Year 2, Day 185: Philippians 3

Rejoicing in the Lord

As we begin Philippians 3, Paul speaks of rejoicing in the Lord.  And then he immediately proceeds into speaking about a warning.  Before we get to the warning, let’s be clear.  Regardless of the threats that may come, we can rejoice in the Lord.

False Teachers

However, our ability to rejoice in the Lord does not mean that we will be free from threats.  As we study the words of Paul, Jesus, and Peter in the New Testament one of the greatest sources of threats seems to be false teachers.  We know that Paul dealt with false teachers quite regularly.

I believe we still deal with false teachers quite regularly in the church.  Ever meet someone who said, “Unless you do _____, you must not be saved.”  There is only one acceptable way to fill in that blank: believe in Jesus Christ and receive the Holy Spirit.  However, all kinds of people want to fill that blank with all sorts of other things.  Some people think we all have to worship the same way, or pray the same way, or speak some divine language, or read the same translation of the Bible. Some people think you have to be a particular gender or even be baptized a certain way.  While there is nothing wrong with those things where appropriate, none of those things is the basis for salvation.  Whether I speak in tongues or not, I can be saved.  Whether I read the same Bible translation as you, I can be saved.  Whether I am immersed, dunked, or sprinkled in baptism, I can be saved.  My – our – salvation is based on the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, not anything else.

A Test Scenario

To prove his point, Paul talks about how much reason he should have to be confident in his flesh.  He is a member of the tribe of Benjamin – the same tribe as King Saul.  He was a Pharisee in good training under the law.  He was circumcised under the law.  He was zealous for the God’s desires.

Then Paul makes a really neat statement.  All of this is nothing when compared to salvation through Christ.  We can lose status.  We can lose prestige.  We can lose social standing.  We can lose power through regime change.  We can lose money in all kinds of manners.  But what we cannot ever do is lose what we have rooted in Jesus Christ.  Everything can be lost and we still have Christ.  Therefore, we consider everything to be lost.  We consider them to be a loss so that we might truly learn what it is to be spiritually reliant upon God.

Then Paul makes a comment that really draws me in to Paul’s theology.  He gives a little warning about himself.  He says that he has not arrived.  He’s still learning.  God is still bringing him into a new creation.

Does that sound like the arrogant man that many seem to claim him to be?  The dynamic that this brings us to understand is humble confidence.  We should be confident in God.  We should be confident in God’s theology and His promises.  But we do not need to be arrogant about it, either.  We should strive to get to a point where we are comfortable talking about our faith without forgetting that we are not yet perfected by God.

Enemies of the Cross

Paul then ends this chapter by speaking about those who are enemies of the cross of Christ.  Look carefully at the people that Paul describes.  Paul doesn’t go off talking about those who persecute Christians.  He doesn’t talk about “followers of Satan.”  Rather, Paul speaks about those whose God is their belly.  Paul talks about the people who pursue their own desires.  These are the enemies of God.

If we think about it, this whole chapter does come around to a whole cohesive unit.  We rejoice in Christ, but we do so humbly.  What is the enemy of humbleness to God but self-centeredness!  Here again we see the importance of recognizing the self-monger and resisting him.  The self-monger – the one who is interested in pursuing his own agenda – is the enemy of God.

It’s a scary thought when you think about it.  Do you know any self-centered people?  When is the last time you thought of them as an enemy of God?  Have you acted self-centeredly lately?  How does it make you feel to realize that at those times you are an enemy of God in those moments?  You don’t need to be some radical persecutor of God or some cultist to be an enemy of God.  All you need to be God’s enemy is to be more interested in your own life and your own desires than you are interested in God’s ways.

Sounds like a good time for me to go about doing some repentance.  The Lord knows that I’ve had my fair share of selfish thoughts lately.

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