We continue to study the book of Philippians, written by Paul, who was Saul from Tarsus. We will be breaking down this chapter into two parts. If you missed the first two chapters we have studied so far, you can catch up by reading Philippians Chapter One Bible Study here and Philippians Chapter Two Bible Study here. We will begin with Chapter Three verse one today.
Verses 1-12 That I May Win Christ
Paul opens this chapter with a call for rejoicing in the Lord. This is an encouraging letter to the church at Philippi and we find this a recurring theme of his to remind the believers to rejoice in the Lord. Note it does not say rejoice in our circumstances, or rejoice in our pain, or rejoice in times of turmoil. We are to rejoice in the Lord. He alone is worthy of praise and honor and nothing we are going through changes how worthy God is of our rejoicing and praise.
My "The Woman's Study Bible" explains verse 2 like this, "Dogs in the ancient Near East were mostly street roamers, scavengers. Jews frequently called Gentiles "dogs." By "dogs" Paul meant Jewish legalists who insisted on the rite of circumcision for all believers. Paul's implications were emotional and strong: Circumcision was neat, planned surgery; yet the Judaizers would rip, tear, and mutilate tender, new believers! But those who had voluntarily "cut away" all confidence in the flesh, were the true circumcision (verse 3)."
Paul goes on to give his spiritual resume, his religious pedigree, dating back to the tribe of Benjamin. He was named after king Saul in the Old Testament and he shares his heritage to prove he knows what he is talking about. He is backing up his statements with a genealogy that goes back to Jacob. He says that what he gained for his religious attempts to please God was counted as a loss to Christ. He was fighting against Him, but now he counts all the accolades he may have obtained as loss and gain to Christ. He says, "That I may win Christ, And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."
We may read that and think it is backwards: resurrection, sufferings, and death, but without the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, we would not have any fellowship of sufferings and could never die to sin and self. For the believer we are a part of His death and resurrection when He paid for our sins with His precious blood.
Paul ends this section by saying He is not perfect. He does not want to give the illusion that he is holier than any of the people He is addressing in this letter. He says he has not received everything God has for him yet, but he is reaching out to grab onto the things of God because God through Jesus Christ has grabbed on to him.
Verses 14-21 The High Calling of God
Paul gives us the formula for how to get ahold of the things of God. He says first of all he is going to forget his past. He allowed Christians to be stoned to death, hauled off to prison, brutally beaten and suffer many things for loving and serving the very Christ he once persecuted. I imagine the memories must have been haunting at times. Remember how he stood by and held the coats of those who stoned precious Stephen to death! If Paul allowed the things he did wrong to play over and over again in his head, he would go mad! So he chooses to forget those things because he knows Jesus forgave Paul and He covered his sins with His blood on Calvary. So, if your past wrongs try to hold you back, and you know Jesus has covered them with His blood, then do what Paul did and choose to forget them!
There's a second step though to obtaining the things of God. You must PRESS in. You cannot just read a memory verse and expect God to change your whole life. We give babies finger foods and soft things when they are younger and as they get stronger and have better control of their bodies, they get foods with more substance. The same is true for the Christians. We start out on milk. We learn that Jesus loves us and He did miracles and He answers our prayers and He forgives us. But when our faith gets stronger we get some tests and trials and we have to find answers in the Word. We start consuming more substance in the Word. You have to press in to get answers because some of our trials threaten to take us out! When we find ourselves on our knees, we are in the perfect position to summon help from our Savior and press toward the mark, or the goal for the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. We must keep going and not stop! Eternal life is our reward and we must keep pressing on to obtain that promise. We cannot allow the enemy to wear us out and make us give up and turn away from serving Jesus. The prize is within reach, we must just keep pressing on.
Paul warns us to watch for those who walk after the ways of God's Word. Some go to church, may even have a leadership role, and might even be a big giver to offerings and tithes, but they do not walk like the examples we have been given in God's Word. Instead, Paul said with great sorrow that these individuals are the enemies of Christ. That is a BOLD statement. Their end is destruction, not salvation. Paul said that their god is their belly. It is not the God of heaven. They choose other paths. They compromise. Their god is their appetite and satisfying their flesh. They boast about shameful things. We know them because they are only focused on the here and now, things that are happening on the earth. They are concerned about fame, money, popularity, influence, and things of this earth. They are not thinking about eternity or storing up treasures in heaven.
Paul says we are not residents of this world. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are looking for Jesus, our Savior, to change our vile bodies into glorious bodies that are made just like His! He says and it is all done according to the power He has because all things are under His control. He has the authority and ability to do that for us.
In conclusion, I want us to think of who we might know that is walking after earthly things and desires. Let's pray for them and ask God to open their eyes and help them see they are headed down a path of destruction and despair that they will never be able to get out of if they don't fully follow after Jesus Christ. We do not want anyone to go to that awful place. It was never intended for us, but for those who refuse to believe in Jesus and accept His nail scarred hand offering them eternal life, they will find themselves there.
Let's press in and keep going strong for God. We know there is so much pain and turmoil in the world today but God will give us His strength to keep marching on and He will give us His rest when we need it.
I hope something I have shared today has given you strength for your journey and light for your way. God bless you!
~Bridgett Owens
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