Philippians 3:1–3

3:1 The Greek phrase translated “finally” functions as a formal signal that Paul has transitioned to a new section, not the final or last section of the letter. It is a transitional phrase, not a terminal phrase signaling the end of the discussion.¹

The command to rejoice is itself not new. Multiple times in multiple ways, Paul has called the Philippians to make much of Christ and rejoice in him.² Indeed, Paul admits that he is saying “the same things” again. Some commentators take the “same things” as a reference to what follows in verses 2–11,³ but I think a much stronger case can be made to take the phrase as a reference to the command to rejoice that precedes it.⁴

Paul gives not only the command to rejoice but also the rationale. He almost apologizes for boring his readers or belaboring the point through repetition but reassures them it is no problem for him personally (not a “trouble”), and even more so it is good for them corporately (“safe for you”). In what sense is the call to rejoice “safe” for the Philippians? Use of the word elsewhere could suggest that repeating the call to joy will make the point more firmly anchored (Heb. 6:19: a sure anchor) or more securely locked (Acts 16:23–24: a securely locked prison, with feet fastened in the stocks) in their hearts and minds. This is certainly true—repetition can drive a point deeper so that it stays with us longer. Paul, however, has more in mind than the safeguard of repetition; he connects the safeguard of rejoicing to the danger of false teaching in verse 2.⁵ Joy in Jesus serves as a shield against false teaching.

3:2 The opponents here appear to be different than the ones Paul mentioned earlier in the letter.⁶ This verse includes a powerful and skillful display of irony. Paul takes language Jews would have used against Gentile believers (e.g., “dogs”) and turns the tables by applying the language to the Jewish false teachers.

First, Paul calls the false teachers “dogs.” Jews would label non-Jews as unclean dogs because, instead of eating a kosher diet, Gentiles ate indiscriminately, just as dogs do. Jesus uses the label for a Gentile woman in Matthew 15:26, but the narrative there highlights that she is an illustration of Jesus’ teaching that people are made unclean not by what goes into the mouth but by what comes out of the heart (Matt. 15:1–20). Unclean hearts make unclean people, and the Pharisees were worst of all. They were like tombs: pretty on the outside but full of dead men’s bones on the inside. The narrative contrasts the unbelief and uncleanness of the Pharisees with the faith of the Gentile woman (who would have been regarded as unclean). Jesus tells her that it would not be right to take the children’s food and give it to the dogs (Matt. 15:26), but her faith surges forward when she says that even dogs eat the crumbs from their master’s table (v. 27). Jesus then commends the greatness of her faith (v. 28). In other words, Jesus is saying that this Gentile woman with an unclean diet is “clean” by faith, whereas the Pharisees with their clean diet are unclean because of their unbelief and evil hearts. In the same way, Paul states that these Jewish false teachers are dogs because their reliance on the flesh makes them unclean, whereas the faith of Paul’s Gentile believers makes them clean.

The second term Paul uses for the opponents is “evildoers” (or “evilworkers”), in contrast to people like Epaphroditus, Paul’s “fellow worker” (Phil. 2:25). The Jewish false teachers thought that apostles like Paul were working evil because they were spreading a works-free message of salvation. The false teachers taught that one needed to add works of the law to faith in Christ in order to be saved. Paul shows that the opponents’ attempt to create confidence in the flesh is an evil work because it compromises the gospel.

Jesus had similarly harsh words for how the false message of the Pharisees made their work evil: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves” (Matt. 23:15).

The third term Paul uses for the false teachers is “mutilators,” which is a play on words. The word for “circumcision” is peritomē; these false teachers are actually katatomē—mutilators. The false teachers were saying that people needed to be physically circumcised to be saved (cf. Acts 15:1). But Paul says that physical circumcision puts confidence in the flesh. The teachers are “mutilators” because their requirement of circumcision is akin to the pagan, self-inflicted cuttings prohibited in the OT (Lev. 19:28; 21:5; Deut. 14:1; Isa. 15:2; Hos. 7:14). The false teachers are not part of the true people of God but instead are more like the false prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:28), who thought cutting themselves would get God’s attention or prompt him to act. Works of the flesh will not prompt God to save.

These false teachers are tragically deceived into thinking they are doing a good work as God’s servants, when in fact they are servants of Satan (2 Cor. 11:14–15, 23). As Matthew Harmon says, “Thinking they are true sons of the kingdom, they in fact are the dogs left outside of the kingdom because of their insistence on Jewish supremacy.”⁷ The next verse shows that Jewish supremacy has no place in Christian identity.

3:3 In contrast to the false teachers (i.e., the mutilators), true believers in Christ are the true circumcision. The circumcision in view here is internal and stands in sharp contrast to the external circumcision the false teachers required. True believers have all received a heart change: circumcision of the heart, not the flesh. Paul teaches the same thing in Romans 2:28–29: “No one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.”

This circumcised heart or heart change is a promised part of the new covenant (Ezek. 36:26). Another aspect of the new covenant is the gift of the Holy Spirit, as the Lord promises: “I will put my Spirit within you” (Ezek. 36:27). This gift of the Spirit produces pure worship, which comes “by the Spirit of God” (Phil. 3:3). Notice that Paul does not say Christians “worship the Spirit of God”; rather, he says Christians “worship by the Spirit of God.” This raises a natural question: who is the focus of Christian worship? The third phrase in verse 3 provides the answer: Christians “glory in Christ Jesus.” Jesus himself tied the Spirit’s work directly to his own glory in John 16:14: “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Believers boast in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Believing is boasting or glorying in Jesus. Christians glory in Christ Jesus and thus share the ambition Paul stated earlier in the letter to “honor” or make much of Jesus (Phil. 1:20). This is not to say that the Spirit is unworthy of worship; rather, the Spirit takes our worship and deflects it toward Christ, whom the Spirit is pleased to glorify.

The last phrase of verse 3 further interprets the nature of glorying in Christ, as Paul adds that Christians “put no confidence in the flesh.” Glorying in Christ must mean putting all confidence in Christ to save and no confidence in salvation by works of the flesh (cf. 3:4–6).