“In addition, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write to you again about this is no trouble for me and is a safeguard for you. Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evil workers, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh—although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,  a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law,  a Pharisee; regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When was the last time you experienced the feeling of a job well done? That is such a satisfying experience. You know that the project is completed and that it was done well. Now you can just sit back and enjoy the rewards. That kind of thing leaves you feeling accomplished, like you have worth and purpose. It’s a really good feeling. Because this feels so good, though, it is something we strive to attain in every area of our lives. That’s mostly not a bad thing, but there is one area that it won’t help us and in fact can actually hinder us. Here, we have to rely entirely on what someone else has done. Let’s talk about it.

We’ve talked about this many times in the past, but Christianity is unique in the lineup of world religions. It is unique for many reasons, but one of the most important distinctions is our understanding of salvation. Every other religion in the world and down through human history has thought of salvation as working in one way, and Christianity has thought of it as working in another. More specifically, everybody else imagines salvation to be the result of effort in one way or another and we don’t.

Our message about how salvation works was new when we first started proclaiming it. It was new and it took a while to sink in. Part of the reason it took so long to sink in is the ideological opponents of the faith worked diligently to contradict our message and to insist that, no, salvation really was the result of effort in one way or the other.

This was something Paul had to contend with constantly. He mentions his efforts to undo the damage done by these false teachers in several of his letters. In fact, from a full survey of all of Paul’s letters, there really doesn’t seem to be anything that got Paul as upset as these folks did. The language he used to describe and otherwise talk about them is exceedingly harsh. Here he just calls them dogs (more on that in a minute). In other places he wishes castration on them in a way that is laugh out loud funny when you realize what he is saying.

As we get into chapter three on our journey through Philippians here, Paul calls on the church to rejoice in the Lord. Contextually, this is more connected to his thoughts on humility than his reflections on his ministry partners, but both are part of the package here. But while the command to rejoice in the Lord could turn the conversation in all sorts of different ways, the direction Paul seems to be pointing them in is the importance of rejoicing in the Lord for their salvation. More specifically, they should be rejoicing in the Lord and not in anything else.

Let’s pause to address something Paul seems to hint at in this first verse. He tells them that “to write to you again about this is no trouble for me.” That makes it sound like the nature of salvation and especially the exclusivity of Christ for a salvation that is by grace alone through faith alone is something he’s talked about with them before. And I suspect that it is. Paul writes about it often in his letters.

The same is true today. Preachers and evangelists talk about the nature of salvation all the time still today. After a while one might start to wonder when we are ever going to get on to more important matters of the faith. Yet while perhaps that is an understandable question, the nature of salvation is one of those matters that if we don’t get right, none of the other matters really matter. And because now as then the nature of salvation is something that is persistently difficult for us to get our minds around, we have to keep talking about it.

In this case, Paul is calling them to watch out for those who would point them or teach in a works-based direction. Like we said before, his patience with those who would do this is thin at best. “Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evil workers, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh.” It almost sounds like he’s talking about some bizarre cult that practices bodily mutilation as part of their rituals. He’s not, but he thinks that little of the people he is talking about.

One of the major groups that pushed back against Paul’s Gospel message of salvation by grace alone through faith alone was a group of people who followed Jesus, but who still considered themselves Jews. They not only considered themselves Jews, but they believed that in order for anyone to follow Jesus, they had to become a Jew first. Salvation was for the Jews and Jews alone. This was the debate that James spoke into to resolve at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, though the opponents of the view Paul preached and James supported didn’t listen to his pronouncement.

These Judaizers, as Paul called them, would follow him around “correcting” his message. They would explain that while everything Paul said about Jesus was correct, there was just one more thing that was necessary in order to really be counted among His followers. You had to become Jewish. For the women, this was not such a big deal. For the men, this meant being circumcised. Guess how many men wanted to submit to circumcision in order to maintain their status as a follower of Jesus? These Judaizers were actively pushing people away from the faith by their false doctrine of the necessity of circumcision—or bodily mutilation as Paul put it.

Paul goes on to say that “we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh.” What the Judaizers proclaimed was that in order to be a “real” follower of Jesus, you needed to be circumcised. That is, you had to do something. Salvation, at the end of the day, was based on works. And, as we have talked about at length, a salvation based on works is one that makes God irrelevant. It puts us in charge. It unavoidably divides the world into those who can and those who can’t. The real ones who actually have the salvation of Christ “worship by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh.” That is, they don’t get circumcised just so they can confirm their salvation.

But just where it seems Paul might launch into another explanation of the nature of salvation, he pivots in an unexpected direction. He says, “Listen, we shouldn’t put any confidence in the flesh, in the things of this world, for our salvation. But just so you know, if we could do that, I have more reason to do that than just about anybody.”

Look at what he says. He tells them they should not put any confidence in the flesh, “although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more.” That sounds prideful of Paul to say to our ears, but the truth was that he had a really impressive resume as far as the world considered such things. Well, not the Gentile world, but that wasn’t who he was talking about. As far as the Judaizers would have thought about his resume, Paul’s was as good as it could be. It was certainly better than any of theirs were.

“Circumcised on the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.” Paul wasn’t putting on airs here. He was simply describing who he was. None of this was undue pride. These things were simply all true about him. If getting his hands on salvation was the result of effort, of resume, of works, of things of the flesh, Paul had a better claim on it than anyone else did.

And yet his command to them—a command he followed faithfully in his own life—was to rejoice in the Lord and the Lord alone as his source of salvation. What this meant for all these things about which he could have otherwise boasted is something we’ll talk about as we keep moving forward in this crucial chapter. Stay tuned…