Philippians 3:1-11

Paul's main idea in Philippians 3:1-11 is that anything and everything people do cannot earn them salvation; it is only through the work of Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour that we have salvation.

In verse 1 it appears that Paul is finishing his letter ("Finally"). However, like a bad preacher, he actually gets going again. While it has been suggested that some parts of the letter are later additions to the original letter, there is little evidence for this view.

His command again is that they "rejoice in the Lord" as he described in 2:2 and 2:18. Notice that Paul says that writing this command again, actually for at least the third time (see 1:18 also), is not a problem ("no trouble"). Also by repeating the exhortation, it keeps this command to "rejoice" in their minds constantly which will "safeguard" them from discouragement.

Applications

	Children often need things repeated to them. As a parent, that should not be a problem. That is how they learn and how you protect them.
	Repetition is a good educational tool, both for learning and for continued memory. Paul reminds the Philippians to help some of them learn this lifestyle/attitude of joy for the first time, and to help others remember that this is to be their attitude/lifestyle as a Christian.

In verse 2 Paul gives three rather harsh descriptions of the false teachers.

"...[I]t is not to Jews in general that he refers here so scathingly, nor yet to those Jewish Christians who may have continued to circumcise their sons in accordance with ancestral custom. The people against whom Gentile Christians needed to be put on their guard, and whom Paul elsewhere denounces in the same kind of unsparing terms as he uses here, are those who visited Gentile churches and insisted that circumcision was an indispensable condition of their being justified in God's sight." (Bruce 104)

As opposed to the "false circumcision," "we are the true circumcision." Even in the Old Testament, circumcision of the heart was more important than just the external, physical circumcision. There are three characteristics of the "true circumcision," of God's true believers described in verse 3. Thielman (p. 168) gives a solid review of these qualities.

Applications

	Rather than be concerned about externals, do you as a Christian exhibit the three qualities described?
	Does your church exhibit the three qualities of the "true circumcision"?

The true circumcision "put no confidence in the flesh." If there was any way a person could use human achievements to obtain the "true circumcision" Paul, of all people, would be a likely candidate. He describes this in verse 4-6. His heritage was the best a young Israelite could hope for ("of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews"). His parents followed the proper practices ("circumcised on the eighth day"), and as Paul grew up under the teaching of Gamaliel and became a high-ranking Pharisee ("as to the law"=supposed moral righteousness; "found blameless") and was zealous and passionate about his faith ("as to zeal, a persecutor of the church").

" "Hebrews" in the special sense (as probably in Acts 6:1) were Jews who normally spoke Aramaic with one another and attended the synagogues where the service was said in Hebrew (as distinct from Hellenists, who spoke only Greek)... Unlike many Jews of the dispersion, Paul's family apparently avoided as far as possible any assimilation to the culture of their Tarsian environment." (Bruce 108)

"In fact, as for legalistic righteousness, he says, I was faultless. This is Paul's Christian assessment of his pre-Christian attainment, made from the perspective of nearly thirty years of apostolic ministry. No Jew could have achieved more in devotion to his ancestral heritage... He made the grade, only to discover that it did him no good." (Bruce 110)

"The Judaizers who threatened the Philippian community no doubt appealed to their impressive Jewish credentials in support of their message. With considerable reluctance, and not for purely rhetorical effect, Paul felt pressured to remind the Philippians that his own background was second to none... Here in Philippians the listing of credentials has a more direct theological purpose [rather than just defending his apostolicity as in 2 Corinthians] - to serve as a foil for his exposition of the Christian message in vv. 7-11." (Silva 173-174)

In verse 7, Paul evaluates the eternal value of this heritage and achievements. It is not than any of these things are bad or wrong. In fact, they are indeed very good ("gain to me"). But Paul has "counted [them] as loss for the sake of Christ."

"From the credit side of the ledge they have been transferred to the debit side; they are not merely seen to be valueless and irrelevant, but he would be better off without them. Perhaps the very recollection of such attainments could now be harmful if it carried with it the temptation to put some confidence in them again... Paul had learned that...his only ground of acceptance before God was ground that he shared with the rawest convert from paganism: faith in Christ." (Bruce 112)

He continues in verse 8 to note that "More than that, I count all things loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ." Not only the heritage he was blessed with and the accomplishments he obtained, but everything else was also "rubbish" ("dung") in comparison to gaining Christ. All Paul's human accomplishments and righteous claims were empty and void when measured up to the standard of Christ's salvation.

Applications

	As has been said, Christianity is not hereditary. A personal relationship with Jesus Christ must be just that - personal. It cannot be based on a good family or good friends or a good church you attend.
	Salvation cannot be earned by any amount of good works or religiously fervent attempts to do good. Only through faith in the work of Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection on the cross, and His grace can a person receive salvation.
	Write a list of some of your greatest accomplishments in life (sports, school, family, career, etc.) on a piece of paper. Now scrumple up that piece of paper and throw it in the garbage.

-----NEW ILLUSTRATION - Appearing on a Baseball Card with Jesus Christ

I have a small collection of baseball cards. The card that is worth the most is called "Future Stars" and is valued at $100. There are three players on this card. The first is Jeff Schneider. Schneider played 1 year of professional baseball, pitched in 11 games, and gave up 13 earned runs in those 11 games. The second player is Bobby Bonner, who played 4 years of baseball but only appeared in 61 games, with 8 runs batted in, and 0 home runs. The third "Future Star" played 21 years for the Baltimore Orioles and appeared in 3,001 games. He came to bat 11,551 times, collected 3,184 hits and 431 home runs, and batted in 1,695 runs. His name is Cal Ripken, Jr.

Now imagine if you met Bobby Bonner, and he shook your hand and boasted, "Did you know that my baseball card is worth over $100?" You would laugh because you know the worth of the card has nothing to do with him. That's how it is when we come to Christ and point to our good works, our statistics, and ask, "Is this good enough?" If you want to hold up your stats to God, you don't have a chance. But when you put your faith in Christ, his statistics become yours, and your baseball card becomes worth a lot because of someone else's stats. Bobby Bonner and Jeff Schneider's baseball card is worth $100, not because of their statistics, but because of what someone else has done.
-----Citation: Shaun Brown, Newport News, Virginia

Along with knowing Christ (which Paul is going to describe more in verse 10), in verse 9 Paul also wants "to be found in Him." that is found in relationship with Christ. Rather than having a righteousness of his own work and merit through obedience to the Law which will ultimately never be up to standard, Paul wants the righteousness "which is through faith in Christ."

As a result of this righteousness through faith in Christ, Paul wants to know:
(not just head knowledge but the knowledge that comes from an intimate relationship and experience)

	him - a deep personal relationship with Christ.
	the power of His resurrection - the same power which raised Christ Jesus from the dead is available to the Christian for daily life, temptations, trials, and ministry.
	the fellowship of His sufferings - this is the one we sometimes do NOT want to know. But the Christian life is not just a bed of roses, but involves sufferings and trials in order to help us truly be like Christ.

The purpose of sharing in the fellowship of His sufferings and being conformed to His death is that Paul "may attain to the resurrection of the dead." In other words, Paul is willing to go through suffering in order to experience the ultimate goal of His salvation, life forever with Christ.

"If the love of God is supremely demonstrated in the death of Christ (Rom. 5:8), his power is supremely demonstrated in the resurrection of Christ, and those who are united with by faith with the risen Christ have this power imparted to them." (Bruce 115)

Bibliography
F. F. Bruce. Philippians, New International Bible Commentary. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1989.
Moises Silva. Philippians, Wycliffe Exegetical Commentary. Chicago: Moody, 1988.