Philippians 3

1. FINALLY, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me in- 2 deed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware 3 of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and re- 4 joice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confi- dence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the 5 flesh, I more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, 6 an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting 7 the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things 8 were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suf- 9 fered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is 10 through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made 11 conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the 12 dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow 13 after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting 14 those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be other- 16 wise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already 17 attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers 18 together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the 19 enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) 20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord 21 Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glori- ous body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto him- 1 self. Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.

CONVERSION is not merely a submission to the moral law. Paul was a moral man in the full and high sense of the word, subordinating his own will to duty, even to the point of self-renunciation and sacrifice. Conversion is not merely the acceptance, however sincere, of certain religious principles. Saul was a believing Israelite, a zealous Jew, a rigid Pharisee, exact among the exact, submissive to the Scriptures, serving the true God, hoping for the Messiah, equally scrupulous in observing and ardent in defending all the ordinances of Moses. Conversion is not even a mere gradual development, a progressive amelioration of all the good dispositions which we have just recognized in Saul. They could never have yielded anything save that which they contained in the germ; Saul would only have continued Saul, and Paul would never have begun.

Conversion is the starting-point of a new life; opposite to the old, for the very name marks the returning upon and total changing of one’s path. By it Saul becomes not better, but he becomes other; he is not more faithful than formerly to his principles, but his principles are changed; that which he regarded as evil, he regards as good; that which he called light, he calls darkness. A germ, new, unknown, and foreign, has been deposited in the depth of his being; this germ is faith in Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. Henceforth, that which he had sought in the law, he seeks only in grace; that which he had expected from his own righteousness, he expects only from the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. And every genuine conversion, beginning like that of Saul, ends also like that. It begins by Jesus Christ living and reigning in the heart before God; it ends by Jesus Christ living and reigning in the works before men. Monod.

1. For you it is safe.** As the truths of our redemption are still the same, and as our nature is still the same, so the Christian minister must unavoidably say the same, or very nearly the same things, in his preaching year after year. Naturally, no doubt, it is very irksome to be repeating only what we have said before; quite as irksome to the speaker as it can be to the hearer. But Paul says, “to me indeed it is not grievous, but for you it is safe”; and the reason, probably, why he did not feel it grievous was, because he knew that for his hearers it was safe; and so we ought all to feel when we say or hear what has been in substance often said and heard before. If, from a dread of saying what we have said before, we try to go off to something less familiar, what follows, but that we must put the less important truth in the place of the more important, and curious questions of little real value in the place of the word of life? T. A.

2. The true Christian spirit alone could make the decision between a carnal or a spiritual Messiah; between a righteousness grounded on faith in the Redeemer alone, or in the law and its works; between the transformation effected by the divine life, working from within the reformation of the whole man, or a mere external change in outward conduct; between God’s work or man’s work, humble acceptance of divine gifts, humble surrender to Jesus as the Saviour, or a carnal Messiah, with the admission of the desert of one’s own works. It was because the question for the new churches was of just such an unconditional opposition, between what was Christian and what was un-Christian, that Paul felt himself obliged to present the case so strongly, and to testify so earnestly against those erroneous views. “Beware of dogs” (the term in the original expressing the shameless effrontery of these opposers of the truth); “beware of evil workers” (those who would supplant the Christian by the Jewish standpoint); “beware of the concision.” N.—The strange, un-English term, “the concision,” is the only rendering possible for the contemptuous word which Paul uses to designate the Judaizing party. What he says is, “Beware of, I will not say the circumcision (for that is an honorable name, as I will presently show you), but the concision—the mere amputation—the cutting off of the flesh, and no more.” He reserves the word circumcision, in its true sense, for Christians. A.

3. A scholar trained at the feet of Gamaliel kneels before “the Father in spirit”: a Pharisee of the strictest sect has his shrank heart expanded into “joy in Christ Jesus”; a proud professor, blameless touching the law, feels “no confidence in the flesh.” “We are the circumcision,” he says; says it boldly, after this thorough readjusting of his religious relations. He thought so, as a Jew, when there was none to dispute the claim. As a Christian, with all Jewry despising that claim, he is sure of it. A Saviour to go to and walk by; a Father to trust in and forget our little selves in glorifying; this is the “circumcision,” both “worshipping the Father in spirit” and “rejoicing in Christ Jesus.” F. D. H.

4-9. Even the Philippians needed a passing warning. Active and mischievous teachers would have fain placed the sacrifice of Calvary and the sacraments of the new Covenant on the level of the legal shadows which pointed to them. Paul appeals to his own case against the Judaizers. He had actually enjoyed the distinctions of race and blood, of exact compliance with the prescriptions of the ancient ritual, of high religious standing, of public consideration and personal character which they so earnestly coveted or recommended. At the bidding of heaven, he had taken the true measure of these things, and had renounced them. H. P. L.—A wonderful thing! the one, of all others, who could have most boldly claimed a righteousness of his own, is that one, of all others, who has most clearly rejected all self-righteousness, and who has rested most absolutely in the alone grace of Jesus Christ. Minds less enlightened, souls less elevated, in all Christian communions, in all the religions of the world, have sought in privation or in suffering an imaginary method of appeasing God, of effacing their sins and meriting heaven; but in his case, that which calls for, that which sustains, in his heart and in his works, a devotion without reserve, is the distinct contemplation, the profound feeling, of the sacrifice by which Jesus Christ had been beforehand with him without his works, before his good works, and notwithstanding his evil works. The crucified love of the lost creature responds to the crucified love of God the Saviour. Everywhere justification “by grace, by faith,” holds the first place; it is his doctrine; he is apostle only for that, as he had become apostle only for that; the transition from Saul to Paul is nothing but the transition from the law to grace. Paul and grace, grace and Paul—this name and this idea are so inseparable that the one should be regarded as the living personification of the other. Monod.

7. Paul says that the things which before he counted gain now he counts loss; to let us see that to be born in the kirk, to be of the true religion, to say our prayers morning and evening, to live blamelessly, to deal equitably with men, are so far from doing us good to get heaven, that they are loss, and hindrances from Christ, and impediments to keep from heaven. For the man who leans on these never truly repents of sin; never troubles himself to mortify his own evil nature; is not earnest for reconciliation with God; never arrests himself before God’s tribunal nor mourns before him in secret for sin; but soothes himself in his estate as if all were well, and thinks, when he compares himself with other men, if he be barred out of heaven many a one has cause to be dismayed. But here we see all these things they count gain are losses and hindrances, main deceits, that hinder men to be humbled before God, and, being leaned to, prove rotten reeds, that break and stab the man that leans on them.

Many never lay their account to seek heaven, but say within themselves, Bide till I grow old; bide till I get such a business by hand; bide till I grow rich. They may as well say, Bide till I can serve the devil no longer. They have their houses and estate to care for, their name and credit to uphold, their pleasures to follow; as for heaven, a soul-righteousness, or life eternal, they care not nor count for these. Yet we see Paul, ere he kenned Christ, was reckoning what things were gain to him, that he might get to heaven.

8. Win Christ.** There will be great fight ere this be gotten done, for all our lusts will be on foot to set up some idol in his room. But down must they all, that Christ may be set on his throne; for he has not redeemed us from the devil that the devil should get a seat above him in our soul. But he must be above all; he must be our delight, our wisdom, our riches, our glory, our life; and if he be not in his room, he will not have a room in us at all.

9. And be found in him.** Here is the thing he would be in grips with instead of all his losses; he would be found in Christ. This imports that in the day of God’s judging there will be an inquisition made for every man, and every man will be sought till he be found. The apostle, when this inquisition is made, has no will to be found out of Christ. D. D.—When the avenger looks for me, I shall not be seen, I shall not be discovered; he will look for me, and he will find only Christ. I shall be inside that refuge against which God’s own judgment shall have no power. Judgment may seek me, but I shall not be found; only Christ, only the Saviour, only the Judge. Could any words express more forcibly the safety of the Christian? He will be found inclosed, incorporated, and thus hidden, in Christ himself, in the Lord, in the Judge of man! It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? V.

10. That I may know him.** He knew him, but he would know him better. He would so experimentally know Him in his nature, will, office, fashions, that that light of knowledge might be transfused into his soul; that he might draw life and power from Christ; that he might feel the power of his resurrection; that is, such a communion with him in his resurrection as may raise him to newness of life, and make him have more peace and joy in him, and fellowship of his sufferings, that as Christ suffered, so he may be content to be a crucified man, ready to follow after Christ, renouncing the world, contented to be scourged back and side and to suffer many things, whereby he might be like Christ. If the fruits of Christ’s resurrection be newness of life, then all the luster a man has of a holy and blameless life before he come to Christ is but of the old man; it is but a pagan’s luster. Whoever would have a new life must draw it from Christ risen. 11. By resurrection from the dead is meant complete satisfaction in newness of life. He would be farther on to a higher degree of resurrection from the deadness of his nature, to the life of Christ, and complete stature of a Christian man. In a word, he desires to be a complete Christian. D. D.

In verse 12, for “attained,” read “obtained.” It is a wholly different word from that rendered “attained” in the last verse, and ought not to have been rendered by the same word in English. And it should proceed, “or are already made perfect: but I press on (same word as in verse 14 below), if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ.” And in verse 13, for “apprehended,” “laid hold.” A.—Paul is far from supposing when he contemplates his own life that he has already reached the limit of heavenly perfection, or that he could build his confidence thereon as if it were a life of perfected sanctification. But the ground of his confidence is this—that Christ has taken him into fellowship with himself, that Christ has apprehended him. He knows that Christ, by whom he has been apprehended, will not leave unfinished the work he has himself begun in him, but, if he truly surrenders himself to his hands, will conduct it through all conflicts to a glorious conclusion. N.—This is to be observed of the Christian, that as he advances in the Christian course, his standard of perfection rises, whence what satisfied him once fails to satisfy him now. As he put on godliness perhaps the change was great, and therefore the attainment seemed to be great. But he walks onward, making fresh discoveries all the while of two objects, of himself and of the majestic law of Christian duty. His life pleases him less, for he sees through outward actions more into his soul. His standard rises and rises until nothing but godlike perfection is worthy of his aims or hopes. T. D. W.—The profession of a state of sinless perfection the Scriptures declare to be a delusion. It is contradicted by the experience and recorded confessions of the most eminent saints of God in all ages; and is, further, in opposition to all the characters under which Christian experience is described in Scripture—as a race, a warfare, a wrestling against spiritual enemies, who certainly are not slain but at the last; a crucifixion which, though it surely terminate in death, is lingering. Goode.

12. I follow after, if I may apprehend.** That is, I have ta’en a grip of Christ, to see if I can win to that measure of holiness wherefore he has gripped me. Then he says over again, Think not so of me, that I am come so far on in sanctification; for I am not yet won to the mark that I would be at, but have many unmortified sins which hold me that I can not win forward. Yet I am laboring for it. I count nothing of anything that I have done, there is so much yet to be done. I reckon none of by-ganes, but I am reaching to those before me. I am assaying if I can win to the thing I would be at; and what is not done, I am minting to it. This is set down in the similitude of a race (vs. 13, 14). Then he bids all honest men be like-minded, and come on the same way that he is striving (v. 15). D. D.

Christ is all. All centers in this one point, that we enter into his fellowship and make it more and more our own; that we follow him in the entire renunciation of selfish and earthly interests, not shunning to partake in the fellowship of his sufferings; and following him also as the Risen One, experiencing in ourselves the power of his resurrection—the resurrection to an imperishable and divine life above sin, death, and nature, proceeding from him to us, inasmuch as he has apprehended us and we apprehended him. N.—Wouldst thou know if Christ has gripped thee to salvation? Thou shalt know it by this—if thou be gripping him for sanctification. If thou had rather be at holiness than anything, not caring what thou lose or gain if thou win to holiness, then be sure that Christ has gripped thee to salvation. Therefore from this gather strength to look unto Christ, for if thou be set to have all known sin purged out, Christ has ta’en a grip of thee. As Paul was first apprehended and then seeks to apprehend, so art thou. Christ has gripped and loved thee first, for all the work begins upon his side. Christ’s aiming about us should be our aim also. Aims Christ at this—to have us strong in the faith, to encourage us against doubting, to give us victory over foes, joy in crosses? wherever he looks, look we.

13. What is Paul’s behavior in this race?** “One thing I do.” Being sensible of short remaining in the race, he sets himself to this one thing; he laid aside all that might hinder or divert him from this one thing, whereby he teaches us to lay aside every weight that presses down. The care of lawful business in as far as it draws from God, cast thou away the care, but do the business. In loss or gain, labor to further this one thing; and let all the points of thy calling and work be done as parts of this only necessary thing. D. D.

Forgetting the things behind. Paul meant only, “I don’t count that these past efforts are complete, I don’t build anything upon what I have done already; I recognize the mark of imperfection over it all, I fling it behind me and press onward.” But we may widen the application a little further than that, and include all sorts of backward looking, as being (except under very special conditions and in a very limited degree) a positive weakness and impediment to a man in running the race that lies before him. For one thing, time given to such an occupation is time withdrawn from the actual work of life. Remembering always tends to become a substitute for doing.

Past failures remembered are apt to weaken. We are prone to take them as measures of the future. A. M.—It is not good or healthy for a soul to brood over past sin. Sorrow for sin is foundation work. Should a man be employed all his days in laying foundations, what could he do besides? Sorrow for sin too is subordinate work. Let a man stop there, what has he gained, what has God gained? Is not forgiveness, or, as it is called in the Bible, God’s having our sins no more in remembrance, intended to put them in a certain sense out of our remembrance, and to aid us in thinking of better things toward which forgiveness opens the prospect? The natural course is from a right estimate of sin to sorrow for it, from sorrow to the purpose of new obedience. If I fail of this last, I fail of whatever is most important, and I surely shall fail if all my religion gathers itself on this one point of looking back upon my past life. No; better would it be, if possible, to forget all my past sin than thus to remember it without remembering also the gospel provisions and the gospel motives for sinners. T. D. W.—We lose time in mourning the loss of time. We miss present opportunities while lamenting opportunities that are past. And in nothing perhaps is the healthy bracing spirit of the gospel more conspicuous than in this—that when we are truly sorry for our sins we find that our sorrow is of a kind which worketh life; that while we are still mourning over our manifold offenses it virtually says to us, “Leave all those with Him who has made an atonement for the sin of the world. And now, with a lightened conscience and a cheerful trust, address yourselves to the work that lies before you.”

From our very sins and errors and mistakes God evolves a gracious teaching for us so soon as we are able to hear it. The memory of the transgressions we deplore goes with us into the new life, no longer to threaten and affright us, but to deepen our love for Him who has redeemed us, to supply the dark shadows before which the lights of hope and joy burn with a more cheerful and welcome radiance. The recollection of past opportunities neglected or abused becomes an incentive to a more diligent use of the opportunities still vouchsafed us. Cox.

Past attainments remembered are apt to become food for complacency, for every vain confidence. We are tempted to look back to past religious emotions and experiences as grounds of our hope. These past emotions were good for the time. If you turn them into the occasion for complacent confidence, as to the present and as to the future, they are simply bad. “Forget the things that are behind.” And still further remember, too, that these attainments in the past, like the failures in the past, do very often become practically to us the measure of our notion as to what we shall be able to do in the future.

So we ought to forget past sorrows and joys. The one is not without remedy, the other not perfect. “God is able to give thee much more than these”; to bring again blessednesses which surpass all those joys, and compensations which shall make the sorrows seem like a dream. Why live in the past, which, after all, was not so precious when it was a present, since we have God and Christ now as then, and in them may find peace for to-day and endless hope for every morrow?

“But how can I forget?” The apostle tells us, not by resolving to do it. Such efforts simply deepen the impression in our minds of the thought which we want to get out of our minds. The way is, as he says, “reaching forth unto the things that are before.” That is to say, this wise oblivion is to be won, not so much by forcing ourselves to forget as by letting ourselves anticipate. If we will occupy mind and heart with that sunlit future, it will dim the past, however bright it may be. It is when we look forward and Christward, letting Him fill the future and the future fill our hearts, and it is only then, that we can forget the things that are behind. A. M.

14. The language is sensibly colored by the image of the Greek racer. The race is undecided. In the eager pressure of the struggle, the racer can not measure the ground which he has already traversed; he forgets those things which are behind. He reaches forward to those things that are before, “the bodily attitude exactly picturing the mental impulse both in its posture and direction.” He presses forward toward the mark for the prize with which He who had called him from heaven was at length to bless him. Reflect that, when Paul is writing, that entire section of his life which is described in the Acts of the Apostles is already past. Already he has written his greatest Epistles, he has founded his noblest churches. Nay more, he has even been caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable words. Yet he forgets those things that are behind and reaches forward. For his life is true to the law which is obeyed by the highest as by the lowest of the true servants of Christ; it is a life of progress. H. P. L.—He had borne every kind of persecution, and shrunk from no kind of labor. Fasting and weariness and perils had been long familiar. He had long given up all pleasure, all honor, all ambition, to the one hope of serving the Master who had shone upon his eyes on the way to Damascus. Surely, if any man had any right to think he had done enough, it was such a man as this. Surely, if old age gives the privilege of repose on the way to heaven, the aged Apostle might claim the blessing of rest. Not so thought Paul. Forgetting all this, forgetting his labors and his sufferings, all that he had given up, all that he had done, now in old age he was still pressing forward for the prize which he did not consider that he had yet attained. F. T.—He is gazing on the heights yet to be scaled, the graces yet to be won in his secret soul, on the deepening, purifying, strengthening yet more perfectly that personal love for the Lord who had bought him from bondage and death. That love is in very deed the secret and the principle of his life. He is pondering how best he may win for and impart to thought, to affection, to resolves, new and ever-widening capacities; so that, as his life’s stream shall ebb and his natural forces shall decay, he may be gifted within and for ever by a secret strength that had come from heaven. H. P. L.

In Christ Jesus. When we know that Christ must cause us run at the race, this makes us draw strength and courage from him, and run still till we come to the end. If we be hungry or faint in the race, he is bread of life to refresh; he is the truth to direct; the life to hold in our life till the race be run; the prize we run for; our swiftness, and strength, and assurer of attainment. So, when we look to the prize or vantage that is to be had at the end of our Christian race, we will care nothing for many crosses, troubles, in the top of the race, for all these further us. This reproves those who clog themselves so with the world that they can not run this race; therefore God many times pulls off such clogs from the backs of his own that they may run the faster. He holds the things of this world from them; and if, instead of these, he gives them sore hearts, by these he is only helping them a lift that they may run the faster. D. D.