+I. Is wholly absorbed in the work of Christ.+
+II. Risks life in serving the cause of God.+
+III. Should be held in highest esteem.+
+IV. Should be joyfully acknowledged in whomsoever manifested.+
* * * * * * * *
+CHAPTER III.+
_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._
Ver. 1. +Finally.+--Lit. "as to the rest." The apostle had intended
to bring his letter to a close, but something of which we have no
information leads him to warn his readers against Judaizers and their
methods. He resumes his farewell at ch. iv. 8, yet lingers there. +To
write the same things.+--Whatever they may have been, they concerned
the security of his readers. His hand had so often written up in bold
letters the _Cave canem_ to warn his unsuspecting children, that we
may be allowed to think that is what he means to do again.
Ver. 2. +Beware of dogs.+--Who would "turn again and rend you." If
the term is a retort on "Gentile dogs," and looks like "railing for
railing," we may explain it by the directness of the metaphor. Dogs
and Judaizers have this in common--that they tear flesh. The savage
delight of having inflicted a wound is shown in Gal. vi. 13. +Beware
of the concision.+--A bitter play on the name by which the Jews
thought themselves distinguished (Eph. ii. 11). St. Paul changes the
prefix, and stigmatises them as "the mutilation party." Lightfoot
gives illustrations of this toying with words, _e.g.,_ in the
complaint of an ambassador that he had been sent, not to Spain, but
to Pain.
Ver. 3. +For we are the circumcision.+--How completely Paul had
sloughed his Rabbinic literalism this verse clearly shows (Rom.
ii. 28, 29). +Which worship God in the Spirit.+--See our Lord's words
to the woman of Samaria, prophetic of the day when worship shall be
set free from its trammels and cerements (John iv. 23, 24).
Ver. 4. +Though I might also have confidence in the flesh.+--They
will never be able to say he "speaks evil of that which he knows
not." "If there is any profit in that direction," he might say, "I
will set my foot as far as who goes farthest." An _argumentum ad
hominem._
Ver. 5. +Circumcised the eighth day.+--Beginning with this he works
his way, though this and the following verses, to the climax of the
straitest sect. The items of this verse have to do with the birth and
education of the apostle.
Ver. 6. +Concerning zeal.+--"An expression of intense irony,
condemning while he seems to exalt his former self" (_Lightfoot_).
+Righteousness which is in the law.+--Legal righteousness. Exact
attention to all its manifold commands and prohibitions.
Ver. 7. +What things were gain.+--The various points in which I had
considered myself fortunate, giving me an advantage over others.
+Those I counted loss for Christ.+--The tense of the verb "counted"
denotes an action the result of which continues. It leaves no place
for after-regrets, like those of the woman who stopped to look back
on Sodom. St. Paul counts his Judaism, with its emoluments, well
lost. "Having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all
that he had and bought it" (Matt. xiii. 46).
Ver. 8. +Yea, doubtless, and I count, etc.+--A more explicit
statement of the abiding satisfaction with the chosen lot. "I still
do count." +All things.+--Whatever they may be--not simply those
named above. +For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus.+--"The eminent quality of a possession attained is the ground
for estimating other possessions according to their relation to that
one" (_Meyer_). +For whom I have suffered the loss of all
things.+--The words "gain" and "loss" are the same in these verses
as in our Lord's memorable saying "What doth it profit a man if he
gain the whole world and forfeit his life?" [R.V., "soul" A.V.] (Mark
viii. 36). +And do count them but dung.+--So R.V. text, "refuse,"
margin. If we accept the meaning "that which is thrown to the dogs,"
we have an apt interpretation, but we need to guard against
attributing to the apostle subtleties of expression born in a
lexicographer's brain.
Ver. 9. +Through the faith of Christ.+--Better without the article as
R.V. Faith is the medium by which righteousness comes. +The
righteousness which is of God.+--Which originates from God as the
fount of all righteousness. +By faith.+--R.V. margin, "upon"; that
is, resting upon faith as its condition; above it was the medium.
Ver. 10. +The power of His resurrection.+--The wide-reaching and
conquering force and efficacy which render death inert (2 Tim. 1. 10)
and draw "the sting of death" (1 Cor. xv.). +And the fellowship of
His sufferings.+--The apostle has no desire to go by any other way to
his glory than that by which his Lord went--_per crucem ad lucem._
+Being made conformable unto His death.+--R.V. "becoming conformed."
The original is one word where we have three, "being made
conformable," taking that lowly guise which will agree with the
bearing of Him who "took the form of a servant." "The agony of
Gethsemane, not less than the agony of Calvary, will be reproduced,
however faintly, in the faithful servant of Christ" (_Lightfoot_).
Ver. 11. +If by any means I might attain.+--How little is there here
of the spirit of those who profess themselves "as sure of heaven as
though they were there." Meyer thinks the expression excludes moral
security, but not the _certitudo salutis_ in itself. +Unto the
resurrection of the dead.+--By a very slight change "from the dead"
instead of "of the dead" the R.V. indicates rather too feebly the
only use of the term in the New Testament. "From amongst" would have
been more likely to arrest attention. Whilst Meyer says the compound
word for resurretion in no way differs from the ordinary one,
LIghtfoot thinks the form of expression implies and the context
requires the meaning "the final resurrection of the righteous to a
new and glorified life."
Ver. 12. +Not as though I had already attained.+--The word for
"attained" may possibly refer to the turning-point in St. Paul's
history, and so the phrase would mean, "not as though by my
conversion I did at once attain." This interpretation, which is
Bishop Lightfoot's, is challenged by Dr. Beet. It seems preferable,
on other than grammatical grounds, because the following phrase, if
we refer the former to conversion, is an advance of thought. +Either
were already perfect.+--Describing a present state which is the
consequence of past processes. He has not reached the condition where
nothing else can be added. He is most blessed who, as he mounts ever
higher, sees perfection, like Abraham's mount of sacrifice, "afar
off."
Ver. 13. +Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.+--Some
think a reference to the opinion of others lies in the words; but St.
Paul seems to be denying of himself what others asserted (in various
ways) of themselves. +But this one thing I do.+--Lit. "but one
thing"; the words "I do" in A.V. and R.V. are a supplement. Meyer
thinks it better to supply "think." It does not seem necessary to
supply anything. "One thing" the apostle never loses sight of; all
the threads of life are gathered up into it. +Forgetting the things
that are behind.+--The thought of how much of the course had been
covered, and how it was done, sinks in the consideration of what has
yet to be achieved. +And reaching forth.+--"Like one of those eager
charioteers . . . of the Circus Maximus . . . leaning forward in his
flying car, bending over the shaken rein and the goaded steed"
(_Farrar_). St. Paul usually employs the figure of the foot-race; and
the "not looking back, which showed a right temper in a runner, would
be fatal to the charioteer" (_Lightfoot_).
Ver. 14. +I press toward the mark.+--"I hasten towards the goal"
where the adjudicators stand. +For the prize of the high
calling.+--If the "hollow wraith of dying fame" could lead the
athletes to put forth almost superhuman effort, how much more worthy
was "the amaranthine crown of glory" (1 Pet. v. 4).
Ver. 15. +As many as be perfect.+--No longer novices, but having been
initiated fully into the most secret mysteries of the faith--"that
Christian maturity in which one is no longer a babe in Christ." The
reproachful irony which some detect hardly comports with the general
tone of the letter.
Ver. 16. +Let us walk by the same rule.+--That which had been to them
the means of such distinct progress had thus approved itself as the
safe and prudent course to follow.
Ver. 17. +Followers together of me.+--He does not, as some ungracious
pastors do, show the steep road to perfection whilst himself staying
at the wicket-gate. Like the Good Shepherd, he leadeth his sheep.
Ver. 18. +For many walk . . . the enemies of the cross of
Christ.+--Christians in name only, whose loose interpretations of the
perfect law of liberty make it possible to live an animal life. The
cross of Christ, symbol of His self-renunciation, should be the place
of execution for all fleshly desires of His followers; and, instead
of that, these men over whom an apostle laments have made it an
opportunity of sensual gratification. They say, "We cannot help Him;
He does not heed our help; it is of little consequence how we live."
Ver. 19. +Whose end is destruction.+--Beet argues from this that
Universalism cannot be true. It must be admitted that St. Paul is
speaking of sins of the body, and perhaps is thinking of the ruinous
effects of fleshly indulgence. +Whose god is their belly.+--Against
the dominion of appetite all the teachers of mankind are at one. All
agree in repudiating the doctrine of the savage:
"I bow to ne'er a god except myself
And to my Belly, first of deities."--_Seeley._
"The self-indulgence which wounds the tender conscience and turns
liberty into licence is here condemned" (_Lightfoot_). +Whose glory
is in their shame.+--Their natures are so utterly perverted that they
count that which is their degradation as matter for pride. Like the
man whom our Lord describes, such men not only "fear not God, nor
regard man," but can lightly vaunt the fact. +Who mind earthly
things.+--The peculiar form of expression is noteworthy. At these
men, "of the earth, earthy," the apostle stands looking in amazement.
His expression reminds us of St. James: "Let not that man think that
he shall receive anything of the Lord; a doubleminded man, unstable
in all his ways" (so the R.V.).
Ver. 20. +For our conversation is in heaven.+--"Our" is emphatic,
contrasting with the "earthly things" just named. "Conversation" is
that to which we most readily turn, as the needle trembles to the
pole. Our hearts are with our treasure, and that is far away from
earthly things. "They that say such things declare plainly that they
seek a city;" it is the soul's _"Heimweh,"_ the yearning for the
homeland. We must not understand the words to mean "Our mode of
speech is like that in heaven," nor "Our habit of life is heavenly."
The word for "conversation" means "the commonwealth," "the greater
assembly and Church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven"
(Heb. xii. 23). +From whence also we look for the Saviour.+--From
that heaven, "whither the Forerunner is for us entered," "He shall
come in like manner." Meanwhile we stand in readiness to receive Him.
The word for "look for" (R.V. "wait for") graphically depicts the
attitude of waiting.
Ver. 21. +Who shall change our vile body.+--R.V. much better, "Who
shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation." We are not to
consider the body as the cause of sin, as something outside the
redemption wrought by Christ, "the Saviour of the body." The
fashioning anew will not lose any essential part of the body. As the
colours in a kaleidoscope change form at each movement, but are yet
always the same, so in the change of the body there will be
"transition but no absolute solution of continuity." The body of our
humiliation is the frail tenement in which the exile spirit sojourns
(2 Cor. v. 1-8); it is the soon-wearied companion of an eager spirit
(Matt. xxvi. 41); it "returns to the dust as it was" (Eccles.
xii. 7). +That it may be fashioned like unto His glorious
body.+--R.V. "that it may be conformed to the body of His glory," as
contrasted with the body of His humiliation (Phil. ii. 8), the body
in which He tabernacled amongst us (John i. 14). +The power whereby
He is able to subdue all things.+--He has power, not only to raise
and glorify the body, but to subdue and renovate all things.
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verse_ 1-3.
_The False and the True in Religion._
+I. The false in religion evident in the character of its
advocates.+--"Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the
concision" (ver 2.). "Dogs" was an epithet expressive of great
contempt, and indicative of impurity and profanity. It was a term
applied to the Judaizers, or, as Chrysostom calls them, "base and
contemptible Jews, greedy of filthy lucre and fond of power, who,
desiring to draw away numbers of believers, preached at the same time
both Christianity and Judaism, corrupting the Gospel." They were
"evil workers" causing much spiritual mischief. They were of "the
concision"--mere cutters or slashers of the flesh. "The same men are
described in each clause as impure and profane, as working spiritual
mischief, and as taken up with a puerile faith in flesh-cutting. In
this first clause you have their character, in the second their
conduct, and in the third their destructive creed. Men who insisted
on circumcision as essential to salvation made the rite
ridiculous--Judaized ere they Christianised. To circumcise a Gentile
was not only to subject him to a rite which God never intended for
him, but it was to invest him with a false character. Circumcision to
him was a forgery, and he carried a lie in his person. Not a Jew, and
yet marked as one, having the token without the lineage, a seal of
descent and not a drop of Abraham's blood in his veins. To hinge
salvation, especially in the case of a Gentile, on circumcision was
such a spurious proselytism, such a total misappreciation of the
Jewish covenant, such a miserable subversion of the liberty of the
Gospel, such a perverse and superstitious reliance on a manual rite,
that its advocates might well be caricatured and branded as the
concision" (_Eadie_). The false in religion stands exposed and
condemned by the character and methods of its propagators.
+II. The true in religion has definite characteristics.+--1. _In the
spirituality of its worship._ "For we are the circumcision, which
worship God in the Spirit" (ver. 3). There is a great difference
between the derisive use of the term "concision" and the use of the
circumcision in this verse. There is a Christian circumcision, which
is a "putting off the body of the sins of the flesh"; and this is not
a manual but a spiritual act. All that the old circumcision typified
the Christian enjoys. "The spiritual offspring of Abraham have nobler
gifts by far than his natural seed--blessing not wrapped up in civil
franchise, or dependent upon time, or restricted to territory." The
Christian has learnt that true religion consists, not in forms and
ceremonies and temporal privileges, but in a right state of heart
towards God, in a loftier worship, and a more intense spiritual life.
2. _In making Christ the basis of confident exultation._--"Finally,
my brethren, rejoice in the Lord . . . rejoice in Christ Jesus"
(vers. 1, 3). Christ, and Christ only, is the Christian's plea, and
the joyous theme of his unending song: Christ, the Divine,
all-glorious Son of God. Theodosius, in the fourth century, at one
time so far favoured the Arians as to let them open their place of
worship and labour to undermine the Divinity of Christ. Soon after
this he made his son Arcadius, a youth of sixteen, an equal partner
with him in his throne; and the noblemen and bishops were invited to
come on an appointed day to congratulate him. Among the number was
Amphilocus, a famous old bishop who had bitterly suffered in the
Arian persecution. He made a very handsome address to the emperor,
and was about to take his leave, when Theodosius exclaimed: "What, do
you take no notice of my son? Do you not know that I have made him
partner with me in the empire?" Upon this the good old bishop went up
to young Arcadius, and, putting his hand upon his head, said, "The
Lord bless thee, my son." The emperor, roused into rage by this
apparent neglect, exclaimed: "What, is this all the respect you pay
to a prince that I have made of equal dignity with myself?" Upon this
the bishop, with the grandeur of an angel and the zeal of an apostle,
looking the emperor full in the face, indignantly said: "Sire, do you
so highly resent my apparent neglect of your son because I do not
give him equal honours with yourself? And what must the eternal God
think of you who have given leave to have His co-equal and co-eternal
Son degraded in His proper Divinity in every part of your empire?"
3. _In distrusting the supposed virtue of outward rites._--"And have
no confidence in the flesh" (ver. 3). No confidence in the supposed
good conferred by externals. Birth and lineage, family, tribe, and
nationality on the one hand, and the moral character determined by
them on the other, Paul reckons together as excellencies and gifts of
the same kind, and holds them in slight esteem compared with what he
has in Christ. The morality of men belongs to the province of the
natural life; it depends on birth, family, position, culture, time,
and circumstances, and gives reason, as does every favour, for humble
thankfulness, but not for proud boasting. Such, as contrasted with
the concision, is the circumcision; the children of believing Abraham
and blessed with him; serving God by His Spirit in a higher and more
elastic worship; glorying in Him who has won such privileges and
blessings for them, and having no trust in any externals or
formalities on which the Judaizer laid such stress as securing
salvation or as bringing it within an available reach (_Lange,
Eadie_).
+III. Against the false in religion it is necessary to faithfully
warn.+--"Beware . . . beware . . . beware!" (ver. 2) Like three peals
of a trumpet giving a certain blast do the three clauses sound, and
the repetition reveals the intense anxiety and earnestness of the
alarmed apostle. It is the duty of the minister to warn his people of
whatever endangers their spiritual life and eternal welfare. News
came to a certain town, once and again, that the enemy was
approaching; but he did not then approach. Hereupon in anger the
inhabitants enacted a law that no man on pain of death should bring
again such rumours as the news of an enemy. Not long after the enemy
came indeed, and besieged, assaulted, and sacked the town, of the
ruins of which nothing remained but this proverbial epitaph--"Here
once stood a town that was destroyed by silence."
+Lessons.+--1. _Genuine religion is self-evident._ 2. _Falseness in
the garb of religion works serious mischief._ 3. _True religion
demands constant watchfulness._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._
Ver. 1. _Safeguards against Error._--1. To rejoice in Christ--to be
constantly and with delight making recourse to Him--is a choice guard
against any error contrary to the truths relating to Him. 2. Often
repeating and inculcating truths that are most for edification ought
neither to be burdensome to a minister nor yet wearied of by the
people. 3. Temptations to error are covered over with such pious
pretences and lively baits that there is need of many guards and
frequent warnings.--_Fergusson._