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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
3:1-21 Opponents of the Gospel: Where Does Righteousness Come From? Paul begins this section by calling the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord (v. 1) but then warns them about the Judaizing opponents of the gospel (vv. 2-3). In contrast, Paul has renounced his spiritual and ethnic privileges for the sake of knowing Christ (vv. 4-11); his righteousness comes through Christ, not the law (vv. 12-16). He then calls the Philippians to follow his example of commitment to Jesus as Lord (vv. 17-21). Some interpreters suppose that the abrupt transition after v. 1 indicates that ch. 3 is a later interpolation into the letter. But there is no need for such a theory. The vocabulary of ch. 3 is reflected in the rest of the letter, and its themes of "progress" and "example" are central to Paul's overarching purposes. While the Judaizers (people who insisted that Christians had to obey all the OT ceremonial laws) hold out a promise of spiritual progress through adherence to the rules of the old covenant, Paul holds himself out as an example of someone who knows that real progress consists only in being increasingly conformed to the image of Christ's death and resurrection. Paul's conflicts with the Judaizers can be seen in greater detail in Acts and Galatians (e.g., Acts 15:1-19; Gal. 2:15-21; 3:6-4:31), as well as in the rest of his letters. Their teaching that Gentiles must first become Jews and obey all the OT laws in order to be saved was abhorrent to Paul. Not only did it show a lack of welcome (in complete contrast to God's own attitude) but it also sought in effect to divert Gentiles away from Christ into a covenant that could never save them. While the law might be "holy and righteous and good" (Rom. 7:12), the old covenant pertained to the age before the giving of the Spirit, and thus inevitably brought curse rather than blessing since human beings were unable to keep it. The "righteousness" it offered could only be an incomplete, superficial righteousness, in contrast to the perfect righteousness given as a gift to believers by virtue of the life and death of Christ. The fury of Paul's response in these verses was fueled by his thankfulness for his own deliverance from this system.
