See to dogs, see to evil workmen, see to the concision.
This warning comes right after a call to rejoice. Its tone is harsh — three short commands, three names of contempt. Who were these people, and why does Paul just post a danger sign?
The sharp words make sense once you see what these teachers were after. They were reaching for something the believers could not do without. The older translation quoted by these writers reads "Beware of dogs … beware of the concision."
In verse 2 the apostle uses strong, solemn words. He warns the saints against men who would use clever tricks to rob them of their only real protection in a hostile world — their joy in the Lord. "Beware of dogs" — these are unclean in nature. "Beware of evil workers" — these are evil in their works. "Beware of the concision" — these are vain in their so-called self-denial.
Paul repeats the same short command three times. The Greek wording is even more pointed than our English shows:
In our ordinary English Bible it reads: "Beware of dogs." But the Greek New Testament has the word "the" — "the dogs, … the evil workmen, … the concision." In Greek that word "the" works like a finger pointing out someone. So it likely means that certain men had come to Philippi. They were doing, or trying to do, their evil work there, just as they had done in Antioch, Galatia, Corinth and other places.
The danger did not come from outside the church.
These three evils seem to point to teachers inside the Christian circle who pressed the Jewish law and tried to mix law and grace. That set aside the gospel which grace proclaimed. It also put back the flesh which the gospel had set aside. Paul sees that this evil attacks the foundation of all our blessing, so he condemns it without holding back. The dog is one that returns to his vomit and has no shame. To act in a clearly evil way, and then refuse to admit the evil, is to act without conscience or shame.
The word carried a history. Paul takes an insult his own nation used and hands it back.
In Paul's day the Jewish teachers used to say, "The nations of the world are like dogs." … The Jews felt that they alone were the people of God. Everyone else was unclean. Everyone else was a dog! Now Paul takes up their saying and, as it were, says: "No, it is not the non-Jewish Christians who are the dogs. They really are God's people. You yourselves are the dogs. You have rejected Christ, God's Son, so God can no longer count you as His people. You are the unclean ones who are outside: you are the dogs!"
The second name has two possible senses.
It may be either evil workmen, or workers. "Workmen" would turn our eyes to these evil men themselves. "Workers" might make us think more of their evil teaching. They were always preaching "works" as the way to salvation or holiness — works they were so proud of, but which were so evil.
The third title is a wordplay. Paul takes their proudest badge and renames it.
The Apostle is making a sort of pun on two Greek words: kata-tome (verse 2) and peri-tome (verse 3). You will notice each word has tome in it, but one begins with kata and the other begins with peri. The first word means a "mutilation." The Law of Moses forbade that in Leviticus 21:5, and it uses this very Greek word there. Paul compares their circumcision, which they were so proud of, to nothing more than being mutilated. The second word is the proper word for circumcision, which was the badge, or mark, of a true Jew.
The harshness is not a lapse of love. It is love doing what mildness cannot.
Shameless evil works to produce more evil under a disgraceful cover of religion. When that evil is shown for what it really is, mildness becomes a crime against those whom Christ loves. If we love Him, then in our dealings with the church we will give the evil its true character, which it tries to hide. This is real love and faithfulness to Christ.
One writer sees the same mixing in his own day.
I do not think these "evil workers" were trying to bring the Philippian believers over to Jewish worship. I believe they were trying to mix Jewish worship with Christian worship — and that is just what we see everywhere today. … Everything that is outward form rather than spirit and truth, and putting people under the Ten Commandments too: all of this, I believe, is at heart a return to Judaism.
- Joy attacked. The warning guards the joy in the Lord of verse 1 — a believer's real protection in a hostile world.
- Joy's enemy named. The threat is teaching that mixes law and grace. It sets aside the gospel and puts the flesh back.
- Three names, three exposures. "Dogs" says unclean. "Evil workers" says their work does harm. "The concision" says their proudest mark is only mutilation.
- Contempt is love. Where evil hides under religion, being soft betrays the people Christ loves. Naming it is love.
- Still posted. The same pull toward outward form and law-keeping runs on today, so the sign still reads: look out.
For *we* are the circumcision, who worship by [the] Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh.
Paul has just warned the Philippians about teachers who pressed religious ritual on believers. Verse 3 answers them by naming who the real circumcision is. It gives three marks, and each one strips the flesh of any standing before God.
One commentator explains what the word "concision" means, and why the false teachers wanted the lesser thing.
The word translated "concision" means only a lopping off. Circumcision, by contrast, pictured the complete cutting off of death. The Judaizers believed in lopping off the uglier outgrowths of the flesh. But they would not have that bringing in of death, "by the circumcision of Christ" (Col. 2:11), which is the truth of Christianity... Men cannot really boast in the grosser expressions of the flesh, so they aim at lopping them off. Then they can encourage more pleasant and refined ones to boast in. But it is boasting in the flesh all the same.
One writer traces the rite back to the book of Exodus. He says what it stood for, and points to this verse as proof.
The meaning of the rite of circumcision comes into view here. It was the sign of death put upon the flesh. What the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:3 confirms this meaning.
Older translations read "worship God in the spirit." One writer weighs which wording is right, and then walks through the three marks of the verse.
It is not certain, but it is most probable, that this verse should read, "who worship by the Spirit of God." That does not make any great difference. Either way it means that worship must be inward and spiritual, springing from the heart. It is not external and ritual, a matter of rites and ceremonies. And this could only be in the power of the Holy Spirit... He then goes on to say that we (we Christians) are the circumcision. We worship by the Spirit of God, not by rites and ceremonial forms. We rejoice — that is, we boast — in Christ Jesus, and not in Moses, however much he is honoured as a servant in God's house (Heb. 3). And we have no confidence in the flesh.
The word for worship has a history in Scripture. One commentator traces it, and says what it makes every believer.
The word used here for worship is the word Scripture uses for the service of God. The priesthood of old pictured that service. So here the Spirit of God claims that every true believer is "one worshipping by the Spirit of God." That means that every true believer is a priest.
The ESV reads "glory in Christ Jesus." Older translations read "rejoice." One writer explains the word, and where the boast now rests.
The whole Christian company is viewed as the spiritual answer to circumcision in the flesh. It stands in relation to God only by the Spirit, not by any improvement of the flesh. Instead of boasting in Moses, we boast in "Christ Jesus"; the word "rejoicing" can be rendered "boasting".
Paul does not refuse the shameful side of human nature here. He refuses the respectable, religious side.
Notice that this chapter does not speak about the coarseness of the flesh, but about its religiousness. The flesh is worthless, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Knowing this truth and living it are two different things. One writer names the tendency that stands in the way.
Self-confidence is one of the commonest and deepest tendencies of the flesh. If we do not judge it and refuse it, it always leads to disaster. True spiritual circumcision involves "no confidence in the flesh." But we only learn that lesson through a good deal of painful experience.
The teachers Paul opposed did not drop Christianity. They added to it, and one commentator says how common that still is.
The people in view here professed Christianity, but sought to blend the law along with it. It is a system of evil, and far from being rare, it is the commonest thing today... So human forms of prayer, ordinances, and so on, take the place of God's Spirit as the power of worship.
- Cut off, not trimmed. Concision is a lopping off; circumcision is the full cutting off of death. Religion that only tidies the flesh has missed the sign.
- Death first. Circumcision was the sign of death put on the flesh — the reason a Christian can claim the name at all.
- Then worship. Worship comes by the Spirit of God, not by rites and ceremonies. Every believer stands as a priest.
- Then boasting. The Christian's boast moves off Moses and onto Christ Jesus.
- Nothing left over. Paul refuses the religious flesh here, not the coarse kind. We learn that lesson through painful experience, and we still need it wherever forms replace the Spirit.