For he is not a Jew who [is] one outwardly, neither that circumcision which is outward in flesh;
Paul has been weighing what religious standing is really worth. Here he presses the case to its end: the badge on the body settles nothing. The real question is what a person is where only God can see.
The whole argument turns on one thing: what God accepts as real.
William KellyAn outward religious form cannot cover a spirit that morally contradicts it. And where the true spirit is found, God will approve it even when the form is missing — and that absence may be unavoidable. He will and must have reality in everything that concerns how men stand before Him.
Paul's readers could point to their circumcision as proof of belonging to God. That defence collapses, and the two groups end up trading places.
F. B. HoleSo it was useless for them to fall back on being God's circumcised people. The argument of verses 25 to 29 is very important. It is not official position, which is an outward thing, that counts before God and puts right what is wrong. It is the inward thing that God values. God would have respect to the one who obeys, even if he were an uncircumcised Gentile. He would reject the disobedient, even if he were the circumcised Jew.
Circumcision was a mark cut into the flesh. Behind the ceremony stood a meaning about what Israel was to be.
F. B. HoleThe persistent tendency was to observe the outward ceremony and overlook its significance. Israel was to be a people completely cut off for God and to God. If there had been circumcision of the "heart," self-love would have been cut off through knowing the love of God.
Carried into the believer's life, that cutting reaches things no observer could check.
Hamilton SmithRefusing the flesh does not mean merely neglecting the body in a way the world can see. It means refusing the flesh in all its inward workings in the heart — its self-confidence, self-righteousness, vanity and lusts — as something the cross has condemned.
The next verse sets "letter" against "spirit." The word "letter" is easy to misread, as if Scripture itself were the problem.
L. M. GrantHere "the letter" does not mean the actual words of the law, for God Himself inspired those words. It means a man's exact outward keeping of the law's forms. Without a purified heart, that is nothing but barren desolation — even in Judaism, where ceremony had its place.
The name "Jew" itself carries the point. What God looks for is hidden, and only He can see it.
C. E. StuartWhat is now to be sought after is reality of heart before God, and not a distinguishing mark on one's body. And only those who have this are now true Jews in spirit, according to the meaning of the word Jew — that is, praise.
That reality is not passed down by birth.
L. M. GrantThe true Jew is not the one who lives and acts for the eyes of men, but for God's eye. Jewish parentage rightly calls for such a character. If it is missing, a claim based on Jewish descent is worthless.
The mistake here is not confined to one nation or one rite. It returns whenever people trust a ceremony to do what only God can do.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinAbove all, the Jew boasted of his circumcision as a way of having favour with God, just as Christians in name only trust in the sacraments as the means of salvation. But circumcision or religious rites cannot save a man and make him right before God.
Commentators differ on how far these words reach. Some apply them straight to Christians today. Others read the verse more narrowly.
T. B. BainesThis passage, however, is not written about Christians at all. It is about Gentiles who kept the law compared with Jews who broke it.
- Outward — An outward position cannot cover a life that contradicts it. God will have reality.
- Inward — God accepts the Gentile who obeys and rejects the Jew who does not. Obedience outweighs the badge.
- Cut — Circumcision marked a people cut off for God. The real thing cuts at self-confidence, vanity and lust.
- Letter — "Letter" is not Scripture. It is exact outward form-keeping, and without a purified heart it is barren.
- Praise — The word "Jew" means praise. The hidden man gets his from God, not from the crowd that cannot see him.
but he [is] a Jew [who is so] inwardly; and circumcision, of the heart, in spirit, not in letter; whose praise [is] not of men, but of God.
Paul ends his case against the religious man by asking where the reality lies. The verse moves the question from a mark on the body to a work in the heart. It also moves it from the approval of neighbours to the approval of God.
The argument ends with a principle, not a concession. A form kept up while the inner life contradicts it settles nothing. And a missing form does not disqualify a person whose heart is right.
William KellyA religious form cannot cover the moral contradiction of its own spirit. On the other hand, where the spirit is truly found, God will approve of it even when the form is absent — an absence that may be unavoidable. He will and must have reality in what concerns men in their relation to Himself... External circumstances cannot override His character and ways and judgment.
Earlier in the chapter Paul showed that the religious man's practice fell far below what he claimed. This verse names the reason.
Hamilton SmithThe root of the failure lies in the profession of outward privileges without an inward work of grace in the heart... An outward place among the people of God has its advantages; but if the practice is not in accord with the place, it has no spiritual value... The true Jew is one in whom there is an inward work of the heart. He serves God in spirit and not in the letter. He lives before God, and not just before men.
"The letter" here is not a criticism of Scripture's actual words. It describes a way of relating to them.
L. M. GrantThe letter here does not mean the actual words of the law, for those words are inspired by God. It means a man's exact outward keeping of the law's forms. And such a thing without a purified heart — even in Judaism, where ceremony was in order — is nothing but barren desolation... The true Jew is not the one who lives and acts for the eyes of men, but for God's eye. He lives not "in the presence of his brothers," but in the presence of God.
Writers also note that this contrast appears elsewhere in Paul's letters, and that taking in words only with the mind "leads to formality and death; it is only what is 'of the Spirit' that can result in life."
The demand is not new. God asked Israel for this long before Paul wrote. The outward rite always carried an inward meaning that was easy to ignore.
F. B. HoleThey were to "circumcise" their hearts, as the answer to the love shown to them. We again find the Apostle Paul referring to this in Romans 2:28-29... The persistent tendency was to keep the outward ceremony and overlook its significance. Israel was to be a people completely cut off for and to God. Had there been circumcision of "heart," there would have been the cutting off of self-love, in the knowledge of the love of God.
For the believer, that cutting off reaches further than anything visible:
Hamilton SmithThe refusal of the flesh is not to be just an outward neglect of the body, which the world can see. It is the refusal of the flesh in all its inward workings in the heart — its self-confidence, self-righteousness, vanity and lusts — as that which has been condemned in the cross.
The closing words are a play on the name itself. The word "Jew" carries the meaning of praise — so only the inward man answers to his own name.
C. E. StuartTurning next to Romans, we are taught there that what is now to be sought after is reality of heart before God, and not a distinguishing mark on one's body. And only these are now true Jews in spirit, according to the meaning of the word Jew — that is, praise... Paul could boast of being circumcised on the eighth day, as the law required. Yet he teaches that what is now to be valued is circumcision of the heart, and not of the letter.
Paul aimed the principle at one nation, but it tests every religion of outward forms. Commentators differ on how far to press it. Some take it to hand Israel's promises over to Christians, a reading that "reveals ignorance in the scope of this Epistle" (Arno Clemens Gaebelein). What does carry over is the test of reality.
The Bible TreasuryTo profess the truth is not always to be of the truth. For this we must be born of God by the word of truth (James 1:18). It is an effective and lasting work of the Spirit. Religious ceremonies have their place, but have nothing to do with the giving of life. What is true of the Jew and of circumcision is true of Christianity and of baptism. Outward rites have nothing whatever to do with the giving or the sustaining of life; to think so is to mistake their object and use.
- Reality. God will not accept a form that contradicts the spirit behind it. He insists on what is real between men and Himself.
- Root. The failure of the religious man is outward privilege held without an inward work of grace in the heart.
- Letter. "The letter" is not Scripture's words. It is exact outward keeping of those forms, and it is barren without a purified heart.
- Heart. Circumcision of the heart cuts off self-love and every inward working of the flesh. It answers the love God has shown.
- Praise. The name "Jew" means praise. Only the hidden, inward man answers to it, and his praise comes from God, not from men.