Philippians 3

Last of all, my brothers and sisters, be glad in the Lord. Writing the same things to you again is no trouble for me, and for you it is a safeguard.

1Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.

Note"Finally" translates a Greek phrase that means something more like "and so" or "as for the rest." It signals a turn in the letter rather than its ending, which is why the letter continues for two more chapters. The Greek word for "rejoice" was also an ordinary word of greeting and farewell, so it carries a shade of "and so, my brothers and sisters, farewell in the Lord" alongside its plain sense of "be glad." "Brethren" addresses the whole congregation, women included.

2Watch out for the dogs. Watch out for the workers who do evil. Watch out for those who cut the body.

2Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.

Note"Dogs" is an insult, not a description. In the ancient Mediterranean dogs were scavenging street animals, not pets, and Jewish writers sometimes used the word for outsiders who were ritually unclean. Paul turns the insult around on people inside the argument. "The concision" is a play on words that English cannot easily carry: the Greek for circumcision is *peritome*, a cutting around, and Paul substitutes *katatome*, a cutting up, the word used for the gashes pagan worshipers cut in their own skin. He is saying that those insisting gentile believers be circumcised are not performing the covenant sign at all, only mutilating flesh.

3For we are the true circumcision: we who worship God by his Spirit, whose boasting is in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.

3For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Note"The circumcision" was a standard way of naming the Jewish people as a whole, the way one might say "the baptized." Paul takes the label and applies it to those who trust Christ. "The flesh" here does not mean the body or sexual appetite; it means human credentials, birth, ancestry and religious pedigree, everything a person can point to in himself. That is the sense it carries through the next several verses.

4Even though I myself could have such confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds to trust in the flesh, I have more:

4Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:

5I was circumcised on the eighth day. I am from the people of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews. As for the law, I was a Pharisee.

5Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;

NoteJewish law required a boy to be circumcised on the eighth day after birth. Saying so marks Paul as born into the covenant rather than a convert who joined as an adult, and distinguishes him from Ishmaelites, who were circumcised at thirteen. Benjamin was the tribe that produced Israel's first king and stayed loyal to the house of David, so it carried prestige. "An Hebrew of the Hebrews" most likely means his family kept the Hebrew and Aramaic language and Jewish customs rather than assimilating to Greek ways, though it may simply mean full Hebrew ancestry on both sides. Pharisees were a strict party committed to exact observance of the written law and the oral traditions that interpreted it; membership signaled serious religious discipline, not hypocrisy.

6As for zeal, I attacked the church. As for the righteousness that comes by keeping the law, no one could find fault with me.

6Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

Note"Zeal" was a technical term of honor in Jewish tradition, naming the fierce loyalty that took violent action to defend the law against those corrupting it. Paul is listing this as a qualification, not a confession. "Blameless" does not claim sinlessness; it means that measured by the law's own standard, including its provisions for making things right when he failed, no charge would stick against him.

7But whatever things once counted as gain to me, I now count as loss for the sake of Christ.

7But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

Note"Gain" and "loss" are bookkeeping words, the terms of a merchant's ledger. Paul is describing the credit column of his life being moved over into the debit column.

8More than that, I count everything as loss compared to the far greater worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have lost all things, and I count them as garbage, so that I may gain Christ

8Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

NoteThe word behind "dung" is deliberately coarse. It covers table scraps, refuse, and human excrement, and translators have split for centuries over how blunt to make it. "Garbage" is on the mild end of its range.

9and be found in him. I do not have a righteousness of my own that comes from the law. I have the one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and rests on faith.

9And 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:

Note"Righteousness" means being in the right, standing acquitted, the verdict of a court as much as a quality of character. The phrase the King James renders "the faith of Christ" is genuinely ambiguous in Greek and has been argued over for a long time: it can mean faith placed in Christ, or Christ's own faithfulness. Both readings are grammatically open, and the rendering chooses one of them.

10My aim is to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and to share in his sufferings, being shaped to be like him in his death,

10That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

Note"Fellowship" translates a word meaning a shared stake or partnership, the term used for business partners and for members of a common enterprise. It is stronger than companionship.

11so that somehow I may reach the resurrection of the dead.

11If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

NoteResurrection in this context means the raising of the dead to bodily life at the end of the age, an expectation Pharisees held and some other Jewish groups denied. It is not a term for the soul surviving death. The word Paul uses here is an unusual compound, roughly "the out-resurrection from among the dead."

12I do not mean that I have already gotten all this, or that I have already been made complete. But I keep going after it, to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

12Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

Note"Perfect" in 1611 English meant finished, complete, brought to its intended end, not morally flawless. "Apprehend" and "apprehended" translate the same Greek verb, meaning to seize or grab hold of, which is why the sentence turns back on itself: Paul is trying to lay hold of the thing that already laid hold of him.

13Brothers and sisters, I do not count myself as having taken hold of it yet. But this one thing I do: I forget what lies behind me and reach out for what lies ahead.

13Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

14I press on toward the finish line, to win the prize that God has called me upward to receive in Christ Jesus.

14I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

NoteThe image is a footrace. The "mark" is the marker at the end of the course that a runner fixes his eyes on, and the "prize" is the wreath handed to the winner at the games. "The high calling" is ambiguous in Greek: it can mean the summons that comes from above, or the summons that calls a person upward, and the two senses were not sharply separated.

15So all of us who are mature should think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will make this clear to you as well.

15Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

Note"Perfect" here renders the same word Paul just denied of himself in verse 12. Used of people it commonly meant grown up or mature, as opposed to a child, and the shift of sense is deliberate: those who are mature are precisely the ones who know they are not finished.

16Even so, as far as we have already come, let us keep to the same rule and set our minds on the same thing.

16Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

Note"Rule" translates a word meaning a measuring rod or a surveyor's line, hence a fixed standard to keep straight against. The oldest surviving manuscripts of this verse are shorter, reading only something like "let us hold to what we have attained"; the clauses about walking by the same rule and minding the same thing appear in later copies, which is what the King James translators had in front of them.

17Brothers and sisters, join together in following my example, and pay close attention to those who live by the pattern you have in us.

17Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.

NoteImitating a teacher's manner of life was an ordinary and respected part of ancient moral instruction, not a claim to be above criticism. The Greek word translated "followers together" is a compound meaning fellow imitators, that is, imitate alongside one another, not each on his own. "Ensample" is simply the older form of "example," here in the sense of a pattern or a die stamp that others are formed by.

18For many people live as enemies of the cross of Christ. I have told you about them often, and now I tell you again, even with tears.

18(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

NoteThe cross was not a symbol in Paul's day but a method of public execution, used by Rome on slaves, rebels and the lowest criminals, and designed to shame the victim as much as to kill him. To be an "enemy of the cross" is to refuse the humiliation attached to it.

19Their end is destruction. Their god is their stomach. They take pride in what should shame them. Their minds are set on earthly things.

19Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

Note"Belly" translates a word covering the stomach and the gut generally. It may point to appetite and self-indulgence, or to a preoccupation with food laws, and readers have taken it both ways. "Whose glory is in their shame" is equally open: it may mean they boast in conduct that ought to disgrace them, or, since the Greek word for shame could be a decent way of referring to the genitals, it may be another jab at those who take pride in circumcision. The rendering picks one reading of a line that will not settle.

20But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are watching for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

20For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:

Note"Conversation" in 1611 English did not mean talk; it meant a person's whole manner of life and public conduct. The Greek word underneath it is a political term, meaning a citizen body or a colony's home constitution, and it landed hard in Philippi: the city was a Roman colony whose residents held Roman citizenship and lived under Roman law hundreds of miles from Rome, proud of belonging to a capital most of them would never see.

21He will change our lowly bodies so they are made like his glorious body, by the power that makes him able to bring everything under his control.

21Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

Note"Vile" in 1611 English meant lowly, of little worth or humble in station, not disgusting or morally foul. The Greek says a body of humiliation, meaning one subject to weakness, decay and death. "Fashioned like unto" translates a word meaning to share the same form, the same root Paul used in verse 10 for being shaped to Christ's death.