How many of you would say that you just love to go through a job interview? Or how about a scholarship application process? Experiences like that are always nerve-wracking, not just because of what’s at stake, but because it’s virtually impossible to know how to answer some of the questions that you’ll face. Obviously we need to be honest in those moments, but with some questions it’s possible to be honest and still have several possible ways that you could answer. And invariably, the person performing the interview is going to ask one of those annoying questions like, “Why should I hire you and not one of these other people?” The sarcastic side of me has always wanted to say, “I thought it was your job to figure that out!”
Now imagine for a moment that you had to go through a similar process to get into heaven. Imagine that you passed away, and stood before God, and He asked, “Why should I let you into heaven?” And this is all hypothetical of course, but imagine that you didn’t have Christ’s payment for sins to rely on—imagine that His life and death and resurrection had never happened, and you really did have to try and convince God to let you into heaven based on nothing but your own accomplishments. Talk about a nerve-wracking experience!
But fortunately, we know from the Bible that that’s not the case. We don’t have to take our resume to the pearly gates, because our entrance into heaven isn’t based on anything that we accomplish—its based on what Jesus accomplished. But nevertheless, its very easy to slip into that mindset of thinking that our relationship with God is all based on the things that we can accomplish in our spiritual lives. And along with that comes the temptation to think that we really are a little better than others—a little closer to God because of some of the things that we’ve done in our lives. But in our study of Philippians today, Paul is going to steer us away from that mindset with a lesson that is easy to understand, but not always easy to live by. Our lesson today is this:
Rejoice over what you have in Christ; don’t place your pride in your own achievements.
Turn with me if you would to Philippians 3:1–7. Let’s read these verses, and then we’ll talk about a little bit of historical background that will help us understand these verses [READ 3:1–7].
Now let me mention just a few things about the historical setting of this time that will help us understand what Paul is talking about in these verses. One of the realities that the early church had to deal with was the fact that Christianity was born out of Judaism. Jesus was Jewish, as were all of the apostles, and the church that Jesus founded was the fulfillment of the Jewish religious system in the Old Testament.
But at this time, there was some racism that existed between Jews and non-Jewish people (or Gentiles), so when non-Jewish people started to become part of the church, this created some conflict. Initially, some of the Jewish Christians felt that non-Jewish people needed to adopt the customs of the Law of Moses before they could join the church. This matter was settled at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 when the apostles declared that God had accepted non-Jewish people apart from the Law of Moses, but after that Council there were still some unbelieving Jews who tried to bring the Gentile Christians under the Law of Moses. So that’s the background to what Paul is discussing in these verses.
Now, let’s look at the two parts of our lesson.
I. Rejoice over what you have in Christ (v. 1)
In v. 1, Paul returns to a theme that he has already mentioned several times in this letter—the theme of rejoicing. It’s not hard to see why he may have mentioned this after what he just wrote in chapter 2. We just saw that the Philippians had been distressed over hearing that their friend Epaphroditus was sick. But by the time they would read this letter, Epaphroditus would be with them again, and they would have reason for rejoicing.
But what’s a little more interesting here is the function that rejoicing has in light of what Paul writes in vv. 2–7. At the end of v. 1, Paul writes, “to write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.” Apparently, Paul viewed rejoicing in the Lord as a safeguard against the temptation that was being presented to these Gentile Christians—namely, the temptation to think that they needed to follow the traditions of the Jews in order to draw close to God. These Gentiles could be tempted to think that they were missing out on something by not following the Law of Moses, even though in reality the death and resurrection of Jesus made it unnecessary to follow the Law of Moses any more.
So rejoicing in the Lord would counter the temptation to think that they were missing out because it would remind the Philippians of all that they had in Christ. The same idea is true for us. Rejoicing in the Lord reminds us that we have everything we need in Christ. We are not missing out on something that is necessary to draw close to God; Jesus is all we need.
Now in our corner of the world, we certainly understand what it is like to encounter people who tell us that we are missing out on something in our relationship with God because we don’t follow certain traditions and rules. But we don’t need to be shaken by such a thought, because as Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:3, God “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” and rejoicing in that fact will help us counter the thought that we are missing out on something.
So rejoicing in the Lord is a safeguard for us because it reminds us that Jesus is all we need. Jesus has given us every spiritual blessing; Jesus has made us accepted by God. It is not anything that is based on our own achievements. That reminder forms the second part of our lesson today.
II. Don’t place your pride in your own achievements (v. 2–7)
In v. 2, we find that Paul obviously never had training in how to be politically correct, because notice how he describes the Jewish people who were trying to persuade these Gentiles [READ v. 2]. He refers to them here as the “false circumcision” because even though they were physically circumcised, they were not right with God because they had rejected God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Circumcision was a tremendous source of pride for the Jewish people because it was the sign of God’s covenant with Abraham, a sign which God had told the Jews to practice. But the physical, external act of circumcision means nothing by itself—it was supposed to be a sign that the people were embracing the same faith that Abraham had in God. But by this point in history, for many Jewish people the external act was not accompanied by the faith; thus, their circumcision did not mean that they were right with God, and that’s why Paul calls it a “false” circumcision here.
Now you dog lovers out there may be wondering why Paul first said, “beware of the dogs.” Was he one of those cat lovers or something? Did Paul have something against dogs? Well, no—we simply need to understand that dogs back then were not the cuddly house pets that many of them are today. At that time, dogs were not widely domesticated in that part of the world. They were wild animals and were mostly scavengers, feeding on trash and dead animals. They often travelled in packs, so they behaved much more like what we know from wolves today. Thus, they were fairly dangerous creatures that humans tended to avoid—and that was obviously Paul’s point with this analogy here. These false teachers were people to be avoided.
But in contrast to these false teachers, Paul describes the believers this way in v. 3 [READ v. 3]. That last statement really captures the difference between the believers and the false teachers well. The false teachers had their confidence placed “in the flesh,” or in other words in their external behavior. They thought they were right with God because they were going through all of the right motions. But the believers, on the other hand, did not have their confidence in any set of religious traditions, but in Jesus Christ. Their glory—or in other words, their boast and their hope—was in what Jesus had accomplished, which is an expression of worshipping in the Spirit of God, and not simply worshipping in external acts.
Now all of this is not to say that our external behavior isn’t important. It is important, but if our external behavior is going to be truly pleasing to God, it has to flow out of an internal faith. It has to come from the right motives and attitudes, and this is what the false teachers were lacking.
Paul then goes on in vv. 4–6 to give a personal testimony that is something of a challenge to the false teachers. He is basically saying that he could beat them at their own game. If any of the Jews had reason to think that they were right with God simply on the basis of external acts or heritage, it was Paul. Let’s take a look at his resume here, and I’ll briefly describe Paul’s qualifications.
First, Paul says he was “circumcised the eighth day.” This was a requirement for every male child under the Law of Moses, and for Paul, this meant that he was brought up under the Law from his earliest days. There was never a time that he did not live under the Law.
Second, Paul says he was “of the nation of Israel.” This means that he was ethnically Jewish. He was not a convert from a Gentile background or anything like that. He had Jewish blood flowing through his veins.
Next, he says he was “of the tribe of Benjamin.” This was a special thing because in the Old Testament, the tribe of Benjamin was one of only two tribes who remained loyal to the descendents of King David after the nation of Israel split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.
Then Paul says that he was a “Hebrew of Hebrews.” This meant that Paul’s family had remained loyal to the culture of the Jews. Paul wasn’t actually born in Israel; his family had immigrated to another country. And as you know, sometimes immigrants will adopt and embrace the culture of their new homeland, and sometimes they will retain their ethnic culture. Well, Paul’s family had retained all of the culture of the Jewish people. So Paul was Jewish through and through, both ethnically and culturally.
Next, Paul says “as to the Law, a Pharisee.” The Pharisees were a religious and political group within Israel that was known for their strict observance of the Law. They had even added laws of their own to the Law of Moses that were supposed to help them avoid violating the real laws.
Next, Paul writes, “as to zeal, a persecutor of the church.” Like many other Jews, Paul that the church was a threat to Judaism before he was converted. But unlike some other Jews, Paul decided that he was going to take it into his own hands to wipe out the church, so he personally arrested Christians and threw them in prison. This zeal proved how devoted he was to the Jewish way of life.
Finally, Paul writes, “as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.” Here he’s basically saying that if someone had judged his life by the standards of the Law, he would have passed the test.
But then he reveals his new perspective in v. 7 [READ v. 7]. At one time, Paul had had the same viewpoint as the false teachers—he thought he was right with God because he had gone through all of the motions. His resume of religious deeds was impeccable, and he thought that his resume had brought him close to God, but when he (literally) saw the light and accepted Christ, he realized that his old perspective had actually taken him further away from God. His way of thinking had actually been an obstacle between him and the Lord.
And what we need to realize is that even as believers, we are not immune to that way of thinking. We can also fall into the trap of thinking that God is pleased with our lives as long as we’re going through the right motions. And so I want to ask you—what are the things in your spiritual life that could become potential sources of pride? Or to think of this another way, if you had to put together a Christian resume—like Paul did here with his former life—what would it look like? Perhaps it would sound something like this: “I was born again at a very young age; raised in a devout Christian home; I went to Sunday School every week—I even went to AWANA and finished every book. I went to a Christian college and married a Christian spouse. I’ve taught Sunday School for the last ten years; I’ve served on the board (or the music team or the pulpit committee or the women’s ministry)
And the list could go on and on. Now notice that all of things that I mentioned were good things, but if we have the wrong perspective about them—if we think God was pleased simply because we did them, whether or not we had the right motivation—then it could very well be that those things have actually become an obstacle in our relationship with God, rather than something that actually draws us closer to Him.
So the lesson for us is this—we must not place our pride or our confidence in any such things as this. Our confidence should rest solely upon the work of Jesus Christ. We can rejoice in what he has done, and when we do we will be freed to simply serve Him in love—not to earn His affection or pad our Christian resume or anything like that, but to simply live to honor him because of what he has done for us.
Pastor Timothy Keller once described the growth process that helped him learn this lesson, and I want to read his testimony to you as we close:
When my own personal grasp of the gospel was very weak, my self-view swung wildly between two poles. When I was performing up to my standards- in academic work, professional achievement, or relationships- I felt confident but not humble. I was likely to be proud and unsympathetic to failing people. When I was not living up to standards, I felt humble but not confident, a failure. I discovered, however, that the gospel contained the resources to build a unique identity. In Christ I could know I was accepted by grace not only despite my flaws, but because I was willing to admit them. The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself…so often.*
That’s the kind of peace of mind that this lesson offers us. So rejoice over what you have in Christ; don’t place your pride in your own achievements. You won’t be tempted to think that you’re missing something that you need to draw close to God, and you’ll be freed to serve Him simply from a heart of love.
*Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, (New York: Penguin Group USA, 2008) pg 180-181.
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