesus.

Paul wants to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. He wants to share in Christ's sufferings and become like him in his death. He hopes that somehow he will share in the resurrection from the dead.

Paul doesn't say he has already arrived. He isn't perfect yet. "But I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me" (3:12).

Notice who moved first. Christ took hold of Paul. Now Paul reaches for Christ.

"But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God's heavenly calling in Christ Jesus" (3:13-14).

This is a comparison. Paul is like a runner in a race. He doesn't look back. He leans toward the finish line.

Everyone who is mature in faith should think this way, Paul says. If they see some things differently, God will make that clear to them too. In the meantime, they should live up to what they already have.

Paul asks them to join together in following his example. They should watch the people who live the way he and his coworkers showed them.

Then he writes with tears. Many people live "as enemies of the cross of Christ" (3:18). They are headed for ruin. "Their god is their belly" (3:19). They are proud of what should make them ashamed. They only think about earthly things.

"Their god is their belly" is a picture. It means they serve their own appetites.

Then Paul gives the other side. "But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ" (3:20).

Philippi was a Roman colony. Its people were proud to be Roman citizens, even far from Rome. Paul says believers belong to a greater homeland.

When Jesus comes, he will change our weak bodies to be like his glorious body. He has the power to bring everything under his rule.