Image: Richard Lithgow, Apostle Paul in prison (2022), Pencil.
Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Philippians 3:1-7.
"For we are the circumcision...."(Philippians 3:3a).
In Philippians 2:19-30 the apostle Paul commended to the
saints at Philippi two men, Timothy (vv.19-23) and Epaphroditus (vv. 25-30), as
faithful ministers. This was a positive commendation. In Philippians 3:1-3,
however, Paul offers a sober warning against false teachers.
In 3:2 he offers a staccato threefold warning: Beware… Beware…
Beware….
First, “Beware of dogs!” Did Paul have something against
dogs? No. The dog is indeed a wonderful animal. This is a figure for false
teachers, because in Paul’s day there were many feral dogs that roamed the
streets, mangy and diseased. Some had rabies. If you saw dogs of this kind, you
had better beware.
Second, “Beware of evil workers.” They should have been doing
good, but instead they were working evil.
Third, “Beware of the concision” (or “mutilation”). A look
ahead to the next verse makes clear that these dogs/evil workers were those who
were teaching that circumcision was necessary for the living of the Christian
life.
There was a massive controversy over circumcision in the
early church. In Acts 15 we read how false teachers had stirred up controversy
in the church at Antioch, teaching, “Except ye be
circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved” (Acts15:1). Paul and Barabas opposed this false doctrine
and appealed to the apostles and elders of the church at Jerusalem, who
supported their stand against the false teachers (see Act 15).
We also see this controversy at the heart of Paul’s letter to the
churches of Galatia. Paul warned against false teachers who had troubled the
believers and perverted the gospel of Christ (Gal 1:7). He made clear that “a man
is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ” (Gal 2:15), finally stating, “For
in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision;
but faith which worketh by love” (Gal
5:16). Believers are not justified by circumcision but only by faith in Christ
alone.
Paul
was warning the Philippians about this same false teaching. In Philippians 3:3
he declares, “For we are the circumcision….”
What
does this mean? Notice that Paul does NOT say, “For we all HAVE BEEN
CIRCUMCIZED.”
Notice
also that Paul does NOT say, “For we CONTINUE to practice circumcision that we
might be justified before God, according to the covenant that was given to
Abraham in Genesis 17.”
No, the
apostle says, “For we ARE the circumcision.”
Who
are the “we”? This includes Paul himself and his co-workers, alongside all the
saints at Philippi. Timothy had a Christian mother and a pagan father, but he
was not circumcised till he reached adulthood (see Acts 16). Paul was raised in
a pious Jewish home and was circumcised on the eighth day (see Phil 3:5).
Epaphroditus was likely a full pagan (his name meaning “from the goddess Aphrodite”)
and was never circumcised (like Titus, cf. Gal 2:3).
No
matter Jew or Greek, or of mixed ethnic heritage, no matter physically
circumcised or not, Paul declares that Christians ARE the circumcision.
The Old
Covenant circumcision instituted by Abraham set apart the Jewish males
physically as Jews. Paul said that New Covenant believers, however, are not
those set apart by their outward appearance but by an inward transformation.
Not by an outward bodily surgery, but by an inward spiritual surgery.
The
prophets had anticipated this. Moses wrote, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin
of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked” (Deut 10:16). Jeremiah wrote, “Circumcise
yourselves to the Lord,
and take away the foreskins of your heart” (Jer 4:4a).
The
true circumcision, the circumcision of the heart, takes place through
regeneration. It is a transformation from the inside out, not the outside in.
It is being born again. Paul takes up this same metaphor in Colossians when he
said, “ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands” (Col 2:12).
Every genuine believer has experienced this circumcision, and we
should beware anyone who suggests we need add anything to this for salvation.
Need circumcision? No. We ARE the circumcision.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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