Verses 1-2. “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.”
As a shepherd under the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:2-42Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; 3Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. 4And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. (1 Peter 5:2‑4)), the Apostle, in his love for them, warns them of the danger from false teachers who would bring them into bondage. It was the admixture of Judaizing principles (that are now so common) with the truth of a glorified Christ, under the guise of religious zeal for the God given law. They destroyed the grace of Christianity as the Galatian Epistle unfolds; they reinstated the flesh as able to be improved. And Paul considering the falseness of them, in his love for the Christians, speaks in unmistakable earnestness,
“Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.” He treats this doctrine with contempt, and uses words, the strength of which is justified by his loving care for the assembly.
He knew it was only a bait of the enemy, seeking to destroy the assurance of believers, and that their sins are washed away in the blood of Christ, so here he teaches them the necessity of taking a firm stand against what contradicts the gospel of the grace of God. Having done this, he leaves it, to occupy their minds with the truth.
Verse 3. “For we are the circumcision,” that is, put to death with Christ, “which worship God by the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Compare Col. 2:1111In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: (Colossians 2:11)). It means that in the death of Christ, we died; and in His resurrection, we are risen. It is the putting off the body of the flesh in, the death of Christ. The law cannot apply to one who is dead, and alive in a new position in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. He is our all and in us all, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Verses 4-6. If anyone might have confidence in the flesh, it was Saul of Tarsus, duly circumcised the eighth day, of the pure stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin who followed David. An Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; and he was one of the straitest of the religious leaders of that day. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness of the law, blameless.
Saul of Tarsus was no hypocrite; he was sincere, religious, walked in all good conscience, and had shown great zeal in persecuting the church of God, yet he was on the downward way, living in a mistake, till Christ in glory called him, stopped him on his downward way, as a child of wrath going on to eternal destruction (Eph. 2:33Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. (Ephesians 2:3)). His eyes were opened, and all his own righteousnesses he now sees, are but filthy rags (Psa. 143:22And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. (Psalm 143:2); Isa. 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)). One look at Christ in the glory of God, declared the holiness of God, the worthiness of Christ, and his own ruined condition, and reduced him to know himself a lost, ruined, guilty sinner, a child of wrath, on the downward road to destruction. What a happy thing for him that the Lord stopped him before it was too late.
It was not the sins of the flesh that came before him, but it was the religiousness of the flesh that shocked him, henceforth, as he says,
Verse 7. “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” In Christ he saw divine righteousness for man, and a divine glory in a Man; and as when the sun rises, the darkness is dispelled, and in its brightness the stars disappear, so in the excellency of the glory of Christ Jesus the Lord, who acknowledged the poor feeble believers as His members, as part of Himself, changed all his boasted goodness into filth and dross. All disappeared before the righteousness of God, and the glory of Christ. His whole moral being was changed now, as he afterward wrote, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” 1 Timothy 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15). He called himself “less than the least of all saints” (Eph. 3:88Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; (Ephesians 3:8)); and “not meet to be called an apostle.” And not only that, but this glory of Christ shining in his soul, makes him now write,
Verse 8. “Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ; 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. That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection from among the dead.”
Here he speaks as in the wilderness path, and he is reaching forward, desiring to win Christ, and to know Him fully, and the righteousness of God. He desired to follow the Lord in His sufferings, and be made conformable unto His death; and he had to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, that he might follow Him in His sufferings.
His circumstances in prison helped to keep this before him. From his heart he desired to follow Christ. If death came in by the way, he was all the more like Christ, and whatever it cost, he desired to attain to the resurrection from among the dead; and with spiritual energy he presses on to win Him as He is.
Verse 12. “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfected: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” He is keeping before himself the fact that the Lord arrested him to make him like Himself in glory.
Verses 13-14. “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended (or got possession): but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.” The glory with Christ before him, dimmed all else; he forgot himself in the blessed prospect. Every earthly advantage lost its value in this light. He was a happy Christian. He had an undivided heart for Christ.
Verses 15-16. “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.” He expects us all to be full grown; that is, to know ourselves as belonging to Christ in glory, and those who are full grown are to go on thus minded – that is, with one thing before us, to be with and like Christ in glory. “And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.” How precious that is! It is not a question of our knowledge, but of having Christ in glory as our object, then God will reveal the rest to us. And what we have attained to, let us walk according to it, thus going on together in the Lord.
Verse 17. “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so that ye have us for an ensample.” In this epistle specially, and in Paul’s teachings generally, we have the glorified Christ in view more than from the other apostles; he has just unfolded Him as the object in glory to whom we are pressing on, so he takes this place as pointing us all to press on to that object, – the glorified One that we are to be with and like. This is why he says; “Be ye followers of me.” This does not turn our eyes from Christ, but rather to Him. His gaze was fixed on the heavenly One who ever shone before him.
Verses 18-19, is a sad parenthesis that tells us of the departure of many in the assembly from their first love, and from their right condition. “For many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.” They had been a disappointment to the Apostle, even to tears.
This he is not applying to the assembly at Phillipi only, but to the condition of the assemblies generally. Many had already professed the name of Christ whose lives had only earth and earthly things in view. The Apostle did not own them; spirituality was lowered, and many who had no life at all, could walk among them in such an unspiritual condition, and their presence only made the state worse. But the Apostle could see it, and warns the faithful that these are the enemies of the cross of Christ; their end was destruction; their god was their belly: and in their own desires, they were earthly minded.
Verses 20-21. “For our conversation (or citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body (rather, body of humiliation), that it may be fashioned according to His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”
This is what we wait for – the coming of our Lord, as Saviour, to save us out of this world by His power, and to have us like Himself in glory. This is the salvation set before us in this epistle, the result due to the almighty power of our Lord and Saviour. Then when He shall take His assembly to Himself in heavenly glory, we shall be what we have desired to be all along (1 John 3:22Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)), then we shall have the resurrection from among the dead.
We are not led to occupy ourselves with our attainment here below, but occupied with Christ in glory; and that we are to be with Him and like Him there, leads us to seek to be like Him here also.