Philippians 3
v.1
Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is not trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.
The diseased craving for ‘originality’ in the present day tempts us all, hearers and speakers alike, and we ever need to be reminded that the staple of Christian teaching must be old truths reiterated, and that it is not time to stop proclaiming them until all men have begun to practise them. But a speaker must try to make the thousandth repetition of a truth fresh to himself, and not a wearisome form, or a dead commonplace, by freshening it to his own mind and by living on it in his own practice, and the hearers must remember that it is only the completeness of their obedience that antiquates the commandment.
It is the privilege, therefore, of a Christian to rejoice. He has more sources of joy than any other man - sources which do not fail when all others fail.
v.3
For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—
v.8-9
What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
See more in EnduringWord on Philippians 3 8-9 Philippians3 v 8-9 or Craig Keener on Philippians 3 8-9 Philippians3 v 8-9.
“Dung” (kjv) or “rubbish” (esv, nasb, nrsv; “garbage”—niv) usually meant either excrement or food to be thrown away, which dogs might enjoy (3:2). (Ancient speakers valued skill in producing insolent insults.)
v.10
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings becoming like him in his death,
Growing in our knowledge of Christ coincides with dying to our flesh.
Knowing Christ is without a doubt inclusive of witnessing the miraculous. It is also without a doubt inclusive of suffering.
The ultimate revelation in the Old Testament was to “know” God (Ex 33:13), a relationship available to all the people of the new covenant (Jer 31:34). This language reflects both the covenant relationship (on the corporate level) and intimate fellowship with God (on the personal level experienced by the prophets). But Paul also connects knowing *Christ with sharing his sufferings and glory.
v.11
and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
v.12
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
v.13
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
He counsels wise obliviousness, wise anticipation, strenuous concentration, and these are the things that contribute to success in any field of life. Christianity is the perfection of common sense. Men become mature Christians by no other means than those by which they become good artisans, ripe scholars, or the like. But the misery is that, though people know well enough that they cannot be good carpenters, or doctors, or fiddlers without certain habits and practices, they seem to fancy that they can be good Christians without them.
He who has not learned, by the memory of his past failures, humility and wise government of his life, and wise avoidance of places where he is weak, is an incurable fool.
But let us forget our failures in so far as these might paralyse our hopes, or make us fancy that future success is impossible where past failures frown.
The text in context was referring to the good things Paul had accomplished—the “medals” he had won in the race of life. He’s saying that unless he puts those accomplishements behind him and bends all his efforts to winning the present race, he will not make it to the finish line. It’s the victories, not the defeats, we are to forget, lest we glory in them and lose the next reace. The Bible never tells us to ignore or bury past pain.
CharlesKraft the last line gives context to Kraft’s explanation of the Scriptural context
v.14
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
v.15
All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.
Paul concludes this subsection (3:1-16) by stating that “all … mature” (NASB, KJV perfect) Christians “should take such a view” (v. 15), namely, that believers have not “already been made perfect” (v. 12) in this life, but must continually identify themselves with Christ (vv. 10-11) and press on without distraction in living out their commitment in faith (vv. 9,12-14). He is confident that God will reveal to his readers any disputed point.
v.16
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
The biggest problem to be faced, however, is not understanding, but application (v.16). Paul knew very well the tendency Christians have not to practice what they already have in Christ.
v.17
Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.
v.18
For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.
It is not to be supposed that they were open and avowed enemies of the cross, or that they denied that the Lord Jesus died on the cross to make an atonement. The characteristic of those persons mentioned in the following verse is, rather, that they were living in a manner which showed that they were strangers to his pure gospel.
v.19
Their destiny is destruction, their goal is their stomach, and their glory in in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.
Death awaits them, food is their source of comfort, they get glorified in shameful ways, and they are unacapable of understanding trascendant concepts. They are fools.
v.20
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
v.21
who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.