Philippians 3

Philippians 3 is the third of the four chapters of Philippians. In chapter 2, Paul announced his plan to send Timothy and Epaphroditus. Here he opens with the word "Finally" and urges his readers to rejoice. He then turns abruptly to a warning against those who insist on circumcision.

Outline

• Verses 1–3: Paul urges the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord and warns them to beware of "dogs" and "the concision." He says that those who worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh are the true circumcision.
• Verses 4–6: Paul lists the grounds he could claim for confidence in the flesh: circumcision on the eighth day, descent from the tribe of Benjamin, membership among the Pharisees, a zeal that led him to persecute the church, and righteousness under the law.
• Verses 7–11: He counts all these things as loss, and as dung, for the sake of the knowledge of Christ. He speaks not of a righteousness that comes from the law but of the righteousness that is of God by faith.
• Verses 12–16: He acknowledges that he has not yet attained perfection and says that, forgetting what lies behind, he presses toward the mark.
• Verses 17–21: He urges his readers to follow his example and, with tears, warns them about those who walk as enemies of the cross. He declares that believers' citizenship is in heaven and that the Lord will change their lowly bodies into glorious bodies.

Key Verses

• Philippians 3:8: "for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord" — a concise expression of the reversal in Paul's values.
• Philippians 3:13–14: "forgetting those things which are behind … I press toward the mark" — the best-known passage comparing the life of faith to a race.
• Philippians 3:20: "For our conversation is in heaven" (KJV; "conversation" here renders a word meaning citizenship) — an expression often interpreted as carrying special resonance for readers living in a Roman colony.

People and Places

• Paul: The author of the letter. He states that he was a Pharisee from the tribe of Benjamin.
• Those who insisted on circumcision: The text does not name them. They are commonly understood to have been Jewish Christians who required Gentile believers to receive circumcision.
• Philippi: A Roman colony in Macedonia and the home of the church to which the letter was addressed.

Points for Reflection

• Righteousness in verse 9: Lutheran and Reformed traditions read this verse as a basis for the doctrine of justification, in which the righteousness of Christ is imputed to the believer. Scholars of the "New Perspective on Paul" connect it with the question of the boundary markers that defined the people of God. Whether the phrase "through the faith of Christ" should be understood as faith in Christ or as "the faithfulness of Christ" is also debated among scholars.
• The meaning of "perfect": Verse 12 says, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect," while verse 15 speaks of "as many as be perfect." The Wesleyan tradition reads this as growth toward Christian perfection. The Reformed tradition emphasizes sanctification as a process that is not completed in this life.
• The opponents and the change in tone: Interpreters disagree on whether the opponents of verse 2 and the "enemies of the cross" in verse 18 are the same group. They likewise differ on why the tone changes so suddenly after verse 1. One hypothesis holds that the letter as we have it combines several separate letters.
• The transformation of the body: The bodily transformation described in verse 21 connects with the discussion of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:51–52.

In the Korean Church

Verses 13–14 are frequently used as texts for New Year's Eve watch-night services and New Year sermons.