Philippians Chapter Three
3: 1-21
Circumstances (to see link click Ai – Philippians Chapter One) and people (see Ar – Philippians Chapter Two) can rob us of our joy, but so can things, and it’s this “thief” that Paul deals with in Chapter 3. It is important to see the total message of this chapter before we begin studying it in detail, so perhaps the following outline will be helpful:
Paul’s past: the accountant, “I have counted” showing new values (3:1-11).
Paul’s present: the athlete, “I pursue” showing maximum effort (3:12-16).
Paul’s future: the alien, “I look” showing a new vision (3:17-21).
In his commentary on Philippians: Be Joyful, Warren Wiersbe relates the four marks of the enemies of the cross of Messiah, looking for earthly things. You may recall that the city of Philippi was actually a Roman colony, a “Rome away from Rome,” if you will. In the same sense, the people of God are a colony of heaven on earth. Therefore, in 3:20 Paul describes the believer whose citizenship is in heaven, looking for heavenly things. It is easy to get wrapped up in “things,” not only the tangible things that we can see, but also the intangibles such as reputation, fame, and achievement. Paul wrote about whatever things were gain to him (3:7), but he also mentioned things which are behind me (past), and things that are straining forward (present), and what lies ahead (future) (3:13). In Paul’s case, one of those intangible things was his zealous pursuit of the Oral Law (see The Life of Christ Ei – The Oral Law) handed down by his forefathers (Galatians 1:14). Today we can be snared by tangibles and intangibles; and as a result, we can lose our joy.117
A fresh Messianic Jewish look at this chapter is important considering that the earlier Christian commentaries used this chapter as an argument against Judaism and Jewish practice. Most notable are the fourth-century C.E. sermons of John Chrysostom, which have been the basis for the anti-Semitic bias so prevalent in many current Philippian commentaries. In this chapter Paul confronts false teaching from the opponents of the Good News of Messiah (see Bg – Paul’s Opponents) and rebukes false teaching from either heretical Yeshua followers or one of the many pagan proponents in Philippi who could lead the new Philippian believers away from their faith in Yeshua Messiah.118
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