Philippians · Chapter 3

V. 1. The same things-Which you have heard before.

Verse 1. Rejoice in the Lord.] Be always happy; but let that happiness be such as you derive from the Lord.

To write the same things] He means those which he had formerly preached to them or to other Churches, for he had but one Gospel; and we may rest assured that the doctrine of this epistle was the same with his preaching.

For you it is safe.] It is much better to have these Divine things committed to writing than confided to memory. By the latter they may be either lost or corrupted, by the former they will be preserved.

Verse 1. Finally — Or rather, as to loipon should be here rendered, As for what remains; or, what I have further in view in writing this epistle. For the expression cannot here signify finally, as our translators have rendered the word, since the apostle is only entering on the main subject of his letter. Properly, it is a form of transition, and is translated besides, 1 Corinthians 1:16. It is as if he had said, Whatever may become of me, or of yourselves, so far as any worldly interest or prospect is concerned, rejoice in the Lord Christ — In the knowledge you have of him, and of the truths and promises of his gospel; in the faith you have in him; the union you have with him by that faith; the relations in which you stand to him as his friends, his brethren, his spouse; in the conformity you have to him in heart and life, and in the expectations you have from him of felicity and glory eternal. These are sufficient causes for rejoicing, whatever circumstances you may be in, and whatever your trials and troubles may be in this present short and uncertain life. Reader, hast thou these reasons for rejoicing? Then thou mayest well bear without impatience or discontent the light afflictions which are but for a moment, 2 Corinthians 4:17. To write the same things — Which you have heard from me before, or which I have written to other churches, and which I have desired Epaphroditus to tell you; to me indeed is not grievous — Nothing was accounted grievous or troublesome by him which was for the edification of the church; but for you it is safe — It will tend to preserve you from the errors and sins in which you might otherwise be insnared. The condemnation of the errors of the Judaizers, which the apostle was about to write in this chapter, he had already written in his epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians. But as they were matters of great importance, he did not grudge to write them in this letter; because, if they were only communicated to them verbally, by Epaphroditus, or others, all the Philippians might not have had an opportunity of hearing them, or they might have misunderstood them. Whereas, having them in writing, they could examine them at their leisure, and have recourse to them as often as they had occasion. St. Paul, we may observe further, wrote most of his epistles, partly at least, with a view to confute the erroneous doctrines and practices of the Judaizing teachers, who in the first age greatly disturbed the churches chiefly by their affirming, that unless the Gentiles were circumcised, after the manner of Moses, they could not be saved — But as these teachers artfully suited their arguments to the circumstances and prejudices of the persons whom they addressed, the controversy hath a new aspect in almost every epistle. And what the apostle advances in confutation of their doctrine, and for explaining and establishing the genuine doctrines of the gospel, comprehends a variety of particulars highly worthy of the attention of Christians in every age.

1. Warning against Judaizing teachers, 1, 2.

1. Finally—The apostle seems to have been about closing the epistle with a caution against the Judaizers, but at the mention of them as the concision, he goes off into the discussion which follows. Rejoice—This is the keynote of the whole epistle, but it is to be in the Lord. The same things—Namely, this frequent mention of joy. See Philippians 1:18, 25, 26; 2:2, 17, 18, 28; 4:4, 10. It was not irksome to him, while it would certainly tend to their safety, if it should lead them to seek their happiness in Christ.

Verse 1b. Abrupt introduction of a new topic. For the short foregoing exhortation to rejoice in the Lord could not conceivably be irksome to Paul, i.e. something to which he would go with reluctance, nor specially safe for his readers. We must therefore suppose that from some cause unknown to us, possibly interruption, a new topic was unexpectedly introduced into the Epistle when apparently approaching its close. And the three times repeated warning which at once follows in Philippians 3:2 and which might easily be distasteful to the writer suggests irresistibly that to it refers the word safe. If so, to this warning refer also the words to write the same things. This implies that on this subject Paul has already written to the Philippian Christians. But in this Epistle there is as yet no warning against any one. Even the reference to Paul’s opponents at Rome is not put in the form of a warning to the Christians at Philippi. He has said nothing of which these words can be called a repetition. Indeed this would be true even if they referred to the foregoing exhortation: for he has not before urged his readers even to rejoice in the Lord. The only approach to this is <505318> Philippians 2:18. Nor is it likely that the repetition refers to earlier oral teaching. For this would make the word write emphatic: whereas the Greek emphasis is on the same things. The absence of other explanation suggests that the repetition refers to some warning in an earlier letter to the Philippians now lost. Against this suggestion there is no objection. For it is hardly possible that all the letters which Paul wrote are preserved to us. There is clear mention in 1 Corinthians 5:9 (see note) of a lost letter to the Corinthians. Polycarp, in his Epistle to the Philippians, says that Paul when absent wrote letters to you. But this is not a conclusive proof: for the plural form letters is often used for a single written communication, e.g. 1 Maccabees x. 3, 7; xii. 5, 19; and this may have been Polycarp’s meaning. That Paul refers here to an earlier and lost letter, is the easiest explanation of his words. In such letter he may have warned the Christians at Philippi against Jewish enemies. And certainly his own experience in many places justified the warning: see Acts 13:45; 14:2, 5, 19; 17:5, 13. To this danger he refers in 1 Thessalonians 2:15; Romans 15:31. And he remembers it while writing this Epistle. To mention it again, is not, he tells us, a duty from which he recoils: and to do so may guard his readers from real danger.

V. 2. Beware of dogs-Unclean, unholy, rapacious men. The title which the Jews usually gave the Gentiles, he returns upon themselves. The concision-Circumcision being now ceased, the apostle will not call them the circumcision, but coins a term on purpose, taken from a Greek word used by the LXX, Leviticus 21:5, for such a cutting as God had forbidden.

Verse 2. Beware of dogs] The Jews, who have here the same appellative which they formerly gave to the Gentiles: because the Gentiles were not included in the covenant, they called them DOGS; and themselves, the children of the Most High. Now, they are cast out of the covenant and the Gentiles taken in; therefore they are the dogs, and the Gentiles the children.

Evil workers] Judaizing teachers, who endeavoured to pervert the Gospel. The concision.] katatomhn. The cutting or excision; not peritomhn, the circumcision: the word is used by the apostle to degrade the pretensions which the Jews made to sanctity by the cutting in their flesh. Circumcision was an honourable thing, for it was a sign of the covenant; but as they now had rejected the new covenant, their circumcision was rendered uncircumcision, and is termed a cutting, by way of degradation.

Verse 2. Beware of dogs — Unclean, unholy, rapacious men, who, though they fawn and flatter, would devour you as dogs. He probably gave them this appellation also, because they barked against the doctrines of the gospel, and against its faithful teachers, and were ready to bite and tear all who opposed their errors. Our Lord used the word dogs in the same sense, when he commanded his apostles not to give that which is holy to dogs. Perhaps, by calling them dogs, the apostle might intend to signify likewise, that, in the sight of God, they were now become as abominable, for crucifying Christ, and persecuting his apostles, as the idolatrous heathen were in the eyes of the Jews; who, to express their detestation of them, gave them the name of dogs; a title which the apostle therefore here returns upon themselves. Revelation 22:15, the wicked are called dogs: without are dogs. Beware of evil workers — Of those Judaizing teachers, who, while they cry up the law, and pretend to be strenuous advocates for good works, are, in fact, evil workers; sowing the seeds of discord, strife, contention, and division, among the simple, humble, and formerly united members of Christ, and acting in direct opposition, not only to the gospel, the true nature of which they do not understand, but even to the most important precepts and grand design of the law itself, for the honour of which they appear to be so zealous. Macknight renders the expression, evil labourers, in opposition to the appellation of fellow-labourers, with which the apostle honoured those who faithfully assisted him in preaching the gospel. The same false teachers he calls false apostles, and deceitful workers, or labourers, 2 Corinthians 11:13; because, instead of building, they undermined the Church of Christ, by removing its foundation; beware of the concision — Circumcision being now no longer a rite of entering into covenant with God, the apostle will not call those who used it the circumcision; but coins a term on purpose, taken from a Greek word used by the LXX., Leviticus 21:5, for such a cutting of the flesh as God had forbidden. Dr. Macknight renders the word the excision: an appellation, says he, “finely contrived to express the pernicious influence of their doctrine; and perhaps also to signify the destruction which was coming on them as a nation.” He adds, “the account given of these wicked men, Romans 16:18; Galatians 6:12; Titus 1:11, shows that they deserved all the harsh names given them in this place.”

Verse 2. Beware of dogs, judaizing teachers and false apostles, which bite and devour the flock; dogs which bark in ignorance against the person of Christ, and the gospel of God our Saviour. Paul had in view the rebuke given by Isaiah to the false prophets of Israel: Isaiah 56:10, 11. Dogs that encompassed about both David and David’s Lord, and thirsted for their blood. Psalms 22:17Psalm 22:17, 21.

Beware of evil workers, who corrupt the truth, and by every art seek to seduce and to destroy the church.

Beware of the concision, a word of contempt for the emissaries of the great synagogue, who boasted of circumcision as the exclusive seal of Abraham’s covenant, and hid the grand part of the promise, “In thy Seed (the Christ) shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” Genesis 12:3. These were a boasting race, “uncircumcised in heart and ear.” Acts 7:51.

2. Beware of dogs—Look to the dogs. Keep them in view, in order to learn their true character. Note, Matthew 7:6. The epithet implies religious impurity; and to this day dogs is the Moslem term for Christians. The evil workers—The same persons, agitators for mischief. The concision—The word means an excision, or cutting off. Note, Galatians 5:12. The term defines the opponents of whom they were to beware, as Judaizing teachers who sought to enforce the Mosaic law on Gentile Christians, beginning with circumcision as necessary to salvation. They do not appear to have made, as yet, any inroads upon the Philippian Church, but the caution here given implies danger from that quarter. The contemptuous name here employed, plain in the Greek with the play on words, implies that having lost sight of the spiritual import of the rite, they were mere outward manglers of the flesh.

2. Paul’s contrast of the Judaizers and himself, 3-16.

Ver. 2. Keep-eyes-on: pay attention to. Same word in Colossians 4:17; 1 Corinthians 1:26; 10:18, etc. It denotes the simple act of looking, ocular or mental.

Dogs: a term of contempt, frequent with Gentiles and Jews. To the latter, dogs, feeding as they do in Eastern cities on all sorts of refuse, were an incarnation of degraded ceremonial impurity. So Matthew 15:26; Revelation 22:15; cp. Matthew 7:6: also Isaiah 56:10, 11. This common term expressing Jewish contempt for Gentiles, Paul here applies to Jews, (see below,) indicating that the men referred to were outside and beneath the Covenant of God.

Workmen: same word in 2 Corinthians 11:13; ‘guileful workmen,’ 2 Timothy 2:15; Matthew 9:37, 38; 10:10; 20:1, 2; Luke 13:27 etc. They were active and laborious: but their aims and methods were bad.

The concision: a contemptuous modification of the word rendered circumcision. Its cognate verb describes in 1 Kings 18:28 the self-mutilations of the prophets of Baal: similarly Leviticus 21:5. It thus places the circumcision of these Jews beside the mutilations of the heathen. A close parallel in Galatians 5:12. The article before each substantive indicates a definite class of men. The essential harmony, amid total difference, of the terms used suggests that they present only different aspects of the same men. And this is confirmed by the order of the words, which passes from the general to the specific. This warning receives great emphasis from the repetition of the verb, beware. Three times, under three different aspects, Paul warns his readers of the same danger. The compactness of these words suggests that possibly they are an exact repetition of words already written by Paul. Certainly they embody a warning already given. The word concision proves that Philippians 3:2 refers to Jews. Upon these Paul flings back the term of contempt so freely cast by them at Gentiles as men outside the Covenant of God and as compared with themselves no better than unclean animals. He admits their laborious effort, but calls it bad. And the bodily rite in which they trust, he places on a level with heathen mutilation. That they were not members of the Church at Philippi, we infer with certainty from the universal commendation in Philippians 1:3-5. Yet the earnestness of the warning assures us that the danger was real and near. Paul’s parody of the word circumcision suggests that he refers roughly and generally to the Jewish race as a whole, or rather to the mass of it which rejected Christ. But his warning would include any Jews like those at Corinth (see my Corinthians p. 477) who under guise of a false profession had crept into the Church (cp. Galatians 2:4) in order to overturn it. Indeed the strong words in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 against men of this class is an important coincidence with this verse. But, inasmuch as in Philippians 3:5, 6 we have no reference to professed Christians like that in 2 Corinthians 11:23, probably Paul refers here chiefly to non-Christian Jews.

The anti-Christian Jews, Paul justly calls the concision: for every outward form of religion destitute of inward devotion is practically the same as heathen ritual. While boasting of the ancient and divine rite, they were really trampling under foot the purpose for which it was given. The rite so desecrated could not be called circumcision, but required a meaner name.

V. 3. For we-Christians.

Are the only true circumcision-The people now in covenant with God. Who worship God in spirit-Not barely in the letter, but with the spiritual worship of inward holiness.

And glory in Christ Jesus-As the only cause of all our blessings. And have no confidence in the flesh-In any outward advantage or prerogative.

Verse 3. We are the circumcision] WE, who have embraced the faith of Christ crucified, are now entered into the new covenant, and according to that new covenant, worship God in the Spirit, exulting, kaucwmenoi, making our boast of Christ Jesus, as our only Saviour, having no confidence in the flesh-in any outward rite or ceremony prescribed by the Jewish institutions.

Verse 3. For we are the circumcision — The true spiritual seed of Abraham; who have the things signified by that sign, and perform that which circumcision was designed to engage men to. We are the only people now in covenant with God, who worship God in the Spirit — Not barely in the letter, or by a mere external service, in attending outward ordinances, but with the spiritual worship of reverence and fear, humility and self-abasement, adoration and praise, confidence and hope, gratitude and love, subjection and obedience; of true repentance, living faith, and genuine holiness; feeling within ourselves, and manifesting to others, those dispositions and actions which are suited to the divine perfections, and to the relations in which he is pleased to stand to us; and all this through the influence of his Spirit, which can only implant these dispositions within us, and enable us to conduct ourselves accordingly. See this spiritual worship further explained in the note on John 4:23, 24; and rejoice — Or, glory, rather, as kaucwmenoi signifies; in Christ Jesus — As the procuring cause of all our blessings, and the source of all our consolations; and have no confidence in the flesh — In any outward advantage or prerogative, or in any performance of our own, past, present, or to come, for acceptance with God, or justification before him.

Ver. 3. We are the circumcision, of whom Moses says, “The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.” Deuteronomy 30:6. The dogs hate your liberty, being ignorant of the scriptures, that all believers are not only heirs, but children also of the promise, as in Jacob’s case, and are accounted for the seed. We boast not of what is lost by the knife of circumcision, but of what is gained by the loss of the stony heart, in the full effect of regeneration. This is now the glorious liberty of the children of God. We worship him no longer with bulls and goats, reposing in temples made with hands, but in spirit and in truth, in all the spiritual glory of the gospel, which illuminates the mind, and commands the heart. We are the new Israel, the peculiar people, the royal priesthood, to show forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into marvellous light.

3. We—We Christians, whether formerly circumcised Jews or uncircumcised Gentiles. Are the circumcision—The genuine circumcision, possessing in Christ all that the ancient Abrahamic rite symbolized. Three characteristics of the real circumcision follow, which, by contrast, define the false circumcision, called here the concision. Worship God in the Spirit—The best text reads qeou, meaning, by the Spirit of God, that is, their service is rendered under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Rejoice in Christ Jesus—Better, glory in him, and not in the flesh, as did the perverters. Galatians 6:13. No confidence in the flesh—Better, though I am possessing confidence also in the flesh. The primary reference is to circumcision as a mere bodily rite, but the meaning broadens out to the earthly and external, as in verses 5 and 6. Neither separately nor together can they make one morally better.

Ver. 3. A contrast, justifying the term concision.

We: emphatic. To Paul and his readers belongs the title circumcision. Consequently, the only term left for the men here referred to is that just given them.

The circumcision: the circumcised persons, as in Ephesians 2:11; Romans 3:30; 4:9; 15:8; Galatians 2:9. Who worship etc.; describes the real circumcision.

Worship: same word in Romans 1:9, 25; 2 Timothy 1:3 etc. It is used only of service rendered to God; frequently of the service of the temple, as in Hebrews 13:10. Consequently it is needless to mention here the object of worship. Notice that circumcision involves worship: for Israel was set apart to be a worshipping people.

By the Spirit of God: who prompts and guides this worship. [Cp. Romans 8:13, 14.]

And exult in Christ Jesus: cp. Romans 5:11. See under Romans 2:17. Like all the circumcised, Paul and his readers are accustomed to boast: but the encompassing element of their boasting is the living personality of Christ.

And have no confidence etc.: third point in the description of the true circumcision. Confidence is implied in exult: for all exultation rests on some foundation, and therefore involves trust in some object personal or impersonal. These men based their hopes on something in their own bodies. For to them circumcision, not being accompanied by a spiritual change, was a mere outward rite. Paul describes the Christian life as a service of God, prompted and guided by the Spirit of God; as a joyous confidence resting in Christ as its element; and negatively as not resting on anything belonging merely to outward bodily life.

Since many of Paul’s readers were Gentiles, and yet all are evidently included in this description, the circumcision here referred to must be spiritual only; as in Romans 2:29; Colossians 2:11. The ancient rite was a mark of the covenant with God. But all who have the characteristics here given are included in the New Covenant, and are therefore, but in greater degree, in the position formerly occupied by the circumcision. And, if so, nothing but the contemptuous term used by Paul remains to those who trust for the favour of God to the outward rite.

V. 4. Though I-He subjoins this in the singular number, because the Philippians could not say thus.

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.

Verses 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 2 Corinthians 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, John 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, Genesis 17:12, so it seems to have obtained long before our Lord’s time; for the Septuagint and the Samaritan version read Genesis 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, Acts. 6:1; 9:29; 11:20. Many of these were descended from parents, one of whom only was a Jew. Of this sort was Timothy, Acts. 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.

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.

Ver. 4.-6. A boast which Paul has, but refuses to use. By showing us a confidence he might cherish, Paul adds force to no confidence in the flesh. As himself the chief object of Jewish hostility to Christianity, Paul passes easily from the general statement in Philippians 3:3, we are etc., to the details in Philippians 3:4-6 which refer to himself only. The emphatic word I recalls Paul’s unique position as compared both with enemies and friends.

Although etc.: literally although myself having confidence even in flesh: contrasted statement subordinate to the foregoing. Paul has a confidence: for his condition is one in which he might trust. And the confidence in which he might indulge reaches down even to the flesh.

If any one etc.: an independent statement of the foregoing. Thinks or thinks-well; denotes approval of a course of action or thought, as in Matthew 3:9; Luke 1:3: if to any one it seems good to trust in the flesh.

I more: I have more to trust in than he. Similar language in 2 Corinthians 11:21. Paul thinks fit to play for a moment the part of his opponents that he may show how much better he can play it than they. Then follow in detail the grounds on which he might rest a confidence in the flesh.

V. 5. Circumcised the eighth day-Not at ripe age, as a proselyte. Of the tribe of Benjamin-Sprung from the wife, not the handmaid. An Hebrew of Hebrews-By both my parents; in everything, nation, religion, language.

Touching the law, a Pharisee-One of that sect who most accurately observe it.

Verse 5. Circumcised the eighth day] This was the time that the law required the males to be circumcised; and we find, from Genesis 17:14, both in the Samaritan Pentateuch and in the Septuagint, though the clause is now lost out of the common Hebrew text, that the male child, which is not circumcised the eighth day, shall be cut off from among his people: this precept was literally observed in the case of St. Paul. Of the stock of Israel] Regularly descended from the patriarch Jacob. Of the tribe of Benjamin] The most favourite son of that patriarch and a tribe that did not revolt with Jeroboam, 1 Kings 12:21, nor pollute the worship of God by idolatry.

A Hebrew of the Hebrews] Though born in a heathen country, Tarsus, yet both my parents were Hebrews; nor has there ever been any strange blood mixed with that of our family.

Touching the law, a Pharisee] One that not only received the law and the prophets as coming from God; but belonged to that sect which, of all others, was most scrupulously attached to it.

Verses 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 2 Corinthians 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, John 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, Genesis 17:12, so it seems to have obtained long before our Lord’s time; for the Septuagint and the Samaritan version read Genesis 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, Acts. 6:1; 9:29; 11:20. Many of these were descended from parents, one of whom only was a Jew. Of this sort was Timothy, Acts. 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.

5. Circumcised the eighth day—So a born Jew, and not a proselyte circumcised in adult years, or, like Ishmael, after the age of thirteen. Stock of Israel—Of the true theocratic race, and no son of proselytes. Tribe of Benjamin, which never revolted, and, united with Judah, perpetuated the nationality. Hebrew of the Hebrews—Of pure Hebrew ancestry on both sides, with no admixture of foreign blood for near two thousand years. The genealogical tables would show this. As to purity of lineage, no Jew could claim more, and few so much. A proselyte, a descendant of a proselyte, a Jew in whose ancestry, however remote, was a Gentile, like Ruth the Moabitess, or one who had lost his tribal record, or could not prove his descent, would fail here; and here is where the apostle’s zealous opponents failed. In blood and birth he was their superior, as he also was in fidelity to his religion. Touching the law of Moses, that is, as to the regard paid to it, he was a Pharisee, whose distinction was, the closest observance of its minutest precepts.

Ver. 5.-6. Circumcised the eighth day: and therefore not a proselyte. Notice the accurate observance of the letter of the Law.

From the race of Israel: and therefore not a son of a proselyte, or an Edomite.

Tribe of Benjamin: nearer specification of his relation to the sacred race. Paul knows his own tribe. Moreover Benjamin not only gave to Israel its first king, whose name Paul bore, but was faithful to the House of David when the ten tribes revolted.

Hebrew: 2 Corinthians 11:22. In Acts 6:1 it denotes a Hebrew-speaking Jew in contrast to the Hellenists who spoke Greek, thus marking a distinction within the Jewish nation. And elsewhere in the N.T. it has reference to language. Probably so here. Although born at Tarsus, Paul clung to the ancient language and customs of his nation. He did so by parental training: for his parents also were Hebrews. A close coincidence with Acts 23:6, where Paul calls himself a son of Pharisees. For, more than other Jews, Pharisees clung to everything which distinguished Israel from the rest of mankind.

After noting, in ascending scale, four points of honour in his pedigree, as Jews boasted, Paul now gives three points bearing upon his personal character and conduct. The similar phrases touching law, touching zeal, touching righteousness, mark the transition.

Pharisee: important coincidence with Acts 23:6; 26:5. Touching law: looked at from the point of view of the general principle embodied in the law given at Sinai, and in the Books of Moses. This principle, viz. that the favour of God is to be obtained by obedience to authoritative prescriptions of conduct, found in the Pharisees its strictest exponents and adherents. And Paul was a Pharisee. If, again, we take zeal as our standard of measurement, we find proof of his earnest advocacy of Judaism in that he was persecuting the Church. Important coincidence with Galatians 1:13, 14: cp. 1 Timothy 1:13. Righteousness: the condition of a man who enjoys the judge’s approval: see under Romans 1:17. In order to distinguish his meaning here from Righteousness through Faith, Paul adds the specifying words, that in law. He is speaking of such righteousness as may be found in obedience to prescriptions of conduct. From this point of view, Paul had become blameless, i.e. he had reached a position in which no fault could be found with him. He had done all that could be done to obtain the favour of God by obedience to law.

Of the seven points of boasting, the first four pertain evidently to bodily descent and thus abundantly justify Paul’s declaration that he has a confidence even in the flesh. These points are supplemented by three others not bearing so directly on the same. But the continued series suggests a continued train of thought. And doubtless Paul felt that the obedience to law by which he sought formerly the favour of God was only outward and bodily, and that even the zeal which prompted his persecution of the Church had its ultimate source in motives pertaining to the present bodily life. Notice that each point in the series was one which Paul’s opponents would admit to be a valid ground of boasting.

An interesting coincidence with Philippians 3:4-6 is found in 2 Corinthians 11:21-27. But there Paul is speaking to Jews who were also (2 Corinthians 11:23) professed ministers of Christ. Here, without any reference to Christianity, he speaks simply of Jews. This suggests that the men against whom Paul here warns his readers were, at least for the more part, not Christians even in name.

V. 6. Having such a zeal for it as to persecute to the death those who did not observe it.

Touching the righteousness which is described and enjoined by the Law-That is, external observances, blameless.

Verse 6. Concerning zeal] As to my zeal for Pharisaism, I gave the fullest proof of it by persecuting the Church of Christ; and this is known to all my countrymen.

Touching the righteousness] And as to that plan of justification, which justification the Jews say is to be obtained by an observance of the law, I have done every thing so conscientiously from my youth up, that in this respect I am blameless; and may, with more confidence than most of them; expect that justification which the law appears to promise.

Verse 6. Concerning zeal — For the law and the Jewish religion, and for all those ritual observances which they so eagerly enforce, I myself was once so earnest, that I persecuted, and that even to imprisonment and death, those who did not observe them. Touching the righteousness which is in the law — Which is described and enjoined by the letter of it; that is, with respect to external observances; blameless — Quite unexceptionable in my conduct; so that those who knew me most intimately, could not have accused me of any wilful transgression, or of neglecting any of those expiatory rites and sacrifices, which were appointed to be used in case of involuntary errors. “The greatest part of the Jews firmly believed that the righteousness required in the law consisted chiefly in observing its ritual precepts. And therefore, if a person was circumcised, offered the appointed sacrifices, observed the sabbaths, and other festivals enjoined by Moses, made the necessary purifications, in cases of pollution, paid tithes of all he possessed, and abstained from crimes injurious to society; or if he committed any such, was punished for them according to the law, he was, as the apostle expresseth it, with respect to the righteousness which is by law, unblameable. Further, as the ritual services enjoined in the law were not founded in the nature of things, but in the command of God; and as, according to the law, atonement was made for some transgressions by these services, they were, on account of their being done from a regard to the divine will, considered as acts of piety more acceptable to God than even the performance of moral duties. In the third place, as these ritual services were both numerous and burdensome, and recurred so frequently, that they gave almost constant employment to the pious Israelites, the diligent and exact performance of them was thought equivalent to a perfect righteousness, and so meritorious, that it entitled the performer to justification and eternal life. All these erroneous opinions Paul entertained while he continued a Pharisee. But he relinquished them when he became a Christian, as he informs us, immediately.” — Macknight.

6. Concerning… touching, and touching of verse 5, should have the same translation, meaning as regards, or in respect of. His zeal for the law was shown by his career as a persecutor, when, to save its supremacy, he gave all his energies to the destruction of the Church. Righteousness—In the rightness, the right conduct, which consisted in observance of the law, he was perfect. Such he was down to the period of his journey to Damascus. All this is said from his old Judaic point of view; and assuredly if there was any value in scrupulous obedience, in persecuting zeal, and in rigorous, unvarying fidelity, it was his. But his estimate of things has now greatly changed; and his persecution of the Church in which he had once gloried he has come to regard as his greatest sin.

Ver. 5.-6. Circumcised the eighth day: and therefore not a proselyte. Notice the accurate observance of the letter of the Law.

From the race of Israel: and therefore not a son of a proselyte, or an Edomite.

Tribe of Benjamin: nearer specification of his relation to the sacred race. Paul knows his own tribe. Moreover Benjamin not only gave to Israel its first king, whose name Paul bore, but was faithful to the House of David when the ten tribes revolted.

Hebrew: 2 Corinthians 11:22. In Acts 6:1 it denotes a Hebrew-speaking Jew in contrast to the Hellenists who spoke Greek, thus marking a distinction within the Jewish nation. And elsewhere in the N.T. it has reference to language. Probably so here. Although born at Tarsus, Paul clung to the ancient language and customs of his nation. He did so by parental training: for his parents also were Hebrews. A close coincidence with Acts 23:6, where Paul calls himself a son of Pharisees. For, more than other Jews, Pharisees clung to everything which distinguished Israel from the rest of mankind.

After noting, in ascending scale, four points of honour in his pedigree, as Jews boasted, Paul now gives three points bearing upon his personal character and conduct. The similar phrases touching law, touching zeal, touching righteousness, mark the transition.

Pharisee: important coincidence with Acts 23:6; 26:5. Touching law: looked at from the point of view of the general principle embodied in the law given at Sinai, and in the Books of Moses. This principle, viz. that the favour of God is to be obtained by obedience to authoritative prescriptions of conduct, found in the Pharisees its strictest exponents and adherents. And Paul was a Pharisee. If, again, we take zeal as our standard of measurement, we find proof of his earnest advocacy of Judaism in that he was persecuting the Church. Important coincidence with Galatians 1:13, 14: cp. 1 Timothy 1:13. Righteousness: the condition of a man who enjoys the judge’s approval: see under Romans 1:17. In order to distinguish his meaning here from Righteousness through Faith, Paul adds the specifying words, that in law. He is speaking of such righteousness as may be found in obedience to prescriptions of conduct. From this point of view, Paul had become blameless, i.e. he had reached a position in which no fault could be found with him. He had done all that could be done to obtain the favour of God by obedience to law.

Of the seven points of boasting, the first four pertain evidently to bodily descent and thus abundantly justify Paul’s declaration that he has a confidence even in the flesh. These points are supplemented by three others not bearing so directly on the same. But the continued series suggests a continued train of thought. And doubtless Paul felt that the obedience to law by which he sought formerly the favour of God was only outward and bodily, and that even the zeal which prompted his persecution of the Church had its ultimate source in motives pertaining to the present bodily life. Notice that each point in the series was one which Paul’s opponents would admit to be a valid ground of boasting.

An interesting coincidence with Philippians 3:4-6 is found in 2 Corinthians 11:21-27. But there Paul is speaking to Jews who were also (2 Corinthians 11:23) professed ministers of Christ. Here, without any reference to Christianity, he speaks simply of Jews. This suggests that the men against whom Paul here warns his readers were, at least for the more part, not Christians even in name.

V. 7. But all these things, which I then accounted gain, which were once my confidence, my glory, and joy, those, ever since I have believed, I have accounted loss, nothing worth in comparison of Christ.

Verse 7. But what things were gain] The credit and respect which I had, as being zealously attached to the law, and to the traditions of the elders, I counted loss for Christ-I saw that this could stand me in no stead; that all my acts of righteousness were nothing on which I could depend for salvation; and that Christ crucified could alone profit me; for I found that it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sin.

Verse 7. But what things — Of this nature; were once reputed gain to me — Which I valued myself upon, and confided in for acceptance with God, supposing them to constitute a righteousness sufficient to justify me in his sight; those, ever since I was made acquainted with the truth as it is in Jesus, and embraced the gospel, I have accounted loss — Things of no value; things which ought to be readily foregone for Christ, in order that, placing all my dependance on him for justification, I might through him be accepted of God, and be saved. The word zhmia, here used by the apostle, and rendered loss, properly signifies loss incurred in trade: and especially that kind of loss which is sustained at sea in a storm, when goods are thrown overboard for the sake of saving the ship and the people on board: in which sense the word is used Acts 27:10, 21. To understand the term thus, gives great force and beauty to the passage. It is as if the apostle said, In making the voyage of life, for the purpose of gaining salvation, I proposed to purchase it with my circumcision, and my care in observing the ritual and moral precepts of the law; and I put a great value on these things, on account of the gain or advantage I was to make by them. But when I became a Christian, I willingly threw them all overboard, as of no value in purchasing salvation. And this I did for the sake of gaining salvation through faith in Christ as my only Saviour.

Ver. 7. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Cardinal Baronius is probably correct in what he says about Paul, in his Ecclesiastical Annals, vol. 1. p. 50, that he was thirty five years of age at the time of his conversion, and that he held some place of honour, either in the Roman service or in the Hebrew nation.

7. What things were gain—The whole class of things above-mentioned, which he had once deemed of great advantage, and upon which he had relied for acceptance with God, he had come to consider as of no real worth in that respect, but rather as injurious, for they shut him off from Christ.

Ver. 7. Paul’s solemn renunciation of his own Jewish boasting, in emphatic contrast to the foregoing, and followed in Philippians 3:8 by a still wider renunciation. It is an exposition of no confidence in flesh in Philippians 3:3, after the contrast in Philippians 3:4 and its exposition. in detail in Philippians 3:5, 6.

Things-which: literally what sort of things, noting a whole class, to which belong the above details.

Gains to me: each item being, from Paul’s then point of view, an enrichment to him.

I-have-counted: a calculation made and completed in the past, and the abiding estimate now remaining.

For the sake of Christ, or because of Christ: expounded in Philippians 3:8.

Loss: either the gains themselves written off as lost; or the things formerly looked upon as making him richer now looked upon as making him poorer, i.e. as doing him harm. The former exposition is all that the words demand, and all that is implied in the word suffered-loss in Philippians 3:8. We therefore cannot give to the word loss the second and fuller sense. The whole class of various things which Paul once looked upon as gains, he has now written of as one loss.

V. 8. Yea, I still account both all these and all things else to be mere loss, compared to the inward, experimental knowledge of Christ, as my Lord, as my prophet, priest, and king, as teaching me wisdom, atoning for my sins, and reigning in my heart. To refer this to justification only, is miserably to pervert the whole scope of the words. They manifestly relate to sanctification also; yea, to that chiefly.

For whom I have actually suffered the loss of all things-Which the world loves, esteems, or admires; of which I am so far from repenting, that I still account them but dung-The discourse rises.

Loss is sustained with patience, but dung is cast away with abhorrence. The Greek word signifies any, the vilest refuse of things, the dross of metals, the dregs of liquors, the excrements of animals, the most worthless scraps of meat, the basest offals, fit only for dogs.

That I may gain Christ-He that loses all things, not excepting himself, gains Christ, and is gained by Christ. And still there is more; which even St. Paul speaks of his having not yet gained.

Verse 8. I count all things but loss] Not only my Jewish privileges, but all others of every kind; with every thing that men count valuable or gainful, or on which they usually depend for salvation.

The excellency of the knowledge of Christ] That superior light, information, and blessedness which come through the Gospel of Jesus Christ; justification through his blood, sanctification by his Spirit, and eternal glory through his merits and intercession. These are the blessings held out to us by the Gospel, of which, and the law, Jesus Christ is the sum and substance.

I have suffered the loss of all things] Some translate diJ on ta panta ezhmiwqhn, for whom I have thrown away all things-I have made a voluntary choice of Christ, his cross, his poverty, and his reproach; and for these I have freely sacrificed all I had from the world, and all I could expect from it.

And do count them but dung] The word skubala means the vilest dross or refuse of any thing; the worst excrement. The word shows how utterly insignificant and unavailing, in point of salvation, the apostle esteemed every thing but the Gospel of Jesus. With his best things he freely parted, judging them all loss while put in the place of Christ crucified; and Christ crucified he esteemed infinite gain, when compared with all the rest. Of the utter unavailableness of any thing but Christ to save the soul the Apostle Paul stands as an incontrovertible proof. Could the law have done any thing, the apostle must have known it. He tried, and found it vanity; he tried the Gospel system, and found it the power of God to his salvation. By losing all that the world calls excellent, he gained Christ, and endless salvation through him. Of the glorious influence of the Gospel he is an unimpeachable witness. See the concluding observations on the 9th chapter of the Acts, on the character of St. Paul. “Acts 9:43”

Verses 8-11. Yea doubtless — Not only when I was first converted, but I still account both these and all things else, how valuable soever, to be but loss. Having said, in the preceding verse, that he counted his privileges as a Jew, and his righteousness by the law, to be loss, or things to be thrown away, he here adds, that he viewed in the same light all the things which men value themselves upon, and on which they build their hope of salvation: such as their natural and acquired talents, their knowledge, their moral virtue, and even their good works; yea, and all the riches, honours, and pleasures of the world; all the things in which people seek their happiness. For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord — In comparison of, and in order that I may attain, the experimental and practical knowledge of Christ, as my Lord, as my teaching Prophet, my atoning and mediating Priest, my delivering and ruling King, reigning in my heart by his grace, and governing my life by his laws. For the apostle evidently had a respect here to all the offices and characters of Christ, and intended what he says to be understood of sanctification and practical obedience, as much as of illumination and justification. And he accounted all the things he speaks of as worthless, not only because they were ineffectual to procure for him acceptance with God, but because in themselves they are of little value in comparison with the true knowledge of Christ, and of the way of salvation through him; blessings which the apostle so regarded, that he despised all other knowledge, and every human attainment, as things comparatively unworthy of his care, while pursuing his way to eternal life. For whom I have actually suffered the loss of all things — Which the world esteems, admires, loves, and delights in. It seems probable, from this, that he had been excommunicated by the Jews in Jerusalem, and spoiled of his goods: a treatment which some others, who were not so obnoxious to the Jews as he was, met with after they became Christians, Hebrews 10:33, 34. And I count them but dung — So far am I from repenting, that I exposed myself to the loss of them. The discourse rises. Loss is sustained with patience; but dung is cast away with abhorrence. The Greek word, so rendered, signifies any vile refuse of things, the dross of metals, the dregs of liquors, the excrements of animals, the most worthless scraps of meat, the basest offals, fit only for dogs: in such a light did the apostle view every thing that would engage his dependance for justification, or stand in competition with Christ for his affection. That I may win Christ — May have him for my Saviour and Lord; may have an interest in all the offices that he sustains, and in all he hath done and suffered for the salvation of men, and may be made partaker of the benefits which he hath procured for me. And be found in him — Vitally united to him by faith and love; not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law — That merely outward righteousness prescribed by the law, and performed in my own strength; but that which is through the faith of Christ — That justifying, sanctifying, and practical righteousness which is attained through believing in Christ, and in the truths and promises of his gospel. See on Romans 4:6-8; Ephesians 4:22-24; 1 John 3:7. The righteousness which is, ek Qeou, of, or from God — Which is the gift of his grace and mercy, and not procured by my merit; and is from his Spirit, not effected by my own strength, through the instrumentality of faith alone; a faith, however, productive of love, and of all holiness and righteousness. The phrase in the original here, thn ek Qeou dikaiosunhn, the righteousness of, or from God, is used, says Macknight, “I think only in this passage. It is opposed to mine own righteousness, which is from the law, a phrase found in other passages, particularly Galatians 3:21. Wherefore, since the righteousness from the law is that which is obtained according to the tenor of the law, the righteousness from God by faith, is that which comes from God’s accounting the believer’s faith to him for righteousness, and from his working that faith in his heart by the influences of his Spirit.” That I may know him — In his person and offices, in his humiliation and exaltation, his grace and glory, as my wisdom and righteousness, my sanctification and redemption; or, as my complete Saviour; and the power — Dunamin, the efficacy; of his resurrection — Demonstrating the certain truth and infinite importance of every part of his doctrine, the acceptableness of the atonement made by him for sin, (see on Romans 4:25,) opening an intercourse between earth and heaven, and obtaining for me the Holy Spirit, to raise me from the death of sin unto all the life of righteousness, (John 16:7,) assuring me of a future and eternal judgment, (Acts 17:31,) begetting me again to a lively hope of a heavenly inheritance, (1 Peter 1:3,) and raising my affections from things on earth to things above, Colossians 3:1, 2: and the fellowship of his sufferings — Sympathizing with him in his sufferings, and partaking of the benefits purchased for me thereby; as also being willing to take up my cross and suffer with him, as far as I am called to it, knowing that if I suffer with him, I shall also be glorified with him. See the margin. Being made conformable to his death — Being dead to the world and sin, or being made willing to confirm the gospel by enduring the tortures of crucifixion as he did, should it be his will I should do so. If by any means — Having attained an entire conformity to my great Master, and done and suffered the whole will of God; I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead — Unto that consummate holiness and blessedness, which he will bestow upon all his people when the dead in Christ shall rise first, and be distinguished with honour and glory proportionable to the zeal and diligence which they have manifested in his service.

Ver. 8. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. In the former verse the apostle speaks in the past tense, of what was the state of his mind when he first became a follower of Christ, that he was ready to part with all things for his sake. Here he speaks in the present tense, showing what is still his state of mind concerning Christ, that after so many years of suffering and privation his heart is still knitted to him, and sees no reason whatever to abate the ardour of his attachment. He had “counted,” and still “counts,” all things but loss for his sake, and found that he was not out of his reckoning. The safest test of true religion is not what we once were, but what we now are in the sight of God; that our love to Christ is not abated, but is on the encrease, and that we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope unto the end. Hebrews 3:6. The knowledge of Christ has in it an excellency surpassing that of all other knowledge; it is that in which angels delight, and is to sinners the only source of eternal life.

8. I count all things—At his conversion the apostle esteemed them all loss, and now, anticipating a question as to his present judgment, he affirms that he continues to so esteem them. The excellency—The supereminence of the knowledge of Christ above blood, birth, legal zeal, and observance. Loss of all things—In those terrible three days of darkness at Damascus he absolutely forsook all in surrendering to Christ, and on going forth he found all actually gone; his earthly prospects were blasted, his high fame withered, his name covered with scorn, and his life in peril from his countrymen. And now, after years of a life of toil, suffering, and trial, he esteems them only as dung—mere worthless refuse—as respects their power for the salvation of the soul. That I may win Christ—Better, gain Christ, thus preserving the contrast. The for Christ, and for whom, are now explained. To receive and possess him as a Saviour, and to be joined to him in a vital union, is a gain in comparison with which all else is truly vanity.

Ver. 8. Yes, indeed: an abrupt breaking off, making the reassertion more forceful.

I count: the reckoning represented in Philippians 3:7 as already made, now represented as going on day by day.

All-things: wider than what sort of things in Philippians 3:7. My Lord: in harmony with my God in Philippians 1:3 and Romans 1:8. Paul has come to know Christ Jesus as his own Master; and has found this knowledge to surpass all other good. Indeed it has revealed to him the worthlessness of all merely earthly gains. And, influenced by this superior knowledge, he now reckons to be loss all things he once prized.

For whose sake etc.: an emphatic and categorical statement of the loss involved in Paul’s reckoning. The things mentioned above were once wealth to him: they are now worthless. Consequently, where before he was rich, he is now poor. Moreover, the things thus lost were those he most prized. Therefore, in losing them he suffered the loss of all things. This loss was occasioned by the person and work of Christ, for whose sake it was cheerfully endured. Notice the emphatic repetitions: I have counted, I count, I count; loss, loss, suffered-loss; for Christ’s sake, for the sake of the superiority of the knowledge of Christ, for whose sake. [More definite than panta is ta panta, including all forms of material good.] In proportion as we know Christ-does earthly wealth cease to be an enrichment to us. We look upon it only as an instrument of serving Christ. Therefore, like Paul we may say that because of Christ we have lost all things. Of this complete, inward, subjective loss, all objective loss for Christ’s sake is a partial and easy realisation in outward form, easy in proportion to our knowledge of Christ.

And I count them refuse: added as an explanatory parallel to I have suffered, keeping before us Paul’s subjective estimate of the change which has taken place in him.

Refuse: anything thrown away, either excrement rejected by the body, or the leavings of a feast incapable of giving further nourishment or pleasure. Such does Paul reckon the Jewish prerogatives in which once he boasted. And this reckoning has been to him practically the loss of all things.

V. 9. And be found by God ingrafted in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law-That merely outward righteousness prescribed by the law, and performed by my own strength. But that inward righteousness which is through faith-Which can flow from no other fountain.

The righteousness which is from God-From his almighty Spirit, not by my own strength, but by faith alone. Here also the apostle is far from speaking of justification only.

Verse 9. And be found in him] Be found a believer in Christ, not having mine own righteousness-not trusting in any thing I have done or could do, in order to my salvation; relying on no scheme of justification, set up either formerly by myself or by others.

But that which is through the faith of Christ] That justification which is received by faith through the atonement made by Christ.

The righteousness which is of God] God’s method of justifying sinners through faith in his Son. See the notes on Romans 3:21, 23, 25, where this subject is treated at large.

Verses 8-11. Yea doubtless — Not only when I was first converted, but I still account both these and all things else, how valuable soever, to be but loss. Having said, in the preceding verse, that he counted his privileges as a Jew, and his righteousness by the law, to be loss, or things to be thrown away, he here adds, that he viewed in the same light all the things which men value themselves upon, and on which they build their hope of salvation: such as their natural and acquired talents, their knowledge, their moral virtue, and even their good works; yea, and all the riches, honours, and pleasures of the world; all the things in which people seek their happiness. For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord — In comparison of, and in order that I may attain, the experimental and practical knowledge of Christ, as my Lord, as my teaching Prophet, my atoning and mediating Priest, my delivering and ruling King, reigning in my heart by his grace, and governing my life by his laws. For the apostle evidently had a respect here to all the offices and characters of Christ, and intended what he says to be understood of sanctification and practical obedience, as much as of illumination and justification. And he accounted all the things he speaks of as worthless, not only because they were ineffectual to procure for him acceptance with God, but because in themselves they are of little value in comparison with the true knowledge of Christ, and of the way of salvation through him; blessings which the apostle so regarded, that he despised all other knowledge, and every human attainment, as things comparatively unworthy of his care, while pursuing his way to eternal life. For whom I have actually suffered the loss of all things — Which the world esteems, admires, loves, and delights in. It seems probable, from this, that he had been excommunicated by the Jews in Jerusalem, and spoiled of his goods: a treatment which some others, who were not so obnoxious to the Jews as he was, met with after they became Christians, Hebrews 10:33, 34. And I count them but dung — So far am I from repenting, that I exposed myself to the loss of them. The discourse rises. Loss is sustained with patience; but dung is cast away with abhorrence. The Greek word, so rendered, signifies any vile refuse of things, the dross of metals, the dregs of liquors, the excrements of animals, the most worthless scraps of meat, the basest offals, fit only for dogs: in such a light did the apostle view every thing that would engage his dependance for justification, or stand in competition with Christ for his affection. That I may win Christ — May have him for my Saviour and Lord; may have an interest in all the offices that he sustains, and in all he hath done and suffered for the salvation of men, and may be made partaker of the benefits which he hath procured for me. And be found in him — Vitally united to him by faith and love; not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law — That merely outward righteousness prescribed by the law, and performed in my own strength; but that which is through the faith of Christ — That justifying, sanctifying, and practical righteousness which is attained through believing in Christ, and in the truths and promises of his gospel. See on Romans 4:6-8; Ephesians 4:22-24; 1 John 3:7. The righteousness which is, ek Qeou, of, or from God — Which is the gift of his grace and mercy, and not procured by my merit; and is from his Spirit, not effected by my own strength, through the instrumentality of faith alone; a faith, however, productive of love, and of all holiness and righteousness. The phrase in the original here, thn ek Qeou dikaiosunhn, the righteousness of, or from God, is used, says Macknight, “I think only in this passage. It is opposed to mine own righteousness, which is from the law, a phrase found in other passages, particularly Galatians 3:21. Wherefore, since the righteousness from the law is that which is obtained according to the tenor of the law, the righteousness from God by faith, is that which comes from God’s accounting the believer’s faith to him for righteousness, and from his working that faith in his heart by the influences of his Spirit.” That I may know him — In his person and offices, in his humiliation and exaltation, his grace and glory, as my wisdom and righteousness, my sanctification and redemption; or, as my complete Saviour; and the power — Dunamin, the efficacy; of his resurrection — Demonstrating the certain truth and infinite importance of every part of his doctrine, the acceptableness of the atonement made by him for sin, (see on Romans 4:25,) opening an intercourse between earth and heaven, and obtaining for me the Holy Spirit, to raise me from the death of sin unto all the life of righteousness, (John 16:7,) assuring me of a future and eternal judgment, (Acts 17:31,) begetting me again to a lively hope of a heavenly inheritance, (1 Peter 1:3,) and raising my affections from things on earth to things above, Colossians 3:1, 2: and the fellowship of his sufferings — Sympathizing with him in his sufferings, and partaking of the benefits purchased for me thereby; as also being willing to take up my cross and suffer with him, as far as I am called to it, knowing that if I suffer with him, I shall also be glorified with him. See the margin. Being made conformable to his death — Being dead to the world and sin, or being made willing to confirm the gospel by enduring the tortures of crucifixion as he did, should it be his will I should do so. If by any means — Having attained an entire conformity to my great Master, and done and suffered the whole will of God; I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead — Unto that consummate holiness and blessedness, which he will bestow upon all his people when the dead in Christ shall rise first, and be distinguished with honour and glory proportionable to the zeal and diligence which they have manifested in his service.

Ver. 9. The righteousness which is of God by faith. The righteousness by which a sinner is justified, in opposition to the works of the law. The blessings of the new covenant, the righteousness poured down from the skies. Isaiah 45:8. The everlasting righteousness brought in by our Redeemer, to finish transgression, and make an end of sin. Daniel 9:25. To justify and sanctify all that believe in him. Romans 3:22-25. 4:5. We through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Galatians 5:5. On this head, sinners should cease their strife with heaven; righteousness to sinners must come either by the works of the law, or by the faith of Christ. If by works, grace is no more grace; if by grace, then the covenant of works exists no more as a covenant, to confer eternal life. Under the new covenant, salvation is by faith. Noah believed God, and he built the ark. Abraham believed the promises, and left his own country. So the gospel now says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou, and thy house shall be saved.”

9. Found in him—Now, by both God and men, in him, as the element in whom the soul lives and moves. Righteousness—Legal and evangelical justification are put in sharp contrast. One originates in the law, the other in God. The former is mine own; the result of personal obedience to the law’s commands, as possessing power or merit toward procuring acceptance with God; the latter is obtained through faith in Christ, inspired by God, on account of the merit of Christ, and through faith as the condition. That self-righteousness in which Saul of Tarsus had been so confident he had found utterly vain; and renouncing all hope therefrom, he turned to Christ, receiving his justification as a flee gift of divine grace. By faith, or, upon faith, shows it to be God’s plan to bestow acceptance on the condition of faith in his Son. (See notes on Romans 3:21-25.)

Ver. 9.-11. Purpose of the reckoning described in Philippians 3:7, 8, i.e. the greater gain for which Paul cheerfully submitted to the loss of all things. It is therefore practically an exposition of for the sake of Christ, and for the sake of the superiority of the knowledge of Christ. Gain Christ: make Him my own and thus obtain infinite enrichment. For all that Christ has and is belongs to His servants: and having Him they have all they need. The word gain is a marked contrast to the things which to Paul were once gain but which he now counts to be loss.

Be found in Him: second item in Paul’s purpose. He desires so to gain Christ that He will be to him the home and bulwark of his soul and the pervading element of his spiritual life. The word found suggests a recognition by others of Paul’s inward union with Christ. In the searching scrutiny which will make known whatever is now hidden, Paul will be found safe in Christ.

Righteousness: as in Romans 1:17; see note.

A righteousness of my own: very close coincidence with Romans 10:3. As Paul never forgot, an unchanging law of the Kingdom of God makes spiritual blessing conditional on agreement with a divinely erected standard. Consequently, to be in Christ, implies righteousness. The only question is the kind of righteousness and the source from which it is derived. The righteousness through which Paul hopes to gain Christ is not a righteousness of his own, i.e. an agreement with a divine standard resulting from his own effort and which therefore he can claim as my own. Such would be the righteousness which the Jews were ever, though vainly, seeking to derive from the Law by careful observance of its prescriptions. From law: as in Galatians 3:21; a close parallel. [The absence of the Greek article suggests the abstract principle Do this and live, a principle which received historical and literary embodiment in the Law of Moses.] Cp. Philippians 3:6; Galatians 3:11, 18, 23; 4:4, 5, 21; 5:4, 18, 23; 6:13. It is practically the same as from works of law in Galatians 2:16 three times.

Through faith of Christ: belief of the words of Christ, as in Romans 3:22; Galatians 2:16.

From God: source of this righteousness. By proclaiming that He receives into His favour all who believe the Gospel, God gives righteousness to all who believe. And this righteousness received from God is in absolute contrast to all righteousness of their own, i.e. derived from their own obedience, for which the Jews were ever striving. Same contrast in Romans 10:3.

On-the-condition-of faith: literally on faith: same words in Acts 3:16. They represent faith as the condition on which, whereas just above it is the channel through which, righteousness comes forth from God. The unexpected occurrence here of the word righteousness in this peculiar sense, the emphatic repetition of the word faith, and the coincidence in phraseology and thought with Romans 3:22; Galatians 2:16; 3:21, are very clear indications of Pauline authorship.

V. 10. The knowledge of Christ, mentioned in the eighth verse, is here more largely explained.

That I may know him-As my complete Saviour.

And the power of his resurrection-Raising me from the death of sin, into all the life of love.

And the fellowship of his sufferings-Being crucified with him. And made conformable to his death-So as to be dead to all things here below.

Verse 10. That I may know him] To be the true and promised Messiah, and experience all that salvation which he has bought by his blood. The power of his resurrection] In having this body of my humiliation raised from death, and made like unto his glorious body. This seems to be the sole meaning of the apostle; for it is in virtue of Christ’s resurrection that we are to be raised incorruptible and immortal.

And the fellowship of his sufferings] Christ died, not only as a victim for sin, but as a martyr to the truth. No creature can have fellowship with him in his vicarious sufferings; as a martyr to the truth, St. Paul wished to imitate him. Not only in the apostle, but in the primitive Christians generally, there seems to have been a strong desire after martyrdom.

Verses 8-11. Yea doubtless — Not only when I was first converted, but I still account both these and all things else, how valuable soever, to be but loss. Having said, in the preceding verse, that he counted his privileges as a Jew, and his righteousness by the law, to be loss, or things to be thrown away, he here adds, that he viewed in the same light all the things which men value themselves upon, and on which they build their hope of salvation: such as their natural and acquired talents, their knowledge, their moral virtue, and even their good works; yea, and all the riches, honours, and pleasures of the world; all the things in which people seek their happiness. For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord — In comparison of, and in order that I may attain, the experimental and practical knowledge of Christ, as my Lord, as my teaching Prophet, my atoning and mediating Priest, my delivering and ruling King, reigning in my heart by his grace, and governing my life by his laws. For the apostle evidently had a respect here to all the offices and characters of Christ, and intended what he says to be understood of sanctification and practical obedience, as much as of illumination and justification. And he accounted all the things he speaks of as worthless, not only because they were ineffectual to procure for him acceptance with God, but because in themselves they are of little value in comparison with the true knowledge of Christ, and of the way of salvation through him; blessings which the apostle so regarded, that he despised all other knowledge, and every human attainment, as things comparatively unworthy of his care, while pursuing his way to eternal life. For whom I have actually suffered the loss of all things — Which the world esteems, admires, loves, and delights in. It seems probable, from this, that he had been excommunicated by the Jews in Jerusalem, and spoiled of his goods: a treatment which some others, who were not so obnoxious to the Jews as he was, met with after they became Christians, Hebrews 10:33, 34. And I count them but dung — So far am I from repenting, that I exposed myself to the loss of them. The discourse rises. Loss is sustained with patience; but dung is cast away with abhorrence. The Greek word, so rendered, signifies any vile refuse of things, the dross of metals, the dregs of liquors, the excrements of animals, the most worthless scraps of meat, the basest offals, fit only for dogs: in such a light did the apostle view every thing that would engage his dependance for justification, or stand in competition with Christ for his affection. That I may win Christ — May have him for my Saviour and Lord; may have an interest in all the offices that he sustains, and in all he hath done and suffered for the salvation of men, and may be made partaker of the benefits which he hath procured for me. And be found in him — Vitally united to him by faith and love; not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law — That merely outward righteousness prescribed by the law, and performed in my own strength; but that which is through the faith of Christ — That justifying, sanctifying, and practical righteousness which is attained through believing in Christ, and in the truths and promises of his gospel. See on Romans 4:6-8; Ephesians 4:22-24; 1 John 3:7. The righteousness which is, ek Qeou, of, or from God — Which is the gift of his grace and mercy, and not procured by my merit; and is from his Spirit, not effected by my own strength, through the instrumentality of faith alone; a faith, however, productive of love, and of all holiness and righteousness. The phrase in the original here, thn ek Qeou dikaiosunhn, the righteousness of, or from God, is used, says Macknight, “I think only in this passage. It is opposed to mine own righteousness, which is from the law, a phrase found in other passages, particularly Galatians 3:21. Wherefore, since the righteousness from the law is that which is obtained according to the tenor of the law, the righteousness from God by faith, is that which comes from God’s accounting the believer’s faith to him for righteousness, and from his working that faith in his heart by the influences of his Spirit.” That I may know him — In his person and offices, in his humiliation and exaltation, his grace and glory, as my wisdom and righteousness, my sanctification and redemption; or, as my complete Saviour; and the power — Dunamin, the efficacy; of his resurrection — Demonstrating the certain truth and infinite importance of every part of his doctrine, the acceptableness of the atonement made by him for sin, (see on Romans 4:25,) opening an intercourse between earth and heaven, and obtaining for me the Holy Spirit, to raise me from the death of sin unto all the life of righteousness, (John 16:7,) assuring me of a future and eternal judgment, (Acts 17:31,) begetting me again to a lively hope of a heavenly inheritance, (1 Peter 1:3,) and raising my affections from things on earth to things above, Colossians 3:1, 2: and the fellowship of his sufferings — Sympathizing with him in his sufferings, and partaking of the benefits purchased for me thereby; as also being willing to take up my cross and suffer with him, as far as I am called to it, knowing that if I suffer with him, I shall also be glorified with him. See the margin. Being made conformable to his death — Being dead to the world and sin, or being made willing to confirm the gospel by enduring the tortures of crucifixion as he did, should it be his will I should do so. If by any means — Having attained an entire conformity to my great Master, and done and suffered the whole will of God; I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead — Unto that consummate holiness and blessedness, which he will bestow upon all his people when the dead in Christ shall rise first, and be distinguished with honour and glory proportionable to the zeal and diligence which they have manifested in his service.

Ver. 10. The power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings; or as most versions read, “the communion of his passion.” Paul was solicitous to know these, so as to be made conformable to the Saviour’s death; and he illustrates the argument in various views, in Romans 6. This knowledge of Christ has a special regard to the entire sanctification of our nature, so as to prepare us for the glorious resurrection of the dead. This communion of his passion is, that we be dead with Christ in the mortification of sin, and live with him in newness of life, for our old man is crucified with Christ.

Grieved with thy grief, pained with thy pain,

Ne’er may I feel self-love again.

10. Know him—Freely justified, and in union with Christ, the great aim was to know him in the soul’s ever-deepening experience of his love, giving that inner knowledge of him which is realized only in union with him. Additional to this, the apostle would also know the power which Christ’s resurrection possesses, in the fullest experience of the new and holy life which the risen Christ through the Holy Spirit effects in them that believe; and, still more, he would in his union with his Lord know a participation in his sufferings as well as in his love, being made like him even in death. If he wished for martyrdom, he found it; yet this conformity to Christ’s death was not future but present, and was the characteristic of his sufferings. “I die daily,” (1 Corinthians 15:31,) and “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,” (2 Corinthians 4:10,) are parallel declarations.

Ver. 10. The slight change of phrase, in order to know Him, indicates that this is not a third item of Paul’s aim in addition to those in Philippians 3:9, but is rather a further purpose to be attained by gaining Christ and being found in Him.

To know Him: as though Paul’s present knowledge were so defective as to be unworthy of the name. This fuller knowledge of Christ is yearned for also in Ephesians 1:17; 3:19; 4:13. It is obtained only by (Philippians 3:9) gaining Him for our own and by abiding in Him. These words expound for the sake of the excellence of the knowledge of Christ in Philippians 3:8; as that I may gain Christ in Philippians 3:8 expounds for the sake of Christ in Philippians 3:7. And the power etc.; expounds what is involved in to know Christ. The power of His resurrection: the power of God which raised Christ from the dead, For His resurrection is emphatically a manifestation of divine power: and in this manifested power lay its practical worth: cp. 2 Corinthians 13:4; Romans 1:4. From Philippians 3:11 we learn that the ultimate goal of Paul’s desire is to attain to the resurrection from the dead. To experience that resurrection is to know the power which raised Christ. For the one resurrection is a result of the other. Had not Christ risen, there had been no faith in Him, no Gospel, no Christianity, and therefore no resurrection to eternal life. Moreover, our present spiritual life is a victory over sin gained for us and in us by the power of God which raised Christ. It will be consummated in a bodily resurrection like His. That power in its full manifestation, Paul desires to know. A very close and important parallel is found in Ephesians 1:19, 20. The intimate connection between the resurrection of Christ, the believer’s present victory over sin and moral elevation, and His final victory over the grave, a connection ever present to Paul’s thought, at once suggests the above exposition, and makes needless any other.

Fellowship of His sufferings: partnership with Christ in His sufferings: cp. 1 Corinthians 1:9; 10:16. They who for Christ’s sake, and in order to save men, endure hardship, are sharing His sufferings for the world’s salvation. For their sufferings, like His, are caused by man’s sin, are endured in loyalty to God and love to mankind, and are working out God’s purpose of mercy. Close coincidence in Colossians 1:24; 2 Corinthians 1:5. This companionship of suffering, Paul desires to know. And wisely. For we know Christ only so far as we share His loyalty to God and love to men. And if we share these, the circumstances of life will often lead us to endure hardship in order to save those whom Christ has taught us to love. Of such partnership with Christ, the annals of the Church are full. Happy they on whom rests most heavily this yoke of Christ. The resurrection is placed before the sufferings of Christ because Paul’s thought went out first to the glory which should follow. He then remembered that to this goal there is only one path and in view of the goal desires to tread that path.

Being-conformed etc.: way in which this knowledge of the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings is to be obtained, a path Paul is already treading. Every step towards a martyr’s grave was making him more like Christ who died on the cross. This clause gives definiteness to the foregoing one, and shows that Paul has in view both the death of Christ and the deadly peril which overshadows him while he writes.

V. 11. The resurrection of the dead-That is, the resurrection to glory.

Verse 11. The resurrection of the dead.] That is, the resurrection of those who, having died in the Lord, rise to glory and honour; and hence St. Paul uses a peculiar word which occurs no where else in the New Testament, exanastasiv. The words, as they stand in the best MSS., are as follow: eiv thn exanastasin thn ek nekwn, to that resurrection which is of the dead. This glorious resurrection, and perhaps peculiarly glorious in the case of martyrs, is that to which St. Paul aspired. The word anastasiv signifies the resurrection in general, both of the just and unjust; exanastasiv may signify that of the blessed only.

Verses 8-11. Yea doubtless — Not only when I was first converted, but I still account both these and all things else, how valuable soever, to be but loss. Having said, in the preceding verse, that he counted his privileges as a Jew, and his righteousness by the law, to be loss, or things to be thrown away, he here adds, that he viewed in the same light all the things which men value themselves upon, and on which they build their hope of salvation: such as their natural and acquired talents, their knowledge, their moral virtue, and even their good works; yea, and all the riches, honours, and pleasures of the world; all the things in which people seek their happiness. For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord — In comparison of, and in order that I may attain, the experimental and practical knowledge of Christ, as my Lord, as my teaching Prophet, my atoning and mediating Priest, my delivering and ruling King, reigning in my heart by his grace, and governing my life by his laws. For the apostle evidently had a respect here to all the offices and characters of Christ, and intended what he says to be understood of sanctification and practical obedience, as much as of illumination and justification. And he accounted all the things he speaks of as worthless, not only because they were ineffectual to procure for him acceptance with God, but because in themselves they are of little value in comparison with the true knowledge of Christ, and of the way of salvation through him; blessings which the apostle so regarded, that he despised all other knowledge, and every human attainment, as things comparatively unworthy of his care, while pursuing his way to eternal life. For whom I have actually suffered the loss of all things — Which the world esteems, admires, loves, and delights in. It seems probable, from this, that he had been excommunicated by the Jews in Jerusalem, and spoiled of his goods: a treatment which some others, who were not so obnoxious to the Jews as he was, met with after they became Christians, Hebrews 10:33, 34. And I count them but dung — So far am I from repenting, that I exposed myself to the loss of them. The discourse rises. Loss is sustained with patience; but dung is cast away with abhorrence. The Greek word, so rendered, signifies any vile refuse of things, the dross of metals, the dregs of liquors, the excrements of animals, the most worthless scraps of meat, the basest offals, fit only for dogs: in such a light did the apostle view every thing that would engage his dependance for justification, or stand in competition with Christ for his affection. That I may win Christ — May have him for my Saviour and Lord; may have an interest in all the offices that he sustains, and in all he hath done and suffered for the salvation of men, and may be made partaker of the benefits which he hath procured for me. And be found in him — Vitally united to him by faith and love; not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law — That merely outward righteousness prescribed by the law, and performed in my own strength; but that which is through the faith of Christ — That justifying, sanctifying, and practical righteousness which is attained through believing in Christ, and in the truths and promises of his gospel. See on Romans 4:6-8; Ephesians 4:22-24; 1 John 3:7. The righteousness which is, ek Qeou, of, or from God — Which is the gift of his grace and mercy, and not procured by my merit; and is from his Spirit, not effected by my own strength, through the instrumentality of faith alone; a faith, however, productive of love, and of all holiness and righteousness. The phrase in the original here, thn ek Qeou dikaiosunhn, the righteousness of, or from God, is used, says Macknight, “I think only in this passage. It is opposed to mine own righteousness, which is from the law, a phrase found in other passages, particularly Galatians 3:21. Wherefore, since the righteousness from the law is that which is obtained according to the tenor of the law, the righteousness from God by faith, is that which comes from God’s accounting the believer’s faith to him for righteousness, and from his working that faith in his heart by the influences of his Spirit.” That I may know him — In his person and offices, in his humiliation and exaltation, his grace and glory, as my wisdom and righteousness, my sanctification and redemption; or, as my complete Saviour; and the power — Dunamin, the efficacy; of his resurrection — Demonstrating the certain truth and infinite importance of every part of his doctrine, the acceptableness of the atonement made by him for sin, (see on Romans 4:25,) opening an intercourse between earth and heaven, and obtaining for me the Holy Spirit, to raise me from the death of sin unto all the life of righteousness, (John 16:7,) assuring me of a future and eternal judgment, (Acts 17:31,) begetting me again to a lively hope of a heavenly inheritance, (1 Peter 1:3,) and raising my affections from things on earth to things above, Colossians 3:1, 2: and the fellowship of his sufferings — Sympathizing with him in his sufferings, and partaking of the benefits purchased for me thereby; as also being willing to take up my cross and suffer with him, as far as I am called to it, knowing that if I suffer with him, I shall also be glorified with him. See the margin. Being made conformable to his death — Being dead to the world and sin, or being made willing to confirm the gospel by enduring the tortures of crucifixion as he did, should it be his will I should do so. If by any means — Having attained an entire conformity to my great Master, and done and suffered the whole will of God; I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead — Unto that consummate holiness and blessedness, which he will bestow upon all his people when the dead in Christ shall rise first, and be distinguished with honour and glory proportionable to the zeal and diligence which they have manifested in his service.

Ver. 11. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Our course here is progressive, it admits of no stay at any one point: we have not yet attained the prize, the full enjoyment of God in Christ. Critics remark, that Paul does not simply say, anastasin, resurrection, but exanastasin, as if he should say, a resurrection, a full, perfect, and glorious resurrection. His eye might possibly glance on the earlier resurrection promised to the martyrs.

11. Attain unto the resurrection—No doubt is implied of the resurrection of all men, “both of the just and unjust,” for on this point the apostle had put himself on record. Acts 24:15. But as Paul here uses for resurrection not simply the ordinary Greek word anastasis, uprising, but exanastasis, out-uprising, millenarians have found a reference to a supposed first resurrection in order of time. Note, 1 Corinthians 15:24. This they find confirmed in the Greek preposition before the dead, a true rendering of the phrase being the out-uprising from (without the article) deads. But of the phrase from deads we have shown that the meaning may be a resurrection from their own dead selves, (Luke 20:35; 1 Corinthians 15:12,) that is, a resurrection from being dead. The prefix ex in exanastasis is, we suppose, as is often the case, simply intensive or emphatic, and brings out the meaning of extra-resurrection; that is, the glorious resurrection, or glorious side of the resurrection simultaneous with the inglorious resurrection of the wicked, as in John 5:26-29. It was to this glorious extra-resurrection that St. Paul aspired.

Ver. 11. The ultimate goal of Paul’s desire.

The resurrection or resurrection-out-of: a strong term, used in the N.T. only here.

From the dead: more definite than resurrection of the dead, and found only in Luke 20:35; Acts 4:2; 1 Peter 1:3. It suggests removal from among the dead, and is used only of Christ and His servants. Although the lost (John 5:29) will rise, resurrection will not separate them from the dead. Paul desired to attain to the uprising forth from the midst of the dead, the resurrection of life. This will be the Christian’s final triumph over his last foe: 1 Corinthians 15:26. And it implies victory over all enemies who now bar his path. For whatever tends to overturn his faith tends to rob him of his glorious consummation. A close parallel in Luke 20:35. This phrase peculiar to the blessed dead, by no means asserts or implies that they will rise before the unsaved. And Christ asserts that the two resurrections; of life and of judgment, will take place in the same hour.

If in any way: as in Romans 1:10; 11:14; Acts 27:12; noting a purpose which Paul desires to achieve in any way, and therefore at any cost. It suggests difficulty, and earnest desire prepared to encounter any difficulty.

REVIEW OF 7-11. Paul has declared that, in contrast to the Jews, he has no confidence in the flesh; and has shown the significance of this assertion by specifying several matters pertaining to bodily life in which conceivably he might have confidence.

He now tells us that he has renounced, and continues to renounce, all these matters of boasting; and describes the greater gain which has allured him to this renunciation. Things once prized as gains, he has written off as loss; and this because of Christ and because of the greater gain of knowing Him. This renunciation has been to him the loss of all things; so valuable to him once were the gains he has renounced. They are to him now only the refuse which we haste to cast away. Paul desires to make Christ his own, thus gaining real enrichment; and to have Him for his home and refuge. To this end he needs the approval of the great Judge, which he can obtain not by anything in himself but only by the divinely-given righteousness promised to those who believe. He desires to win Christ and to be found in Him, in order thus to know Him, and especially to know by experience the mighty power which raised Christ from the dead. The only way to this experience of the power which wrought in Christ is by partnership in the sufferings which reached their culmination in the cross. And these Paul is eager to share. His ultimate aim is to attain the glory of those who in the Great Day will rise from and cast off the dust of death and thus enter into immortal life.

In these verses Paul contemplates the great change which had turned the entire current of his life. It was no new and loftier view of morality or even a more enthusiastic love for his fellows; but a new aim in life, and this aim a new relation to Christ and a deeper knowledge of Him, the ultimate aim being a share in the resurrection of the just.

V. 12. Not that I have already attained-The prize. He here enters on a new set of metaphors, taken from a race. But observe how, in the utmost fervour, he retains his sobriety of spirit.

Or am already perfected-There is a difference between one that is perfect, and one that is perfected. The one is fitted for the race, Philippians 3:15; the other, ready to receive the prize. But I pursue, if I may apprehend that-Perfect holiness, preparatory to glory.

For, in order to which I was apprehended by Christ Jesus-Appearing to me in the way, Acts 26:14. The speaking conditionally both here and in the preceding verse, implies no uncertainty, but only the difficulty of attaining.

Verse 12. Not as though I had already attained] ouc oti hdh elabon. For I have not yet received the prize; I am not glorified, for I have not finished my course; and I have a conflict still to maintain, and the issue will prove whether I should be crowned. From the beginning of the 11th to the end of the 17th verse there is one continued allusion to the contests at the Olympic games; exercises with which, and their laws, the Philippians were well acquainted. {Philippians 3:11-17}

Either were already perfect] h hdh teteleiwmai. Nor am I yet perfect; I am not yet crowned, in consequence of having suffered martyrdom. I am quite satisfied that the apostle here alludes to the Olympic games, and the word teteleiwmai is the proof; for teleiwqhnai is spoken of those who have completed their race, reached the goal, and are honoured with the prize. Thus it is used by Philo, Allegoriar. lib. iii. page 101, edit. Mangey: pote oun, w yuch, malista nekroforein $nikoforein% seauthn upolhyh. arage ouc otan teleiwqhv kai brabeiwn kai stefanwn axiwqhv “When is it, O soul, that thou shalt appear to have the victory? Is it not when thou shalt be perfected, (have completed thy course by death,) and be honoured with prizes and crowns?”

That teleiwsiv signified martyrdom, we learn most expressly from Clemens Alexand., Stromata, lib. iii. page 480, where he has these remarkable words:-teleiwsin marturion kaloumen, ouc oti telov tou biou o anqrwpov eleben, wv oi loipoi, allJ oti teleion ergon agaphv enedeixato. “We call martyrdom teleiwsiv, or perfection, not because man receives it as the end, telov, or completion of life; but because it is the consummation teleiov, of the work of charity.” So Basil the great, Hom. in <19B613>Psalm 116:13: pothrion swthriou lhyomai. toutesti, diywn epi thn dia tou marturiou teleiwsin ercomai. “I will receive the cup of salvation; that is, thirsting and earnestly desiring to come, by martyrdom, to the consummation.”

So Œcumenius, on Acts 28: panta eth apo thv klhsewv tou paulou, mecri thv teleiwsewv autou, triakonta kai pente. “All the years of Paul, from his calling to his martyrdom, were thirty and five.” And in Balsamon, Can. i. Ancyran., page 764: ton thv teleiwsewv stefanon anadhsasqai is, “To be crowned with the crown of martyrdom.”

Eusebius, Hist. Eccles, lib. vii. cap. 13, uses the word teleiousqai to express to suffer martyrdom. I have been the more particular here, because some critics have denied that the word has any such signification. See Suicer, Rosenmuller, Macknight, &c.

St. Paul, therefore, is not speaking here of any deficiency in his own grace, or spiritual state; he does not mean by not being yet perfect, that he had a body of sin and death cleaving to him, and was still polluted with indwelling sin, as some have most falsely and dangerously imagined; he speaks of his not having terminated his course by martyrdom, which he knew would sooner or later be the case. This he considered as the teleiwsiv, or perfection, of his whole career, and was led to view every thing as imperfect or unfinished till this had taken place. But I follow after] diowkw de. But I pursue; several are gone before me in this glorious way, and have obtained the crown of martyrdom; I am hurrying after them.

That I may apprehend] That I may receive those blessings to which I am called by Christ Jesus. There is still an allusion here to the stadium, and exercises there: the apostle considers Christ as the brabeus, or judge in the games, who proclaimed the victor, and distributed the prizes; and he represents himself as being introduced by this very brabeus, or judge, into the contest; and this brabeus brought him in with the design to crown him, if he contended faithfully. To complete this faithful contention is what he has in view; that he may apprehend, or lay hold on that for which he had been apprehended, or taken by the hand by Christ who had converted, strengthened, and endowed him with apostolical powers, that he might fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life.

Verse 12. Not as though I had already attained — Ouc oti hdh elabon, literally, not that I have already received, namely, the blessings which I am in pursuit of, even that complete knowledge of Christ, of the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, and conformity to his death just mentioned; either were already perfect — Teteleiwmai, perfected, completed: or had finished my course of duty and sufferings. It appears from verse 15, that there is a difference between one that is teleiov, perfect, and one that is perfected; the one is fitted for the race, the other has finished the race, and is ready to receive the prize. But I follow after — Diwkw, I pursue, what is still before me. The apostle changes his allusion from a voyage to a race, which he continues through the two next verses. That I may apprehend that perfect holiness, that entire conformity to the will of God, for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus — Appearing to me in the way to Damascus, (Acts 26:14,) whose condescending hand graciously laid hold on me when I was proceeding in my mad career of persecuting him and his followers, and in the extraordinary manner of which you have often heard, brought me to engage in running that very different race which I am now pursuing.

Ver. 12. I follow after, alluding to the races and Grecian games, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. He has apprehended me, to make me his child, his heir, to inherit all things. This is the christian vocation, and I would not therefore come short of the will and pleasure of my Redeemer. Oh that the preachers of righteousness might fully imbibe the ardours of the soul of Paul, and not let their auditories fall asleep, seeing they have hardly as yet entered on their course.

12. Not as though—The apostle here guards against a construing of his words (8-10) into over high profession. He has not attained; his is yet only a follow after; namely, after that conformableness to Christ’s death which will be attained at his own exanastasis. Already perfect—Rather, already perfected, referring not, as Clarke, to his martyrdom, nor to the physical resurrection change only; but to that perfected holiness of soul, that completing of the regeneration, which takes place at the exanastasis, by which the being passes out of the sphere of possible sin. This a higher being perfect, which is different from, but does not contradict, the lower perfect of verse 15, which belongs to the earthly Christian life, and to which St. Paul had attained, and which was an earnest follow after.

Verse 12. Not that: as in 2 Corinthians 1:24. It guards from misinterpretation the foregoing assertion, by saying that this lofty aim does not imply actual attainment.

Obtained: literally received or taken. The object received is not mentioned, attention being for the moment limited to the act of reception. But the word press-on suggests that Paul has already in view the prize mentioned in Philippians 3:14. This prize can be no other than the full blessedness of the Kingdom of Christ. And, for this, Paul must wait till the resurrection from the dead.

Notice the accurate use of the Greek tenses. The aorist, I-have-obtained, denotes the mere act of reception: the perfect, am-made-perfect denotes its abiding result. The denial not already attained covers Paul’s past life to the moment of writing. He has not yet received the prize he has in view. Lightfoot’s exposition, not as though by my conversion I did at once attain, puts into the Greek aorist a meaning quite foreign to it and belonging only to the English preterite: see The Expositor, 1st series, vol. xi. p. 375.]

Already… already: emphatic denial of present attainment. A close parallel in 1 Corinthians 4:8.

Made-perfect: same word from the lips of Paul in Acts 20:24; Hebrews 2:10; 9:9; 11:40; 12:23, etc. A cognate adjective, rendered perfect, in Philippians 3:15, and 1 Corinthians 2:6 where see note. These words denote a development which has reached its goal. Consequently, the exact sense in each case will vary according to the goal the writer has for the moment in view. They suggest here that the prize Paul seeks is to be obtained by personal maturity. Since it is given in the Great Day (cp. 2 Timothy 4:8) Paul probably means here that it is not yet so secure to him as to be no longer an object of earnest effort. I-press-on: literally pursue, i.e. follow quickly with a view to take hold of. Same word in Romans 9:30, 31; 12:13, 14.

Lay-hold: stronger form of the word rendered obtain. The words may be compared as take and take-hold.

Of that for which: or with equal grammatical correctness inasmuch as. The former rendering would assert that Christ has taken hold of Paul with a definite aim, and that Paul presses forward in order to achieve that aim, i.e. to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of him. The second exposition would leave unmentioned, as in Philippians 3:12a, the object Paul desires to grasp, stating only that Christ has laid hold of him and giving this as a reason for his own earnest effort. Between these renderings (R.V. text and R.V. margin) we cannot decide. And the practical difference is slight. Paul knows that Christ has laid His hand on him. This must be with a definite purpose, a purpose to be attained by Paul’s own effort. To accomplish this purpose is the object of his strenuous endeavour.

V. 13. I do not account myself to have apprehended this already; to be already possessed of perfect holiness.

Verse 13. I count not myself to have apprehended] Whatever gifts, graces, or honours I may have received from Jesus Christ, I consider every thing as incomplete till I have finished my course, got this crown, and have my body raised and fashioned after his glorious body.

This one thing I do] This is the concern, as it is the sole business, of my life.

Forgetting those things which are behind] My conduct is not regulated nor influenced by that of others; I consider my calling, my Master, my work, and my end. If others think they have time to loiter or trifle, I have none: time is flying; eternity is at hand; and my all is at stake. Reaching forth] The Greek word epekteinomenov points out the strong exertions made in the race; every muscle and nerve is exerted, and he puts forth every particle of his strength in running. He was running for life, and running for his life.

Verses 13, 14. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended — To have already attained those high degrees of holiness, internal and external, of usefulness and conformity to my blessed Master, which I have in view. But this one thing I do — I make this my chief business. Or rather, (which the phraseology of the original seems to require,) this one thing I can say, though I cannot say that I have attained what I am aiming at; forgetting those things which are behind — Even that part of the race of Christian experience, duty, and suffering, which is already run; and reaching forth, &c. — Greek, toiv de emprosqen epekteinomenov, stretching forward toward those things which are before — Toward still higher attainments in grace, and the further labours and sufferings which remain to be accomplished, pursuing these with the whole vigour of my soul; I press toward the mark — Which God hath placed before me, even a full conformity to the image of his Son in my heart and life, Romans 8:29; for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus — The felicity, honour, and glory, which I am called of God in Christ to contend for: a noble prize indeed! The reader will easily observe, that there is all along in this passage a beautiful allusion to the foot-races in the Grecian games; and in this last clause, to that particular circumstance respecting the prize, that it was placed in a very conspicuous situation, in order that the competitors might be animated by having it still in their view. Add to this, that the judges sat on a high seat, and from thence, by a herald, summoned the contenders into the stadium, or place where they were to contend. In allusion to which elevated situation of the judges, Macknight thinks the apostle here terms God’s calling him by Christ to run the Christian race, anw klhsiv, a high calling, or a calling from above. The phrase, however, seems rather to mean a calling or invitation to very high things, even to dignity and happiness, great beyond all that we can now conceive. For to every faithful servant shall it be granted, partly at death, and more especially at the day of final judgment, to enter into the joy of his Lord, Matthew 25:23; to sit down with him on his throne, as he overcame and is set down with his Father on his throne; and to inherit all things, even all that God has and is, Revelation 3:21, and 21:7. “From the description which the apostle gives in this passage of his stretching all the members of his body while running the Christian race, and from his telling us that he followed on with unremitting strength and agility, till he arrived at the prize which was placed at the end of the course, we may learn what earnestness, diligence, and constancy, in the exercises of faith and holiness, are necessary to our faith’s being counted to us for righteousness at the last day.”

Ver. 13, 14. Forgetting those things which are behind. Judaism with all its boastings; persecutions with all their bitterness. I flee for my life, like Lot out of Sodom, and press with all my energies to win the prize. Yea, this one thing I do, to lay hold on the hope set before me, the enjoyment of God in Christ for ever.

13. Count not myself—Whatever estimate the Philippians may have put upon the apostle, or whatever may be ours of him, his estimate of himself was a very humble one. Perhaps to avoid misapprehension on the part of those whom he has (<500803> Philippians 2:3) rebuked for their self-conceit, he reiterates with greater plainness what he has already said, both as to what he has gained, and his striving for something higher. One thing—All else is secondary. Then arises before Paul’s mind the image of one running a race.

Ver. 13.-14. An affectionate repetition and development of Philippians 3:12.

Reckon: a favourite word of Paul: close parallel in 2 Corinthians 11:5.

I… myself: each word emphatic, a vivid description of self-estimation. Cp. John 5:30, 31.

Not-yet: connected grammatically with reckon. But in Paul’s thought reckon to have laid hold forms one idea. He has not yet reached the point at which he can soberly calculate that he has achieved the aim of life. One thing, however, I do: the last two words being supplied from the sentence following which describes what Paul is doing.

Forgetting etc.: as a racer thinks not of the ground already passed, but only of that still before him.

The things behind: the earlier stages of his Christian course. For the Jewish delusions in Philippians 3:5, 6 were no part of his marked-out path.

Stretching forward to etc.: like a racer with hands reaching out eagerly towards the goal: a graphic delineation.

The things behind… the things before: a conspicuous contrast which cannot be reproduced in English.

I-press-on; takes up the same word in Philippians 3:12. The goal: the end of the course already in view and directing and quickening the racer’s rapid steps.

The prize: in N.T. only here and in 1 Corinthians 9:24: same word in Ep. of Clement ch. v.; see my Corinthians p. 521. The context shows that Paul refers to the garland given to successful athletes at the Greek festivals. See my Corinthians p. 157. While forgetting the ground already trodden and pressing eagerly towards the goal, the racer was really pressing on towards the garland he hoped to win.

The… calling of God: as in Romans 11:29; see under Romans 8:28. It is the Gospel looked upon as a voice of God summoning men to Himself.

High calling: belonging to a realm infinitely above everything on earth: cp. Hebrews 3:1. The Gospel has its source in heaven, and calls men up to the place whence it comes. Of this divine and heavenly summons, given to all who hear the Gospel, the voice on the way to Damascus was a particular case. It bids us contend for a prize. Hence the prize of the high calling. Paul remembers that God has called him to contend for a glorious prize, and that to enable him to win it Christ has laid His hand upon him. He therefore presses forward with the goal in view, to grasp the prize. In Christ Jesus; asserts either that the high calling was given in connection with Christ, or that Paul’s eager effort for the prize had Christ for its encompassing and pervading and animating element. The latter exposition, giving as it does to these concluding words a much richer significance, is probably correct. A similar ambiguity in 2 Corinthians 12:10.

Paul’s chief thought in Philippians 3:7-11 about his spiritual life was a purpose to win and to know Christ, that thus be may obtain a place in the resurrection of the just. In Philippians 3:12-14, this purpose is made more definite by a repeated and emphatic assertion that Paul has not yet attained the object he so earnestly desires; and is then developed into actual and intense effort. This effort is clothed in Paul’s favourite metaphor of the Athletic Festivals of Greece. He is a racer pressing forward along the course, forgetting the ground already trodden and eagerly straining every nerve to reach the goal and thus obtain the prize.

This metaphor presents an invaluable picture, and an essential condition, of healthy Christian life; viz. incessant and strenuous effort and sustained progress. The goal is the resurrection of the just. We can reach it only by pursuing now the path marked out for us by God. Consequently, every moral victory is a step towards the prize which will be given in that Day.

V. 14. Forgetting the things that are behind-Even that part of the race which is already run.

And reaching forth unto-Literally, stretched out over the things that are before-Pursuing with the whole bent and vigour of my soul, perfect holiness and eternal glory.

In Christ Jesus-The author and finisher of every good thing. V. 15 Let us, as many as are perfect-Fit for the race, strong in faith; so it means here.

Be thus minded-Apply wholly to this one thing.

And if in anything ye-Who are not perfect, who are weak in faith. Be otherwise minded-Pursuing other things. God, if ye desire it, shall reveal even this unto you-Will convince you of it.

Verse 14. I press toward the mark] kata skopon diwkw. I pursue along the line; this is a reference to the white line that marked the ground in the stadium, from the starting place to the goal, on which the runners were obliged to keep their eye fixed; for they who transgressed or went beyond this line did not run lawfully, and were not crowned, even though they got first to the goal. See the concluding observations on “1 Corinthians 9:27”.

What is called skopov, mark or scope, here, is called kanwn, the line, i.e. the marked line, Philippians 3:16. When it was said to Diogenes, the cynic, “Thou art now an old man, rest from thy labours;” to this he answered: ei dolicou edramon, prov tw telei me aneinai, kai mh mallon epiteinai; “If I have run long in the race, will it become me to slacken my pace when come near the end; should I not rather stretch forward?” Diog. Laert., lib. vi. cap. 2. sec. 6.

For the prize of the high calling of God] The reward which God from above calls me, by Christ Jesus, to receive. The apostle still keeps in view his crown of martyrdom and his glorious resurrection.

Verses 13, 14. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended — To have already attained those high degrees of holiness, internal and external, of usefulness and conformity to my blessed Master, which I have in view. But this one thing I do — I make this my chief business. Or rather, (which the phraseology of the original seems to require,) this one thing I can say, though I cannot say that I have attained what I am aiming at; forgetting those things which are behind — Even that part of the race of Christian experience, duty, and suffering, which is already run; and reaching forth, &c. — Greek, toiv de emprosqen epekteinomenov, stretching forward toward those things which are before — Toward still higher attainments in grace, and the further labours and sufferings which remain to be accomplished, pursuing these with the whole vigour of my soul; I press toward the mark — Which God hath placed before me, even a full conformity to the image of his Son in my heart and life, Romans 8:29; for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus — The felicity, honour, and glory, which I am called of God in Christ to contend for: a noble prize indeed! The reader will easily observe, that there is all along in this passage a beautiful allusion to the foot-races in the Grecian games; and in this last clause, to that particular circumstance respecting the prize, that it was placed in a very conspicuous situation, in order that the competitors might be animated by having it still in their view. Add to this, that the judges sat on a high seat, and from thence, by a herald, summoned the contenders into the stadium, or place where they were to contend. In allusion to which elevated situation of the judges, Macknight thinks the apostle here terms God’s calling him by Christ to run the Christian race, anw klhsiv, a high calling, or a calling from above. The phrase, however, seems rather to mean a calling or invitation to very high things, even to dignity and happiness, great beyond all that we can now conceive. For to every faithful servant shall it be granted, partly at death, and more especially at the day of final judgment, to enter into the joy of his Lord, Matthew 25:23; to sit down with him on his throne, as he overcame and is set down with his Father on his throne; and to inherit all things, even all that God has and is, Revelation 3:21, and 21:7. “From the description which the apostle gives in this passage of his stretching all the members of his body while running the Christian race, and from his telling us that he followed on with unremitting strength and agility, till he arrived at the prize which was placed at the end of the course, we may learn what earnestness, diligence, and constancy, in the exercises of faith and holiness, are necessary to our faith’s being counted to us for righteousness at the last day.”

Ver. 13, 14. Forgetting those things which are behind. Judaism with all its boastings; persecutions with all their bitterness. I flee for my life, like Lot out of Sodom, and press with all my energies to win the prize. Yea, this one thing I do, to lay hold on the hope set before me, the enjoyment of God in Christ for ever.

14. I press—It is the same word with follow after in verse 12, and in both cases it sets forth the unceasing earnestness of the pursuit. The mark— The goal, which is neither more nor less than absolute conformity to Christ. Time and space are excluded, yet from the nature of the case the close of life is the end of the race. The prize—The object of the race is the incorruptible crown (1 Corinthians 9:25) which the apostle was called by Christ from heaven to run for and win. This was the full compensation for his losses, the glorious reward of his fidelity.

Ver. 13.-14. An affectionate repetition and development of Philippians 3:12.

Reckon: a favourite word of Paul: close parallel in 2 Corinthians 11:5.

I… myself: each word emphatic, a vivid description of self-estimation. Cp. John 5:30, 31.

Not-yet: connected grammatically with reckon. But in Paul’s thought reckon to have laid hold forms one idea. He has not yet reached the point at which he can soberly calculate that he has achieved the aim of life. One thing, however, I do: the last two words being supplied from the sentence following which describes what Paul is doing.

Forgetting etc.: as a racer thinks not of the ground already passed, but only of that still before him.

The things behind: the earlier stages of his Christian course. For the Jewish delusions in Philippians 3:5, 6 were no part of his marked-out path.

Stretching forward to etc.: like a racer with hands reaching out eagerly towards the goal: a graphic delineation.

The things behind… the things before: a conspicuous contrast which cannot be reproduced in English.

I-press-on; takes up the same word in Philippians 3:12. The goal: the end of the course already in view and directing and quickening the racer’s rapid steps.

The prize: in N.T. only here and in 1 Corinthians 9:24: same word in Ep. of Clement ch. v.; see my Corinthians p. 521. The context shows that Paul refers to the garland given to successful athletes at the Greek festivals. See my Corinthians p. 157. While forgetting the ground already trodden and pressing eagerly towards the goal, the racer was really pressing on towards the garland he hoped to win.

The… calling of God: as in Romans 11:29; see under Romans 8:28. It is the Gospel looked upon as a voice of God summoning men to Himself.

High calling: belonging to a realm infinitely above everything on earth: cp. Hebrews 3:1. The Gospel has its source in heaven, and calls men up to the place whence it comes. Of this divine and heavenly summons, given to all who hear the Gospel, the voice on the way to Damascus was a particular case. It bids us contend for a prize. Hence the prize of the high calling. Paul remembers that God has called him to contend for a glorious prize, and that to enable him to win it Christ has laid His hand upon him. He therefore presses forward with the goal in view, to grasp the prize. In Christ Jesus; asserts either that the high calling was given in connection with Christ, or that Paul’s eager effort for the prize had Christ for its encompassing and pervading and animating element. The latter exposition, giving as it does to these concluding words a much richer significance, is probably correct. A similar ambiguity in 2 Corinthians 12:10.

Paul’s chief thought in Philippians 3:7-11 about his spiritual life was a purpose to win and to know Christ, that thus be may obtain a place in the resurrection of the just. In Philippians 3:12-14, this purpose is made more definite by a repeated and emphatic assertion that Paul has not yet attained the object he so earnestly desires; and is then developed into actual and intense effort. This effort is clothed in Paul’s favourite metaphor of the Athletic Festivals of Greece. He is a racer pressing forward along the course, forgetting the ground already trodden and eagerly straining every nerve to reach the goal and thus obtain the prize.

This metaphor presents an invaluable picture, and an essential condition, of healthy Christian life; viz. incessant and strenuous effort and sustained progress. The goal is the resurrection of the just. We can reach it only by pursuing now the path marked out for us by God. Consequently, every moral victory is a step towards the prize which will be given in that Day.

Verse 15. As many as be perfect] As many as are thoroughly instructed in Divine things, who have cast off all dependence on the law and on every other system for salvation, and who discern God calling them from above by Christ Jesus; be thus minded; be intensely in earnest for eternal life, nor ever halt till the race is finished.

The word teleioi, perfect, is taken here in the same sense in which it is taken 1 Corinthians 14:20:- Be not CHILDREN in understanding-but in understanding be ye MEN, teleioi ginesqe, be ye perfect-thoroughly instructed, deeply experienced. 1 Corinthians 2:6:- We speak wisdom among the perfect, en toiv teleioiv, among those who are fully instructed, adults in Christian knowledge. Ephesians 4:13:- Till we all come-unto a perfect man, eiv andra teleion, to the state of adults in Christianity. Hebrews 5:14:- But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, teleiwn, the perfect-those who are thoroughly instructed and experienced in Divine things. Let us therefore, says the apostle, as many as be perfect-as have entered fully into the spirit and design of the Gospel, be thus minded, viz. Forget the things which are behind, and stretch forward along the mark for the prize.

If in any thing ye be otherwise minded] If ye have not yet entered into the full spirit and design of this Gospel, if any of you have yet remaining any doubts relative to Jewish ordinances, or their expediency in Christianity, God shall reveal even this unto you; for while you are sincere and upright, God will take care that ye shall have full instruction in these Divine things.

Verses 15, 16. Let us, as many as are perfect — As many as are genuine believers in Christ, thorough Christians, justified and regenerated, new creatures in Christ, and so fit for the Christian race of duty and suffering; be thus minded — Minded as I have said that I am, namely, inclined and determined to press forward with zeal and diligence to still higher attainments in holiness, usefulness, and patient sufferings, till as Christ was, they are made in this world. Let us apply wholly to this one thing; and if in any thing — In any of the particulars before mentioned; ye — Any of you being yet weak in faith, wavering in hope, and imperfect in love, see Hebrews 6:11, 12; 1 John 4:17, 18; be otherwise minded — Contented with, and resting in, past attainments, and sunk into a remiss and indolent frame of mind, destitute of zeal and Christian fervency; God — If you be sincere, and truly desire it of him; shall reveal even this unto you — Shall show you your error and your sin, and excite you to fresh zeal and diligence in your Christian calling. Nevertheless — Let us remember this is on the supposition that, whereunto we have already attained — Or, so far forth as we have already made any progress toward perfection, we walk by the same rule — By which we have hitherto walked, and take care not to lose the ground we have already gained, which, by giving way to unbelief, diffidence, and distrust of God’s love, power, and faithfulness engaged for us, or by sinking into lukewarmness and sloth, we should easily do. Macknight takes the passage in rather another sense, namely, as signifying “that such of the Philippians as sincerely feared the Lord, if they happened, from ignorance or prejudice, to think differently from the apostle concerning any important article of faith, would have their error discovered to them, not by a particular revelation, but by the ordinary influences of the Spirit, agreeably to Psalms 25:12Psalm 25:12, What man is he who feareth the Lord, him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.”

15. As many as be perfect—Including himself in the class thus designated, and leaving each member of the Philippian Church to decide whether or not he himself belonged to it. See note on verse 12. The perfection here is a moral perfection, and, therefore, a different thing from that in verse 12, which the apostle declares himself not to have attained. The perfect are the true circumcision, as defined in verse 3, and stand in contrast with those who depend upon the flesh, and thereby fail of an acceptable righteousness.

Ver. 15.-16. Practical application of the foregoing. That Paul here implicitly claims perfection, after disclaiming it in Philippians 3:12, proves that the word was not to him a technical term for one definite stage of the Christian life. The context shows that the perfection denied in Philippians 3:12 was such as would make needless further effort and progress. That assumed here is doubtless the Christian maturity mentioned in 1 Corinthians 2:6; 14:20; Hebrews 5:14, and there contrasted with spiritual infancy. It implies a firm grasp of the Gospel and a full surrender of our heart and life to its transforming power. Possibly Paul has here in view some who claimed to be perfect or full-grown. Instead of denying their claim, he shows the obligation it involves. They who call themselves men in Christ are bound to contend as athletes for the great prize. Similar thought and expression in 1 Corinthians 8:1. Of this mind: viz. pressing on towards the prize. Since Paul, whom all would admit to be a mature Christian, disclaimed absolute perfection and was striving with all his might for something he had not yet attained, he bids his readers, so many as suppose themselves to be mature Christians, to make the same self-estimate and the same resolute effort. In anything otherwise minded: some detail not in harmony with the mind of Paul. That it is only a mere detail, is implied in the absence of censure and in the hope immediately expressed. ‘If in any matter you do not share my self-estimate and earnest effort, even this error God will dissipate by heavenly light.’

Reveal: as in 1 Corinthians 2:10; Galatians 1:16; see under Romans 1:17. It denotes always the Hand of God lifting a veil and thus imparting to men by light from heaven actual knowledge, ordinary or extraordinary. Paul bids his readers imitate his own self-estimate and earnest effort, and expresses an assured hope that if they do so, and if in any detail they fall below the example just set before them, even this error will be removed by God.

V. 16. But let us take care not to lose the ground we have already gained. Let us walk by the same rule we have done hitherto.

Verse 16. Whereto we have already attained] Let us not lose that part of the race which we have already run, let us walk by the same rule-let us keep the white line continually in view, let us mind the same thing, always considering the glorious prize which is held out by God through Christ Jesus to animate and encourage us.

The MSS., versions and fathers of the Alexandrian recension or edition, and which are supposed by Griesbach and others to contain the purest text, omit the words kanoni, to auto pronein, and read the verse thus: Whereunto we have already attained let us walk; or, according to what we have already attained, let us regulate our life, There is so much disagreement about the above words in the MSS., &c., that most critics consider them as a sort of gloss, which never made an original part of the text. Dr. White says, Certissime delenda; “Most certainly they should be obliterated.”

Verses 15, 16. Let us, as many as are perfect — As many as are genuine believers in Christ, thorough Christians, justified and regenerated, new creatures in Christ, and so fit for the Christian race of duty and suffering; be thus minded — Minded as I have said that I am, namely, inclined and determined to press forward with zeal and diligence to still higher attainments in holiness, usefulness, and patient sufferings, till as Christ was, they are made in this world. Let us apply wholly to this one thing; and if in any thing — In any of the particulars before mentioned; ye — Any of you being yet weak in faith, wavering in hope, and imperfect in love, see Hebrews 6:11, 12; 1 John 4:17, 18; be otherwise minded — Contented with, and resting in, past attainments, and sunk into a remiss and indolent frame of mind, destitute of zeal and Christian fervency; God — If you be sincere, and truly desire it of him; shall reveal even this unto you — Shall show you your error and your sin, and excite you to fresh zeal and diligence in your Christian calling. Nevertheless — Let us remember this is on the supposition that, whereunto we have already attained — Or, so far forth as we have already made any progress toward perfection, we walk by the same rule — By which we have hitherto walked, and take care not to lose the ground we have already gained, which, by giving way to unbelief, diffidence, and distrust of God’s love, power, and faithfulness engaged for us, or by sinking into lukewarmness and sloth, we should easily do. Macknight takes the passage in rather another sense, namely, as signifying “that such of the Philippians as sincerely feared the Lord, if they happened, from ignorance or prejudice, to think differently from the apostle concerning any important article of faith, would have their error discovered to them, not by a particular revelation, but by the ordinary influences of the Spirit, agreeably to Psalms 25:12Psalm 25:12, What man is he who feareth the Lord, him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.”

16. Walk by the same rule—Different persons have reached different points along the common path in which all genuine believers are walking, and, however it may be as to any future enlightenment, all are to walk onward in the same direction. Only those who use the light they have, have a right to expect more. The last clause of this verse, beginning with the word rule, is rejected from the best texts.

3. Warning against immoral examples, 17-4:1.

Ver. 16. Concluding exhortation, in the form of a limitation to the foregoing. ‘Let us count as nothing our present attainments and press forward: only in so doing let us pursue the direction in which we have attained our present position.’ A similar thought underlies the argument in Galatians 3:3, where Paul exposes the folly of turning aside from the path in which his readers have obtained spiritual life. That argument and this exhortation assume, not that the readers are infallible, but that they have made indisputable progress. Of this, their own moral sense was to them an infallible witness. They know that they have come out of darkness into light. Paul expresses his own determination, and encourages his readers, to go forward; and warns that their progress be in the direction which their past experience has proved to be right. So will all real progress mental and spiritual be along the lines of whatever progress we have already made. But we must be sure that our progress is real. Of this, neither Paul nor his readers had any doubt.

Walk: same word in Romans 4:12; Galatians 5:25; 6:16; Acts 21:24; describing, as here, a spiritual path. Such are Paul’s safe words to his readers. Around them are enemies, unworthy of the name of men, yet busy, and boasting in the Covenant of God. Their professed loyalty to that Covenant is unreal. Its true sons are Paul and his readers, Jews and Gentiles. For the worship of the true Israelites is prompted by the Spirit of God: and their boast is in Christ and not in anything pertaining to mere bodily life. Yet in whatever the Jews boast, Paul might boast still more. For, whatever they claim, he has. But to him all such trust, and indeed all reliance upon earthly good, have vanished at the magic name of Christ. Paul’s one aim now is to win Christ as his spiritual home and refuge, that thus he may know Him; and by knowing Him obtain a place in the resurrection of the just. Yet this lofty aim does not imply attainment. Paul has not reached the goal on which his eye is fixed. But day by day he is pressing forward. And his strenuous effort after spiritual progress he holds before his readers as a pattern for all who claim to be men in Christ. If in any detail, of thought or action, they cannot as yet embrace this all-controlling purpose, Paul confidently hopes that new light from heaven will enable them to do so. But whatever else they do, their effort and progress must be along the path which already has led them from sin to God.

V. 17. Mark them-For your imitation.

Verse 17. Brethren, be followers-of me] In the things of Christ let me be your line, and my writings preaching, and conduct, your rule. And mark them] skopeite. Still alluding to the line in the stadium, keep your eye steadily fixed on those who walk-live, as ye have us-myself, Timothy, and Epaphroditus, for an ensample.

Verses 17-19. Brethren, be followers together — Summimhtai, joint imitators, of me — Obedient to my directions, and following the pattern which God enables me to set before you; and mark — Observe and imitate them; who walk so as ye have us — Myself and the other apostles of Christ, for an ensample. For many — Even teachers, as they profess themselves to be, walk in a very different manner; of whom I have told you often in time past, and now tell you even weeping — While I write, for indeed well may I weep on so lamentable an occasion; that they are enemies of the cross of Christ — Unwilling to suffer any thing for him and his cause, and counteracting the very end and design of his death. Observe, reader, such are all cowardly, all shamefaced, all delicate Christians. Whose end is destruction — This is placed in the front, that what follows may be read with the greater horror; whose God is their belly — Whose supreme happiness lies in gratifying their sensual appetites. The apostle gives the same character of the Judaizing teachers, (Romans 16:18; Titus 1:11,) and, therefore, it is probable that he is speaking here chiefly of them and of their disciples. Whose glory is in their shame — In those things which they ought to be ashamed of: and whoever glories in the commission of any sin, or in the omission of any duty which he owes to God, his neighbour, or himself; or in the gratification of those inclinations and dispositions that are contrary to the love of God and his neighbour; or in that manner of employing his money, his knowledge, his authority over others, or his time, which is contrary to the will of God, and manifests that he is not a faithful steward of God’s manifold gifts, glories in his shame: who mind — Relish, desire, seek, pursue; earthly things — Things visible and temporal, in preference to those which are invisible and eternal; for to be carnally minded is death, Romans 8:6.

17. Followers together—That is, unitedly imitators of the apostle in his life, as described in the preceding context, and as they knew it from personal observation. Furthermore, they were to studiously mark those holy men among themselves whose lives were such as they saw his own to be.

PHILIPPIANS

SECTION 9. — WORLDLY-MINDED CHURCH-

MEMBERS, WITH WHOM IS CONTRASTED THE

CHRISTIAN’S HOPE. CH. 3:17-4:1.

Be joint-imitators of me, brethren, and mark those who thus walk, according as ye have us for an example. For many walk of whom I often said to you, and now say even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is the belly, and their glory is in their shame, who mind the earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will refashion the body of our humiliation conformed to the body of His glare, according to the working whereby He is able even to subject to Himself all things. So then, my brethren, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, in this way stand in the Lord, beloved ones.

Exhortation to imitate Paul, Philippians 3:17: opposite conduct of some church-members, Philippians 3:18, 19: with which is contrasted the Christian’s hope, Philippians 3:20, 21: concluding exhortation to steadfastness, Philippians 3:1.

Ver. 17. Joint-imitators of me, become ye: join with others in imitating Paul. The chief word here differs only one syllable from that in 1 Corinthians 4:16; 11:1, where Paul speaks of himself as an example. [So always when a genitive follows the word imitators: cp. 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 2:14.] This is simpler than the exposition join with me in imitating Christ: for there is no reference in the context to the example of Christ; whereas in Philippians 3:17b Paul speaks expressly of himself and others as patterns to the Philippians.

Mark: to look with a purpose, especially with a view to avoid, imitate, or obtain. Compare and contrast the same word in Romans 16:17. Same word as look-at in <501104> Philippians 2:4, and 2 Corinthians 4:18. The word walk takes up the similar, though not the same word in Philippians 3:16.

Who walk thus: viz. imitating Paul.

According as ye have etc.: a fact with which the above exhortations are in agreement. [This exposition gives to kaqwv its full force as introducing a harmony. Had it introduced merely an exposition of outwv, wv would probably have been used, as in Ephesians 5:28, 33.] Us: in contrast to me, including Paul and those who walk as he does. Such persons are an enrichment to the Philippian Christians: ye have a pattern. Same word and sense in 1 Thessalonians 1:7; 2 Thessalonians 3:9, where as here many men are one pattern; and in 1 Timothy 4:12; Titus 2:7: same word in slightly different sense in Romans 5:14; 6:17; 1 Corinthians 10:6.

While exhorting his readers in Philippians 3:15, 16 Paul placed himself among their number: let us be of this mind… we have attained. Conscious that he is himself doing what he exhorts, he now bids them to imitate him; and in so saying remembers that others are setting the same example. Upon these disciples who follow the steps of their teacher, Paul advises his readers to fix their attention, making use of the pattern they possess. He thus teaches the value of study of Christian character.

Notice that the example of Paul did not supersede the need and value of the example of others who imitate him. For a less example under our immediate observation is sometimes more effective than a greater one at a distance. And various good men present varieties of excellence suitable for imitation in various positions of life.

V. 18. Weeping-As he wrote.

Enemies of the cross of Christ-Such are all cowardly, all shamefaced, all delicate Christians.

Verse 18. For many walk, &c.] The Judaizing teachers continue to preach, who wish to incorporate circumcision, and other ordinances of the law, with the Gospel.

They are the enemies of the cross of Christ] They rather attribute justification to the Levitical sacrifices, than to the sacrificial death of Christ; and thus they are enemies to that cross, and will not suffer persecution for its sake. They please the world, and are in no danger of reproach.

Verses 17-19. Brethren, be followers together — Summimhtai, joint imitators, of me — Obedient to my directions, and following the pattern which God enables me to set before you; and mark — Observe and imitate them; who walk so as ye have us — Myself and the other apostles of Christ, for an ensample. For many — Even teachers, as they profess themselves to be, walk in a very different manner; of whom I have told you often in time past, and now tell you even weeping — While I write, for indeed well may I weep on so lamentable an occasion; that they are enemies of the cross of Christ — Unwilling to suffer any thing for him and his cause, and counteracting the very end and design of his death. Observe, reader, such are all cowardly, all shamefaced, all delicate Christians. Whose end is destruction — This is placed in the front, that what follows may be read with the greater horror; whose God is their belly — Whose supreme happiness lies in gratifying their sensual appetites. The apostle gives the same character of the Judaizing teachers, (Romans 16:18; Titus 1:11,) and, therefore, it is probable that he is speaking here chiefly of them and of their disciples. Whose glory is in their shame — In those things which they ought to be ashamed of: and whoever glories in the commission of any sin, or in the omission of any duty which he owes to God, his neighbour, or himself; or in the gratification of those inclinations and dispositions that are contrary to the love of God and his neighbour; or in that manner of employing his money, his knowledge, his authority over others, or his time, which is contrary to the will of God, and manifests that he is not a faithful steward of God’s manifold gifts, glories in his shame: who mind — Relish, desire, seek, pursue; earthly things — Things visible and temporal, in preference to those which are invisible and eternal; for to be carnally minded is death, Romans 8:6.

Ver. 18, 19. Many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping. The dogs, the evil workers, the concision, the bitter enemies of the cross of Christ. You fast while they feast, for their god is their belly. They glory in seducing you, which is their shame, to turn the simple out of the way. But their glory shall be transient, for their end is destruction. The eagles are gathering round the carcase, their city and temple shall soon be in flames, and the day shall burn as an oven. Their sun shall darken, their moon wane, their end shall be destruction. — But oh, are these words, these awful words, so many sentences against the profligate christians of the present age? We imitate those enemies of the Lord in sin; and how can we escape a share in their catastrophe. Preachers of the Court, repeat those things with streaming eyes, for the day of the Lord is near.

18. Many walk—In broad contrast with this exemplar were the sensual lives of many in that Church. They are not to be confounded with the false teachers, already spoken of; nor were they pagans. Doctrinally orthodox, their lives proved them to be practically Epicurean, and really enemies of the cross of Christ.

Ver. 18. Reason for the foregoing exhortation; viz. that many pursue an opposite path. These were apparently church-members. For the hostility and sensuality and worldliness of pagans was so familiar to Paul that it would hardly move him to tears. The neutral word walk (see under 1 Corinthians 3:3) simply places beside the walk of those who imitate Paul the outward life of these unworthy men. The path in which they walk is left to be inferred from what follows.

Many and often: notes of importance.

I have often said: probably when present at Philippi, where Paul must have been twice and possibly oftener, during his third missionary journey. It may also have included written warnings. The singular number, I said, suggests special warnings from Paul himself.

Even weeping; reveals the terrible position of the men referred to and the damage they were doing.

The enemies of the cross; implies that the death of Christ holds a unique place as a chief means of the advancement of His Kingdom. And this can be explained only by Paul’s teaching in Romans 3:24-26 that our salvation comes, by the grace of God, through the death of Christ making the justification of believers consistent with the justice of God. To resist the cross of Christ, is to resist the tremendous earnestness of God meeting a tremendous need of man, and the infinite love, there manifested. We wait to know more about the men guilty of sin so great.

V. 19. Whose end is destruction-This is placed in the front, that what follows may be read with the greater horror.

Whose god is their belly-Whose supreme happiness lies in gratifying their sensual appetites.

Who mind-Relish, desire, seek, earthly things.

Verse 19. Whose end is destruction] This is the issue of their doctrine and of their conduct. They are here described by three characters: 1. Their god is their belly-they live not in any reference to eternity; their religion is for time; they make a gain of godliness; and live only to eat, drink, and be merry. 2. Their glory is in their shame-they lay it down as a proof of their address, that they can fare sumptuously every day, in consequence of preaching a doctrine which flatters the passions of their hearers. 3. They mind earthly things-their whole study and attention are taken up with earthly matters; they are given to the flesh and its lusts; they have no spirituality, nor do they believe that there is or can be any intercourse between God and the souls of men. But their lasciviousness and uncleanness seem to be principally intended. See Kypke. Despicable as these men were, the apostle’s heart was deeply pained on their account: 1. Because they held and taught a false creed; 2. Because they perverted many by that teaching; and, 3. Because they themselves were perishing through it.

Verses 17-19. Brethren, be followers together — Summimhtai, joint imitators, of me — Obedient to my directions, and following the pattern which God enables me to set before you; and mark — Observe and imitate them; who walk so as ye have us — Myself and the other apostles of Christ, for an ensample. For many — Even teachers, as they profess themselves to be, walk in a very different manner; of whom I have told you often in time past, and now tell you even weeping — While I write, for indeed well may I weep on so lamentable an occasion; that they are enemies of the cross of Christ — Unwilling to suffer any thing for him and his cause, and counteracting the very end and design of his death. Observe, reader, such are all cowardly, all shamefaced, all delicate Christians. Whose end is destruction — This is placed in the front, that what follows may be read with the greater horror; whose God is their belly — Whose supreme happiness lies in gratifying their sensual appetites. The apostle gives the same character of the Judaizing teachers, (Romans 16:18; Titus 1:11,) and, therefore, it is probable that he is speaking here chiefly of them and of their disciples. Whose glory is in their shame — In those things which they ought to be ashamed of: and whoever glories in the commission of any sin, or in the omission of any duty which he owes to God, his neighbour, or himself; or in the gratification of those inclinations and dispositions that are contrary to the love of God and his neighbour; or in that manner of employing his money, his knowledge, his authority over others, or his time, which is contrary to the will of God, and manifests that he is not a faithful steward of God’s manifold gifts, glories in his shame: who mind — Relish, desire, seek, pursue; earthly things — Things visible and temporal, in preference to those which are invisible and eternal; for to be carnally minded is death, Romans 8:6.

Ver. 18, 19. Many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping. The dogs, the evil workers, the concision, the bitter enemies of the cross of Christ. You fast while they feast, for their god is their belly. They glory in seducing you, which is their shame, to turn the simple out of the way. But their glory shall be transient, for their end is destruction. The eagles are gathering round the carcase, their city and temple shall soon be in flames, and the day shall burn as an oven. Their sun shall darken, their moon wane, their end shall be destruction. — But oh, are these words, these awful words, so many sentences against the profligate christians of the present age? We imitate those enemies of the Lord in sin; and how can we escape a share in their catastrophe. Preachers of the Court, repeat those things with streaming eyes, for the day of the Lord is near.

19. Whose end—Eternal perdition instead of the heaven for which the cross would have prepared them. Their belly—Finding their highest happiness in the sensuality of eating and drinking. The classics furnish many like expressions. Whose glory—The low and grovelling pleasures which they delighted in, and boasted over, were really their shame, though they did not think it so. Who mind—They thought, loved, and cared for only earthly things, and of even them they were chiefly intent upon the most debasing.

Ver. 19. Further description of the enemies of the cross. Whose end: as in 2 Corinthians 11:15, where see note. Destruction: utter ruin: see note under Romans 2:24, and especially The Expositor, 4th series, vol. i. p. 24. That ruin is here said to be the end of these men, implies clearly that Paul believed in the possibility of final ruin. For if all men will at last be saved, destruction cannot be their end. In that case the end of all men would be eternal life. The plain words before us prove that such universal salvation was altogether alien to the thought of Paul. For the universal purpose of salvation, see under <503211> Philippians 2:11.

Whose… whose: stately repetition.

The belly: not their belly. The seat of appetite for food is looked upon in the abstract as one definite idea; and is thus in some sense personified; so 1 Corinthians 6:13. This gives great force to the terrible charge whose God is the belly. A similar, though slightly different thought in Romans 16:18. The appetite for food and the desire for pleasant food, with all the self-indulgence of which this appetite is a representative, are the supreme power which these men obey. The lower element of their nature controls the whole of it. The absence of the word whose before glory in their shame joins these words to the foregoing as together forming a second item in the description.

Glory: that which evokes admiration: see under Romans 1:21. That which evokes from their fellows admiration of them, and to which they look for admiration, is found in that which is their disgrace and ought to cover them with shame. To them, their degradation is their ornament. The earthly things: good or ill, these looked upon as a complex yet definite idea: hence the plural, and the definite article. Who mind: as in Philippians 3:15; 2:2, 5; Romans 8:5, etc.: a word frequent in this Epistle. The things of earth, i.e. material good and ill, are the objects of their mental activity. Exact contrast in Colossians 3:1; mind the things above.

About these enemies of the cross, Paul’s first thought is the ruin which awaits them. He then mentions the most conspicuous feature of their character, viz. that desires common to animals are the supreme object of their worship, the lower thus ruling the higher. Closely connected with this terrible inversion, we find that that which gains for them admiration with their fellows is really their disgrace. All this Paul traces to its ultimate source, viz. concentration of their thought on things pertaining to the material world. This preference of the lower for the higher is inevitably degrading. Hence comes the supremacy of bodily appetites, and the distorted vision which mistakes a disgrace for an ornament. The result is ruin. Since Christ died in order to raise us above the dominion of the perishing world in which our bodies live, they who surrender their mental powers to contemplation of earthly things and their nature to the control of its lowest elements, by so doing declare war against the cross of Christ. This fearful description of men who must have been church-members is in sad agreement with 2 Corinthians 12:21. It is thus a note of genuineness. But we have no hint that these were members of the Church at Philippi. And this is contradicted by Philippians 1:4 and the general tone of the Epistle. Nor do we know whether or not they were at Rome, where Paul was writing.

V. 20. Our conversation-The Greek word is of a very extenslve meaning: our citizenship, our thoughts, our affections, are already in heaven.

Verse 20. Our conversation is in heaven] hJmwv-to politeuma. Our city, or citizenship, or civil rights. The word properly signifies the administration, government, or form of a republic or state; and is thus used by Demosthenes, page 107, 25, and 262, 27. Edit. Reiske. It signifies also a republic, a city, or the inhabitants of any city or place; or a society of persons living in the same place, and under the same rules and laws. See more in Schleusner.

While those gross and Jewish teachers have no city but what is on earth; no rights but what are derived from their secular connections; no society but what is made up of men like themselves, who mind earthly things, and whose belly is their god, WE have a heavenly city, the New Jerusalem; we have rights and privileges which are heavenly and eternal; and our society or fellowship is with God the Father, Son, and Spirit, the spirits of just men made perfect, and the whole Church of the first-born. We have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts; and regard not the body, which we know must perish, but which we confidently expect shall be raised from death and corruption into a state of immortal glory.

Verses 20, 21. For our conversation is in heaven — We that are true Christians are of a very different spirit, and act in a quite different manner. The original expression, politeuma, rendered conversation, is a word of a very extensive meaning, implying our citizenship, our thoughts, our affections, are already in heaven; or we think, speak, and act, converse with our fellow-creatures, and conduct ourselves in all our intercourse with them, as citizens of the New Jerusalem, and as being only strangers and pilgrims upon earth. We therefore endeavour to promote the interests of that glorious society to which we belong, to learn its manners, secure a title to its privileges, and behave in a way suitable to, and worthy of our relation to it; from whence also we look for the Saviour — To come and carry us thither according to his promise, (John 14:3,) namely, our spirits, at the dissolution of this earthly tabernacle; yea, and afterward to transform our vile body, to swma thv tapeinwsewv, the body of our humiliation; which, in consequence of the fall of our first parents, sinks us so low, is subject to, and encompassed with, so many infirmities, is such a clog to our souls, and so greatly hinders our progress in the work of faith and labour of love: this body we expect he will transform into the most perfect state and the most beauteous form, when it will be purer than the unspotted firmament, brighter than the lustre of the stars, and, which exceeds all parallel, which comprehends all perfection, like unto his glorious body — Of which an image was given in his transfiguration, yea like that wonderfully glorious body which he wears in his heavenly kingdom, and on his triumphant throne. So that here, as Romans 8:23, the redemption of the body from corruption, by a glorious resurrection, is represented as the especial privilege of the righteous. According to that mighty working — That energy of power; whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself — To show himself to the whole intelligent creation of God completely victorious over all his enemies, even over death and the grave, the last of them.

20. For our conversation—Rather, our country, our citizenship. The persons just described belong to the earth, and walk in earthliness; do you walk as we walk, for our country is in heaven. We belong to the heavenly commonwealth; we obey its laws; we think, feel, and live in accordance with them. Heaven has locality, as the place where the glorified Jesus is, and from which he shall come at his second advent.

Ver. 20. This verse supports the condemnation implied in the last words of Philippians 3:19 by pointing to the city in heaven whose rights of citizenship are despised by those who fix their thoughts on earthly things. City or commonwealth: the city looked upon as the home of municipal life and rights. Same word in 2 Macc. xii. 7: ‘root up the whole city of the men of Joppa, so that the municipality of Joppa shall cease to be.’ Practically the sense would be the same if we gave to the word the meaning citizenship or rights-of-citizens, which it sometimes has. For where the city is there are the citizen rights.

Our city: viz. of Paul and those who imitate him; as in Philippians 3:17, us a pattern. Cp. Clement of Alex. Miscellanies bk. iv. 26: “For the Stoics say that heaven is properly a city, but the things on earth no longer cities; said to be such, but not so actually… the Elysian plains are the municipalities of just men.” Is, or better exists, in heaven, in complete contrast to the earthly things of Philippians 3:19. Our commonwealth is in heaven: same thought in 2 Corinthians 5:1; Galatians 4:26, where see notes. It is in heaven because there Christ is, in whom dwells the power which in the new earth and heaven will create the glorified home of His servants now on earth.

Whence: out of heaven, from within the veil which now hides from our view the unseen world.

We wait for: a strong word used in the same connection in Romans 8:19, 23, 25; 1 Corinthians 1:7; Galatians 5:5; Hebrews 9:28: cp. 1 Thessalonians 1:10.

Also we wait etc.: in addition to already having a city in heaven. Saviour: Ephesians 5:23. Also 2 Timothy 1:10; Titus 1:4; 2:13; 3:6; Acts 13:23 in a sermon by Paul, referring to Christ; 1 Timothy 1:1; 2:3; 4:10; Titus 1:3; 2:10; 3:4, referring to God. Our home in which we have municipal rights exists in heaven: and we are eagerly waiting for One from heaven who will rescue us from the perils and hardships around.

V. 21. Who will transform our vile body-Into the most perfect state, and the most beauteous form. It will then be purer than the unspotted firmament, brighter than the lustre of the stars and, which exceeds all parallel, which comprehends all perfection,

like unto his glorious body-Like that wonderfully glorious body which he wears in his heavenly kingdom, and on his triumphant throne.

Verse 21. Who shall change our vile body] JOv metaschmatisei to swma thv tapeinwsev hmwn. Who will refashion, or alter the fashion and condition of, the body of our humiliation; this body that is dead-adjudged to death because of sin, and must be putrefied, dissolved, and decomposed.

That it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body] eiv to genesqai auto summorfon tw swmati thv doxhv autou. That it may bear a similar form to the body of his glory. That is: the bodies of true believers shall be raised up at the great day in the same likeness, immortality, and glory, of the glorified humanity of Jesus Christ; and be so thoroughly changed, as to be not only capable through their immortality of eternally existing, but also of the infinite spiritual enjoyments at the right hand of God.

According to the working] kata thn energeian. According to that energy, by which he can bring all things under subjection to himself. Thus we find that the resurrection of the body is attributed to that power which governs and subdues all things, for nothing less than the energy that produced the human body at the beginning, can restore it from its lapsed and degraded state into that state of glory which it had at its creation, and render it capable of enjoying God throughout eternity. The thought of this glorious consummation was a subject of the highest joy and confidence amongst the primitive Christian. This earth was not their home; and they passed through things temporal so as not to lose those which were eternal.

1. THE preceding chapter, to which the first verse of the succeeding should be joined, contains a fund of matter the most interesting that can well be conceived. The apostle seems to stand on the verge of eternity, and to have both worlds opened to his view. The one he sees to be the place in which a preparation for the other is to be attained. In the one he sees the starting place, where the Christian is to commence his race; in the other the goal at which his course terminates, and the prize which he is there to obtain. One is the place from and over which the Christian is to run; the other is that to which he is to direct his course, and in which he is to receive infinite blessedness. In the one he sees all manner of temptations and hinderances, and dangers standing thick through all the ground; in the other he sees the forerunner, the Lord Jesus, who has entered into the heaven of heavens for him, through whom God calls him from above, thv anw klhsewv tou qeon, Philippians 3:14: for what he hears in the Gospel, and what he sees by faith, is the calling of God from above; and therefore he departs from this, for this is not his rest.

2. The nearer a faithful soul comes to the verge of eternity, the more the light and influence of heaven are poured out upon it: time and life are fast sinking away into the shades of death and darkness; and the effulgence of the dawning glory of the eternal world is beginning to illustrate the blessed state of the genuine Christian, and to render clear and intelligible those counsels of God, partly displayed in various inextricable providences, and partly revealed and seen as through a glass darkly in his own sacred word. Unutterable glories now begin to burst forth; pains, afflictions, persecutions, wants, distresses, sickness, and death, in any or all of its forms, are exhibited as the way to the kingdom, and as having in the order of God an ineffable glory for their result. Here are the wisdom, power, and mercy of God! Here, the patience, perseverance, and glory of the saints! Reader, is not earth and its concerns lost in the effulgence of this glory? Arise and depart, for this is not thy rest.

PHILIPPIANS

Verses 20, 21. For our conversation is in heaven — We that are true Christians are of a very different spirit, and act in a quite different manner. The original expression, politeuma, rendered conversation, is a word of a very extensive meaning, implying our citizenship, our thoughts, our affections, are already in heaven; or we think, speak, and act, converse with our fellow-creatures, and conduct ourselves in all our intercourse with them, as citizens of the New Jerusalem, and as being only strangers and pilgrims upon earth. We therefore endeavour to promote the interests of that glorious society to which we belong, to learn its manners, secure a title to its privileges, and behave in a way suitable to, and worthy of our relation to it; from whence also we look for the Saviour — To come and carry us thither according to his promise, (John 14:3,) namely, our spirits, at the dissolution of this earthly tabernacle; yea, and afterward to transform our vile body, to swma thv tapeinwsewv, the body of our humiliation; which, in consequence of the fall of our first parents, sinks us so low, is subject to, and encompassed with, so many infirmities, is such a clog to our souls, and so greatly hinders our progress in the work of faith and labour of love: this body we expect he will transform into the most perfect state and the most beauteous form, when it will be purer than the unspotted firmament, brighter than the lustre of the stars, and, which exceeds all parallel, which comprehends all perfection, like unto his glorious body — Of which an image was given in his transfiguration, yea like that wonderfully glorious body which he wears in his heavenly kingdom, and on his triumphant throne. So that here, as Romans 8:23, the redemption of the body from corruption, by a glorious resurrection, is represented as the especial privilege of the righteous. According to that mighty working — That energy of power; whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself — To show himself to the whole intelligent creation of God completely victorious over all his enemies, even over death and the grave, the last of them.

21. Change—The future destiny of the body involves a condemnation of the sensuality with which the “belly-worshippers” degraded and besotted it, and requires that it be kept in honour and purity. It is now, indeed, a vile body; that is, the body of our humiliation, our weakness, diseases, corruption, and mortality. It is to become like the body of glory of our ascended Lord. This passage, the purpose of which is to inculcate a pure life, incidentally supplies a key to some of the problems in the doctrine of the resurrection. The statement is general, and embraces both the dead and the living, describing the bodily transformation which will come upon all alike. We are to have a body like the risen and glorified body of Christ. It is not a substitution of one body for another; it is a change, but not an exchange.

Ver. 21. The deliverance which the expected Saviour will work, and the standard with which it will correspond.

Fashion-anew: give to it an altered shape and guise. Same word in 1 Corinthians 4:6; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. This use of a word denoting only a change of shape suggests the continuity of the present and future bodies. Cp. Romans 8:12, raise your mortal bodies. And this continuity must be, in a way inconceivable to us, real. But it does not imply, any more than does the continuity of our bodies on earth, identity of material atoms. Niagara remains the same while every drop of water is ever changing. It is rather a continued relation to the human spirit of its material clothing. A description of the change is given in 1 Corinthians 15:35-53.

Our body, not bodies: as in Romans 6:12; see note under Romans 1:21. The body of, i.e. standing in relation to, our humiliation. On earth the servants of Christ are exposed to weakness, sickness, reproach, hardship, and peril. This their lowly estate, so inconsistent with their real rank, is determined by the constitution of their material clothing, which is therefore the body of their humiliation. But when Christ comes out of the unseen world He will refashion it. The body of Christ is the visible, material, human manifestation of His divine splendour: the body of His glory.

Conformed: sharing the form of: akin to the word form in <501706> Philippians 2:6. It is stronger than the word rendered fashion-anew, denoting such change of the mode of self-presentation as implies a share of the inward constitution of the body of Christ. When Christ appears, the changed bodies of His servants will become so like His body, which belongs to His essential splendour, as to share its mode of presenting itself to those who beheld it.

According to the working etc.: a measure with which will correspond the coming change. This phrase is a marked feature of this group of Epistles: Colossians 1:29; Ephesians 1:19; 3:7; 4:16; cp. Colossians 2:12; <503813> Philippians 2:13.

Working: literally inworking or activity, an inward putting forth of power. It is the Greek original of our word energy. Literally rendered, Paul’s words are according to the energy, or the inworking, of His being able, i.e. of His ability, to subject to Himself etc.

All things: all the various objects in the universe, persons and things, these looked upon as a definite object of thought.

To subject to Himself all things: 1 Corinthians 15:27, 28. It suggests that not yet do all things bow to Christ. But Christ has the abiding power to bend to His will all the component parts of the universe. The conformation of our bodies to His body will correspond with the activity of this abiding power. And this power confirms greatly our faith that He will remove from our bodies those mortal elements hostile to us and insubordinate to Him. These words also suggest that the victory to be gained in our bodies is part of a greater victory which will embrace and rescue all things. Thus, as ever, Paul rises from the particular to the general, from the partial to the universal.

Christ’s ability to subject all things to Himself does not contradict the sad indication in Philippians 3:19 that some will be finally lost. For the putting forth of His power is determined by His infinite wisdom, which passes our thought.

Notice here a clear proof of the divinity of Christ. The resurrection will be His work, a work in harmony with His infinite power.