"Finally, my
brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is
not irksome, but for you it is safe. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil
workers, beware of the concision: for we are the circumcision, who worship by
the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the
flesh: though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh: if any other man
thinketh to have 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; as
touching the law, a Pharisee; as touching zeal, persecuting the church; as
touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. Howbeit what
things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ."
(Phil. 3:1-7).
"Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord." On the face of it, it looks as though the Apostle was going to
close his letter at that point, but we find that he goes on for some
considerable time afterward. The word "finally" does not necessarily mean
conclusion. It is a word which is translated in various ways in the New
Testament, and can just as readily be rendered "henceforth" or "for the rest."
Here it seems clearly to indicate that Paul is making a new start upon some
other things, bringing something more into view, and is saying, For the rest, my
brethren, rejoice in the Lord.
"To write the same things to
you, to me indeed is not irksome, but for you it is safe." We are not told what
it was that was being referred to by the Apostle, when he writes of "the same
things." Some have thought there to have been an earlier letter which has been
lost. Others have seen in the words a reference to Paul's own talks with them,
while in their midst. Others, again, consider the words to imply a repetition of
this exhortation to rejoice in the Lord; and certainly Paul did not find that
irksome, whilst as certainly for them it would be very safe. It is always safe
to rejoice in the Lord! But we do not know definitely to what he was referring,
but we can enter quite well into the spirit of what he writes.
This letter is simply the
letter of a heart overflowing with the Lord Jesus, and, when that is so,
"finally" may be said many times, but you never really conclude there. The whole
spirit of the letter is just that; that being full of Christ you must speak, you
must give out what is inside. That is the best kind of preaching; but be sure it
is the fulness of Christ that makes you go on.
There comes in, at this point,
the striking of a fresh note. At one point in the letter at least, there seems
to creep into the sky a black cloud, the dark cloud of a painful recollection,
and it is at this point that you meet that cloud.
"Beware of the dogs, beware of
the evil workers, beware of the concision." That is indeed a dark cloud of
painful recollection. It is just something held over from the great controversy
which came to its climax in Galatia, the great battle with the Judaisers, who
were seeking by every means, mainly foul, to seduce the believers from Christ in
clearness and in fulness, and to bring them back again into the bondage of a
set, traditional, religious system.
Very few of the assemblies of
the Lord's people which came into being through the ministry of the Apostle Paul
escaped the work of those Judaisers, and evidently this fair work at Philippi
had also been attacked; and, although now the full force of the blaze of
conflict has spent itself, and Paul's Galatian letter has broken the stream in
the main, this reference is like the rumblings of the departing storm. Still,
however, there is the necessity for keeping the Lord's children alive to the
fact that this evil thing is not yet altogether dead, and that still there are
perils, and still they need to be warned. No stronger language could be used
than the Apostle uses of the Judaisers here. He calls them "the dogs." It is a
strong word for Jews, because the Jews had always called the Gentiles dogs. What
was specially in the Apostle's mind we do not know. We know that the term "the
dogs" was usually employed to imply uncleanness. In the book of the Revelation
we read that the dogs will be kept outside of the city; they are the unclean
things, the scavengers. Whether the Apostle was using the term in this sense,
and if so, was referring to the spiritual rather than the moral uncleanness of
these Judaisers, we cannot tell. It may be that, because they had dogged his
heels wherever he had gone, and yelped at him, and sought to destroy his work,
he so termed them.
"...Beware of the evil workers...." Literally
not workers, but workmen, men who are not only doing works of an evil kind, but
men whose business it is to do them. "Workers" is a more or less general term,
and does not imply that that is their principal vocation in life. But when you
say more precisely, as in the Greek, "evil workmen" you are referring to men
whose one business in life is to do this thing. And the Judaisers had made it
their business to destroy the work of the Apostle, and to destroy the work of
these believers.
"...Beware of the concision;
for we are the circumcision...." Here is a contrast. These Judaisers were going
about saying, Unless ye be circumcised ye cannot be saved, making circumcision
essential to salvation. This, however, was not exactly the point, but what they
were doing was to go about with a view to making these marks the marks of a
tradition in the flesh of believers, merely in order to have so many people who
could be numbered as having been circumcised. Paul speaks of them in the
Galatian letter as wanting "to glory in your flesh." That is to say:- See how
many converts we have made, and they all bear the mark of their conversion in
circumcision! Paul says that is simply concision, the making of a mark, a
cutting, an external sign; and he puts over against that "the circumcision." The
more outward mark is not circumcision. That is what Paul is saying. Circumcision
is an inward thing, a spiritual thing, a deeper thing than a mere outward form.
He then immediately goes on to give three marks of true circumcision.
Spiritual Worship
"We are the circumcision," as
differing from the mere concision, outward marks, who "worship by the Spirit."
The first mark of true circumcision is "worship by the Spirit of God." That will
take us back immediately to John 4 where the Lord Jesus, indicating the
Samaritan Temple in Mount Gerizim and then the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem,
said: - "The hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall
ye worship the Father... the true worshippers shall worship the Father in
spirit and in truth... God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must
worship in spirit and truth." You note a change of dispensation from the merely
outward, the merely traditional, the Jewish system, from a religious order which
is connected with external forms and rites, to a dispensation in which
everything is in the Spirit. And the first thing in this dispensation is
spiritual worship. What is spiritual worship? What is it to worship the Father
in spirit and in truth? Worship quite clearly implies that God has the central, and the
supreme, and the exclusive place in a life. But that has to become a thing which
is inward by the Holy Ghost. It is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, putting
God into His supreme place at the centre of our being, and that is worshipping
God in spirit and in truth. That is a mark of true circumcision, that now
right at the very centre of our being, by the Holy Ghost, God is enthroned in
supremacy.
That is not exaggerating the
position, because all that follows in this third chapter is simply a bearing out
of that. The true circumcision is marked, firstly, by worshipping God, or
worshipping by the Spirit of God. That is different from the formal worship of
the Temple of the Jews, the outward service, all that elaborate ritual and order
of the old dispensation. Now everything has become inward by the Holy Spirit,
and the first thing out of which all else arises is found in God being in His
place at the centre of our being by the Holy Ghost, and everything in our lives
going out to God, all for God. Taking the illustration of the old Jewish system,
we note how God had a mark upon everything. Everything that a Jew possessed
had the mark of God put upon it. If he had a crop of corn, the first ripe
handful was marked for God. It said: All this harvest is God's, and you have to
hold and use all the rest for God's glory, and indicate that you do so by
bringing your first handful to God, and saying: This is but a tithe, a firstfruits; it is a testimony that I hold all the rest for God. If a Jew had a
family, the firstborn son was marked as God's. But the firstborn was not an
isolated unit. He represented all the rest of the family, and all the rest of
the family, and of the family life, was gathered into the firstborn. It does not
matter where you look in the whole life. God put His mark upon it, and claimed
it, and demanded first place.
Now the outward order has
passed, and the new meaning has been established in a new dispensation, and God
has come into the first place in everything, so that
everything in life has to be held in relation to God. That is worshipping God by
the Spirit.
Do you see the relationship between this and
the testimony of baptism? You only have to turn over to the Colossian letter,
chapter 2, and verse 12, and you will find a very definite reference to
circumcision as being related to baptism. The circumcision of Christ, "the
putting away of the whole body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ,
having been buried with him in baptism." So that baptism is the outward
testimony in this dispensation to the fact that all that relates to the self
life has been put away, and that now everything in life has become related to
God, is to be held for God, God having primary place. The first mark, then, of
the circumcision which is spiritual, is worship by the Spirit of God.
Glorying in Christ
It is a very sad thing to see
how many come to this testimony of baptism, and in all earnestness assent to the
challenge of it, that now it is "no longer I but Christ," and at the time are
rejoicing and glorying in Christ, but afterwards are found in that position
which implies that they have taken everything back from Christ, and all is for
self again. May that not be true of us. Circumcision in its spiritual meaning
and value means that Christ is the object of our glorying.
No Confidence in the Flesh
"Have no confidence in
the flesh...." There is no need to enlarge upon that at the moment. All we need
to do is to see how Paul deals with that matter. He follows that clause
immediately with an explanation of what he means, as having been already
demonstrated in his own history: "Though I myself might have confidence even in
the flesh: if any other man thinketh to have confidence in the flesh, I yet
more." What is it to have confidence in the flesh? It means to lay store by
these things which follow, or by that which is implied or represented by them. "Circumcised the eighth day..." That was a mark of the true Jew. It was the
eighth day. Circumcision was performed in Egypt amongst the Egyptians, and
was also practised amongst the Ishmaelites. But neither the Egyptians nor the
Ishmaelites circumcised on the eighth day. The Ishmaelites left it to the
thirteenth day, and the Egyptians had another day. But amongst the Jews it was
the eighth day.
For us there is a spiritual
significance about that. We see that there was a Divine thought in the eighth
day, and that if the putting away of the whole body of the flesh is related to
the grave, then resurrection unto newness of life, which is unto Christ, is a
matter of the eighth day, "eight" being the number of resurrection. Paul is
saying that being circumcised the eighth day marked him out as a true Jew; not an Ishmaelite, not an Egyptian,
and not a proselyte, but a true Jew, something of which Jews who had that
privilege boasted.
"Of the stock of Israel."
The Edomites were through Isaac,
through Esau. Ishmael was also from Abraham. But these were not true Israelites;
for they were not in the covenant. Paul is saying "of the stock of
Israel," that is, within the covenant, claiming and possessing all the covenant
privileges.
"Of the tribe of Benjamin, a
Hebrew of Hebrews." Of pure Hebrew
parentage. To the Jew these were the great things, the advantages, the
privileges of birth. To these he adds some of the advantages of being a
Pharisee, and occupying a position of influence because of his pre-eminent zeal.
All this was to his natural advantage. If he had liked to use it, as he did
once, it would have carried him a long way, it would have meant a high position,
a great influence. It was a basis upon which, standing and working, he would
have been carried a long way in this world. Now he calls that "confidence in
the flesh." In a word, this means not to rely on any natural advantages, whether
inherited or acquired; not to work on the ground of anything which we have or
can be of ourselves; not to use our own strength, our own wisdom, our
own wit, our own resources to get on, to make our way, to get a place. That is
all confidence in the flesh, and true circumcision rules all that out; rules out
reputation, ambition and all natural resources, and brings to a place where
Christ alone is our resource for everything. Paul's own life is a wonderful
commentary upon this. Naturally he lost influence, position, reputation;
naturally he lost everything by this spiritual circumcision. But what a gain it
has been! What an influence! What a reputation! What an achievement! It is so
supremely superior to anything of nature, or that nature could have
accomplished. It was not for one moment the result of any natural resource. It
was Christ. And so the whole of this chapter goes on to talk of the
super-eminence of the knowledge of Christ. That is what follows.
Do you say that it is all very well for us to
speak about what true spiritual circumcision means, or, in other words, what the
Cross requires? I am quite sure that sometimes the repetition of these things
is irksome, when stress is laid so much upon the Cross as a means of
circumcision, and that all that is of nature must be set aside, all that is of
this world must go, and how we must come to the
place where nothing that is personal must influence or be resorted to, that the
Cross cuts off our natural life absolutely. Well, if that emphasis is repeated
frequently it may become an awful barren kind of doctrine.
But take these things which
Paul put at one time on the credit page of his life book. These were the big
things that counted. And then to lose those things while he was in that natural
realm would have been to lose everything. The day came when Paul scratched out
at the top of that page the word "credit" with reference to his natural
inheritance and attainments and put "credit" on the other side, and under the
word "credit" on the other side he put another list of things; not this time,
"Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel," and all
the rest but, "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord," and
all that that meant. That was the credit. Now which was superior? The going of
the one made room for the other, and there is no comparison between these two.
If the Cross stands between, and all that is of nature is smitten - the true
circumcision cuts all that off - what comes in? All this other, all that Christ
is. Note all that, Paul says to us. That was my life! All that was my glory
once! That was everything to me! But now it is as mere refuse, as that which
you throw away and for which you have no use, because something else so
supremely superior has come in - the knowledge of Christ. That is what the true
circumcision leads to.