(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
Paul has just told the Philippians to watch him and others like him as a pattern to copy (v. 17). Here he turns to the opposite picture: many walk another way, and he cannot speak of them without tears.
Paul aims his charge with care.
He does not say they are the enemies of Christ; they profess to be His friends. But they hate the cross. The cross is the point and the power of separation from everything that belongs to man and the world — and they would not have it.
The cross shows what the world thought of Christ. That settles where a believer looks for righteousness.
These were enemies to the cross of Christ. They carry the name of Christian and go on with the world. Of course, a true Christian may get drawn into the world and trapped there; but that is not the case here. The enemy of the cross of Christ put Christ there. So if I look for righteousness now, I will not find it in the world that did that. I must look for it in Christ up there, for righteousness has done with the world.
Paul says he had told them this before, and now says it again while weeping. Those tears are not a passing mood in this one letter.
As far as I know, there is no ground to think that any of these people were living in Philippi. It looks like the opposite: the believers there seem not to have known of them, apart from what Paul had told them when he was with them, and again in this letter. But the true saints needed to be warned against them. Their conduct made Paul weep, as he wrote of them. He wrote his first letter to the Corinthians with "many tears." He often wept as he brought the Gospel to the Ephesians. And now he weeps even as he writes to his beloved friends in Philippi. (2 Cor. 2:4; Acts 20:31).
There is grief in these words, but no fury.
The apostle nevertheless spoke gently of those persons. They were not like the false teachers who corrupted the sources of life, and blocked the path of communion with God in love. They had lost this life of communion, or had never had more than the appearance of it. He wept for them.
Paul is describing conduct, a way of life on public display. That is what makes it painful: the outward claim stands, while the life contradicts it.
Professing the truth, if it is not joined with self-denial, will be joined with open self-indulgence. So today we can see a settled spirit of worldliness joined to the very highest profession of truth. This is a grievous evil... Observe, they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ. They do not drop the appearance of Christianity at all; far from it. "Many walk." This expression shows a measure of profession.
Part of the grief is that nothing here would trigger formal discipline. The trouble was drift, not disgrace.
We are not even told whether the Church of God had put these men out. Paul calls them enemies of the cross of Christ, and yet they may not have stood formally outside. If so, what a deplorable state of things before the eyes of the Apostle! They were probably not guilty of open sin bad enough to need removal, and yet they caused the apostle his deepest sorrow. They were drifting on, careless and unconcerned.
Commentators differ here. Some read the verse as describing people who professed faith without possessing it.
"Who are the many whose walk made Paul weep?" They are people who profess Christ rather than real Christians — perhaps the ones mentioned at the start of the chapter. I would find it hard to say flatly of Christians that their "end is destruction."
Others point out that the passage stays silent. That silence is why the warning reaches everyone who claims Christ.
And here the question is often raised, "Is he speaking of mere professors?" But that is just where the passage is silent. It says nothing about where their souls really stood with God. Paul judges by their outward course, and what he says applies in principle to all who profess Christ.
- Cross, not Christ. They were not enemies of Christ; they claimed to be His friends. They were enemies of His cross — the one thing that separates a believer from the world.
- Walk. Paul judges by the visible course of life. "Many walk" points to an outward claim: they keep the Christian name and keep the world too.
- Tears. He had warned them often; now he warns again weeping. Grief, not contempt, is the right response to those who dishonour the Lord's name.
- No scandal required. These were not people whose sin demanded removal from fellowship. Careless drift, with nothing shocking to point at, caused the apostle his deepest sorrow.
- Left open. Commentators differ on whether the "many" were true believers. The passage says nothing about where they stood with God. That silence is why everyone who claims Christ should feel its weight.
whose end [is] destruction, whose god [is] the belly, and [their] glory in their shame, who mind earthly things)
Paul weeps as he writes this, because he is not describing outsiders but people who profess Christ. Four short phrases sketch a whole way of life: its end, its true god, its upside-down values, and the earthbound mind behind it all.
The charge in the previous verse sets the tone. These people were not against Christ; they were against His cross.
He does not say they are the enemies of Christ; they profess to be His friends. But they hate the cross. The cross is the point and power of separation from all that is of man and the world — and this they would not have.
Another writer explains what that cross has done:
They are enemies of the cross of Christ. Not perhaps of His death, but of His cross. Before God, that cross has put the sentence of death on man, on his wisdom and his glory.
Commentators differ over whether these people were true believers. Some take the word "destruction" as settling the question:
Were these real believers? The words "their end is destruction" answer this question. They could not be true children of God. They were people who had professed Christianity, holding a form of godliness while denying its power (2 Tim. 3:5).
Others hold that Paul judges only the outward course and says nothing about the state of their souls. That is why the warning reaches us too:
People often ask here, "Is he speaking only of those who profess to be Christians?" But that is just where the passage is silent. It affirms nothing of the real relations of their souls with God. Paul judges by their outward course... What have our minds been on today? Minding earthly things is the road to destruction. If the Lord's beloved ones get on that road, they will be delivered out of it before it reaches its fearful end.
One writer traces how appetite comes to rule:
Their hearts were set on earthly things. Earthly things cannot satisfy, and so their belly became their god. Their inward craving became their master, and made them slave away in its service.
It would be a mistake to limit this to food and drink. The expression is wider:
The "belly-service" mentioned here stands for more than simply satisfying the appetite. It is true that overeating and drunkenness are among the evil things the Lord has warned all His disciples against. But the phrase means self-pleasing in all its forms, physical and religious. Here and elsewhere it stands in contrast to the service of God and of Christ.
Boasting in what should shame them shows a conscience that no longer works:
They gloried in that which was their shame. They had no spiritual sensibilities at all. Everything in their minds was inverted. To them light was darkness and darkness light: glory was shame and shame was glory.
"Earthly" here is not about where a person lives but about what he wants:
Who mind earthly things. This last item gives its character to the whole description... They are the things that a man in his natural state wants and takes an interest in, as someone who lives on earth. So, under another name, they are things of the flesh as opposed to spiritual things — our own things instead of the things of Jesus Christ.
That definition turns the verse back on us:
Don't our homes, our furnishings, our cars and our way of life agree to an appalling extent with this description? And perhaps the saddest part is that we glory in them, when they are in reality our shame. If we were more truly joint-imitators of the apostle, we too would weep.
Paul does not leave the warning hanging. He sets a different belonging beside it.
This drew tears from the apostle even in the middle of his joy. But he turns it to practical profit, calling on the saints to take heed. Let us watch against the first signs of self-indulgence or of allowing earthliness. "Our citizenship is in heaven" — our real association is with Him who is there... We are not simply going there; we belong to heaven now.
- Cross refused. The quarrel is not with Christ but with His cross. That cross separates a person from all that is of man and the world.
- Appetite crowned. Earthly things never satisfy, so the craving becomes master. Self-pleasing in every form, physical or religious, takes the place of serving God.
- Values inverted. Refuse the cross and let appetite rule, and the conscience flips. What should bring shame becomes the boast.
- Mind earthbound. "Earthly things" are whatever a person in his natural state wants as someone living on earth. That phrase gives the whole description its character.
- End reached. That road ends in destruction. The contrast is a citizenship in heaven that we hold now, not one we are only heading toward.