Beware of every threat to gospel joy
Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 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—4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
To introduce a new subject, Paul returns to the key word of this epistle, “rejoice.” This time, however, he emphatically adds the words “in the Lord.” Paul wants the Philippians, whom he affectionately refers to as “my brothers,” to find their real joy in the Lord alone and in their union with him in faith. He wants them to reject all teachings that would direct them to any other source of confidence or joy.
The subject Paul brings up here is not a new one. Earlier in this epistle the apostle encouraged the Philippians to “stand firm in one spirit, contending . . . for the faith of the gospel” (1:27). He had probably also spoken with them personally about this subject when he was with them. But in view of the serious threat that enemies of the gospel always pose to believers’ salvation and to their joy in the Lord, Paul wanted to speak about this matter again. As a concerned shepherd and watchman of souls, Paul did not consider repeated warnings against false teachings to be a matter of beating a dead horse. Rather, he considered such warnings beneficial, a spiritual safeguard for those he served.
With a three-fold “watch out,” Paul warns against threats to the Philippians’ spiritual safety. “Watch out for those dogs,” he says, “those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh.” The Philippian congregation was a fine congregation, but danger was threatening. Perhaps fresh news concerning the activity of certain false teachers in their area had just reached the apostle. At any rate, he uses very forceful and vigorous language here to condemn them. There is a vehemence here that is uncharacteristic of the rest of this primarily cheerful epistle. This does not surprise us. Paul always became excited when the gospel was at stake. This shows his deep love and concern for the souls of the believers whose spiritual needs he served.
Paul uses three different terms to refer to the enemies of the gospel whom he is warning the Philippians against here, but with all three he is actually referring to the same enemies, who are commonly called Judaizers. Judaizers were Jews or gentile converts to Christianity who claimed to believe in Jesus as their Savior, but they also taught that in addition to believing in Jesus, it was also necessary to keep certain ceremonial laws that God had given to the Old Testament Israelites through Moses.
The Judaizers placed special emphasis on the rite of circumcision, the Old Testament sign of God’s covenant with Israel. By their insistence on the outward observance of laws and ceremonies as a necessity for salvation in addition to faith, the Judaizers confused law and gospel. They attempted to rob New Testament believers of the freedom from the Old Testament laws and ceremonies that Jesus won for them (see the commentary on Colossians 2:16,17), and they continued to plant in human hearts the damnable idea that human beings can somehow make a contribution toward their own salvation. These Judaizers were a very real threat to the life and faith of the early church. They apparently established no congregations of their own but rather tried to worm their way into existing congregations. Paul wrote his epistle to the Galatians chiefly to combat the Judaizers’ teachings. He also indicated that Judaizers were troubling the Corinthians.
The first recorded “synod meeting” of the New Testament church (Acts 15) exposed the errors the Judaizers were trying to promote in Antioch. The idea that Jesus’ atoning work is not quite enough and human beings have to add something of their own to it is still creeping around in many Christian church bodies. It is no less of a problem today than it was in the apostle’s day. This human error continues to endanger faith and lead people away from Christ and salvation.
Paul applied harsh terms to the Judaizers, because they were attacking the very heart of the gospel. They were seeking to substitute it with a mixture of divine grace and human works. “Dogs” is what Paul called the false teachers. That was a term that the Jews derisively hurled at the Gentiles, whom they regarded as unclean and lower than themselves. In the apostle’s world, dogs generally were not pets. They were large, ugly beasts that roamed the streets and lived on garbage. Paul took that insulting term the Judaizers so often applied to others and hurled it right back at them.
The Judaizers were extremely proud of their “Jewishness” and the fact that they lived according to Jewish customs. But in reality, Paul says, it was the Judaizers who were the dogs. They were greedy scavengers who were bent on destroying Christ’s church. Yes, the Judaizers were workers. They were busy and active. They worked hard at keeping the laws and regulations they insisted were necessary for salvation. Sadly, however, they were workers who did evil. Instead of helping the gospel’s cause, their work harmed it.
We cannot help thinking here of many religious sects that exist and flourish today. Their zeal, enthusiasm, and hard work put many of us to shame, but their false teachings condemn them as men and women who do evil.
In the original Greek, the words circumcision and mutilation were very similar. The apostle, therefore, was using a play on words when he called these Judaizers “mutilators.” The ritual of circumcision involved a physical cutting on the sexual organ of the male child. In the Old Testament age, this physical act was the outward, visible sign of Israel’s special covenant relationship with the Lord.
In the New Testament age, however, God no longer requires circumcision or any of the rituals of the ceremonial law. When Jesus died on Calvary and the temple veil was torn in two, all the ceremonial laws and regulations and their purpose came to an end. The Judaizers’ insistence on circumcision, therefore, had no promise of God connected with it. They had reduced circumcision to an outward, physical ritual that supposedly contributed to salvation. Such a circumcision, Paul said, was really only a physical thing, a mutilation. Those who relied on it as a meritorious act were not brought closer to God. They were actually farther removed from God than before. If the Philippians yielded to the Judaizers’ insistence that they had to be circumcised in order to be saved, then they too would be trusting in their own wretched works to be saved, not in Jesus alone. If they did that, they would lose their salvation.
In the Old Testament age, those who were physically circumcised were members of the covenant people. In the New Testament age, however, God’s covenant people, his “circumcised ones,” are all those of every race and nation who truly believe in Jesus as their Savior and Lord. In the New Testament age, ethnic distinctions and outward signs like circumcision mean nothing. Faith in Jesus means everything. We believers are “the circumcision,” whether we are outwardly circumcised or not. Paul, the Philippian believers, and all believers are God’s New Testament children. We are those who have by faith received the “circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit,” as Paul tells the Romans (2:29). God’s people in the New Testament age are those who glory in Christ and his cross and put no confidence in outward things like circumcision or other supposed human advantages.
Incidentally, Paul’s words about the true New Testament people of God should help us answer the prominent religious figures of our day who insist that the Jews as a nation can still be identified with the kingdom of God and are still an integral part of God’s plans for the salvation of mankind. From such unscriptural reasoning have followed many false conclusions, including the rather absurd notion that there are two “chosen nations” today, the United States and Israel, and that God has raised one up to protect the other. In the New Testament age, the chosen people are all those in every nation who know and believe in Jesus as their Savior. They are not a physical nation who are identified by a special, visible mark on their bodies. They are a spiritual people.