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.
Though *I* have [my] trust even in flesh; if any other think to trust in flesh, *I* rather
Paul has just described true believers as people who worship by the Spirit and put no trust in the flesh. Now he answers the obvious comeback: that is easy to say if you had nothing to boast about anyway. So he steps forward with his own credentials. If anyone wants to compete on that ground, he says, he can beat them.
The word "flesh" here does not point to appetite or scandal. It points to something respectable — and, for that reason, harder to detect.
The apostle does not talk of sin in the flesh here. The flesh has its religion as well as its lusts. Religion attracts it far more than worshipping God in the spirit, which the flesh cannot do. "Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also" — that is the flesh's religion. And all the while, Paul was God's most determined enemy. Suppose this blamelessness of Paul — to whose credit was it? Paul's. Wherever religion is a credit to us, it is not worth anything; worse than that, it deceives us.
Paul does not list his advantages out of vanity. He lists them because the argument needs a man who has walked that road to the end himself.
In this verse and the two that follow, we get a summary of the real grounds for that "confidence in the flesh" — grounds that "the circumcision" have thrown away on purpose, as worthless and deceptive. Paul speaks well of himself here, and he has every right to. He steps forward as God's witness, to show in his own person the sound teaching of the Lord... Did anyone still feel safe on the ground of law? Did he still see no safer place to stand, and no higher goal, than to follow Moses blamelessly? Then let him hear the confession of a man who could lead him like a master down every path of human merit — and then show him a better way.
The two words at the end of the verse are a challenge. Name any ground a person trusts in, and Paul says he stands higher on it.
Saul of Tarsus stood, as it were, on the highest point of the hill of legal righteousness. He reached the topmost step of the ladder of human religion. He would allow no man to get above him... Is any man trusting in his self-control? Paul could say, "I more." Is any man trusting in his morality? Paul could say, "I more." Is any man trusting in ceremonies, sacraments, religious services, or devout practices? Paul could say, "I more." ... He lay at the very bottom of the pit of ruin, and he stood at the very top of the hill of self-righteousness. Look at him, and no sinner needs to despair. Look at him, and no one who trusts his own law-keeping can boast.
The opening words can be read two ways. Older translations make it a hypothetical: "I might have confidence in the flesh." The ESV reads it as fact: Paul does have reason for confidence.
The usual translation, "I might have confidence in the flesh," gives a true sense. But Paul puts it that he does have confidence in the flesh... And from man's point of view, he had every ground for such confidence. So here he takes his stand beside these men who had come to Philippi pressing the law of Moses.
The value of the verse lies in who is speaking. A man with nothing proves nothing by giving it up.
God gave Paul a special gift: to be a witness of how worthless man is, or the flesh at its best. For if anyone else might have had confidence in it, he had more, as he tells us. But he gave it up, and that act exposes how completely empty it is. The man who gave it up had reached the finest and most flattering achievements in it.
No argument ended Paul's boasting. A sight did.
Paul might indeed boast, if necessary, in what belonged to the flesh. He had every Jewish privilege to the highest degree... One thing alone had changed it all — he had seen a glorified Christ. All that he had according to the flesh was from then on loss to him... And notice: what he rejects here is not the sins of the flesh, which Christ atones for and abolishes. What he rejects is the flesh's righteousness.
- Flesh — the target here is not appetite but religion. When religion is a credit to us, it is worth nothing, and worse, it deceives us.
- Credentials — Paul lists his advantages as evidence, not as vanity. He is the witness who has walked every path of human merit.
- "I more" — name any ground: morality, self-control, ceremonies, religious service. Paul stood higher on it than anyone else.
- Renunciation — the man who threw it all away had reached the very top of it. That is what exposes how empty it is.
- Sight — one thing ended the boast: he had seen a glorified Christ. What he then threw away was not his sins but his righteousness.