'Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To
write the same things to you, to me indeed is not
irksome, but for you it is safe. 2. Beware of the
dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the
concision: 3. For we are the circumcision, who
worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ
Jesus, and have no confidence in the
flesh.'--PHIL. iii. 1-3 (R.V.).
The first words of the text show that Paul was beginning to think of
winding up his letter, and the preceding context also suggests that. The
personal references to Timothy and Epaphroditus would be in their
appropriate place near the close, and the exhortation with which our
text begins is also most fitting there, for it is really the key-note
of the letter. How then does he come to desert his purpose? The answer
is to be found in his next advice, the warning against the Judaising
teachers who were his great antagonists all his life. A reference to
them always roused him, and here the vehement exhortation to mark them
well and avoid them opens the flood-gates. Forgetting all about his
purpose to come to an end, he pours out his soul in the long and
precious passage which follows. Not till the next chapter does he get
back to his theme in the reiterated exhortation (iv. 4), 'Rejoice in the
Lord alway; again I will say, rejoice.' This outburst is very
remarkable, for its vehemence is so unlike the tone of the rest of the
letter. That is calm, joyous, bright, but this is stormy and
impassioned, full of flashing and scathing words, the sudden
thunder-storm breaks in on a mellow, autumn day, but it hurtles past and
the sun shines out again, and the air is clearer.
Another question suggested is the reference of the second half of verse
1. What are 'the same things' to write which is 'safe' for the
Philippians? Are they the injunctions preceding to 'rejoice in the
Lord,' or that following, the warning against the Judaisers? The former
explanation may be recommended by the fact that 'Rejoice' is in a sense
the key-note of the Epistle, but on the other hand, the things where
repetition would be 'safe' would most probably be warnings against some
evil that threatened the Philippians' Christian standing.
There is no attempt at unity in the words before us, and I shall not try
to force them into apparent oneness, but follow the Apostle's thoughts
as they lie. We note--