though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he has confidence in the flesh, I yet more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.
However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ. Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you. Nevertheless, to the extent that we have already attained, let’s walk by the same rule. Let’s be of the same mind.
Brothers, be imitators together of me, and note those who walk this way, even as you have us for an example.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17 4 Though I might also He does not speak…
4 Though I might also He does not speak of the disposition exercised by him, but he intimates, that he has also ground of glorying, if he were inclined to imitate their folly. The meaning therefore is, “My glorying, indeed, is placed in Christ, but, were it warrantable to glory in the flesh, I have also no want of materials.” And from this we learn in what manner to reprove the arrogance of those who glory in something apart from Christ. If we are ourselves in possession of those very things in which they glory, let us not allow them to triumph over Christ by an unseemly boasting, without retorting upon them also our grounds of glorying, that they may understand that it is not through envy that we reckon of no value, nay, even voluntarily renounce those things on which they set the highest value. Let, however, the conclusion be always of this nature — that all confidence in the flesh is vain and preposterous.
If any one has confidence in the flesh, I more Not satisfied with putting himself on a level with any one of them, he even gives himself the preference to them. Hence he cannot on this account be suspected, as though he were envious of their excellence, and extolled Christ with the view of making his own deficiencies appear the less inconsiderable. He says, therefore, that, if it were coming to be matter of dispute, he would be superior to others. For they had nothing (as we shall see erelong) that he had not on his part equally with them, while in some things he greatly excelled them. He says, not using the term in its strict sense, that he has confidence in the flesh, on the ground that, while not placing confidence in them, he was furnished with those grounds of fleshly glorying, on account of which they were puffed up.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15 He doubteth not to prefer himself even according to…
He doubteth not to prefer himself even according to the flesh, before those perverse hote urgers of the Law, that all men may know that he doth with good judgment of mind, lightly esteem all those outward things: forsomuch as he lacketh nothing which hath Christ, nay, the confidence of our works cannot stand with the free justification in Christ by faith.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv4–17 4 Though I might also have confidence in the…
4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
Ver. 4. Confidence in the flesh] That is, in external privileges, which yet profit not those that rest in them. An empty title yields but an empty comfort at last. God cares for no retainers, that only wear his livery but serve themselves. A man may go to hell with baptismal water on his face; yea, the sooner for his abused privileges.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv4–17 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh:…
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh: to prevent any cavil about what he said, as if he did magnify Christ, and forbear glorying in those external privileges they did so much bear themselves upon, out of envy to them for what they had; he here argues upon supposition, (as elsewhere, to cut off occasion from boasters, 2Co 11:12,18,21,22), that, if it were lawful, and would turn to any good account, to confide in the flesh, he had the same ground the impostors had, and might build up that in himself which he had destroyed in others, Gal 2:18.
If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: yea, and to compare things by a just balance, if any of those he had justly taxed, or any other in conceit might hold his head higher in that way, he could produce not only as much, but much more ground of trust in those external rites, &c. as he that was most excellent; only that it was in vain, and of no value, Phi 3:7.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 17 As if our apostle had said, "Let no man…
As if our apostle had said, "Let no man think that I undervalue the Jewish privileges, because I want them; show me ever a judaizing teacher of them all that can pretend to more, or so many of them, as myself; so that, were this a ground of confidence, I can vie with any one of them in carnal privileges, Jewish prerogatives, and outward performances; yea, I can boast of as much self-righteousness as the best of them, and beyond them all: for I was circumcised, and had the seal of the covenant applied to me, yea, I was circumcised the eighth day, the very day prescribed by the law; the Jews maintaining that circumcision before the eighth day was no circumcision, and after the eighth day was of less value.
Of the stock of Israel; one of that nation which God set apart for himself, when he rejected all the nations of the earth beside.
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Of the tribe of Benjamin; of a noble tribe, as well as descended of an honourable people; a tribe which kept close to God, when other tribes revolted to the worship of Jeroboam’s calves; a tribe honoured with the first of Israel’s kings, king Saul. An Hebrew of the Hebrews; that is, born a Jew both by father’s side and mother’s side.
As touching the law, a Pharisee; that is, as touching the interpretation and observation of the law, a Pharisee, or one of the strictest sects among the Jews for the profession of religion.
Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; that is, as touching zeal for the Jewish religion, I have showed that above others, in my fury and furious pesecution of the church of Christ; I was active, according as my judgment and conscience directed me.
And as touching the righteousness which was in and by the law, (that is, as to my personal obedience unto the law,) I was blameless, without spot, as the original word signifies; that is, in my own account, and in man’s esteem, my conversation not stained with any gross sin, but very exact in my deportment and behaviour, living up to my knowledge, my practice corresponding with my profession."
Behold here a man that had a large stock of Jewish privileges and prerogatives; all these grounds of confidence the apostle had before his conversion; and he might have rested there, and have gloried and confided therein, as well as the judiazing doctors did, who gloried in their external privileges; but how far St. Paul was from this spirit and temper, the next verses inform us.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv4, 9, 15, 17 The apostle here proposes himself for an example of…
The apostle here proposes himself for an example of trusting in Christ only, and not in his privileges as an Israelite.
I. He shows what he had to boast of as a Jew and a Pharisee. Let none think that the apostle despised these things (as men commonly do) because he had them not himself to glory in. No, if he would have gloried and trusted in the flesh, he had as much cause to do so as any man: If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof to trust in the flesh, I more, Phi 3:4. He had as much to boast of as any Jew of them all. 1. His birth-right privileges. He was not a proselyte, but a native Israelite: of the stock of Israel. And he was of the tribe of Benjamin, in which tribe the temple stood, and which adhered to Judah when all the other tribes revolted. Benjamin was the father's darling, and this was a favourite tribe. A Hebrew of the Hebrews, an Israelite on both sides, by father and mother, and from one generation to another; none of his ancestors had matched with Gentiles. 2. He could boast of his relations to the church and the covenant, for he was circumcised the eighth day; he had the token of God's covenant in his flesh, and was circumcised the very day which God had appointed. 3. For learning, he was a Pharisee, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, an eminent doctor of the law: and was a scholar learned in all the learning of the Jews, taught according to the perfect manner of the laws of the fathers, Act 22:3. He was a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee (Act 23:6), and after the most strict sect of his religion lived a Pharisee, Act 26:5. 4. He had a blameless conversation: Toughing the righteousness which is of the law, blameless: as far as the Pharisees' exposition of the law went, and as to the mere letter of the law and outward observance of it, he could acquit himself from the breach of it and could not be accused by any. 5. He had been an active man for his religion. As he made a strict profession of it, under the title and character of a Pharisee, so he persecuted those whom he looked upon as enemies to it. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. 6. He showed that he was in good earnest, though he had a zeal without knowledge to direct and govern the exercise of it: I was zealous towards God, as you all are this day, and I persecuted this way unto the death, Act 22:3, Act 22:4. All this was enough to have made a proud Jew confident, and was stock sufficient to set up with for his justification. But,
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II. The apostle tells us here how little account he made of these, in comparison of his interest in Christ and his expectations from him: But what things were gain to me those have I counted loss for Christ (Phi 3:7); that is, those things which he had counted gain while he was a Pharisee, and which he had before reckoned up, these he counted loss for Christ. "I should have reckoned myself an unspeakable loser of, to adhere to them, I had lost my interest in Jesus Christ." He counted them loss; not only insufficient to enrich him, but what would certainly impoverish and ruin him, if he trusted to them, in opposition to Christ. Observe, The apostle did not persuade them to do any thing but what he had himself did, to quit any thing but what he had himself quitted, nor venture on any bottom but what he himself had ventured his immortal soul upon. - Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, Phi 3:8. Here the apostle explains himself. 1. He tells us what it was that he was ambitious of and reached after: it was the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord, a believing experimental acquaintance with Christ as Lord; not a merely notional and speculative, but a practical and efficacious knowledge of him. So knowledge is sometimes put for faith: By his knowledge, or the knowledge of him, shall my righteous servant justify many, Isa 53:11. And it is the excellency of knowledge. There is an abundant and transcendent excellency in the doctrine of Christ, or the Christian religion above all the knowledge of nature, and improvements of human wisdom; for it is suited to the case of fallen sinners, and furnishes them with all they need and all they can desire and hope for, with all saving wisdom and saving grace. 2. He shows how he had quitted his privileges as a Jew and a Pharisee: Yea doubtless; his expression rises with a holy triumph and elevation, alla men oun ge kai. There are five particles in the original: But indeed even also do I count all things but loss. He had spoken before of those things, his Jewish privileges: here he speaks of all things, all worldly enjoyments and mere outward privileges whatsoever, things of a like kind or any other kind which could stand in competition with Christ for the throne in his heart, or pretend to merit and desert. There he had said that he did count them but loss; but it might be asked, "Did he continue still in the same mind, did he not repent his renouncing them?" No, now he speaks in the present tense: Yea doubtless, I do count them but loss. But it may be said, "It is easy to say so; but what would he do when he came to the trial?" Why he tells us that he had himself practised according to this estimate of the case: For whom I have suffered the loss of all things. He had quitted all his honours and advantages, as a Jew and a Pharisee, and submitted to all the disgrace and suffering which attended the profession and preaching of the gospel. When he embarked in the bottom of the Christian religion, he ventured all in it, and suffered the loss of all for the privileges of a Christian. Nay, he not only counted them loss, but dung, skubala - offals thrown to dogs; they are not only less valuable than Christ, but in the highest degree contemptible, when they come in competition with him. Note, The New Testament never speaks of saving grace in any terms of diminution, but on the contrary represents it as the fruits of the divine Spirit and the image of God in the soul of man; as a divine nature, and the seed of God: and faith is called precious faith; and meekness is in the sight of God of great price, Pe1 3:4; Pe2 1:1, etc.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv4–17 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh,....…
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh,.... This he says, lest it should be objected to him, that the reason why he had no confidence in the flesh, and did not boast of it, was, because he could not; he had nothing to glory of, and put his confidence in, and therefore acted the common part of such persons, who despise what either they have not, or are ignorant of: but this was not the apostle's case, he had as much reason, and as good a foundation for trust in himself, his privileges and attainments, as any man had, and more; and his meaning here is not, that he might lawfully have confidence in the flesh, for that is criminal in every one, but that he had as good pretensions to it; and were it lawful, might with greater appearance of truth do it than some other persons, or indeed any other:
if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: the sense is, if there were any other person besides the false teachers he speaks of in Phi 3:2; that were of the judaizing sect, or any whatever of the Jewish nation, be he who he will, who thought within himself he had, or seemed to others to have (for all such confidence, and the grounds of it, are only in show and appearance, and in imagination, not in reality), reasons for boasting and trusting in himself and in his carnal privileges and performances, the apostle had more, and which he enumerates in Phi 3:5; not but that he might be exceeded by some in some one particular or another; as for instance, he was not of the tribe of Levi: nor of Judah; he was neither of the house of Aaron, nor of David; neither of the priestly line, nor of the blood royal; but taking all together, there was not a man in whom so many reasons met, for boasting and confidence in the flesh, as in himself.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv4–17 Though I - He subjoins this in the singular…
Though I - He subjoins this in the singular number, because the Philippians could not say thus.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv4–17 Verse 4. Though I might also have confidence] If…
Verse 4. Though I might also have confidence] If any of them have any cause to boast in outward rites and privileges, I have as much; yea, more.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv4, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 15, 17 Php 3:4-5. Though I — Above many others; might…
Php 3:4-5. Though I — Above many others; might have confidence in the flesh — That is, I have such pretences for that confidence as many, even Jews, have not. He says I, in the singular number, because the Philippian believers, being of Gentile race, could not speak in that manner. If any other man — Gentile or Jew, private Christian or public teacher; thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh — That he has cause for so doing; I more — I have more reason to think so than he. See 2Co 11:18-22. Circumcised the eighth day — Not at ripe age, as a proselyte, but born among God’s peculiar people, and dedicated to him from my infancy, being solemnly admitted into the visible church, according to his ordinance, in the most regular and pure way. It is certain the Jews did not only lay a great deal of stress on the ceremony of circumcision, but on the time of performing it; affirming, that circumcision before the eighth day was no circumcision; and after that time of less value. Hence they thought it necessary to circumcise a child on the sabbath day, when that day was the eighth from its birth, (though all manner of work was forbidden on that day,) rather than defer performing the rite to a day beyond that time, Joh 7:22; and made it a rule that the rest of the sabbath must give place to circumcision. And this opinion, as it agrees with the text, Gen 17:12, so it seems to have obtained long before our Lord’s time; for the Septuagint and the Samaritan version read Gen 17:14 thus: “The uncircumcised male, who is not circumcised the eighth day, shall be cut off: he hath broken my covenant.” Of the stock of Israel — Not the son of a proselyte, nor of the race of the Ishmaelites or Edomites; of the tribe of Benjamin — In which Jerusalem and the temple stood, and who kept close to God and his worship when the ten tribes revolted, and fell off to idolatry; a tribe descended from the wife of the patriarch Jacob; and on that account, as Theodoret has observed, more honourable than the four tribes descended from Bilhah and Zilpah, the handmaids; a Hebrew of the Hebrews — Descended, by both father and mother, from Abraham’s race, without any mixture of foreign blood. “The Jews who lived among the Greeks, and who spake their language, were called Hellenists, Act 6:1; Act 9:29; Act 11:20. Many of these were descended from parents, one of whom only was a Jew. Of this sort was Timothy, Act 16:1. But those who were born in Judea, of parents rightly descended from Abraham, and who, receiving their education in Judea, spake the language of their forefathers, and were thoroughly instructed in the laws and learning of the Jews, were reckoned more honourable than the Hellenists; and to mark the excellence of their lineage, education, and language, they were called Hebrews; a name the most ancient, and therefore the most honourable, of all names borne by Abraham’s descendants. A Hebrew, therefore, possessing the character and qualifications above described, was a more honourable appellation than an Israelite, as that name marked no more but one’s being a member of the commonwealth of Israel; which a Jew might be, though born and bred in a foreign country.” — Macknight. As touching the law, a Pharisee — One of that sect who most accurately observe it, and maintain many of those great truths of religion which the Sadducees and some others reject.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv4–17 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh…
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh - That is, though I had uncommon advantages of this kind; and if anyone could have trusted in them, I could have done it. The object of the apostle is to show that he did not despise those things because he did not possess them, but because he now saw that they were of no value in the great matter of salvation. Once he had confided in them, and if anyone could find any ground of reliance on them, he could have found more than any of them. But he had seen that all these things were valueless in regard to the salvation of the soul. We may remark here, that Christians do not despise or disregard advantages of birth, or amiableness of manners, or external morality, because they do not possess them - but because they regard them as insufficient to secure their salvation. They who have been most amiable and moral before their conversion will speak in the most decided manner of the insufficiency of these things for salvation, and of the danger of relying on them. They have once tried it, and they now see that their feet were standing on a slippery rock. The Greek here is, literally: “although I (was) having confidence in the flesh.” The meaning is, that he had every ground of confidence in the flesh which anyone could have, and that if there was any advantage for salvation to be derived from birth, and blood, and external conformity to the law, he possessed it. He had more to rely on than most other people had; nay, he could have boasted of advantages of this sort which could not be found united in any other individual. What those advantages were, he proceeds to specify.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17 If any other thinketh he may have confidence in…
If any other thinketh he may have confidence in the flesh, in being of the Jewish race and of their religion, I more; i.e. I have greater reasons to glory than they have, being circumcised of the stock of Israel, &c. --- But what things, &c. as soon as I was miraculously called to the knowledge and faith of Christ. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v17 (2). The destiny of false Christians in contrast with…
(2). The destiny of false Christians in contrast with that of true believers
( Php_3:17 to Php_4:1)
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17Brethren, be followers together of me [become imitators of me] and mark them 18who walk so as ye have us for an ensample. For many walk, of whom I (have) told you often, and [but] now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ; 19whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. 820For our conversation [citizenship 21] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the [a] Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall [will] change [transform] our vile body [the body of our humiliation], that it may be fashioned like9 unto his glorious body [the body of his glory], according to the working whereby he is able even [also] to subdue all Php_4:1 things unto himself.10 Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Php_3:17. Brethren, become imitators of me, συμμιμηταί μου γίνεσθε, ἀδελφοί. 1Co_4:16 : μιμηταί μου γίνεσθε. They are to look to the Apostle, to follow him, with him to act on the principle of following the light which they have (τῷ αὐτῷ στοιχεῖν, Php_3:16). This result is not achieved at once, but by degrees (hence γίνεσθε, ‘become’). The συν refers to the Apostle’s associates, as is evident from what immediately follows (Theophylact: συγκολλᾷ αὐτοὺς τοῖς καλῶς περιπατοῦσιν). [The “associates” are those whom the Apostle would have the Philippians to imitate, together with himself (τύπον ἡμᾶς); and the import of συν more naturally is=‘be ye all a company of imitators’ (Ellicott).—H]. Hence it is not: una cum Paulo (Bengel), omnes uno consensu et una mente (Calvin), or superfluous (Heinrichs). Brethren, ἀδελφοί, indicates the fervor of the appeal.—And mark them who walk so, (καὶ σκοπεῖτε τοὺς οὕτως περιπατοῦντες) associates others with Paul, who are models for the church, since they walk as he does.—As ye have us for an ensample (καθὼς ἐχετε τύπον ἡμᾶς) embraces Paul and those who walk like him. Ἡμᾶς is thus neither Paul alone, especially as it stands after μου, while besides, we should have in that case ἐχουσιν, instead of ἔχετε, nor Paul and Timothy (Schenkel), nor Paul and all approved Christians (Matthies), nor ut ego meique socii (Van Hengel). The singular (τύπον) is found not only where one is spoken of (1Ti_4:12; Tit_2:7), but also in regard to a plurality (1Th_1:7; 2Th_3:9). In 1Pe_5:3 τύποι occurs where several are meant. The singular here indicates that they all present the same image, belong to the same category. In καθώς lies unquestionably an argumentative force=‘in the measure’ (Meyer).
Php_3:18. The Apostle confirms his exhortation by two contrasts (Php_3:18-21).—For many walk (πολλοὶ γὰρ περιπατοῦσιν), since there are many wicked persons who strive to lead others astray, consider us, not them. [They should heed his expostulations the more because there were so many (πολλοί) whom they could not safely imitate. “The persons here meant are not the Judaizing teachers, but the anti-Roman reactionists. This view is borne out by the parallel expression, Rom_16:18 : τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν Χριστῳ οὐ δουλευουσιν ἀλλὰ τῇ ἑαυτῶν κοιλίᾳ, where the same persons seem to be intended; for they are described as creating divisions and offences (Rom_3:17), as holding plausible language (Rom_3:18), as professing to be wise beyond others (Rom_3:19), and yet not innocent in their wisdom: this last reproach being implied in the words θέλω δὲ ἡμᾶς σοφοὺς εἶναι εἰς τὸ ἀγαθόν, ἀκεραίους δὲ εἰς τὸ κακόν. They appear therefore to belong to the same party to which the passages Rom_6:1-23; Rom_14:1 to Rom_15:6, of that epistle are chiefly addressed. For the profession of “wisdom” in these faithless disciples of St. Paul, see 1Co_1:17 sqq.; 1Co_4:18 sqq.; 1Co_8:1 sqq.; 1Co_10:15” (Lightfoot). See the remarks on Php_3:18.—H]. Περιπατεῖν is not neutral here as in 1Pe_5:8, circulantur (Heinrichs), ‘go about’ (Meyer). It could not stand absolutely after οὕτως περιπατοῦντες. Paul wishes to describe more closely the moral walk of those in question, but he is led away from the adverbial construction by the first relative clause, and proceeds in relative clauses to speak of the end, motive, and character of this walk. Hence neither κακῶς (Œcumen.) nor longe aliter (Grotius), is to be supplied, nor is the concluding limitation (οἱ τὰ ἐπίγεια φρονοῦντες) to be joined with the verb to relieve the difficulty (Calvin); nor are we to assume that since περιπατοῦσιν in itself needs no qualifying term, the sentence proceeds with entire correctness with the subjoined limitations of the subject (Meyer). Those, whose example the Philippians should shun (πολλοί) are according to the entire description members of the church, not false teachers, as in Php_3:2; at the most they are those who, led astray by such teachers, have become in turn corrupters of others.—Of whom I told you often, but now tell you even weeping, (οὓς πολλάκις ἕλεγον ὑμῖν, νῦν δὲ καὶ κλαίων λέγω.) [The imperf. shows the habit=“was accustomed to speak of.” This is an instance of Paul’s repeating in his letter what he had said in person when he was among the Philippians. See the remarks on Php_3:1. The Apostle in this passage, refers evidently to his former warnings, when he was at Philippi.—H]. To understand the remark of passages in the letter itself (Php_3:2; Php_1:15), is untenable; for these here are different persons from those referred to in the passages mentioned. To πολλοί corresponds πολλάκις. Why he now weeping repeats that which he had formerly said without tears, is well explained by Chrysostom, ὅτι ἐπέτεινε τὸ κακόν. [The evil in the meantime had become more serious.—H]. He writes with deeper emotion, with streaming eyes.—That they are the enemies of the cross of Christ (τοὺς ἐχθροὺς τοῦ σταυροῦ τοῦ Χριστοῦ) we are to join with οὓς έλεγον. [On this construction see Winer’s Gram., p. 530.—H]. Paul thus designates those to whom the cross is an offence or foolishness; formerly they may have been Jews or heathen, but now they are Christians, who wish to know nothing of the “fellowship of Christ’s sufferings,” (κοινωνία τῶν παθημάτων Χριστοῦ, Php_3:10), to whom the ‘sufferings of Christ’ (παθήματα τοῦ Χριστοῦ, 2Co_1:5) are offensive, who are not willing to suffer with Him, (συμπάσχειν, Rom_8:17), nor allow the world to be crucified to them and themselves to the world (Gal_6:14), nor crucify their flesh together with its lusts and desires (Gal_5:24). The Apostle is speaking of immorality of life, ethical errors, while Php_3:19 (ω̇͂ν ὁ θεὀς ἡ κοιλία) indicates an Epicurean, careless life (ἐν ἀνέσει ζῶντες καὶ τρυφῇ, Chrysostom). No reference is made to their doctrine of the cross (Theodoret); or even to theoretical errors, or intellectual misconceptions. The reference is not to those who are not Christians (Rilliet) or hostes evangelii (Calvin).
Php_3:19. Whose end is destruction (ω̇͂ν τὸ τέλος ἀπολεία) is first mentioned. Hoc ponitur ante alia, quo majore cum horrore hsæ legantur; in fine videbitur. Finis, ad quem cujusvis rationes tendunt, ostendit sane, quæ sit ejus conditio (Bengel). Ἀπωλεία, the opposite of σωτηρία (Php_1:26) is passive. Bengel incorrectly regards salvator as the equivalent term, and Heinrichs takes the meaning to be: their end is to destroy Christianity. The end is described by τὸ τέλος (2Co_11:12-15) as their own peculiar, appointed end.—Whose God is their belly, (ω̇͂ν ὁ θεὸς ἡ κοιλία). The belly is termed their God, as being their highest concern, the master whom they serve (Rom_16:18). Κοιλία from κοῖλος, cavus, is venter (Mat_15:17; Mar_7:19; Luk_15:16) uterus (Luk_1:41; Luk_1:44; Luk_2:21; Joh_3:4; Mat_19:12), and also intirma hominis (Joh_7:38). It embraces here the organs of sensual desire and of gluttony, not excluding licentiousness, nor referring exclusively to it: so that this passage comprehends more than 1Co_15:32.—And whose glory is in their shame (καὶ ἡ δόξα ἐν τῇ αἰσχύνῃ αὐτῶν). Καί takes the place of ω̇͂ν. Ἡ δόξα signifies the honor and glory which belong peculiarly to them; that which they conceive to be glory, but which is actually and truly their shame, and will in the end prove to be such. Bengel well remarks: Deus et gloria ponuntur ut parallela. Sic venter et pudor sunt affinia. Id colunt isti, cujus ipsos maxime pudere debebat et suo tempore pudebit misere. But there is no reference to circumcision, the genitals (Bengel, et al.) It is not intimated that they have perverted Christian truth to palliate their moral laxity (Wiesinger).—Who mind earthly things. The individualizing article οἱ introduces the comprehensive characteristic: τὰ ἐπίγεια φρονοῦντες. The nominative is the logical subject (Meyer), and it is not vocative (Winer’s Gram., p. 183).
Php_3:20. For our citizenship is in heaven (ἡμῶν γὰρ τὸ πολίτευμα ἐν οὐρανοῖς ὑπόρχει). The confirmatory sentence (γάρ) points back like Php_3:18-19, to Php_3:17, and states why the Philippians should look to Paul and to those who walk as he does (ἡμῶν as in Php_3:17 ἡμᾶς). [Their souls are mundane and grovelling. They have no fellowship with us; for we are citizens of a heavenly commonwealth. The emphatic position of ἡμῶν contrasts the false adherents of St. Paul with the true (Lightfoot). On the state of the text see the notes.—H.] Πολίτευμα, found only here, in the N. T., denotes according to its termination and its derivation (from πολιτεύεσθαι Php_1:27) citizenship, commonwealth, the rank and rights of a citizen. Comp. πολιτείαν ταύτην ἐκτησάμην, Act_22:28. True Christians have nothing to do with an earthly possession and existence simply, but are citizens of the heavenly (ἐν οὐρανοῖς) Jerusalem (Gal_4:26; Rom_5:2; Rom_8:24; 2Th_2:8; Heb_12:22-23) even here. We are not to join ὑπάρχει with ἐν οὐρανοῖς, as if the citizenship did not exist here at all, but to regard ἐν οὐρανοῖς as descriptive of the character of the πολίτευμα rather than the place. Hence this sentence does not confirm the conclusion of Php_3:19 (Winer’s Gram. p. 453, Meyer, et al.); for it is not pertinent to say ‘for this very reason I warn you against them,’ since he does not warn but exhorts them. It does not confirm καθὼς ἔχετε τύπον ἡμᾶς (Wiesinger), but συμμιμηταί μου γίνεσθε καὶ σκοπεῖτε τοὺς οὕτως περιπατοῦντες (Php_3:17). Nor does it present the higher glory of the true Christian as the cause of his deep sorrow over the misconduct of the enemies of the cross (Schenkel), since καὶ κλαίων is too subordinate a remark. Again, πολίτευμα is not άναστροφή, walk, (Luther) nor does it refer to the Messiah’s kingdom which has not yet appeared (Meyer), for it exists already even upon earth, and only waits for its completion.—From whence also we look for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Ἐξ οὗ, an adverbial expression, equivalent to unde (Vulg., Winer’s Gram., p. 141 sq.) refers to ἐν οὐρανοῖς, not to πολίτευμα (Bengel); but is not equivalent to ex quo (Erasmus), nor even to ἐκ ω̇͂ν (Matthies). Καί before σωτῆρα indicates that He is looked for (άπεκδεχόμεθα, an awaiting, ad finem usque, perseveranter exspectare, Rom_8:19; Rom_8:23; Rom_8:25; 1Co_1:7; Gal_5:5) not merely as κύριος in their πολίτευμα, in contrast with the θεός of the enemies of the cross, but also as a Saviour, in contrast with their ‘destruction’ (ἀπώλεια). Comp. Luk_18:7-8; Luk_21:28. Καί points neither to a relation corresponding to what has been said of their citizenship (Meyer), nor to ‘conduct’ (Wiesinger), which does not agree with ἀπεκδεχόμεθα.
Php_3:21. Who will transform the body of our humiliation (ὃς μετασχηματίσει τὸ σῶμα τῆς τατεινώσεως ἡμῶν) explains how the Lord will manifest Himself as σωτήρ. The reference is to a future transformation which relates to the σχῆμα or fashion of the body (Php_2:8; 2Co_11:13-14; 1Co_4:6); and not to its identity. Hence Paul does not speak of the body alone as the object of the change (τὸ σῶμα) but adds the genitive of characterization (Winer’s Gram., p. 187 sq.), namely, τῆς ταπεινώσεως, as in Col_1:22 : σῶμα τῆς σαρκός; Rom_6:8; τῆς ἁμαρτίας; Rom_7:24; τοῦ θανάτου τούτου. Chrysostom well observes: πολλὰ πάσχει νῦν τὸ σῶμα, δεσμεῖται, μαστίζεται, μνρία πάσχει δεινά. But we must also include here the carnal, the sinful in man’s nature; for it is that especially which makes up the τατείνωσις ἡμῶν. Not merely the body, but we ourselves (note the ἡμῶν) suffer these things, which constitute this humiliation, that cleaves to the body. The object or result of the transformation is now stated,—That it may be fashioned like unto the body of his glory, σύμμορφον τῷ σώματι τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ. The breviloquence (or adj., instead of a sentence) is like 1Th_3:13; Mat_12:13. See Winer’s Gram., p. 624 sq. Out of this arose the variation noted in the critical remarks. The body is now no longer σῶμα τῆς ταπεινώσεως, but has become σῶμα τῆς δόξης, and as that was ours (ἡμῶν) so this is his (αὐτοῦ). The body comes forth from our present humiliation, and becomes a participant in the glory of Him who has transformed it. This is to be effected by the change which makes it like, conformed to, the body of His glory; hence through a transformation into His image (Rom_8:29), which begins even here (2Co_3:18 : μεταμορφούμεθα). [The body is that which exhibits His glory not merely because He has it in His glorified state, but because His glory in that state so pre-eminently appears in the spiritual body with which He is there clothed, and which stands forth as the type of the spiritual body into which every one of His true followers will be transformed.—H.] Hölemann joins ἡμῶν with σῶμα, αὐτοῦ with σώματι. Hammond explains σῶμα as the church; Luther supposes only the weakness and frailty of the body to be meant, Meyer, the change which first begins at the time of Christ’s second advent. All of these views are more or less faulty. He has the power necessary to produce such a transformation.—According to the working whereby he is able also to subdue all things unto himself. On κατἀ τὴν ἐνέργειαν, see Eph_1:19, where τοῦ κράτους τῆς ἴσχυος αὐτοῦ is added, while here we have τοῦ δύνασθαι αὐτὸν καὶ ὑποτάξαι αὐτῷ τὰ πάντα. Since all things are and must be subject to Him, He can also (καί) transform the (body μετασχηματίζειν); for the καί connects that verb with ὑποτάξαι. It is an argumentum a majori (ὑποτάξαι αὐτῳ τὰ πάντα) ad minus (μετασχηματίζειν). Comp. 1Co_15:25-28; 1Co_15:56-57. It is incorrect for Hölemann to connect δίνασθαι and ὑποτάξαι by καί, as if Paul would say that He is able to do all things and subject all things to Himself. [Τὰ πάντα is stronger with the article: not only this, but all the things together which require infinite power (comp. Php_3:8).—H.]
Php_4:1. Therefore (ὥστε) introduces the conclusion, as in Php_2:12. The section extends from Php_3:1 to Php_4:1, not merely from Php_3:17 to Php_3:21 (Meyer); for στήκετε ἐν κυρίῳ points back to χαίρετε ἐν κυρίῳ. [So extended a reference of ὥστε is uncommon and not necessary here. In view of the glorious destiny which awaits those whose citizenship is above, they should persevere and not frustrate such a hope (Php_4:20-21). Comp. 1Co_15:58.—H.]—My brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, is an expression of his love and recognition of them. Ἀδελφοί μου indicates the relation of fellow-believers with respect to the personal fellowship, which not only renders the Philippians an object of special love (ἀγαπητοί), but also of earnest longing (καί ἐπιπόθητοι; comp. Php_1:8). [The Apostle’s separation from them was so painful because his affection for them was so strong.—H.] Χαρά marks the personal, στέφανός μου the official relation: they are the joy of his heart and the honor of his office (Schenkel). The first expression refers to the present, the second reaches onward into the future. [The στέφανος among the Greeks was the emblem of victory, and not of regal power or dignity, which was denoted by διάδημα. On this distinction see Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol. i. p. 597 (Amer. ed.) Hence “his converts will be his wreath of victory;” for it will appear that he “did not run in vain,” (Php_2:26), and he will receive the successful athlete’s reward. Comp. 1Co_9:25 (Lightfoot).—H.]—So stand fast in the Lord (οὕτως στήκετε ἐν κυριῳ); i.e., as I and those who walk with me stand (Php_3:17) and as I have exhorted you (Php_3:1 sq.) Comp. Php_1:27. Bengel, incorrectly, ita, ut statis, state [which disagrees with Php_2:17.—H.].—Beloved (ἀγαπητοί) thus repeated shows his ardent affection for them.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The instinct of imitation gives force to the power of example; and the Apostle here does not present merely his own apostolic character, but joins with himself those who walk with him.—Sympathy and community of feeling render specially effective an example which embodies ethical views and principles. Hence precisely in the section where the citizenship of Christians in heaven is brought forward, this appeal is specially appropriate. Manifold as may be the forms of life in individuals, they are yet features of one image; they harmonize with each other, are not discordant; the many reflect one type (τυπός). The power and frequency of evil example (1Co_15:33) make it the more necessary to regard the Apostle’s exhortation.
2. Enmity to the cross of Christ, which takes offence at Christ’s form as a sufferer, and His path of suffering wherein His followers ought to walk, has its ground not exclusively indeed, but to a great extent, in a sensual character, subject to the lust of the world, by which many are governed even in the church. From an occasional, easy, and subtle service of the senses it may come to be uninterrupted and overbearing. Gentleness towards the natural man is cruelty towards the spiritual. Forbearance towards sensual desire ends in the loss of eternal glory, and that which passes current under the forms of conventional propriety, is in truth often a shame and disgrace.
3. The stand-point in the Christian life which fixes the eye on the future, the familiarity with God which maintains a close connection with the church, militant on earth but triumphant in heaven, and does not suffer the child of God to forget his eternal inheritance, affords the surest protection against evil example, and gives to good example its strongest attractive power.
4. [Neander:—The earthly mind Paul would say (Php_4:19-21) must be far from us, who are Christians; ‘for our conversation,’ (more correctly ‘citizenship’) is in heaven.’ His meaning is, that Christians, as to their life, their walk, belong even now to heaven; in the whole direction of their life existing there already.—This he deduces from their relation to Christ, their fellowship with Him to whom they are inseparably united, so that where He is there are they also. While here, they are sustained by the consciousness that Christ now lives in heaven, manifested to believers, though hidden from the world. Thither is their gaze directed, as their longings rise towards a Saviour, who will come again from thence to make them wholly like Himself, to fashion them wholly after His own glorious pattern, to transform them wholly into the heavenly. Hence Paul says: “From whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change the body of our humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” There is not presented here a resurrection, as a restoration merely of the same earthly body in the same earthly form; but, on the contrary, a glorious transformation, proceeding from the divine, the all-subduing power of Christ; so that believers, free from all the defects of the earthly existence, released from all its barriers, may reflect the full image of the heavenly Christ in their whole glorified personality, in the soul pervaded by the divine life and its now perfectly assimilated glorified organ.—H.]
5. [Chr. Wordsworth:—Christ, at His own transfiguration, gave a pledge and glimpse of the future glorious transformation of the risen body, and thus prepared the apostles to suffer with Him on earth, in order that they may be glorified forever with Him, in body and soul, in heaven (N. T. Commentary, vol. 2. p. 357).—H.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
In lack of faith is found the cause of lack of joy.—There is no true renewal without humbly going to the cross of Christ. The bodies of many who profess to be renewed, are temples of the god of the belly and of his servants to whom Christ’s cross is so entirely an offence, that they are even its enemies.—He who does not see the Easter sun rising behind the cross on Golgotha is no true Christian, does not cling fast to the good example of the apostles, and the faithful in the church, and becomes himself an evil example which may frighten away and even destroy others.
Starke:—Not all who point out the way to heaven will themselves be received into it. Many helped to build the ark of Noah who did not enter it.—Thou rejoicest when thou canst lay off an old garment and put on a new one: why art thou troubled because thy body shall experience corruption? By this means it lays aside not only what is worthless but attains to a glorious transformation (Php_3:21).
Rieger:—Our house, home, city, and fatherland where we belong, the seeking and hoping for which govern all our thoughts, are not mere fancies to be grasped only by the imagination, but exist in heaven; God has prepared them there; and faith in His word affords us a complete representation of them.
Gerlach:—Every one who is not redeemed by Christ’s cross from sin and from the present evil world, serves his flesh and minds earthly things, though his imagination take ever so exalted flights, though he be a philosopher, or a slave to grovelling lusts.—No Christian can find perfect rest until even the last trace of sin is overcome and destroyed: hence his life upon earth is a life of waiting and longing.
Schleiermacher:—If a man still values and seeks sensual good he is then an enemy of the cross of Christ. If he has earthly honor in view, and desires to distinguish himself before the world, he is then an enemy of the shame of Christ which accompanied His sufferings.—Eternal life is not to be thought of apart from a man’s reconciliation with himself and with Christ, who has left peace as His most beautiful legacy to His followers.
Heubner:—They who will not recognize the crucified Redeemer as their only righteousness, who are proud of their legal virtue, are as much enemies of the cross of Christ as those who from a fleshly mind will not follow the crucified Redeemer, nor crucify their flesh together with its lusts and desires.—Pride and the lust of the world can make a man an enemy of the cross of Christ.—The holiest thing may become an offence to a corrupt heart, and excite violent opposition.—Even evil examples must be salutary to the Christian, because they deter him from evil: they present it to him in all its fearfulness and render him anxious for himself.—The man who opposes the cross of Christ, labors for his own ruin.—That which is honorable with God, the worldly man does not understand at all.—The present body disturbs the heavenly life; and hence this body is to be glorified. The future body will promote, facilitate the spiritual life. We are to attain to a complete likeness to Christ, even the body is to become like His; but as the condition of this the soul here must first resemble His soul. The power of Christ extends to the new creation of our bodies and of the world.—-Though difficult, the Christian may guard himself against the destructive influence of evil examples. 1) He has no lack of good examples around him; 2) He sees the fearfulness of evil examples; 3) He has a heavenly calling.—There is a Christian use of bad examples as well as good.
Passavant:—This is the three-fold divine working of the one Redeemer; He has redeemed His people from the curse of sin through His blood; He redeems them more and more by His Holy Spirit from the power of sin, and He will finally redeem them from all misery and all oppression in this evil, godless world, and bring them to His heavenly kingdom.
[Neander:—Each one is required to apply to his own life the measure of spiritual discernment bestowed upon him (Php_3:16).—All progressive revelation of the Spirit, all new light of which man is made partaker, presupposes a faithful application of what has previously been given (Php_3:15).—If each one were careful to put in practice with strict fidelity his own measure of Christian knowledge, without contending with others about matters wherein they differ from himself, how many schisms might have been avoided in the church, how many differences might for its interest have been, overcome and adjusted!—H.]
Footnotes:
[8]Php_3:20. [The γάρ here has the support of all the oldest manuscripts, though the passage is cited by many early writers, as if δέ was the connective.—H].
[9]Php_3:21. Before σύμμορφον some codices insert εἰς τὸ γενέσθαι αὐτό manifestly an interpretation.
[10]Ibid. א A B et al. have αὐτῷ. A few copies read ἑαυτῷ [adopted in the received text.—H].
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv4–17 "Although I (emphatical) might have confidence even in the…
"Although I (emphatical) might have confidence even in the flesh." Literally, "I having," but not using, "confidence in the flesh."
I more--have more "whereof I might have confidence in the flesh."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv4–17 4. I might also—Having disavowed all actual trust in…
4. I might also—Having disavowed all actual trust in external advantages, the apostle now, in order to guard against the supposition that he has no right to these claims, affirms that he has a right to confidence in the flesh, but does not use it, as it is of no real value; and in such right he claims to have all that any of the Judaizers could boast himself to have, and more, as he proceeds to show.
Trust—Better, have confidence, as it is the same Greek word already twice used.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv4–17 4–11. His own experience as a converted Pharisee: Justification…
4–11. His own experience as a converted Pharisee: Justification by Faith: its spiritual and eternal issues
4. Though I might also &c.] The Greek seems to assert that he not only might have, but has, such confidence. But the whole context, and St Paul’s whole presentation of the Gospel, alike assure us that this is but a “way of speaking.” What he means is to assert, in the most concrete form, his claim, if any one could have such a claim, to rely on privilege and observance for his acceptance. Render accordingly with R.V., Though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. So the Latin versions; Quanquam ego habeam &c.
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thinketh] R.V. margin, “seemeth.” But A.V., and text R.V., are certainly right. The “seeming” or “appearing” is to the man’s self; he thinks it to be so. Cp. for this (frequent) use of the Greek verb (dokeîn) e.g. Luk_24:37; Act_12:9. And see esp. Mat_3:9, “Do not think (seem) to say in yourselves &c.”; where common sense gives the paraphrase, “Do not think that you may say.” So here, “thinketh that he may have confidence &c.”
I more] “I, from his point of view, think that I may have it more.” Cp. 2Co_11:21-22, a passage closely akin to this.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 (5) Circumcised the eighth day—i.e., a Jew born, not…
(5) Circumcised the eighth day—i.e., a Jew born, not a proselyte.
Of the stock of Israel—i.e., emphatically, a true scion of the covenanted stock, the royal race of the “Prince of God.”
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Of the tribe of Benjamin—i.e., the tribe of the first king, whose name the Apostle bore; the tribe to whom belonged the holy city; the one tribe faithful to the house of Judah in the apostasy of the rest.
An Hebrew of the Hebrews.—Properly, a Hebrew descended from Hebrews. The Hebrew Jew, who retained, wherever born, the old tongue, education, and customs of his fathers, held himself superior to the Grecian or Hellenist, who had to assimilate himself, as to the language, so to the thoughts and habits, of the heathen around him. St. Paul united the advantages both of the true Hebrew, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, and of the Hellenist of Tarsus, familiar with Greek language, literature, and thought. Compare his own words to his countrymen from the steps of the Temple as illustrating the whole passage: “I verily am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous before God . . . and I persecuted this way unto the death” (Act_22:3-4).
As touching the law, a Pharisee.—Comp. Act_23:6, “I am a Pharisee, and the son of Pharisees;” and Act_26:5, “according to the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.” In these words St. Paul passes from his inherited Judaic privileges, to the intense Judaism of his own personal life.
(5, 6) The comparison with the celebrated passage in 2Co_11:18-23 is striking, in respect not only of similarity of substance, but of the change of tone from the indignant and impassioned abruptness of the earlier Epistle to the calm impressiveness of this. The first belongs to the crisis of the struggle, the other to its close. We have also a parallel, though less complete, in Rom_11:1, “I also am an Israelite, of the stock of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv4–17 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh;…
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh; literally, though having myself confidence in the flesh also; that is, as well as in Christ. The apostle had both grounds of confidence: the one he renounces for the other; but no man could accuse him of despising that which he did not himself possess. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. He claims the privileges of the Jew; they are his by right, but he counts them loss for Christ.
Vers. 4-11. The example of St. Paul.
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I WHAT HE RENOUNCED. All confidence in the flesh.
1. He enumerates the privileges of the Jew, and claims them as his own. He had the seal of circumcision, the inheritance of the covenant; he was brought up in the Hebrew learning; he belonged to the strictest sect; he was zealous; he had lived a blameless life. In outward grounds of confidence no man could surpass him. He had all the privileges that could issue from the Judaism of the time.
2. He renounces them all. He sums them up together and renounces them; more than that, he counts them as loss; further yet, he counts all things as loss in comparison with the one gracious presence, the one glorious hope which now fills his heart.
II WHAT HE SOUGHT.
1. The knowledge of Christ. This knowledge is:
(1) A personal knowledge. "Mine own know me," says our Lord, in Joh_10:14, Revised Version, "as I know the Father." The knowledge wherewith the true sheep know the good Shepherd is compared by our Lord himself to the knowledge with which the Son of God knows the eternal Father. It is a knowledge of love, a knowledge of intimate personal communion. It is less in the intellect than in the heart; it is gained not so much by study, as by prayer and holy sacrament and the daily effort of faith to realize the Savior"s nearness and to imitate his holy life.
(2) It is excellent. St. Paul can scarcely find words to express its excellency. Compared with this, all other things sink into insignificance; what was gain becomes loss; what was glory becomes shame. For this knowledge implies the presence of Christ, "Christ in you, the Hope of glory.
(3) Thus the Christian who knows Christ, wins Christ to be his own, his own most loving Savior, his own most gracious Friend; his very life, for "he that hath the Son hath life? And
(4) he is found-in Christ, incorporated into him, a living member of his mystical body, a fruitful branch of the true Vine.
2. The righteousness which is through the faith of Christ. They that are found in Christ have his righteousness. "Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and ri ght eousness , and sanctification, and redemption". (1Co_1:30) They have none of their own (that is, through their own works), for the righteousness which is in the Law is no true righteousness, and cannot endure the all-seeing eye of God. "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." This righteousness is of God, not ours; and yet in some sense it is ours, for it is given to us, given in the gift of Christ. "He that spared not his own Son,... how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" This righteousness is through faith; obtained (that is) through faith as the means or instrument; and it is by (or rather, upon) faith, given (that is) on condition of faith. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," was the message delivered by St. Paul in this very Philippi. "Only believe." Faith is spiritual sight; by faith the saints in all ages have endured, "as seeing him who is invisible." Faith is the spiritual vision of Christ; by faith we see him dying for us upon the cross; we see Christ crucified, and recognize him as our own Savior and Redeemer. Again, faith is the "substance "the assurance," Revised Version of things hoped for;" it is trustfulness trustfulness, in the love and promises of Christ. It involves distrust of self, and trust only in Christ. Ever less of self, ever more of Christ, is the law of spiritual progress. Faith is the condition of righteousness.
III THE RESULT OF THIS SELF-RENUNCIATION. The ever-deepening knowledge of Christ. St. Paul prays to be found in Christ, that he may know him. This knowledge, which he seeks so earnestly, is an experimental knowledge; it is an ever-increasing acquaintance with Christ, a realization of the life of Christ in his sufferings and in his exaltation. We need to know:
1. The power of his resurrection. The resurrection of Christ is a spiritual power; it hath a power to lift us up into the resurrection-life, the new life that is hid with Christ in God. The soul that was raised with Christ seeks those things which are above, and that through the power of the Lord"s resurrection realized in the heart. His resurrection, too, is the pledge and earnest of our own resurrection, and so kindles and stimulates self-denying Christian effort.
2. To know the power of his resurrection we must know the fellowship of his sufferings. The Christian life has joys of its own; it has also sufferings of its own. For:
(1) Besides the deep sorrow of contrition, the Christian sorrows for the griefs of others, for the sins of others, for the oppression and afflictions of the Church. And these sufferings are the sufferings of Christ; he suffers in and with his members. Hence the apostle says. (Col_1:24) "I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body"s sake, which is the Church.
(2) We have fellowship with Christ"s sufferings when we sympathize with his agony, with his cross; when, by the energy of faith we realize the Savior"s sufferings, and, knowing that our sins added to his burden of woe, feel with him and for him.
(3) We share his sufferings when, suffering ourselves, we offer our sufferings to God by an act of faith; when, fixing our hearts upon the sufferings of Christ, we unite our sufferings with his by faith and prayer, casting all our care on him. Thus he bears our griefs and carries our sorrows; he suffers with us and we with him.
(4) Thus we become, little by little, conformed unto his death. The intense contemplation of the suffering Lord gradually impresses the likeness of his death upon the believing soul. That likeness is not outward and transient, but inward, deep, real. It is formed gradually; it varies in degree in different individuals or in the different stages of the Christian life; but in all true Christians it is real. It is a mortifying, a crucifixion of the old man; like the Savior"s death upon the cross, slow and painful. But at last the believing soul struggles itself free from the body of sin and death into the new life, the life which is hid with Christ in God.
IV THE BLESSED END.
1. The resurrection of the holy dead. That resurrection is the end of all our labors here; the end for which the Christian is content to count all earthly things as loss.
2. The spiritual resurrection here is the earnest of the glorious resurrection hereafter. The heavenly life begins here; the life of faith is the beginning of the life of glory. Both consist in union with Christ, who is our Life; both derive their joy and brightness only from his irradiating presence. They differ in degree, not in kind. The life of faith, when all present hindrances are removed, advanced, as it will be, to unspeakably higher degrees of purity and joy and fellowship with Christ, culminates in the life of glory. Hence it is that the excellency of the knowledge of Christ issues in the blessed resurrection of the holy dead.
Lessons.
1. St. Paul broke wholly with his unconverted life; so must we.
2. He experienced a complete change of thought, motive, aim; it must be so with us.
3. It was the constraining love of Christ that drew him from his old life; it is so still.
4. He suffered with Christ, he felt the power of his resurrection; so may it be with us.
Vers. 4-7. The apostle"s estimate of his high privileges as a Jew.
The Judaists arrogated to themselves high privileges by virtue of their descent. The apostle shows that they can claim no superiority of privilege above himself, though he finds in these very privileges a quite insufficient ground of religious confidence.
I HE REPUDIATES SACRAMENTAL EFFICACY. "Circumcised the eighth day." He was thus distinguished alike from the proselyte, who was circumcised on his conversion, and from the Ishmaelite, who was circumcised in his thirteenth year. He was a pure Jew.
II HE REPUDIATES THE RELIGIOUS IMPORT OF AN HONOURED PARENTAGE.
1. Of the stock of Israel. " For he w as no proselyte, but directly descended from Israel.
2. He was a member of the illustrious "tribe of Benjamin," which gave the first king to Israel, and had a foremost place among its armies. He did not, therefore, belong to any mere renegade tribe.
3. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. " Not only of pure blood, but untinged by Hellenistic tendencies.
III HE REPUDIATES RELIGIOUS AUTHORITY. "As touching the Law, a Pharisee;" a member of the strictest and most authoritative sect of the Jews.
IV HE REPUDIATES INTENSE EARNESTNESS, "As touching zeal, persecuting the Church.
V HE REPUDIATES THE WORTH OF CEREMONIAL BLAMELESSNESS. "As touching the righteousness which is in the Law, showing myself blameless;" that is, the righteousness of formal precept as contrasted with the righteousness which is by faith (ver. 9). All these characteristics and prerogatives, which "were gains to me," because I set them down to my credit religiously, my conversion changed into loss "for Christ"s sake," because their repudiation was necessary "that I might gain Christ. T.C.
Vers. 4-7. Pride of birth and breeding.
Having touched on the subject of self-confidence, Paul can quote his own experience on the point. For many years he thought he might plume himself even more than other men on his pedigree and his personal rower. He had lived in the haze of self-satisfaction, and could quote a genealogy and personal record second to none. It becomes amusing in a Pharisee of the first century, and yet we have people who are just as ridiculous in their pride of birth and of breeding in the nineteenth century. It is surely worth a moment"s analysis.
I No MATTER HOW WELL BORN OR BRED A MAN MAY BE, IT CONSTITUTES NOT HIS MERIT, BUT HIS OBLIGATION. Paul was a thorough-bred Jew, and fancied this fact should save him. But whatever good we receive through inheritance is not our merit; it simply increases our obligation. It is a confusion of thought, therefore, to suppose that the Supreme will save any man because of the accident of his birth or his breeding. We shall be called to account for these advantages, and they should minister to humility and fear rather than to pride.
II EXERTIONS TO SECURE A REPUTATION, INSTEAD OF TO GLORIFY GOD, INCREASE OUR SELFISHNESS INSTEAD OF ESTABLISHING ANY CLAIM TO SALVATION. Paul"s zeal was undoubted in persecuting the Christians. He was the first persecutor of his time; so that, in addition to his pride of birth and breeding, he could plume himself upon a religious reputation without a parallel among his people. He thought that no one had such a claim upon the tribal God, the God of the Jews, as he. If self-righteousness could be established by mortal man, Paul believed he had accomplished it. He forgot that the establishment of reputations is a selfish motive at the best, and can have nothing but condemnation from a holy God. In analyzing our motives, consequently, we must be most careful. Unless we are on our guard, we shall find ourselves living the selfish life, manufacturing reputations rather than strictly regarding usefulness and God"s glory.
III BOTH OUR PEDIGREE AND OUR ZEAL ARE LOSSES TO US IF THEY DETAIN US FROM CHRIST. Paul had spent long years in thinking how well-bred and reputable a Jew he was. Occupied with self, he had never turned his eyes to the radiant Christ, who alone is worthy of such constant contemplation. His fancied merits had thus kept him for years from the profitable study of the person and character of Christ. As soon as, on the way to Damascus, he became acquainted with Christ, the loss of the self-righteous years pressed itself painfully upon him. He wondered that he had so long neglected such a Savior. He saw in him a subject worthy of eternal study, and he regretted that he had been so tardy in entering upon it. We are surely taught here that anything which shuts out Christ from us, it matters not what it may be, is a distinct loss to us. He is the only object worth absorbing our attention. When other objects self in any of its forms eclipse him, we are losers and not gainers by the distraction. Things good in themselves even, such as birth and breeding and activity, prove serious losses to us if they withdraw our souls from the contemplation of the Savior. R.M.E.
Vers. 4-8. The cost and the value of personal Christianity.
"Though I might also have confidence in the flesh," etc. Notice I THE COST WHICH THE APOSTLE PAID FOR HIS CHRISTIANITY. Metaphorically he sold a property that he at one time valued beyond, all price, and that his countrymen regarded as the wealthiest inheritance. Here he gives a summary of the distinguished privileges which belonged to him.
1. He refers to his Church status. "Circumcised the eighth day." Therefore not a proselyte, but a Jew. By this rite he became a member of the great Jewish commonwealth, or, as some call it, the Jewish Church.
2. He refers to his illustrious ancestry. "Of the stock of Israel." A true scion of the royal race. "Of the tribe of Benjamin." The tribe from whence came many of their distinguished monarchs, and the tribe to whom belonged the holy city.
3. He refers to his religious persuasion. "A Hebrew of the Hebrews." Elsewhere he says, "I truly am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the Law of the fathers, and was zealous before God". (Act_22:3, Act_22:4) A thorough Hebrew. Paul had something to boast of here. In his veins ran the blood which had quivered amid Egyptian plagues and rushed to the hearts of those that heard the voice of Sinai"s trumpet.
4. He refers to his zealous devotedness. "Concerning zeal, persecuting the Church." He carried out his religious convictions with such zeal that he persecuted all who differed from him. Which is the worse enthusiasm in a bad cause or lazy profession in a good one?
5. He refers to his ceremonial righteousness. "Touching the righteousness which is in the Law, blameless." All the commandments he kept "from his youth up." Such were the privileges that Paul enjoyed, and to him, as well as to his countrymen, they were beyond all price.
II THE VALUE WHICH THE APOSTLE ATTACHED TO HIS CHRISTIANITY. He gave up Judaism with its gorgeous ritual and mighty memories and matchless histories, and does this for Christianity. Does he regret the loss, deplore the costly sacrifice? No. "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ." When he practically accepted the religion of Jesus, all that he once gloried in became contemptible. "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus." Christianity is the science of sciences. Three remarks will illustrate the incalculable value of this science.
1. It accords with all true sciences.
2. It encourages all true sciences.
3. It transcends all true sciences.
Chrysostom says, "When the sun doth appear it is loss to sit by a candle. D.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh--Observe
Php_3:4-10
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh--Observe
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I.
Pauls advantages--Superior to those which men generally put confidence in--respecting his birth and religious training, his rigid profession and orthodoxy, his zeal and blameless conduct.
II. The insufficiency of them as a ground of confidence--they could not confer peace, secure the favour of God--supersede the necessity of an inward change.
III. His renunciation of thee was necessary, complete, wise, and intelligent. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The faith of St. Paul
St. Paul is here speaking of himself. Generally this is not wise, but circumstances may sometimes justify it,
1. The man who has been healed has a right to speak of the remedy, and ought to do so. St. Paul had been changed; the selfish man had become unselfish; the wild persecutor had been tamed.
2. The experience of St. Paul was very profitable. If you can do good by telling your experience, tell it. It is a delicate thing to speak of ones self; people who have little experience are often the greatest speakers; but there is a false delicacy which must be overcome.
3. Pauls purpose was also to glorify his Master. These verses resemble a tree with many branches, but they have but one root. The central thought is--
I. Faith.
1. It was of the right nature. There is a faith which never goes deeper than the intellect. It is like the smile of some people who do not know how to smile, and which only touches certain places on the face. There is another faith that breaks right through the soul, and moves the man to his very centre. Such was Pauls; it took possession of heart, soul, and mind.
2. It was a mighty faith. There is a faith right enough in its way, but very feeble. It resembles a man who is walking in a path about which he has some doubt. He looks to the right, to the left; behind and before; he proceeds slowly, hesitatingly, but he does proceed. But Paul received Christ with open arms, without caution or reserve.
II. The working of this faith and what it did in Paul. On faith taking possession of the heart two things are sure to follow.
1. Self-renunciation. If your faith has not made you cast anything away, you ought to look into it. Now Paul had three things of which he was very proud.
(1) Jewish extraction. Men in all ages have been proud of their ancestors. The Jews had many things of which they could boast. They were the chosen people. They had Divine revelation. The worship of the true God was established among them. They had a great history. Angels walked their valleys; wondrous things were done on their mountain tops. They have had greater influence over the world than any other nation. It is a great thing to belong to such a stock, and to belong to it was regarded as being safe forever. St. Paul, however, cast it aside as loss for Christ.
(2) Legal righteousness. Paul was a Pharisee, and as such--
(a) He knew the laws of Moses well. He had a most correct creed.
(b) He practised the religion of the Pharisees. There was a two-fold righteousness; real as before God, love to God and man; apparent as before man, the observance of rites and public duties. Paul had little of the former; he had the latter to perfection, but he cast it out.
(3) Religious zeal. Zeal is about the strongest word you can use to express a warm state of mind, and if there is anything of which a man is proud it is this. It is one of the noblest of virtues, but do not seek to display it as Jehu--it will come out of itself. Better do with your zeal what Paul did. I count it loss for Christ; I will not hope for salvation from it.
2. Reception of Jesus Christ. Observe--
(1) His estimate of the knowledge of Christ. There are three things in this which make all other knowledge dim, and all other possessions worthless; the Fatherhood of God, the mediation of Christ, and immortality with Christ in heaven. These destroy mans three great enemies.
(a) The mediation of Christ--sin;
(b) immortality--death;
(c) the Fatherhood of God--fear.
(2) He desired to be united to Christ. How can a person be united to another? You have friends in Australia, but you are as near them as ever, by confidence, sympathy, and the deepest feelings of your nature. To be united to Christ is for you to love Him, and for Him to send forth His sympathy towards you. In the one case you are found in Him, in the other He is in you.
(3) He believed that there was an infinite fulness of blessing in Christ, and that by union with Christ this would become His. The soul that is united to Christ shall not want.
(a) It shall have full and free pardon.
(b) It shall be justified before God through the sacrifice of Christ.
(c) Be quickened with the life that is in Christ.
(d) Have a true rightness which is produced by God in and on the soul, that will bear the test of judgment, and be beautiful in the light of heaven.
(e) End its journey by sitting with Christ, and enjoying His glory. (T. Jones, D. D.)
Privileges no ground of trust
The list sounds much as if you or I were to say something of this kind: I am of a good Presbyterian stock. One of my ancestors fought at Bothwell Bridge for Christs crown and covenant, and another died as a martyr in the same cause in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh. There have been several ministers in my line, and many elders. I was baptized in a Presbyterian church, attended the Sabbath school, and became a communicant when I was eighteen. I have always attended the church regularly, kept up family worship, and lived a decorous life. I am well read in sound theology; hold rigidly in my opinions by the Westminster Confession; and have now and again taken a part in controversies about election, or the extent of the atonement. This is all well, very well, so far as it goes. But if you or I be in any degree looking to these things--to any of them, or to all of them taken together--as a ground of hope for eternity, we are, in so far, occupying a religious position corresponding very exactly with that of Paul before his conversion to Christ. (R. Johnstone, LL. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 10, 12 Chapter 11
Chapter 11
THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST.
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Php_3:8-18 (R.V.)
MR. ALEXANDER KNOX, in a letter to a friend, makes the following remark: "Religion contains two sets of truths, which I may venture to denominate ultimate and mediatory: the former refer to God as an original and end; the latter to the Word made flesh, the suffering, dying, rising, ruling Saviour; the way, the truth, the life. Now I conceive these two views have almost ever been varying, in the minds even of the sincerely pious, with respect to comparative consequence; and while some have so regarded the ultimate as in some degree to neglect the mediatory, others have so fixed their views on the mediatory as greatly and hurtfully to lose sight of the ultimate." This writer refers to Tillotson on one side, and Zinzendorf on the other, as instances of these extremes; and indicates that perhaps his own leaning might be a little too much in the former direction.
It can hardly be doubted that there is something in this suggestion. In the guidance and training of the soul some aim mainly at right dispositions towards God and His will, without much dwelling on what Knox calls mediatory truths; because they assume that the latter exist only with a view to the former; and if the end has been brought into view and is coming to be attained, there is no special need of dwelling on the means. Others aim mainly at receiving the right impressions about Christ dying and rising, and at complying with the way of salvation as it is set forth to us in Christ; because they are persuaded that here the secret lies of all deliverance and progress, and that the end cannot otherwise be reached. And Mr. Knox suggests, with truth most likely, that such persons have often so occupied themselves with what may be called the means of salvation that they lose sight in a great degree of the end to which all tends-life in God, life in fellowship with His loving goodness and His holy will.
What application these views may have to divergences of our own day it would take too long to consider. Mr. Knoxs remark has been referred to here in order to throw light on the mental attitude of Paul. Paul will hardly be accused of losing sight of the ultimate truths; but certainly he delights to view them through the mediatory truths; and he strives to reach the ultimate victory, through the most realising application to his heart and life of what those mediatory truths embody and disclose. Through the mediatory truths the ultimate ones reveal themselves to him with a wealth and an intensity otherwise unattainable. And the eternal life comes into experience for him as he takes into his soul the full effect of the provision which God has made, in Christ, to bestow eternal life upon him. That order of things which is mediatory is not regarded by Paul only as a fitting introduction, on Gods part, to His ultimate procedure; it is also in the same degree fitted to become for the individual man the medium of vision, of assurance, of participation. In other words, Paul finds God and makes way into goodness through Christ; and not through Christ merely as an embodied ideal, but through union to Christ Divine and human, Christ living, dying, rising, redeeming, justifying, sanctifying, glorifying. He never pauses in any of these, so as to fail in looking onward to God, the living God, But neither does he pass on to that goal so as to disregard the way unto the Father. If he could have foreseen the method of those who are striving in our day to bring men to the blessedness which Christianity holds out by dwelling exclusively on Christian ethics, he might have sympathised with their ethical intensity; but he would surely have wondered that they failed to find in Christianity more pregnant springs of motive and of power. Perhaps he would even be moved to say, "O foolish Galatians (or Corinthians), who hath bewitched you?" Not less, it must also be said, might he wonder at many a gospel preacher, who rehearses the "way of salvation" until the machinery clanks and groans, unable apparently to divine-unable, at least, to bring out-that glory of God in it, that wonderful presence and influence of infinite holiness, goodness, and pity, which make the gospel the power of God.
We, meanwhile, shall do well to imitate the charity of Mr. Knox, who cordially owned the Christian piety of those who might go too far either way. Few of us, indeed, can dispense with the charity that is tender to partial and imperfect views. But if we are to understand Paul, we must find our way into some sympathy with him here; not only as he is seen on this line to have attained so far in saintship, but as he is seen to be sure that this way lay much more-that on this line his road lay to the glory that should be revealed. He could contemplate the practice and growth of piety in many lights; yet it came home to him most evidently as growth in the knowledge and in the appropriation of Jesus Christ.
He has cast away for the sake of Christ the treasures so much valued by the Jews, and many a treasure more. But what he would chiefly impress on the minds of those to whom he writes is not so much the amount of what he has cast away, but rather the worth of that which he has found, and more and more is finding. The mass of things set down for loss is a mere steppingstone to this central theme. But though he tells us what he thought and felt about it, most of us learn but slowly how much it meant for him. When we sit down beside the Apostle to learn his lesson, we become conscious that he is seeing what we cannot descry; he is sensitive to Christ through spiritual senses which in us are torpid and undeveloped. Christ holds him all through. It is faith, and love, and gratitude; it is self-devotion, and obedience, and wonder, and worship; and, through all, the conviction glows that Christ is his, that "in Christ" all things have changed for him. In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin. He hath made me accepted in the Beloved. I live; yet not I, but Christ. In Christ, old things have passed away, all things are made new. Christ is made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" The intense heat of this conception of Christ, it must once more be said, gives its distinctive character to the religious life of Paul. May we not say that the lamentable distinction of a great deal of current Christianity is the coldness of mens thoughts about their Saviour? The views of many may be characterised as "correct, but cold." Only what can be more incorrect, what can more effectually deny and controvert the main things to be asserted, than coldness towards our Saviour, and cold thoughts of His benefits? This we "should hold to be unpardonable. We never should forgive it to ourselves.
"For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus." Christ had come into the life of Paul as a wonderful knowledge. Becoming thus known to him, He had transformed the world in which Paul lived, and had made him conscious of a new order of existence, so that old things passed away and all became new. The phrase employed combines two ideas. In the first place, Paul felt Christ appealing to him as to a thinking, knowing nature. Various influences were reaching him from Christ which bore on heart, will, conscience: but they all came primarily as a revelation; they came as light. "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus." In the next place, this discovery came with a certain assuredness. It was felt to be not a dream, not a fair imagination only, not a speculation, but a knowledge. Here Paul felt himself face to face with the real-indeed, with fundamental reality. In this character, as luminous knowledge, the revelation of Christ challenged his decision, it demanded his appreciation and adherence. For since Christ claims so fundamental a place in the moral world, since He claims so intimate and fruitful a relation to thee whole state and prospects of the believing man, acquaintance with Him (at least, if it be acquaintance in Pauls style) cannot pause at the stage of contemplation: it passes into appropriation and surrender. Christ is known as dealing with us, and must be dealt with by us. So this knowledge becomes, at the same time, experience.
Hence, while in ver. 8 (Php_3:8), the Apostle speaks of himself as encountering all earthly loss that he may know Christ, in ver. 9 (Php_3:9), it is that he may gain Christ and may be found in Him. Christ so came into the field of his knowledge as to become-the treasure of his life, replacing those things which heretofore had been gain, and which now figured as loss. When Paul turned from all else to know Christ, he turned, at the same time, to have Christ, "gaining Him," and to be Christs, "found in Him."
Christ, in fact, comes to us with commandments, "words," {Joh_14:23} which are to be kept and done. He comes to us, also, with promises, the fulfilment of which, in our own case, is a most practical business. Some of these promises concern the world to come; but others apply to the present; and these, which lie next us, either are neglected, or are embraced and put to proof, every day of our lives. Besides all this, Christ comes to us to fix and fill our minds, and to endear Himself to us, in virtue simply of what He is. So viewed, He is to be owned as our best Friend, and indeed henceforth, with reverence be it said, by far our nearest Relation. This is to be, or else it is not to be. Each day asks the question, Which? Pauls Christianity was the answer to that question. How his answer rings in all our ears! Our Christianity also is making its reply.
Both as to knowledge and as to experience the type was fixed from the first: there could be no doubt about either. But both were to deepen and widen as life went on. Christ was apprehended at first as a wonderful Whole of good; but so that indefinite fields of progress were continually to open up. In the very first days a knowledge dawned, for the sake of which all else was counted loss; yet a world of truths remained to know, as well as of good to experience, for the sake of which also all else should continue to be counted but loss. This, in fact, is only one way of saying that Christ and His salvation were realities, divinely full and worthy. Being real, the full acquaintance with all they mean for men can only arise in a historical way. Paul therefore emphasises this, that real Christianity, the right kind of Christianity, just because it has found a treasure, is set on going on to find that same treasure still further and still more. {comp. Php_1:9} If the treasure is real and the man is in earnest, that will be so. Such had been the course of his own Christian life from the first. Now, though many years have disciplined him, though changing experiences have given him new points of view, still, no less than at the first, his rejoicing in the present goes hand in hand with reaching onward to the future. The one, in fact, is the reason of the other. Both are rational, or neither. He has counted all to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge which has broken upon his soul: and still he presses on, that he may know; for the same strong attraction continues and grows.
Before passing to details, something more should perhaps be said of this magnificent generality, "the knowledge of Christ."
Christ is first of all known historically; so He is presented to us in the Gospels. His story is part of the history of our race. He passes through youth to manhood. We see Him living, acting, enduring; and we hear Him teaching-wonderful words proceed from His mouth. We contemplate Him in His humiliation, under the limits to which He submitted that He might share our state and bear our burdens. In the pathways of that Jewish life He discloses a perfect goodness and a perfect dignity. We see especially that He cherishes a purpose of good will to men which He bears to them from the Father. It overflows in all His words and works, and in the prosecution of it He moves on to lay down His life for us. This is the beginning of the knowledge of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Much may as yet be undefined; many questions may crowd on us that receive as yet no precise answer; nay, much may seem to us as yet to be strangely entangled in the particulars of an individual and of a provincial existence. But this presentation of Christ can never be dispensed with or superseded; and, for its essential purpose, it never can be surpassed. For this is the Life. "The Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and show unto you that Eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us."
This vision, which the Gospels set before us, was also before the mind of Paul. And words of our Lord, delivered in His earthly ministry, and preserved by those who heard Him, were treasured by the Apostle of the Gentiles, and reproduced to guide the Churches as need required. Yet there is a sense in which we may say that it is not exactly the Christ of the Gospels who comes before us in the Pauline writings. The Christ of Paul is the Lord who met him by the way. It is Christ dead, risen, and ascended; it is Christ with the reason and the result of His finished work made plain, and with the relation unveiled which He sustains to men who live by Him; it is Christ with the significance of His wonderful history for believers shining out from Him-Christ vestitus Evangelio. Now He has gone up above all worlds. No longer is He hedged about by necessities of mortal life; no longer tied by earthly bonds to some places and some men and one nation. He is glorified; all fulness dwells in Him; all Gods purposes are seen to centre in Him. And then, by His death and resurrection, the tie between Him and His people is unveiled to faith, as it could not be before. They are one with Him-in Him redeemed, endowed, triumphant, glorified. Every Christian privilege and attainment, every grace, every virtue and good gift, takes on a celestial character, as it is seen to be an element in our fellowship with Christ. The state of Christians is seen reflected in their Head. And, in turn, Christ is seen, as it were, through the medium of the relation which He sustains to them, and of the wealth of good arising to them by it. It is Christ as He is to His people, Christ as He is set in the centre of the world of good that radiates to them all, whom Paul wonders at and worships. And he finds all this to be rooted in our Lords death upon the cross, which was the crisis of the whole redemption. All that follows took character and efficacy from that death.
A special insight into all this was included in the wisdom given to Paul. And yet this view of things does not turn out to be something diverse or alien from what the Gospels set before us. Rather it is the gospel story revealing its native significance arid virtue along many lines which were not so distinct before.
But now all this, in turn, leads us to the third aspect of the case. What Christ is and what He does may be described; but there is a knowledge of it which is imparted practically, in the progressive history of the believer. According to the Christian teaching, we enter, as Christians, on a new relation; and in that relation a certain blessed well-being is appointed to us. This well-being is itself an unfolding or disclosure of Christ. Now this well-being comes home to us and is verified in the course of a progressive human experience. Life must become our school to teach us what it all means. Life sets us at the point of view now for one lesson, now for another. Life moves and changes, and brings its experiences; its problems, its conflicts, its anxieties, its fears, its temptations; its need of pity, pardon, strengthening; its experience of weakness, defeat, and disgrace; its opportunities of service, self-denial, fidelity, victory. For all those occasions Christ has a meaning and a virtue, which, in those occasions, is to become personal to ourselves. This makes knowledge indeed. This becomes the vivid commentary upon the historical and the doctrinal instruction. Life, taken in Christs way, along with prayer and thought, manifests Christs meaning, and makes it real to us, as nothing else can. It furnishes the stepping-stones for passing onward, in the knowledge of Christ.
This also was Pauls condition, though he was an inspired man. He too was fain to improve his knowledge in this school. And when we take all three aspects together, we shall see how truly, for Paul and for us, the knowledge of Christ is, on the one hand, so excellent from the first, that it justifies the great decision to which it calls us; and, on the other hand, how it creates a longing for further insight and fresh attainment. The latter we see in the Apostle as plainly as the former. From the first, he knew in whom he believed, and was persuaded that for His sake all else was to be resigned. Yet to the end he felt the unsatisfied desire to know more, to gain more; and his heart, if we may apply here the Psalmists words, was breaking for this longing which it had.
It was remarked above that the "excellency of the knowledge of Christ" in ver. 8 (Php_3:8), corresponds in the Apostles thought to the "gaining" of Christ and being "found in Him" of ver. 9 (Php_3:9); and this may be the best place to say a word on these two phrases. To gain Christ, points to a receiving Christ as ones own; and the Apostle uses the phrase so as to imply that this finding of Christ, as One who is gained or won, was still going on; it was progressive. Clearly also the alternative is implied, that what is not gained is lost. The question in the Apostles life, about which he was so decided, was about no less than losing or gaining Christ. The phrase "be found" points to the verification of Pauls relation to Christ in his history and in its results. That relation is contemplated as something that proves true. It turns out to be so. We shall best understand the phrase as referring, not to some one future date at which he should be so found, but rather to present and future alike. As men, or angels, or God, or Christ might view him, or as he might take account of his own state, this is what he would have found in regard to himself. Every way he would be found in Christ. The form of expression, however, is specially appropriate here, because it fits so well into the doctrine of righteousness through Christ, which the Apostle is about to emphasise. A similar remark applies to the expression "in Christ" so frequently occurring in the Pauline writings. This is usually explained by saying that the Apostle sets before us Christ as the sphere of his spiritual being-in whom he lived and moved-never out of relation to Him, and not so related to any other. Such explanations are true and good: only we may say that the pregnant strength of the expression seems to be weakened even by the best explanations. The relation in view is too wonderful ever to be adequately described. The union between Christ and His Church, between Christ and the believing man, is a mystery; and like all objects of faith, it is dimly apprehended by us for the present. But the certainty of it, and its wonderfulness, we should never allow ourselves to overlook. Christ is able to bring men into fellowship with Himself, to assume responsibility for them, to represent their interests and to care for their good; and men may receive Christ into their lives; with a completeness on both sides which no explanations can adequately represent. The identification with Christ which the phrase suggests naturally fits what follows.
Now the Apostle goes more into detail. He tells us what were for him the main articles of this good state of being "found in Christ." He indicates, with a certain eager gratitude, the main lines along which the benefits of that state had come into experience, and along which he was pressing on to know the fulness of Christ. First, in Christ he has and shall have not his own righteousness, which is that of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Then, secondly, he has in hand a practical knowledge of Christ, culminating in the complete deliverance of the resurrection. It includes two aspects or elements: Christ known in the power of His resurrection, and Christ known in the fellowship of His sufferings.
The first thing then which rises distinctly into view in connection with being found in Christ is the possession of the new righteousness. We have seen already that value for righteousness such as is of law, and hope Of achieving it, had been associated with Pauls old days of Jewish zeal. He then stood on the law, and gloried in the law. But that had passed away when he learned to count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Ever after, the contrast between the two ways of seeking "righteousness" continued to be fundamental in Pauls Christian thinking.
The law here in view was the whole revealed will of God touching mans behaviour, coming as a will of authority, requiring obedience. The discussion in the earlier chapters of the Epistle to the Romans makes this plain. And Pauls way of keeping the law, in those old days, though it was necessarily too external, had not been so merely external as is sometimes supposed. His obedience had been zealous and resolute, with as much heart and meaning as he could put into it. But law-keeping for righteousness had been the principle of it. The Jew was placed under a law; obedience to that law should be his pathway to a destiny of incomparable privilege and gladness. That was the theory. So believing, Paul had given himself with zeal to the work, "living in all good conscience before God." A great change had now befallen him; but that could not imply on his part a renunciation of Gods law. The law, better understood indeed, and far more inwardly apprehended, still retained for Paul its great outlines, and was reverenced as Divine. It was holy and just and good. It was felt still to shed its steadfast light on human duty, awakening and illuminating the conscience; and therefore it revealed most authentically the moral situation, with its elements of failure, and danger, and need. The law stood fast. But the scheme of life which stood in keeping the law for righteousness had passed away for Paul, vanishing in the light of a new and better day.
Here, however, we must ask what the Apostle means when he speaks of the righteousness which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, the righteousness which is of God unto or upon faith. Great disputes have arisen over this question. We must endeavour to find the Apostles main meaning, without involving ourselves too much in the mazes of technical debate.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv4–17 4–6. Though I might also have confidence in the…
4–6. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. The confidence of the Jews was in the flesh of Abraham. They said, “We have Abraham to our father” (Matt. 3:9). But if any man had grounds for relying on the flesh, it was Paul.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv4, 9, 12, 17 Php_3:4. Though I might also have confidence in the…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Php_3:4. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh.—They will never be able to say he “speaks evil of that which he knows not.” “If there is any profit in that direction,” he might say, “I will set my foot as far as who goes farthest.” An argumentum ad hominem.
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Php_3:5. Circumcised the eighth day.—Beginning with this he works his way, through this and the following verses, to the climax of the straitest sect. The items of this verse have to do with the birth and education of the apostle.
Php_3:6. Concerning zeal.—“An expression of intense irony, condemning while he seems to exalt his former self” (Lightfoot). Righteousness which is in the law.—Legal righteousness. Exact attention to all its manifold commands and prohibitions.
Php_3:7. What things were gain.—The various points in which I had considered myself fortunate, giving me an advantage over others. Those I counted loss for Christ.—The tense of the verb “counted” denotes an action the result of which continues. It leaves no place for after-regrets, like those of the woman who stopped to look back on Sodom. St. Paul counts his Judaism, with its emoluments, well lost. “Having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Mat_13:46).
Php_3:8. Yea, doubtless, and I count, etc.—A more explicit statement of the abiding satisfaction with the chosen lot. “I still do count.” All things.—Whatever they may be—not simply those named above. For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.—“The eminent quality of a possession attained is the ground for estimating other possessions according to their relation to that one” (Meyer). For whom I have suffered the loss of all things.—The words “gain” and “loss” are the same in these verses as in our Lord’s memorable saying, “What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (Mar_8:36). And do count them but dung.—So R.V. text, “refuse,” margin. If we accept the meaning “that which is thrown to the dogs,” we have an apt interpretation, but we need to guard against attributing to the apostle subtleties of expression born in a lexicographer’s brain.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Php_3:4-8
External Religionism incomparable with the True Knowledge of Christ.
I. The highest example of external religionism affords no ground for confident boasting (Php_3:4-6).—External religionism had its most complete embodiment in Paul. He was its most zealous devotee, its ablest champion. These verses describe the best eulogy that can be given of the observer of external rites. By birth, lineage, training, ability, consistency of character, and sincerity of aim, Paul was an ideal Jew, a model all his countrymen might aspire to copy. If there was ground for boasting, no one had a greater right than he. He needed no Christ, no Saviour; he was well able to look after himself. But one day the discovery came that all this glorying was vain; instead of gaining salvation he was farther from it than ever, and in danger of losing everything. Religious progress is often more apparent than real. When Captain Parry and his party were in search of the North Pole, after travelling several days with sledges over a vast field of ice, on taking a careful observation of the pole-star, the painful discovery was made that, while they were apparently advancing towards the pole, the ice-field on which they were travelling was drifting to the south, and bringing them nearer to the verge, not of the pole, but of destruction.
II. The supposed gains of external religionism are for Christ’s sake esteemed as loss.—“But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ” (Php_3:7). Not losses, compared with the plural of gains; but all the supposed gains are treated as one great loss, and this after the most careful scrutiny and calculation. “I counted loss.” The swelling sum of fancied virtues, painfully gathered and fondly and proudly contemplated, vanishes into nothing at one stroke of the discriminating pen. All that was prized as valuable, and as the all of personal possession, is regarded as dross, because of Christ. They did not help him to win Christ, but to lose Him; the more he gained in self-righteousness the more he lost of Christ. It was not only profitless, but productive of positive loss.
III. The surpassing excellency of the knowledge of Christ renders external religionism utterly worthless.—“I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; … and do count them but dung [refuse], that I may win Christ” (Php_3:8). The gains were: circumcision performed without any deviation from legal time or method; membership in the house of Israel, and connection with one of its most honoured tribes; descent from a long line of pure-blood ancestry; adherence to a sect whose prominent distinction was the observance of the old statutes; earnest and uncompromising hostility to a community accused of undermining the authority of the Mosaic code, and a merit based on blameless obedience to the law. These once gloried and confided in were counted as a loss, for the sake of a superior gain in the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. He was no loser by the loss he had willingly made, for the object of knowledge was the divine Saviour. Is it not super-eminent knowledge to know Him as the Christ; to know Him as Jesus, not because He wears our nature, but because we feel His human heart throbbing in unison with ours under trial and sorrow; to know Him as Lord, not simply because He wears a crown and wields a sceptre, but because we bow to His loving rule and gather the spoils of the victory which He has won and secured? The apostle made a just calculation, for neither ritualism, nor Israelitism, nor Pharisaism, nor zealotism, nor legalism could bring him those blessings with which the knowledge of Christ was connected; nay, until they were held as loss this gain of gains could not be acquired (Eadie). As with the two scales of a balance, writes Rieger, when one rises the other falls, and what I add to one diminishes the relative weight of the other; so as one adds to himself he takes away from the pre-eminence which the knowledge of Christ should have. What he concedes to Christ makes him willing to abase himself, to resign all confidence in His own works. Therefore the sharp expressions, “to count as loss, as dung,” become in experience not too severe; for to reject the grace of Christ, to regard the great plan of God in sending His Son as fruitless, were indeed far more terrible.
Lessons.—
1. The highest kind and supreme end of all knowledge is the knowledge of Christ.
2. True religion is the spiritual knowledge of Christ.
3. Religion without Christ is an empty form.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Php_3:4-7. Formalism tested and found wanting
I. The best that formalism can do for man, in religious lineage, reputation, zeal, and strictest outward observances, has been experimentally exemplified (Php_3:5-6).
II. The most distinguished champion of formalism has confessed its utter inadequacy to satisfy the soul (Php_3:4).
III. The highest advantages of formalism are worthless compared with Christ (Php_3:7).
Php_3:8. The Excellent Knowledge of Christ—
I. Is extensive.—Apprehends Him in all those notions and respects wherein the gospel principally discovers Him.
II. Appropriating—Christ Jesus my Lord.
III. Effectual.—Has a powerful efficacy both upon heart and life, both upon judgment, affection, and practice.
IV. Fiducial.—It brings the soul to rest upon Christ and His righteousness alone for pardon, acceptance, salvation.
V. Useful.—He that has it studies to improve Christ, to make use of Him for those blessed and glorious purposes for which he knows Christ is given.
VI. Christ Himself is most excellent.—
1. There is nothing in Him but what is excellent.
2. All excellencies in the creatures are eminently to be found in Christ.
3. All these excellencies are in Him in a more excellent manner; perfectly, without any shadow of imperfection; infinitely, without any bounds or limits; eternally and unchangeably, they ebb not, they wane not, they are always there in the full, they alter not, they decay not.
4. Not only all that are in the creatures, but innumerable more excellencies than are in all the creatures together, are in Christ alone.
VI. Those that have attained the excellent knowledge of Christ will not think much to lose all things to gain Christ.—
1. All outward enjoyments and earthly possessions.
2. Personal righteousness as a means of justification.—David Clarkson.
The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ.
I. To know Christ in the divinity of His person is excellent knowledge.
II. To know Christ in the glory of His redemption is excellent knowledge.
III. The comparative worthlessness of all else.—
1. Wealth.
2. Worldly honour.
3. Human learning.
4. Mere morality.
The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ.
I. Its pre-eminent excellence is to be found in its certainty.—Proved by—
1. Prophecy.
2. Miracles.
3. Experience.
II. In its majesty and grandeur.
III. In its suitableness and adaptation.
IV. In its comprehensiveness.
V. The knowledge of Christ is sanctifying.—R. Watson.
Christ the Only Gain.
I. To count Him gain.
II. To covet and seek Him as gain.
III. To appropriate Him as gain.
IV. To enjoy Him as gain.—R. S. Candlish.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv8, 10, 11, 12, 14 8. “—As to the law a Pharisee;” “As to…
ARGUMENT 9
LEGALISM
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8. “—As to the law a Pharisee;” “As to the righteousness which is in the law being blameless.” The Pharisees were the orthodox wing of the Jewish Church, the Sadducees the heterodox, and the poor Essenes living in the deserts and slums, the holiness people. Though Paul stood on the acme of orthodoxy, with an irreproachable Christian character, looked upon as an Israelite in whom there was no guile, a double graduate with a diploma from the Greek college of Tarsus, and another from the rabbinical university of Jerusalem, as a preacher in the popular Church without a peer, yet he was an alien from God and stranger to grace, traveling the broad road to hell. O the millions who are this day in the same awful dilemma, fully assured that they are bona-fide Christians serving God, while they are unconverted sinners, worshipping Satan! What is the trouble? Like Paul, they are legalists. They fill pulpits and pews, and, I awfully fear, constitute the rank and file of the popular Churches at the present day. Their name is legion. You meet them in every land. Though they are very religious, they have no salvation. Like Paul, they are perfectly honest; yet they walk in Satan’s midnight, and will soon drop into hell, unless God, in mercy, shall shed light on them, as in case of Saul, while he journeyed to Damascus. The Holy Ghost is the only revelator of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every soul walks in darkness till he reveals Him to him, as in case of Saul. What is this awful legalism? Satan’s greased plank, on which he shoots millions through the Churches into hell. It is simply a religion of good works, such as Saul and myself had from our infancy (for my life, like his, was irreproachable from the cradle, being as good a Church member before conversion as afterwards). The great masses of Church members at the present day are dumb in the pews, from the simple fact that they have no experiences to tell; they are depending on “Church loyalty,” legal obedience, and good works to save them. It is awful to contemplate the responsibility of pastors who help the devil to palm off his wholesale delusions on their members, encouraging them to believe that they are Christians, because they are true and faithful to what they call “the Church;” meanwhile they are as ignorant of the New Testament Ecclesia, the Church of God (consisting only of the souls called out of the world and separated unto God), as the Hottentots of Africa. All of this legalistic religion, which fills the world today, is nothing but self- righteousness, “filthy rags,” in the sight of God, and a millstone around the necks of the poor, deluded devotees, dragging them down to hell.
9. “And may be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is, through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is from God, upon faith.” Nothing but the righteousness of Christ will ever fortify a soul against the severities of the Divine judgments. Can I have the righteousness of Christ? Our wonderful Christ has three righteousnesses. He has a righteousness peculiar to his Divinity and essential to it, which he will ever retain, and never impart to you or me. He also has a righteousness peculiar to his humanity and essential to it. This he will never confer on you or me. Besides, he has a third righteousness, arising from perfect obedience to the Divine law, actively throughout his probationary life, and passively when he suffered the full penalty of the violated law as our substitute. This third righteousness, which is neither essential to his humanity nor Divinity, nor in any way necessary to his perfect mediatorial Messiahship, he procured for you and me and all of Adam’s ruined race. This perfect righteousness God is delighted freely to impute to every sinner who, in hearty repentance and radical abandonment of all sin, in the profound realization of his utter fitness only for hellfire, by simple faith alone casts himself, in a moment of despair, on the mercy of God in Christ. These sinning-religion people have never learned the first principles; but poor, deluded legalists, like Saul before he was converted, “having a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge,” having no personal acquaintance with God, they walk in spiritual night, die as they live, honored with complimentary funerals over their dead bodies, while their souls are in hell.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv4, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17 Php 3:4-8 {R.V.}.
Philippians
THE LOSS OF ALL
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Php 3:4-8 {R.V.}.
We have already noted that in the previous verses the Apostle is beginning to prepare for closing his letter, but is carried away into the long digression of which our text forms the beginning. The last words of the former verse open a thought of which his mind is always full. It is as when an excavator strikes his pickaxe unwittingly into a hidden reservoir and the blow is followed by a rush of water, which carries away workmen and tools. Paul has struck into the very deepest thoughts which he has of the Gospel and out they pour. That one antithesis, ‘the loss of all, the gain of Christ,’ carried in it to him the whole truth of the Christian message. We may well ask ourselves what are the subjects which lie so near our hearts, and so fill our thoughts, that a chance word sets us off on them, and we cannot help talking of them when once we begin.
The text exemplifies another characteristic of Paul’s, his constant habit of quoting his own experience as illustrating the truth. His theology is the generalisation of his own experience, and yet that continual autobiographical reference is not egotism, for the light in which he delights to present himself is as the recipient of the great grace of God in pardoning sinners. It is a result of the complete saturation of himself with the Gospel. It was to him no mere body of principles or thoughts, it was the very food and life of his life. And so this characteristic reveals not only his natural fervour of character, but the profound and penetrating hold which the Gospel had on his whole being.
In our text he presents his own experience as the type to which ours must on the whole be conformed. He had gone through an earthquake which had shattered the very foundations of his life. He had come to despise all that he had counted most precious, and to clasp as the only true treasures all that he had despised. With him the revolution had turned his whole life upside down. Though the change cannot be so subversive and violent with us, the forsaking of self-confidence must be as real, and the clinging to Jesus must be as close, if our Christianity is to be fervid and dominant in our lives.
I. The treasures that were discovered to be worthless.
We have already had occasion in the previous sermon to refer to Paul’s catalogue of ‘things that were gain’ to him, but we must consider it a little more closely here. We may repeat that it is important for understanding Paul’s point of view to note that by ‘flesh’ he means the whole self considered as independent of God. The antithesis to it is ‘spirit,’ that is humanity regenerated and vitalised by Divine influence. ‘Flesh,’ then, is humanity not so vitalised. That is to say, it is ‘self,’ including both body and emotions, affections, thoughts, and will.
As to the points enumerated, they are those which made the ideal to a Jew, including purity of race, punctilious orthodoxy, flaming zeal, pugnacious antagonism, and blameless morality. With reference to race, the Jewish pride was in ‘circumcision on the eighth day,’ which was the exclusive privilege of one of pure blood. Proselytes might be circumcised in later life, but one of the ‘stock of Israel’ only on the ‘eighth day.’ Saul of Tarsus had in earlier days been proud of his tribal genealogy, which had apparently been carefully preserved in the Gentile home, and had shared ancestral pride in belonging to the once royal tribe, and perhaps in thinking that the blood of the king after whom he was named flowed in his veins. He was a ‘Hebrew of the Hebrews,’ which does not mean, as it is usually taken to do, intensely, superlatively Hebrew, but simply is equivalent to ‘myself a Hebrew, and come from pure Hebrew ancestors on both sides.’ Possibly also the phrase may have reference to purity of language and customs as well as blood. These four items make the first group. Paul still remembers the time when, in the blindness which he shared with his race, he believed that these wholly irrelevant points had to do with a man’s acceptance before God. He had once agreed with the Judaisers that ‘circumcision’ admitted Gentiles into the Jewish community, and so gave them a right to participate in the blessings of the Covenant.
Then follow the items of his more properly religious character, which seem in their three clauses to make a climax. ‘As touching the law a Pharisee,’ he was of the ‘straitest sect,’ the champions and representatives of the law. ‘As touching zeal persecuting the Church,’ it was not only in Judaism that the mark of zeal for a cause has been harassing its opponents. We can almost hear a tone of sad irony as Paul recalls that past, remembering how eagerly he had taken charge of the clothes trusted to his care by the witnesses who stoned Stephen, and how he had ‘breathed threatening and slaughter’ against the disciples. ‘As touching the righteousness which is in the law found blameless,’ he is evidently speaking of the obedience of outward actions and of blamelessness in the judgment of men.
So we get a living picture of Paul and of his confidence before he was a Christian. All these grounds for pride and self-satisfaction were like triple armour round the heart of the young Pharisee, who rode out of Jerusalem on the road to Damascus. How little he thought that they would all have been pierced and have dropped from him before he got there! The grounds of his confidence are antiquated in form, but in substance are modern. At bottom the things in which Paul’s ‘flesh’ trusted are exactly the same as those in which many of us trust. Even his pride of race continues to influence some of us. We have got the length of separating between our nationality and our acceptance with God, but we have still a kind of feeling that ‘God’s Englishmen,’ as Milton called them, have a place of their own, which is, if not a ground of confidence before God, at any rate a ground for carrying ourselves with very considerable complacency before men. It is not unheard of that people should rely, if not on ‘circumcision on the eighth day,’ on an outward rite which seems to connect them with a visible Church. Strict orthodoxy takes the place among us which Pharisaism held in Paul’s mind before he was a Christian, and it is easier to prove our zeal by pugnacity against heretics, than by fervour of devotion. The modern analogue of Paul’s, ‘touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless,’ is ‘I have done my best, I have lived a decent life. My religion is to do good to other people.’ All such talk, which used to be a vague sentiment or excuse, is now put forward in definite theoretical substitution for the Christian Truth, and finds numerous teachers and acceptors. But how short a way all such grounds of confidence go to satisfy a soul that has once seen the vision that blazed in on Paul’s mind on the road to Damascus!
II. The discovery of their worthlessness.
‘These have I counted loss for Christ.’ There is a possibility of exaggeration in interpreting Paul’s words. The things that were ‘gain’ to him were in themselves better than their opposites. It is better to to be ‘blameless’ than to have a life all stained with foulness and reeking with sins. But these ‘gains’ were ‘losses,’ disadvantages, in so far as they led him to build upon them, and trust in them as solid wealth. The earthquake that shattered his life had two shocks: the first turned upside down his estimate of the value of his gains, the second robbed him of them. He first saw them to be worthless, and then, so far as others’ judgment went, he was stripped of them. Actively he ‘counted them loss,’ passively he ‘suffered the loss of all things.’ His estimate came, and was followed by the practical outcome of his brethren’s excommunication.
What changed his estimate? In our text he answers the question in two forms: first he gives the simple, all-sufficient monosyllabic reason for his whole life--’for Christ,’ and then he enlarges that motive into ‘the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.’ The former carries us back straight to the vision which revolutionised Paul’s life, and made him abjure all which he had trusted, and adore what he had abhorred. The latter dwells a little more upon the subjective process which followed on the vision, but the two are substantially the same, and we need only note the solemn fulness of the name of ‘Jesus Christ,’ and the intense motion of submission and of personal appropriation contained in the designation, ‘my Lord.’ It was not when he found his way blinded into Damascus that he had learned that knowledge, or could apprehend its ‘excellency.’ The words are enriched and enlarged by later experiences. The sacrifice of his earlier ‘gains’ had been made before the ‘excellency of the knowledge’ had been discerned. It was no mere intellectual perception which could be imparted in words, or by eyesight, but here as always Paul by ‘knowledge’ means experience which comes from possession and acquaintance, and which therefore gleams ever before us as we move, and is capable of endless increase, in the measure in which we are true to the estimate of ‘gains’ and ‘losses’ to which our initial vision of Him has led us. At first we may not know that that knowledge excels all others, but as we grow in acquaintance with Jesus, and in experience of Him, we shall be sure that it transcends all others, because He does and we possess Him.
The revolutionising motive may be conceived of in two ways. We have to abandon the lower ‘gains’ in order to gain Christ, or to abandon these because we have gained Him. Both are true. The discernment of Christ as the one ground of confidence is ever followed by the casting away of all others. Self-distrust is a part of faith. When we feel our feet upon the rock, the crumbling sands on which we stood are left to be broken up by the sea. They who have seen the Apollo Belvedere will set little store by plaster of Paris casts. In all our lives there come times when the glimpse of some loftier ideal shows up our ordinary as hollow and poor and low. And when once Christ is seen, as Scripture shows Him, our former self appears poor and crumbles away.
We are not to suppose that the act of renunciation must be completed before a second act of possession is begun. That is the error of many ascetic books. The two go together, and abandonment in order to win merges into abandonment because we have won. The strongest power to make renunciation possible is ‘the expulsive power of a new affection.’ When the heart is filled with love to Christ there is no sense of ‘loss,’ but only of ‘exceeding gain,’ in casting away all things for Him.
III. The continuous repetition of the discovery.
Paul compares his present self with his former Christian self, and with a vehement ‘Yea, verily,’ affirms his former judgment, and reiterates it in still more emphatic terms. It is often easy to depreciate the treasures which we possess. They sometimes grow in value as they slip from our hands. It is not usual for a man who has ‘suffered the loss of all things’ to follow their disappearance by counting them ‘but dung.’ The constant repetition through the whole Christian course of the depreciatory estimate of grounds of confidence is plainly necessary. There are subtle temptations to the opposite course. It is hard to keep perfectly clear of all building on our own blamelessness or on our connection with the Christian Church, and we have need ever to renew the estimate which was once so epoch-making, and which ‘cast down all our imaginations and high things.’ If we do not carefully watch ourselves, the whispering tempter that was silenced will recover his breath again, and be once more ready to drop into our ears his poisonous suggestions. We have to take pains and ‘give earnest heed’ to the initial, revolutionary estimate, and to see that it is worked out habitually in our daily lives. It is a good exchange when we count ‘all but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv6, 9, 12, 15 (See Scofield "Rom 10:3").
righteousness
(See Scofield "Rom 10:3").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv4, 7, 12, 17 Paul’s right to boast:
Paul’s right to boast:
v. 4. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
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v. 5. circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the Law, a Pharisee;
v. 6. concerning zeal, persecuting the Church; touching the righteousness which is in the Law, blameless.
Somewhat after the manner in which he had spoken 2Co 11:21-30, Paul here offers evidence why he might boast with reason, if he should choose to argue from the standpoint of the Judaizing teachers: Although I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have reliance on flesh, I more. The apostle would have reason to bring forward certain external advantages if he so chose, if there were any real benefit in so doing. He can meet the false teachers also in this field, on their own ground. If they were laboring under the perverted impression that everything depended upon these external things, then Paul has a much greater right to boast.
This he now proceeds to show: Eight days old as regards my circumcision: of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; according to the Law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the Church; concerning the righteousness in the Law, blameless. The apostle was not merely a Jewish proselyte, he had been born in Judaism and had been brought up under its rites from the outset. The Judaizing teachers whom Paul had in mind at this time may have been mere proselytes of the gate and unable to point back to such a record. Paul was by birth an Israelite, of the original stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. His pedigree was unquestioned; whereas many Jews could no longer trace their descent exactly, Paul had proofs for his lineal descent from Benjamin. He was a true Hebrew according to the flesh, he could hold up his head with the best of them. And as for the Law, so far as the external zeal for the Law was concerned, he was a Pharisee, a member of the strictest sect among the Jews. There could be no doubt that Paul had been perfectly sincere, absolutely conscientious as a keeper of the Law, that he had a clean record before the Jews, though he had acted in moral blindness. Yea, more, in zeal he had been far above the average Jew; so zealous had he been before his conversion that he had been a persecutor of the Church, having attempted to eradicate the "new sect. " As for the righteousness, finally, which rests upon the Law, which gets its validity by the Law, he was blameless; he proved himself so earnest that no accusation on that score could be brought and sustained against him. So far as the external fulfillment of the Law was concerned, no one could have been more earnest or more successful. So he could easily challenge any one of the Judaizing opponents on any of the points upon which they usually harped, and overcome them.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv4, 6, 8, 12, 15, 17 Even so
Even so
"Although if I wanted to." Paul is introducing a hypothetical situation that could not possibly exist. (See: Hypothetical Situations)
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I myself could have confidence in the flesh. If anyone thinks he has confidence in the flesh, I could have even more
This is a hypothetical situation that Paul does not believe is possible. Paul says if it were possible that God would save people based on what they did, then God would certainly have saved him. AT: "No one can do enough things to please God, but if anyone could do enough things to please God, I could do more good things and please God more than anyone" (See: Hypothetical Situations)
I myself
Paul uses "myself" for emphasis. AT: "certainly I" (See: Reflexive Pronouns)
I was circumcised
This can be stated in active form. AT: "A priest circumcised me" (See: Active or Passive)
the eighth day
"seven days after I was born"
a Hebrew of Hebrews
Possible meanings are 1) "a Hebrew son with Hebrew parents" or 2) "the purest Hebrew."
with regard to the law, a Pharisee
"as a Pharisee, I was completely devoted to the law"
translationWords
confidence
flesh
circumcise
Israel
tribe
Benjamin
Hebrew
law
Pharisee
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17 3:4 in my own effort (literally in the flesh):…
3:4 in my own effort (literally in the flesh): Paul uses flesh here for self-reliance and human effort in contrast to reliance on Christ and empowerment by the Spirit.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.