I made it myself." So, those things which we once gained, those things which were once so important to me, I counted loss, and I forget those things which are behind, because I am pressing forth for those things which are before. "Let's not get too," Paul said, "involved in the world. WebBible Commentaries; Philippians 3:1-11; Philippians 3:1-11. WebThe allusion is to the white line, or mark, which the runners in the Olympic games made up to, and to which he that came first received the prize; and by which the apostle intends the Lord Jesus Christ, who is ( skopov) , "the scope", or "mark", of all the thoughts, purposes, and counsels of God, to which they all aim, and in which they all The point Paul is making here is similar to that in Romans 8:17, which says, "we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him." but so it was that thus the gospel, the glad tidings of His grace, should reach the highest quarters. a. You think you are going to drop, but you keep going. The great characteristic of these colonies was that, wherever they were, they remained fragments of Rome. And there comes that second wind, then it seems like you can go forever. His worship is love of God and service of men. Was this all the apostle had to say? This chapter then looks for the working of the gracious feelings of Christ Himself in the Christian individually, showing us, first, the fulness of them all in Christ in contrast with the first Adam. "Don't know what is going to happen tomorrow, so hey, I will jump this ship and get on this one and I will gladly throw overboard the old life, with the struggle and the effort in my flesh, in order to live this new life after the Spirit, believing and trusting in Jesus Christ, to do for me what I really can't do for myself. Philippi was a Roman colony. I am sure he wasn't rejoicing in the circumstances themselves. This explains the unusual word Paul employed that appears only here in the Greek New Testament. Men whose whole minds are earthbound! But it is working through it, but it is agonizing. This glorious resurrection, and perhaps peculiarly glorious in the case of martyrs, is that to which St. Paul aspired. shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. Thus we know how on approaching Rome Paul was lifted up and comforted, as he saw those who came to greet him. We love him because he first loved us,1 John 4:19. Whatever you desire, just ask God, insist on God, command God. Because so many times, they say, "Well, you really can't do that. "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice." He "became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Need it be said that it has not the less its own proper office on that account? The past is translated into the present. This he must wish for them, if he wished them well. He said he was blameless. All rights reserved. Philippians 3:1114: Can I Really Have Assurance? What the apostle's actings were under this conviction. 3:1 As for what remains, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. At this point Paul repeats warnings that he gave the Philippian church some time earlier concerning Judaisers. Why did the Lord apprehend you? Next, not only did he exhort them not to be terrified by the power of Satan, which is itself an evident and solemn sign of perdition to those that oppose the saints of God; but he calls on them to cast out the sources of disunion among themselves; and this he does in the most touching way. And there is not now merely His riches of grace, but he looks forward into the glory where he was going, and can say, "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.". Only we must always walk according to that standard which we have already reached. He would have one who begins with Christ to (so on with Christ, have nothing but Christ before his eyes, and pursue this path without a stumble till the day of Christ. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind." B. Lightfoot remarks that the verb memphesthai ( G3201) , from which it comes, means to blame for sins of omission. The NIV translators simply translated it "the resurrection from the dead.". Christian worship is not a thing of ritual or of the observation of details of the Law; it is a thing of the heart. (ii) As far as the Law went, he was a trained Pharisee. Himself the striking witness to the contrary, he looked for nothing less in the saints he so dearly loved. Now he proceeds to give his reason. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. WebHe was naturally grateful to the Philippians, but more so to God who had worked such kindness through the Philippians. 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. It is not at all a question of what one has here. He calls the Judaisers dogs because they like to cut the flesh of people; that is, they insist that they must circumcise Gentiles before those Gentiles can be saved. Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things [because their minds are always on earthly things] ( Philippians 3:19 ). He and Wesley carried out a mission in Cornwall, near Land's End, and Nelson tells about it. So I gave up trying to create a goodness of my own; I came to God in humble faith, as Jesus told me to do, and I found that fellowship I had sought so long.". Thus the true bearing of the passage is, that from the first the eye of faith is fixed steadily on the end of the journey. The reason is, in my judgment, perfectly beautiful. Suddenly upon meeting Christ, all that he counted as important to him up to that point in his life, all of his religious credits, all of the religious background, he said lost for Christ. Then he found himself a dead man condemned and powerless. When the distinction of the resurrection of the just from that of the unjust got lost in Christendom, and all were merged in the error of one general indiscriminate resurrection, one can understand that people would not feel the impropriety of substituting for (for as to , of which Dr. B. speaks, it exists in no document whatever). The past has been glorious, it has been exciting to see what God has done, but you know, I am more excited about what God is going to do.So. He was a Pharisee. You can get into a right relationship with God only by taking Jesus Christ at his word, and by accepting what God himself offers to you.". Unless there were long periods when he never put pen to paper there must have been many more letters which are now lost. He speaks as if they were in danger of missing it, and coming short of it. Paul said, "One receives the prize, and you run to obtain." (ii) He calls them evil workers, workers of evil things. Paul said. It does not matter how unlike they may be, or how opposed; it does not matter what vessels of shame and misery they may have been now; "He is able to subdue all things unto himself.". His desire above all was that Christ's name might go forth. Obviously this out-resurrection is something which is capable of many degrees depending on the measure of ones faithfulness. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, [and] let us mind the same thing ( Philippians 3:15-16 ). He did not make a mistake. iv. cannot but be conqueror, more than conqueror, where the heart is filled with Christ. Impossible that anything done by other saints should turn to one's acceptance any more than what is done by himself The apostle uses salvation throughout his letter to the Philippians (nor is it confined to this scripture only) in the sense of the complete and final triumph over all the power of Satan. And with a lot of people, there is just a lot of bad experiences in the past. This place throughout is one of promoting, enlarging, deepening, and purifying the experience of the saints themselves in that which filled his own heart with joy in the Lord. And she saw this young girl, modeling her dress and she said, "Would you mind going with me?" Far from losing sight of our past ways, it is a very wholesome thing indeed to remember them: we are never safe in forgetting what we are and have been. He had his heart on these two great peculiarities of the Christian religion. Work hard at doing that which is right. They identified themselves, therefore, with all who were declaring it throughout the world. Close. but for you it is safe. So Paul sets out his credentials, not in order to boast but to show that he had enjoyed every privilege which a Jew could enjoy and had risen to every attainment to which a Jew could rise. Long before them, Mill had given his judgment in favour of the more ancient reading; and Wetstein repeated it apparently with approval. The writer of Exodus speaks of uncircumcised lips ( Exodus 6:12). I blew it. 3. If he desired for them that they should be without one stumble till the day of Christ, it was the purpose to which grace had girded up his own loins. But such things as I could humanly reckon as profits, I came to the conclusion were all loss for the sake of Jesus Christ. Perhaps he meant he wanted to experience suffering for Christs sake and was even willing to die for Him to arrive at his resurrection in a manner that would enable him to face His master unashamed. And, accordingly, why should one be a prey to care, if this be really so? No further discipline and no further effort were necessary. Because of that, righteousness nearly always for Paul has the meaning of a right relationship with God. In effect Paul is saying that the Christian must forget all that he has done and remember only what he has still to do. The fitter we grow for heaven the faster we must press towards it. What seemed to some the death of the gospel was in point of fact distinctly for the furtherance of it. In Revelation the word dog stands for those who are so impure that they are debarred from the Holy City ( Revelation 22:15). [Note: See Gerald B. Stanton, Kept from the Hour, pp. v. There is a significant contrast between the citizens of earth as described in Philippians 3:18-19 and the citizens of heaven as described in Philippians 3:20-21. b. You see, Jesus could not experience the power of the resurrection until the cross. And so, when He is finished with me here, this robe of flesh I will drop and rise to seize the everlasting prize and shout while passing through the air. The righteousness which is of Christ through faith. Following the Jewish Law does not make anyone right in Gods eyes; only faith in Christ does that. WebPhilippians 3:611 The New International Version (NIV) 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. 's critical, scholastic, and exegetic manner. There were tens of thousands of them in Rome; and in Alexandria there were more than a million. 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