Philippians – Part 5

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Various Warnings ~ Part 2

Establish a new routine at home by setting aside time each day for meditation on Philippians 3:7-4:1. Write it out, process its meaning, and tee up a question to reflect upon: “What areas in my life do I need to count as loss for Yeshua?” Consider journaling your responses over the week. Make it a family affair by inviting loved ones to share their insights and accountability. By actively engaging with the Scripture, you’re not only enriching your faith but also nurturing a spiritual dialogue that reinforces the importance of prioritizing Yeshua above all.

Exchanging Human Confidence

⁷ But the things that used to be advantages for me, I have, because of the Messiah, come to consider a disadvantage. ⁸ Not only that, but I consider everything a disadvantage in comparison with the supreme value of knowing the Messiah Yeshua as my Lord. It was because of him that I gave up everything and regarded it all as garbage in order to gain the Messiah

Sha’ul does not mean that all the deeds that he did as a non-Messianic Jew were contemptuous, but that his pride in them he now regards as contemptuous.

⁹ and be found in union with him, not having any righteousness of my own based on legalism, but having that righteousness which comes through the Messiah’s faithfulness, the righteousness from God based on trust.  

The Messiah’s faithfulness to God by being “obedient unto death” (Philippians 2:6–8), not Sha’ul’s faith in the Messiah. Sha’ul’s belief in the Messiah is adequately covered by the phrase, “based on trust,” at the end of the verse. The present verse summarizes Sha’ul’s teaching in Galatians and Romans on the subject of how people are made righteous by God.

¹⁰ Yes, I gave it all up in order to know him, that is, to know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings as I am being conformed to his death, ¹¹ so that somehow I might arrive at being resurrected from the dead.

Sha’ul seems to recognize that suffering, especially for the Gospel, brings deeper fellowship with Yeshua. Sha’ul sees his ministry as an extension of Yeshua’s ministry, portrayed in Isaiah 53’s account of the Suffering Servant. Sha’ul desires to emulate the self-emptying love that Jesus displayed on the cross.

Righteousness A Struggle

These verses contain a call to follow Sha’ul’s pattern of living.

¹² It is not that I have already obtained it or already reached the goal—no, I keep pursuing it in the hope of taking hold of that for which the Messiah Yeshua took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers, I, for my part, do not think of myself as having yet gotten hold of it; but one thing I do:forgetting what is behind me and straining forward toward what lies ahead, ¹⁴I keep pursuing the goal in order to win the prize offered by God’s upward calling in the Messiah Yeshua.

Sha’ul acknowledged his imperfection. Keep pursuing the goal recalls the athlete’s discipline and focus. Together, these reveal that Sha’ul had not yet achieved perfection. Taking hold and having yet gotten hold translate the same Greek word, one active, the other passive. Sha’ul aspired to complete salvation through resurrection. Because it presents the substance of Sha’ul’s hope—the perfection of the resurrection. Pursuing the goal and prize uses athletic imagery of the runner’s energy, focus, and reward. “The prize” is God’s heavenly call (to Heaven), like a referee calling a winner to the platform to receive the prize.

¹⁵ Therefore, as many of us as are mature, let us keep paying attention to this; and if you are differently minded about anything, God will also reveal this to you. ¹⁶ Only let our conduct fit the level we have already reached.

Sha’ul exhorted the mature (lit. “perfect”). The use of the same root word in verse 12 reveals that Sha’ul addressed the false teachers who claimed perfection.

Warning Against Worldliness

¹⁷ Brothers, join in imitating me, and pay attention to those who live according to the pattern we have set for you. ¹⁸ For many—I have told you about them often before, and even now I say it with tears—live as enemies of the Messiah’s execution-stake. ¹⁹ They are headed for destruction! Their god is the belly; they are proud of what they ought to be ashamed of, since they are concerned about the things of the world. ²⁰ But we are citizens of heaven, and it is from there that we expect a Deliverer, the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. ²¹ He will change the bodies we have in this humble state and make them like his glorious body, using the power which enables him to bring everything under his control.

First, Sha’ul encouraged believers. Imitating me reveals his confidence that he lived correctly before God and man. He spoke with tears (the only record that Sha’ul cried) because of the damage these false teachers brought to God’s work. As enemies of the execution-stake, they were inflated with their spiritual abilities rather than trusting Yeshua. Sha’ul described them in four ways. First, their end is destruction (not annihilation but eternal judgment). Second, their god is the belly, which reflects their preoccupation with Jewish dietary laws. Third, they are proud of what they ought to be ashamed of, which means focusing inappropriately on the genitals (circumcision). Fourth, they are concerned about earthly things and are unable to see beyond the present time.

4¹ So, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, my dear friends, keep standing firm in union with the Lord. ^[1]

Standing firm recalls Roman soldiers who never retreated for fear of being killed by their commanders.

In our next post, we continue to examine Sha’ul’s Letter to the Philippians.

Click here for the PDF version.

^[1] Philippians 3:17–4:1.